It was my 5th time at Alston Hall on Contemporary Quilt Summer/Winter school and possibly the best yet! I love the peaceful surroundings looking out over the Ribble valley, the food is delicious ( 6 different cakes at afternoon tea!) and the company stimulating as ever.
I was pleased to see that the peeling paint of the glasshouse door as featured in my
2 green door quilts was still intact and even more weathered!
Last time I had a productive time sewing on a
retreat but this time I was doing a workshop with
Alice Fox on ' Rust Marks'
Sue generously shared part of the 10kg of rusty items she brought in her rucksack on the train ( considerably lighter on our return as she donated several items )
Rather than using vinegar as the acid to create the rust marks on fabric and paper, Alice uses sea water in situ as in her 'tide mark series' or tea ( which works because of the tannic acid it contains). Apart from 'builders tea' she had a selection of other brews to try including red wine ( which went down suspiciously quickly)
Our first exercise was using wire woll as this gives very quick results and lovely marks.
Than we got busy wrapping our items or placing them on paper until the hallway looked like the scene of an archaeological dig. Ideally the marks are better if items are left wet for a few days and dry out naturally but most of us couldn't resits opening our parcels on Sunday morning so see what was happening
To retain moisture, I mostly covered my parcels or items with a piece of silk chiffon or habatai which also picked up subtle marks
The piece of chiffon placed over a saw blade resulted in this charming 'rapunzels tower'
So that we could see the effect of a longer contact time, Alice had these wrapped nails which had been marinating for a week and we had the pleasure of opening them!
Even better, we were each given a piece of the silk and linen to experiment with.
I decided to make a little book ( as for
Dorothy Caldwell's masterclass and in
Crete ) and created several signatures which I have yet to sew together (still playing with the sequence)
The marks of wire wool on paper and a piece of silk organza wrapped around a nail was one of my favourite combinations. The subtle marks and tones achieved work well in a small format and I like the interactions that happen.
My piece-de-resistance however was a much larger piece - a fine silk dupion wrapped around the piece of rusting car I found on
Aldeburgh beach that Ian very reluctantly allowed me to bring home.
