May 2011
HELLO EVERYONE
You may remember that prior to going to Uganda in April I had a very
busy schedule with 4 days away at Art Van Go and Oxford. I did include
images of these courses in my last newsletter, but also promised to
include images from the Working Together 3 day course 'The Broken Line'
which took place the 3 days before my departure to Uganda. So following
will be some of the results from that course.
Ruth and I have also had another 3 day course since my return 'Fabric,
Mark and Colour' and I have also spent a wonderful two days in Frodsham
tutoring The TX Creative Textile Group. This group meet monthly and
are tutored by Wendy Rudd and Ann Goddard, but bring in outside tutors
such as myself for some additional input. I must say that they really
were an exciting group to tutor. Unfortunately I forgot to take any
images over the two days, so if any of the students that attended would
like to send some images of their work I will include this in my next
newsletter. Meanwhile thanks for making me so welcome and for responding
to all the challenges that I set..........you were a great group to
teach.
...........and of course.........coming up in this newsletter will
be a special feature on my Ugandan Trip, information about new
courses and the latest on my own work and my
book.
Happy Reading
Working Together ~ 'The Broken Line'
This was the first time that we have offered this course and it had
some great results and challenged Ruth and I in different ways as
well, which is never a bad thing!!!! Students were asked to explore
'the broken line' through mark-making, resists, print and stitch both
onto paper and fabric.
  
Initial exercsies were carried out in graphite, pencil, rubber and
chalk as illustrated above, before being chopped up into small units
and one focus colour added.
 
These ideas were then translated onto fabric and recut and reworked
with stitch and other effects.
  
  
Working Together ~ 'Fabric, Mark and Colour'
This is a course that we have done several times already yet each
time it is delivered slightly differently. Students used some beautiful
stones for inspiration to explore their surface imagery and organic
marks. After initial experiments into sketchbooks, students moved
quickly onto fabric using mixed media with print and stitch. The monochromatic
pieces were then quickly transformed by the introduction of colour
by Ruth, before being constructed into 2D compositions.
These courses also offer an opportunity for Ruth and I to be involved
as students, which is great fun and interesting to be on the receiving
end for a change.
 
There are further 'Working Together Courses' booked for 2012. So
please note these dates in the first instance and further information
will
follow.
Working Together Courses 2012
30th April/1st and 2nd May
11th/12th/13th May
18th/19th/20th June
These are the 'Working Together' dates for you to note in your diaries,
but course content still remains to be planned.
NEW COURSES AT MOOR HALL for 2011
Ray Hatley ~ Working in Leather
Monday 13th June 2011 ~ £50
On this first day course with Ray,
students will be making a mug mat/coaster and a belt. A maximum additional
cost of £10 for
materials will be added to this course, but students need not bring
anything to the workshop as all tools, equipment and materials will
be provided.
Mon and Tues 8/9 August 2011 ~ £100
The two day follow-up course
will involve the students in making one of these spetacular bags.
Again an additional cost of £15
maximum will be added to the course fees to include all materials,
with students going home at the end with their very own top quality
handbag. This has to be a winner.
 
