newly creative

Raid Your Stash Scraps Collage

2026-11-14T03:30:00.000+00:00

I went to Chesterfield this week to teach a new workshop entitled Raid Your Stash Scraps Collage. The aim is to use up bits and pieces of fabrics that you have leftover from other textile projects and can't bear to throw away. Although I shared ways of making a hanging or stretching over a canvas the ladies were free to choose what they would make.

Who wouldn't love a group who serve up this for lunch!?

Here are some of the pieces of work in progress.

Each person chose their own colour palette. Some were muted like the pieces above and some were brightly coloured. Here they are all laid out together.

I had a fabulous time. It was a highly successful first time outing for this workshop.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

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Thank you by Bernice Hopper https://www.blogger.com/profile/12155326856012097548
Beautiful, thanks Bernice. Diane Clausen by Anonymous

A new fabric book

2026-11-10T03:30:00.000+00:00

I have just finished a new fabric book. I dyed and printed the fabric at Sumer School in August. I am thinking about selling the instructions for making the book. I'm not sure how much interest there would be.

While I'm thinking about it here's the finished book. I used both machine and hand stitching.

The closed finished book is approximately 20x15 cms.

Thank you for joining me today.
Bernice

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Out & About in NSW

2026-10-31T03:30:00.000+00:00

We spent 3 full days at Lake Conjola and part of the Monday travelling back to Wollongong. On our first full day we went to the Ulladullah Lighthouse and Fossil Rocks.

We also visited a fossil museum.

Our eldest grandson had to go home to play in a football match so his mum and Roger took him to that and the rest of us lounged about doing our own thing. Later in the day we all went to Mount Bushwalker for a walk.

On Sunday we went out for lunch at Culpitts Vineyard.

And then went Barefoot Bowling. I didn't know there was such a thing.

Back where we were staying there was a mob of kangaroos.

Our last day of the long weekend, we travelled back through Kangaroo Valley, stopping to see this really old bridge, before having lunch at The Friendly Inn.

And then it was back to Wollongong.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

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Still Road Tripping

2026-10-27T03:30:00.000+00:00

In my last post I left you as we visited the Botanic Gardens in Canberra. The next day we drove into the centre of Canberra where we visited Old Parliament House.

The museum was extensive and interesting. Afterwards we walked to the National Gallery of Australia to see the Arthur Boyd tapestries which I have to say were not my cup of tea.

We wandered through the rest of the museum and various things caught my eye.

Outside there was a sculpture park.

There was also a sculpture you could walk inside.

Leaving Canberra we drove past the new Parliament building

We drove to Braidwood where we stopped for lunch. I found a Patchwork shop and saw this award winning quilt on the wall.

We then drove on to Lake Conjola where we had booked a lakeside holiday home and met up with the family.

A long weekend here and then back to Wollongong. I'll do a short post about our stay there before the residency.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

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Road Trip

2026-10-24T02:30:00.000+00:00

Our journey to Australia this time was somewhat delayed. We usually fly with Singapore Airlines from Heathrow but because we were travelling back separately we booked with Emirates from Birmingham. Our flight from Birmingham to Dubai was pushed back which meant we would miss our connection to Melbourne. Fortunately that was pushed back also. However when we got on the plane in Dubai it was held up for over an hour waiting for clearance to take off from Oman airspace. We eventually arrived in Melbourne at 3.15am on Sunday morning rather than 9.50pm on Saturday night. We got to bed at 04.45.

Still, we had arrived safely and what's a few hours of missed sleep. We picked up our hire car and started our 5 day road trip.

We drove through the Yarra Rages National Park to Mansfield where we stayed the night.

The next day another mountain drive took us to Bright.

We drove past Mount Beauty and on to Albury which is on the border of Victoria and New South Wales.

Next morning we walked around the Botanic Gardens and then part of the sculpture trail along the river.

Then we drove along the Great River Drive in the rain.

And then on to Paddy River Falls before arriving in Tumbarumba for the night.

The next day saw us driving through mountains again. I don't have any photos of the view because we couldn't see the view. We drove almost the whole way inside a cloud! When we got to Cooma there was the NSW Corrective Services Museum. A museum devoted to prisons, prisoners and convicts.

