Welcome to our now weekly #institchescreative2020 blog. We are still planning to alternate paper and stitch, so this week is a quick paper-based project. Meanwhile exciting things are happening behind the scenes in the studio: we’ve been dyeing threads and, as Hazel mentioned last week, learning how to set up an online shop so we can bring them  direct to you in your sewing room. 

​Negative space drawing
I realise this sounds technical, and indeed this exercise is often done by serious artists wanting to learn how to make better drawings, but today we are just going to use it as a different way of drawing. You may remember that I told you about our brains’ shorthand back in April when we were drawing without looking: 

​Well, this is another exercise in looking. This time we are trying to shut the analytical side of our brain up by confusing it. We are not attempting to draw an object that the left side of the brain can classify and describe, so it cannot take over and stop us from seeing what is really there. Instead we are trying to draw the spaces around that object, and if we want, with practice that can make us better at drawing complex things accurately.
Or we can just ignore all that, have fun and have a go at drawing voided shapes to fill with detail or pattern later.

Well this week we were going to be drawing spirals but that’s going to have to wait till next week now because today I have decided to take advantage of all this beautiful sunshine we’ve been having in the south of the UK and explore drawing shadows instead. 

​As I have been on my (OK, not quite daily) early morning walks around Fleet Pond I have noticed the shadows and dappled shade being cast by the newly emerging leaves and wondered how I could use those creatively. I’m always tempted to take loads of photos, but in reality my photos often just reside on my phone/PC and this is only the first step towards being creative. I was looking for a more immediate way of recording my surroundings, so today I decided to take some basic tools with me and get stuck in.  

​The technique I chose is shadow-drawing, which is a simple way of recording the shapes or outlines of objects on the page. It has to be said that it is much easier to do on a still day or indoors if it’s as windy with you as it was here this morning. Indeed, you can do this anywhere as long as you have a good source of light and something to draw that has an interesting shape.

​But its a great technique to save for a sunny day so you can benefit from that extra sunny feel-good factor. 

Courses and workshops at InStitches are all about building up people’s confidence in their abilities and one of the things that many people are often really underconfident about is the D-word!

People can’t draw: or at least that’s what they think.

But actually, we can all draw. We can all make marks on paper (did you have a go at the mark-making challenge in #institchescreative2020 week one?). As children we made marks on paper without thinking about what they looked like or whether they were realistic, and without listening to that inner critic. When did we lose that? 

Before you get excited and think that this is a definitive tutorial on how to monoprint - it isn't!  More of a peek into my tentative journey in the technique.  

We've acquired* several large thick Perspex sheets and think that they'd be great for Monoprinting, but the only way to be sure would be to actually have a go.  We've dabbled with Monoprinting on and off over the years, mainly using old laminated sheets or small pieces of thin Perspex, and used a safe wash block printing ink form Seawhite,  this is a  great product and is easy to use - but isn't fast once dry, so you can't add further wet processes.

When we moved studio earlier this year one of the (many...) things we found were several tubes of  Caligo safe wash inks from Cranfield. Bought and forgotten (and how many of you have done this too?) However, having recently read an article on the Caligo inks it appears that these inks will become permanent on fabric and paper after a curing process; it was high time I tried them out.

How much ink to put onto the plate is difficult to gauge and only by actually having a go can you really get the feel.  Inking up is also really tricky on such huge plates, it needs to be spread much thinner than you'd imagine, as I found out with my first (paper) tries.  In fact I actually only inked the plate once the whole day (yes - that's how much ink I'd put on!)  and between prints just rerolled with the brayer to smooth the surface again.

My first attempts were very disappointing (but at least they didn't stick to the plate). To begin with I was using a very light pure greaseproof paper ('deli' paper) and it was only once I was happy that the plate was behaving did I moved on to fabric.

I used a cotton sateen fabric, which I 'floated' over the surface, letting it drop very gently onto the inked plate.  I nearly stopped breathing at this point, but as the fabric settled I could see that I had finally achieved the correct level of ink on the plate - the fabric settled but did not absorb ink.   As you can see,  this meant I achieved really clear marks and lines: I'm very pleased, and relieved!

In today's world instant gratification seems to be taken for granted - from ready made and fast food, the pinging of texts or emails on your phone to the  ever increasing ways to access online data.  We don't even need to stand in line anymore because more and more we buy on-line. 

But in the creative world it's good to travel a slower road, taking the time to play and experiment, to explore the 'what if's', celebrate our successes - and mistakes, because after all a mistake is just a creative opportunity! Often students roll their eyes at us when we say ' I don't know, have you tried making a sample?'  Terry and I are both firm believers in 'doing', having a go, trying things out.  It's only through the act of doing  will you ever find out what will work, and what won't, which techniques are suitable and which aren't.  Time spend in practical exploration is never time wasted - besides which, look at all the fun and joy you will have on the way.   

Meanwhile I have to wait patiently for the fabric pieces to cure and then I can start to add colour before layering up and stitching.  I'm so excited, and not a little impatient, to get started....

Hazel & Terry

P.S. You didn't think I'd be throwing away the over inked first attempts did you??  They've been put to one side to dry with the rest of my trials and will be added to the stash of creative papers ready for including into sketchbooks some day!

* as with many things we have in the InStitches Studio these had had a previous life and were heading off to the scrap yard!