Link to Ray's website
Dorothy Tucker ~ Kantha: 'A special way of sewing with Dorothy Tucker'
 8th and 9th July 2011 (Fri/Sat)
£100 for the two day course
Kantha is a Bangladeshi word for cloth. It is also the name given
to a form of stitching used to make quilts and covers from the good
parts of old worn saris.By folding and stitching together layers of
washed and worn fabrics we will make a cloth which is lovely to handle.
As we work with the simplest of stitches to outline shapes and to
fill spaces we will become intrigued by the subtle changes which begin
to take place in the soft surfaces of the cloth, and then we will
be drawn into stitching a personal design in which the meaning and
textile qualities evolve as we work. A jug or mug and one or two small
objects which have a connection will provide the starting points for
personal designs. Information and inspiration for hand sewing will
come from seeing and handling some old traditional and contemporary
examples of Kantha. Kantha can be addictive and soothing. Once started
you may choose to stitch on and on and on ......!
Dorothy has travelled to India. She exhibits her work regularly with
the Textile Study Group and PRISM . She was a tutor for the Opus School
of Textile Arts until 2008 and the Education Officer at the Embroiderers'
Guild. She is now working freelance and devises creative textile projects
for community groups with Shared Heritage.
Paul Priestley Summer School ~ 15/16/17 August.
Weather permitting students will be outside painting life as we see
it, exploring the wonderful Shropshire scenery around Moor Hall Studio.
Paul will demonstrate both traditional and more Impressionistic ways
of recording the landscape in paint. There will be lots of drawing
and painting demonstrations and lots of opportunities to explore your
own ideas with Paul on hand to give advice and help. I would highly
recommend this course.
Jean Littlejohn
1st September ~ Lecture in Bishops Castle for the Marches Branch of
the Embroiderers Guild
2nd and 3rd September
2 day workshop at Moor Hall Studio
Details to follow
Ruth Issett Courses 2011
October 20th and 21st
Dye and Devore
November 17th and 18th
Irresistible Iridescents and mouth watering
Metallics on Paper and Fabric.
February 9th & 10th 2012
Cascades of Paper Colour
March 29th & 30th 2012
Dyeing for Colour
June 26th - 28th 2012
Layers of Colour and Stitch
COURSES ELSEWHERE
SWEDEN ~ 27th to 29th May 2011
This will be my first trip over to Gothenburg, Sweden. The flights
are booked and the course is planned, so it is just a question of
getting everything packed and setting off. I will of course be feeding
back to you about thsi trip.
ART VAN GO ~ 15th to 18th June 2011
As you will know I always love spending time with Viv and Kev at
Art Van Go and this will be my first longer course down there. I look
forward to working with the students on this early Summer School......so
lets hope the sun shines for us. I will let you know how it goes.
link to Art Van Go
EXHIBITIONS
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
BOBBY BRITNELL and MOOR THREADS have an exhibition of work at The
Assembly Rooms in Ludlow, Shropshire. Work will be for sale.
Exhibition
Ends Sunday 19th June 2011
Contact: Ludlow Assembly Rooms 01584 878141
link to website
Working Together Exhibition at Moor Hall Studio
An exhibition of textiles, paintings, drawings and sketchbooks by
Ruth Issett and Bobby Britnell. Preview and Party Saturday 16th July
2011 7.00/9.00pm
Viewing Exhibition at other times ~ by prior arrangement only 01547
510664
UGANDA ~ April 2011
This newsletter has turned out longer than intended so I will just
give a glimpse of our trip to Uganda with a longer newsletter to follow.
I want to firstly thank friends and supporters for the contributions
that they made for the Molly and Paul Childcare Foundation and show
how these donations were used. Sketchbooks and drawing supplies were
donated from Seawhite of Brighton and Art Van Go as well as from some
private donators. Medical supplies are always well received and this
time we took over two full suitcases to be shared between two clinics.
 
Some of the money donations went towards Easter parcels for the individual
homes. The costs of this we shared with Jim and Sue Briscoe, two other
Molly and Paul supporters and between us we were able to provide food
parcels for Easter for all the homes in the village. Below, Julius
is sorting the food to deliver to the mamas and their individual homes.
 
 
The farm school offers vocational courses in tailoring/dressmaking
nd carpentry amongst a few other subjects. Some of the donations went
towards buying fabric for making the school uniforms and a second
project was the building of a hen house which Martin designed and
which the children built.
 
Building projects also extended out of the childrens village. The
organisation has an outreach programme designed to help really desperate
and needy families. Barney and Toby built a new kitchen for this family......you
can see from their original kitchen how delighted they were in getting
a new one.
 
 We did
have some time for socialising as well while we were out there and
here we are dressed up to attend a wedding in the traditional clothes
of the area. We felt very priviledged to be invited to this event
and it made up for missing the big wedding in the UK on the same day!!!!
Those of you that now me well will know that music and dance play
a very important part in my life and as you can imagine any opportunity
to be involved in this way would not be missed.
The first picture is of the Pearl of Africa choir doing a presentation
for us and the second picture is of Henry, Fred and Sam playing some
of the instruments we took over with us. We also taught them a Morris
Dance which was such fun.
 
This image is us on safari and features, Apollo, who took wonderful
care of us every day, my sons, Toby and Barney, Rachel a volunteer,
and our very knowledgeable safari guide.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing just a taster of our Ugandan trip
and a more detailed newsletter will follow.
Uganda has taken a serious hold on me and my family and we feel really
fortunate to be involved with such a wondeful community, which is
without doubt our extended family. For me I am now exploring ways
of feeding this connection into my creative work and current thinking
and sampling of ideas is beginning to generate some exciting possibilities.
I had a great time in Tunbridge Wells last week with the editorial
director, Roz Dace and the senior editor Katie Sparkes, of Search
Press, working on the 128 page flat plan for my new book. This book
will be one of Inspirational STITCHED TEXTILES series and will focus
on 'Flowers'. It was such an interesting process from which I learnt
a great deal. We could all see the potential of featuring some of
the wonderful flowers from Uganda in the book with some development
work in design and stitch.
Thank you for reading my newsletter. I hope you have found something
of interest. I always appreciate hearing from readers, as it makes
me realise that the newsletters are being read. So do continue to
give me your feedback and please encourage others to subscribe.
Best Wishes Bobby
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