We carried on to Canberra and checked into our hotel before visiting the Botanic Garden.

Just one day left of our road trip before meeting up with the family. I'll tell you all about that in my next post.

Thank you for joining me today
Bernice

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Plants & Flowers

2026-10-20T02:30:00.000+00:00

This month's theme for the photography group was Plants & Flowers. Fortunately I saw lots of different flora in Australia. Enjoy the wattle, banksia and other unknown to me plants.

Well done for getting this far.

Before the residency started Roger and I had a 2 week holiday. My next post will be about our road trip from Melbourne to Canberra.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

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A Walk in the Park

2026-10-17T02:30:00.000+00:00

As my last post about my residency I thought I would share some photos of Carss Park.

Firstly the 'Artist's Cottage' - actually a first floor apartment above the Park Staff's offices and store.

And the view from the balcony.

Along the shore

This guy came to visit

And then invited his friends

There were also Ibis living in the park

A twilight walk

And after dark

I hope you have enjoyed a walk in the park

Thank you for joining me today.
Bernice

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On Reflection

2026-10-09T16:30:00.000+00:00

I was sent this card at the Residency from some friends. I’ve glued it into the front of my Residency Diary.

And it has been an adventure. Sometimes I think quite a mad one. Utter madness at 77 years old to be gallivanting across the world to be an Artist in Residence. But there you are. I applied. I was accepted. And I’ve done it. I dread to think what mad idea I might come up with next.

Anyway, this is supposed to be an upbeat reflection - my thoughts on the 4 weeks which was actually only 20 days since I spent the weekends with my family.

I mentioned in my last post about not writing down any expectations. Expectations are not the same as the intentions written in the application.

One of my concerns had been that the Artists Cottage was in a park and I would be the only one in the park after dark. However the level of security at the cottage was so high it enabled me to have a greater peace of mind than I had initially worried about.

The first week felt lonely - the days seemed very long. I tried to keep to regular meal times and take breaks from being creative. The rest of the weeks didn’t seem so bad. I realised that I need contact with people more than I thought I did. It doesn’t have to be in person but the time difference between NSW and home meant that there couldn’t always be immediate contact even with texts and emails.

The workshop I delivered twice - An A to Z of Me - was written especially for the community engagement I needed to deliver. My workshops at home are predominantly textile based whilst this was word and paper based. The ladies were mostly more enthusiastic during the workshops than I’m used to. I don’t know whether that was because of the content or whether Australians are just more effusive! I am considering offering this workshop in 2027 in the UK.

Although I had my Australian Connections research with me, and the paint colours I had taken reminded me of Australia, I felt quite detached from the family history. I don’t know whether that was because I was spending so much time with the Hopper Juniors or whether I am fairly unsentimental about the past unless it includes my son.

It is my intention to make more fabric books when I get home. I want to try to make the new ones I’ve made in paper using fabric.

Some of my laser image transfers using the gel plate were good, some were mediocre and some were downright failures. But then I suppose that is what play and experimentation is for. Will I do more of it when I get home? Probably not unless a particular project calls for it. I love other people’s results but I’ve realised I’m not primarily a printmaker. That doesn’t mean I will get rid of my gel plates. After all you can print with them on fabric.

I don’t think this experience will get me doing more sampling before I make pieces at home. But I do want to keep up the idea of a studio diary. To record what I do when I do it, and how I did it so that I can describe it to people. When I’m showing people my fabric books I often forget what techniques I used, so recording each stage will be useful.

In the months to come, as I move back into textiles I’m sure I will see the influence of the Residency and I’ll be sure to let you know in future blog posts.

In the meantime, please feel free to put any questions you have in the comments. I will have to answer them in another blog post as I still can’t reply directly. And please, please, please put your name. Thank you.

Thanks for joining me today.

Bernice

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Thanks Andrea by Bernice Hopper https://www.blogger.com/profile/12155326856012097548
That was an interesting read…. I love that green c... by Andrea Crane

Looking Back

2026-10-05T16:30:00.000+00:00

This is going to end up as two posts. I want to look back at my 4 weeks of the Residency and sum up my experience. However that’s not as easy as it sounds.

