Concrete Collective

 We are very lucky to live in Bristol, it has a great art and independent community whilst being small enough to get across the city and being surrounded by countryside.

Last week we visited the Centrespace gallery, a small but fantastic art space down the smallest of back passages covered in great graffiti and art (quite a few ceramic wall plaques have been added over the years too,if I remember I will blog about them soon).

The https://www.concretecollective.art/ had a show so we decided to pop in and have a look.  There were some great graphic pieces, some inspired by New York (which we love having been lucky enough to visit in 2017) AND there was an interactive wall you could use their typewriter, stamps and inks to add a piece of art should you wish, well try and stop me!

This is the piece I did with one of my favourite phrases "When one door closes....open it again.  It's a door, that's how they work".  I have painted this phrase on rocks, postcards, cardboard etc so I thought I would use their typewriter to add the phrase (and my details of course).  It only took a few minutes but it was great to take part.

Here it is displayed on the wall.  The one below was from my husband and is a quote from the band "The Clash" (his favourite band) and seems ever more possible in these days of reality 'TV stars' and the such being treated with celebrity status .

If you have local gallery spaces where you live I recommend to visit often they are a mind of creativity and you never know what you may stumble across.

Kyla

Trial prints

So, on Wednesday I shared my latest purchase, a brass printing plate.

This was a print using a thick acrylic on paper.  I don't have a burnisher so used my stamp cleaner as its padded and reasonably thick.

The paint was too thick and grainy I think (it was old) and not sure it prints well on paper.

So I tried it with a newer acrylic black paint and this time on card and the detail is much better.  Still need to experiment and keep trying but pleased with this one.

If you have any tips or ideas I would love to hear them, just leave them in the comments.

Happy crafting

kyla

Craft show stash

I have been absent for a short while.  Work, holiday, blah, blah...life...you know how it goes.

If you follow me on instagram (kylacotterell) then you would have seen my capers and art abandonments etc over the past few weeks.  I am slowly uploading the photos and will update my blog soon.

At the weekend I went for a Coven outing to the Shepton Mallet craft show.  I was lucky enough to be given a couple of tickets from the organisers as they used my photo on their publicity (ooh, get me!!) and I contacted them and they were very obliging.

I was being smug as I only spent £1 on craft.  The fat quarter hidden in the middle of the photo.  I kept walking past the Dinky Screens stall.  A couple of young ladies from Bristol and this was their first show.  Having done some screen printing in the past I was really taken with their compact and contemporary set up.  I chatted to them, wandered off and ended up back at the stall on 3 separate occasions!

As we went to leave to return home I decided it was fate as I walked past them again....out came the cash....purchase made!!  I chose the 'Bristol' stencil collection.  I live near a steam railway and we have the balloons going over us regularly so it seemed really appropriate.

I am looking forward to playing with this.

My only new stash for several months (apart from a couple of magazines and a replacement watercolour paint)....but we do have the NEC only a few weeks away!

Happy crafting

Kyla

Institue of Making London Pt2

 Welcome back to my blog and Part 2 of the catch up of my recent trip to London.

Day one we visited the RA Summer Exhibition and I blogged about that in an earlier post.

The following day we went to University College London (UCL) to their Engineering department for a free Festival of Stuff!

 They took over a large outside space and inside one of their labs too

 There was free ice cream, coffee and music too!

 Whilst there was a lot children could do there was a lot of adults without kids (like us) taking part in the experiments

Willow weaving large balls

 Homemade silly putty

 I made a LED badge with copper tape and a battery (again a free workshop)

 There was a handmade geiger counter demonstrating the radioactive levels of bananas and brazil nuts!

 Alka-Seltzer rockets were exploding round this corner

 This group were hand carving a large wood cut image 

 and then using a steam roller to act as the press!

 Printing on a HUGH scale!

 There was copper bowl and spoon making sessions

 Lots of explosions and things on fire!

 Many hands on tables.  This was aluminium smelter and a neon plastic where without a light source the cut end glowed

 

 This was a fine knitted metal mesh which looked dull grey until a certain spectrum of light shone on it and it glowed white!

 As you can imagine with all these experiments taking place there had to be a certain level of Health and Safety.  For once common sense ruled as these were the only signs I saw!!

 

A fantastic free afternoon.  I like to think of it as extreme crafting!

Kyla

 

WOYWW

So it's that time of the week again...when voices across the globe cry out "what, Wednesday?  Already?!" 

So, straight down to business and what is on my workdesk this Wednesday? 

This week I have been making luggage labels (as you do).  At my local scrap store they had some nice thick leather (they don't have it often) in blue and green and my mum has been asking me to make some luggage labels for her so this seemed perfect.

I used bostik leather glue (I think this is really expensive at £5 for a small tube which I used up just on this project)but its really strong and holds well.  I also cut some decorations with thinner leather using my bigz sizzix dies. I cut a slit in the back and threaded through some white card and clear plastic so that contact details can be added.

Also on my desk this week is my new purchase (an early anniversary pressie from hubby) which is  a photo printing kit where you can print from a negative onto fabric (such as a t shirt) and expose it in the sun.  If anyone has used this before I would love to hear from you!

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week are 'Romantic Girl Stuns Hero'...one, two, three...ahhh....unless its a stun gun, in which case it takes a whole different turn!

If you would like a legal snoop at desks across the globe then feel free to join us over at Julia's blog (there is a link over on the right).

Happy crafting

Kyla