Today was the first day of the Summer School at Art Van Go.
This year Alice Fox will be leading 4 wonderful days of Eco Printing, Dyeing and Stitch and I am one of the lucky ones who managed to get a place on this great workshop.
I love dyeing with rust and natural materials and Alice's work in this field has a delicacy and depth of feeling that is breathtaking. When one of my bestest friends told me she had put my name on the list for 'Lost and Found' with Alice I was so thrilled.
We had to take along a collection of found objects to add to our work. I took some beautiful sea washed shells which have the most subtle variations of greys, blues, pinks and creamy white. They are so matte with little hints of pearly shell showing through. Others are really pitted and textured. So very beautiful.
We also had to take rusty things with us. These were for making prints and marks onto paper and fabric. There is a kind of magic that happens when time and chemistry combine to make Art!
I took these huge rusty nails!
They are about 6 inches long and came from a proper old fashioned hardware shop. They were found in the back of the store room where they had been for 3 generations of the family owners. They were so amused that I wanted rusty nails and were quite happy to see them go I think. I was so happy to have them.
I will show you tomorrow what we did today. It was so lovely, so exciting and a little bit magic.