So let’s start with the easy bit. During the last 3-4 days of my time there, I set up a small exhibition. Mostly so I could actually see what I had achieved. I found it to be a very encouraging activity.

The poster on the left was the poster the museum used to advertise my workshops. They gave it to me as I left after the 2nd workshop.

I had been using the wall to display things but the books and boxes had just been put to one side, so it was good to see them out altogether.

I’m still working through what I’ve learned outside of the techniques of how to make new-to-me style books and boxes.

Which is why there will be another post on Saturday where I’m hoping to give a more coherent expression of my thoughts. Some friends have given me some questions as prompts to help my thinking.

But what do I know so far?

I think that the difficulty arises from not setting down expectations for the 4 weeks. If you write down expectations, then at the end you have something to consider. Have any of the expectations been met? What expectations weren’t met and why?

What do I know didn’t happen? Well I had told myself - but didn’t write it down - that I would take a walk round the park every day. I went twice in the 20 days! I did however walk to the bus stop 6 times. Plus a couple of longish walks from the station to the venue when I visited two different exhibitions.

I had also told myself I would drink more water. To be honest a teaspoon of water would be more than I usually drink outside of my 5 cups of instant coffee a day! I took a water bottle with my name on it specifically for this task. It never even got wet.

Based on my application form, the museum had written about me as follows:

A visit to the ‘Dancing in Fetters’ exhibition at Fremantle Prison, WA inspired her current textile work in Captivity, Freedom and Identity. Integrating her own creative writing into these pieces adds a personal dimension to her exploration. During the residency, Bernice wants to develop these themes further through writing and experimenting with different techniques.

Bernice will consider the historical context of the First Fleet’s arrival and the experiences of convicts sent from the UK, however she aims to broaden this exploration to encompass other forms of captivity, particularly depression and freedom, examining their impact on identity.

My response to this in my Residency Diary at the end of my first week:

In my application I said I would build up a portfolio of research, photographs, creative writing and samples which will inform my work on my return home. Whilst the Museum has said they won’t hold me to any of the things I said in the application, I do need to do something!

I have photographs at home of the various convict sites we have visited. I was thinking of going to the Parramatta Female Factory but I think I will give it a miss. Also at home I have done quite a bit of research using AI on captivity and also used ArtHelper for ideas for pieces of work. I’ve also got my Australian Connections to look at.

Well, apart from the mock up of a hanging expressing the England/Australia Connection, I have done none of the above.

This post has turned out to be somewhat negative. The next post will definitely need to be more positive.

So to cheer you up, have a look at the Museum’s latest blog post Artist in Residence Q&A. Plus a nice view from the beach at Carss Park.

Here’s hoping you still want to come back on Saturday.

Bernice

Sadly I am unable to reply to your comments here at the moment as Blogger has blocked replies. I cannot sort it out until I get home in a couple of weeks. But please do leave me a comment. Don’t forget to leave your name.

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And it's done!

2026-10-03T02:30:00.000+00:00

The residency is over. I’ve packed up and left the park.

However since my last post I’ve done lots of things. I taught a repeat of the workshop to 5 ladies - 4 of whom were total papercraft beginners. We had a glorious time. They were all very enthusiastic and chatty.

Back at the park I made 4 new collages and cut 2 gel prints to put on a page but haven’t decided what to collage onto them.

I tried the sea water wash again. At home I may print out some of my photos of the park on tissue paper and glue them onto the concertina books. Or I may not!

I didn’t like the piece I made that was about my Australian Connections. However I saw a painting on Instagram which gave me an idea for a hanging. I printed papers on the gel plate using cling film to make the papers look more like breakdown printing. Then I cut them up into rectangles to represent the patchwork of fields you can see when you fly over England. I collaged them back together with a small brown section to represent Australia. I don’t usually do mockups. I just think of what a hanging might look like and dye the fabrics. Becca has suggested I make a reverse one too - so mostly brown fabrics with the green patch.

