Are you sitting comfortably?

Are you sitting comfortably?.......then I'll begin......

Here is the story of a tired old chair made in about 1950.  It was covered in a beige moquette fabric patterned with red stars. Some time in the early 80's it was rescued from a junk shop and given a new cover of Sanderson William Morris print fabric by my mother. It came to University with me, comforted my friends and supported me as I revised for exams. It has survived 6 house moves but for the last few years it has languished in a corner of my daughter's bedroom looking very sorry for itself.

Over the last six weeks I have stripped off some rather unattractive varnish and restored the lovely beech wood frame with oil.  I've repaired the springs and reupholstered the seat back.  A new cushion pad was needed to replace the crumbling foam and with it a new cover, complete with piped seams.  

I have dyed and printed the fabric and embellished it with some favourite pieces from my stash.  Without being too dramatic, this is my family tree to pass on to my children.  Just sit quietly in it and listen to the stories it has to tell.

Christmas Cheer

My favourite memories of childhood Christmas is making decorations for the house. It's still the nicest way to get in the mood for the festive season -  much more so than the angst of buying presents or the chore of writing cards.

A group of friends have been meeting in early December to share a meal and make something new for Christmas. We have been overly ambitious of late and there are several UFOs lying around our work baskets!  This time we wanted a less complicated task and so I came up with these wire tree decorations. Simple but effective and made fabulous with a selection of trinkets from Yum Yum Beads in Leeds. 

Stitching memories

With only two more sessions of my vintage upholstery course left, I am channeling all my energy into finishing my chair. I learned how to make piped seams, practising on some kitchen chair pads because the plain fabric I have chosen will not forgive any mistakes!

I've made a start on embellishing the back cover.  I'm adding small scraps using a machine appliqué technique.  The fabrics each have their own story to tell:  a piece of lace rescued from my Grand-mother's stash, silk brought back from a holiday in Thailand, some of the William Morris print that had been used to cover the chair by my Mother, wool tweed woven in Yorkshire.  

The wood has been brought to life with several coats of Danish oil and has now taken on a sensuous quality.  Again this is a slow process as each coat takes 24 hours to dry.  

I will look forward to sitting on my newly covered chair very soon! 

Colour/Discolour

When you buy a piece of fabric do you really think about what you have bought?  I choose by colour, by pattern or simply by the feel of the cloth but little else crosses my mind except what I'm going to make with it.  So it's come as quite a surprise that when you do all these processes yourself it's actually very time-consuming.

I'm reupholstering an old chair, one my mother bought from a junk shop and re-covered for me about 30 years ago.  It's a sentimental project with more than a passing nod to my ancestry in the furniture business.  I wanted to truly personalise the chair and what better way to do it than with fabric I had printed myself?  

Once I had settled on a colour (at least two weeks agonising over that) I then spent several hours dyeing a couple of metres of linen union.  Having spent all that time colouring I then proceeded to apply discharge paste to bleach out a pattern. Then it all had to be washed again.  It's taken around 6 hours so far and that's not including drying time.  It would have been so much easier to buy some lovely fabric off the shelf but not nearly as satisfying.  

There's more work to do before the fabric makes it onto the chair but that will have to wait until next week.

Getting ready

I'm making preparations for a Christmas workshop in a couple of weeks time.  My plan was to use coloured copper wire and glass beads.  The only trouble is that the ideas in my head don't quite match what I can create. 

The most elegant way to make this little star would be to use a single piece of wire but as I have discovered this takes careful planning and lots of thinking ahead.  How many beads to thread at a time, where to make the first twist of wire, how many twists, what size of bead?  I might moan a bit but this is probably what I love most about new projects.  I like testing out my ideas and finding the best solution to a problem.

Whilst this was quite nice to mess around with myself, it's not something that would translate well for a workshop so I've decided that my little star will be one of a kind. I'm afraid it's back to the drawing board for me.

Making time

It's not always easy to find time in our busy lives for art, but this week I went to the first meeting of a local art group.

I was surprised to find so many people there and when the initial nervous buzz of chatter has died down, a quiet calm descended on the room as a dozen or so folk started to sketch the still life compositions that had been set up for us.  As we got a bit more confident we started talking with our neighbours about our choice of media or what we were planning to do with our initial sketches.

We are all amateurs, with no airs or pretensions and yet we come together to draw and sketch.  We plan to meet to meet once a month, sharing ideas, discussing our work and maybe inviting a tutor to give a workshop on a particular technique.  Making time to do something we enjoy.

Pastel pumpkin

With lots going on this week, there hasn't been much time for art. I've consoled myself with a quick sketch of one of the seasonal orange fruits that are so abundant. I used my pastel pencils, building up layers of colour and shading.  It's a messy process but quite satisfying as you get the feel of the curves and contours of the pumpkin when you blend the pastels.