Ted & the no.17 bus

Meet Ted, he is the driver of the no. 17 bus. He's a quiet yet friendly chap. He dreams of retiring and working on his allotment all day. He reads seed catalogues in his break and makes plans for entering his peas into the regional vegetable competition.

Size - 20cm height, width 15cm, depth 11cm

Ted is a papier mâché bird character. His clothes and accessories are made from found materials such as vintage silk handkerchiefs, scraps of tweed, leather, old buttons & even an abandoned sock. Can you work out what his beak and claws are made from?* 

Ted's leather bag contains miniature vintage style seed packets

The surface of his head and hands is decorated with extracts of a letter sent to me by my grandad that I have then printed onto tissue paper. I chose to do this as ‘Ted’ is loosely based on my grandad in terms of his dress sense and keen gardening interests. I have mentioned in a previous post that he has written to me every week since I went to university and I have decided to begin to capture our personal history in my art work. 

Grandad tends to his garden almost every day

*If you haven’t guessed yet, Ted’s beak and claws are made from acrylic nails that I have cut and shaped!

Ted's cap is made from scraps of tweed and linen. I loved making it!

Washi tape came in very handy when making the paper pattern for his shirt 

 

Here's 'Ted' in his posh greenhouse Unit Twelve. He's being very well looked after in the Contemporary Craft Open. If you'd like to meet Ted, the exhibition runs from 5th Dec 2013 to 1st March 2014. It is well worth a visit as it showcases the best in contemporary craft, both amateur and professional. Work has been selected by Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fairs, Yellowstone Art Boutique and Print Garage.

Fabric Book Workshop with Becky Adams at Unit Twelve

Unit Twelve is home to a contemporary craft gallery and artist workshops.

It can be found on Tixhall Heath Farm in Staffordshire and is best described as a hidden gem! Jennifer Collier runs the space and it has her signature attention to detail everywhere. A bright exhibition space full of exquisite textiles work greets you as you enter the converted farm building. Just beyond the gallery is the workshop area and studios belonging to Jennifer Collier, Emily Notman, Louise Dawn Wilson, Julia Jowett and Brady & Proud.

I left home on a sunny Saturday morning in April and drove down to Unit Twelve for a Fabric Keepsake Book workshop with the lovely Becky Adams. Becky is a quietly spoken and witty lady – I could happily listen to her stories for hours! Her art work has a nostalgic feel and at the heart of everything she makes is a snippet of a story or saying. Her ideas and observations are translated into stitch and applique.

Becky had brought along selected sketchbooks and one of her fabric books that focused upon her love of walks along her local pier. She was very generous with her ideas and had a genuine interest in all the stories behind each workshop participant’s creations. The premise of the workshop was to make a fabric book that remembered a personal memory or family saying. We had been encouraged to bring along our own memories such as a photograph, souvenir and trinkets.

I had every intention of making a fabric book and decided that my book would be based around my gardening grandad. I had brought along some of his letters to work with. Just to note, he has written to me every week since university (that is a lot of ink and stamps)! I have kept all his letters and I really treasure them as a record of how both our lives have changed over the years. I started off by making a miniature envelope out of an old gardening book as I was going to incorporate an envelope into one of my fabric book pages. However, I enjoyed the process and outcome so much that I decided to make another one and another one. In the end, I had a pile of small paper envelopes that I decorated with text and fabrics before stitching together to make a book. I used Becky’s stamps to print ‘Dear Clare, love and best wishes grandad’ on to the paper as these words are a feature of all his correspondence to me.

The day was a great success and everyone left with a book to treasure. The beautiful fabric books that other workshop participants made can be seen below.

Many thanks to Becky for being such a good teacher. Thanks also to Jennifer for organising the day and thanks to Julia for being a superb hostess (ie plentiful tea, cake and biscuits!).