I’ve also made a triangle book, a 2 rectangular Masu boxes - one with a lid - and made a hinged box where the lid isn’t the same depth as the base. This is because I have an idea fermenting about suitcases. More about that in the future. While I’ve been making all these books I’ve been trying to think how they will work in fabric. That’s a project for the next few months at home.

I had thought this would be the last blog post about the residency but it won’t be. Next week I’ll post my thoughts about the whole experience.

I hope you will join me for that.

Bernice

PS. Sadly I am unable to reply to your comments here at the moment as Blogger has blocked replies. I cannot sort it out until I get home in a couple of weeks.

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Thank you by Bernice Hopper https://www.blogger.com/profile/12155326856012097548
So sorry I managed to delete the anonymous comment... by Bernice Hopper https://www.blogger.com/profile/12155326856012097548
Gosh I can’t believe your residency is over I’ve r... by Andrea Crane

The Countdown Has Begun

2026-09-29T02:30:00.000+00:00

The last few days here in the park!

In the last couple of days I’ve made more 15cm square collages. I’ve made 24 altogether so far this residency. Still time to make some more!

The next one isn’t really a collage. It’s a gel plate print I made on wet strength tissue. Currently I don’t want to add anything to it but you never know what will happen in the future.

I made another blizzard book using the left overs from image transfer prints. The originals were on a really good quality paper and with the addition of the acrylic paint became quite leathery. I have kept the outer cards from various ready meals I’ve eaten and used those to make tags which I covered in gel prints. They all have a blue colour print on one side and yellow on the other.

10cms tall

This blizzard book has given me ideas for a textile piece when I get home - providing I can think of a way to stiffen the fabric for the spine.

I did some paper weaving with a couple of the b&w prints I brought with me. One was the emblem on Andy’s Australian Citizenship Certificate and the other was a map of Bulimba where my Dad was born.

I also made 3 little boxes from gel prints. They fit inside each other. The largest is 6.7 cms square.

I have started some more sea washed pieces but I’ll leave that for Saturday’s post. This one is already a bit too long.

Well done for getting to the end. See you next time.

Bernice

Week 3 in a nutshell

2026-09-26T02:30:00.000+00:00

It's hard to believe that this is the end of week three - only one more week to go!

I tried a technique I’d seen on Instagram which is hard to do at home since I live so far from the sea. It’s on my doorstep here. I used Artgraf soluble graphite on a Khadi paper concertina book. After each line was drawn - I only have 3 colours I let the sea wash over the paper. The result isn’t bad for a first go. I’ll have another go next week.

I made a new concertina book using the opener from a wet wipes packet.

I made 7 collages

I learned how to make a blizzard book. I used a brown paper carrier bag from the supermarket.

The I made a tiny one which reminded me of a Banksia flower. It’s 8cms tall.

I stencilled and painted some paper green and red to make a representation of the Banksia. And made a container for the book to look like the ‘cone’ of the Banksia. It isn’t a cone and it looks more like a nut.

10cms tall

The book hidden inside

The ‘flower’ is 7 cms tall

The tube cover isn’t completely finished. I’m trying to find a better way of doing the ‘eyes’!

I think that’s enough for today. Well done if you stuck with this blog post right to the end.

See you on Tuesday

Bernice

Out and About

2026-09-22T04:25:58.323+00:00

I’m now into my third week of the residency. Last week I tried out some ways of folding books from an online course. This week I’m planning on trying out some of the books in the book I brought with me: The Art of the Fold.

I had a lovely weekend celebrating my son’s 40th birthday with the family. When I got back to Hurstville I tried work with the pianola roll I bought. I first looked through my Australian Connections workbook and the ideas from ArtHelper and then started. I first wrote the four significant dates with a Posca pen and then used my Australian flora stencils.

Then I added some blue koh-I-nor paint. It says it’s watercolour but it seems permanent. It was far too bright and I wanted to knock it back.

I got some leaves from the garden and did some leaf rubbings using Neocolor 1 and wet strength tissue. I used gel medium to glue the tissue to the pianola roll.

I love that you can see the holes of the pianola roll disrupting the image. The dates indicate times of disruptions or changes in life’s direction. 1922 saw my grandparents emigrate to Australia. My dad was born in 1924. The family returned to England in 1931. Andy emigrated to Australia in 2006.

And lastly I added a poem I had written some time ago about this history.

You do have to be up close to see the words.

I’ve also been to a textile exhibition at Gallery 76, the headquarters of NSW Embroiderers Guild. It was an exhibition by 39 international textile artists. Here are some of the pieces I liked.

Kathy Landvogt: Matrescence

Josephine Jakobi: Appropriation

Adeline Contreras: Untitled

Eszter Bornemiszer: Interplay

Jette Clover: Urban Poetry

Helen Macritchie: Gaseous Exchange

Ruth Harries: Dwelling

Next update on Saturday. Hope to see you then.

Bernice

Different Styles and Approaches

2026-09-19T02:30:00.000+00:00

On Thursday as part of my residency, I taught a paper-based workshop as part of the agreed community engagement. The museum workshop space had the most amazing range of art and craft equipment. However I wanted to use as little as possible, as I wanted the activity to continue at home where possibly the participants had very little paint, coloured pens etc.

There were 6 people booked for the day but for various reasons only 3 turned up. This was probably a good thing as this was the first time I had taught this workshop so I got to practice with these three who embraced the activity with mostly open arms - a slight hesitation at the beginning but that’s natural when you are introducing a new idea. All of them were in to knitting, crochet or drawing in some form but hadn’t done collage since childhood.

The workshop is called an A to Z of Me. The aim is to build up a word portrait of yourself. In an A5 sketchbook each page is allocated a letter of the alphabet. The first task is to create a list of words that are associated with you in various categories - colour, places, friends’ names, relatives, etc. Then using journaling, lists, photos or words cut from magazines build each page.

The whole point is for the pages to be meaningful to the participant and not to copy my pages. To take my suggestions and complete the pages their own way. And they certainly did.

One lady was a planner - she spent the time planning how her book would look but using things she had at home. One lady was a visual person and spent her time finding pictures of places she had been to in Australia. I had provided lots of brochures from last year’s road trip and this year’s. The third lady was more text based and searched for words or used ‘ransom note’ words.

It was a fun day. The ladies learned some new things. I’m debating whether to launch this workshop back home for 2027. I’m repeating the workshop at the museum at the end of the month so I’ll see how it goes.

I’m spending today with my family. It’s my son’s 40th birthday and hooray, I get to celebrate it with him. The first birthday of his that we’ve celebrated together since his 19th birthday.

Thanks for joining me today.

Bernice

Animal Skeletons and other things

2026-09-15T02:30:00.000+00:00

On Friday evening I went to the opening of a solo exhibition by Michele Beevors called Anatomy Lessons. It is the culmination of 17 years work. I didn’t take photos of all of it but here’s a sample of the work.

The work is astonishing. Each piece has been meticulously made and then each bone has been covered in knitting. At a nearby library, there’s a full size elephant skeleton and a full size giraffe. I’m planning to visit next week.

I’ve continued to play. I made another collage.

And made some of my gel plate prints into books.

And lastly here’s some wall art on the Council car park in Wollongong.

This week will be about learning about the making of books from an online course I signed up for and never completed.

Next update will be on Saturday. I hope you can join me.

Bernice

Out of my Comfort Zone

2026-09-12T02:30:00.000+00:00

End of the first week and 4.5 days of playing with paint and gel plates. Some prints were successful, some were rubbish and some were so-so. I expect I’ve learned something from it - I just need to ponder what!

If you have followed me for a while or have chatted to me about textiles, you will know I don’t do samples and I don’t just play. So these few days have been a struggle. I was playing and getting results but to what purpose? When I’m making textile pieces, I know what I am aiming for and what it might look like, and then get on with it. Sometimes it ends up looking different - but that doesn’t matter.

So on Friday I made the decision to stop making prints and to cut some of them up and make collages, They are 15cms square.

Earlier in the week I had made the horizontal collage (pictured at the top). I was going to make it into a concertina book but it looked better vertical. I also added some marks with pen.

So what else have I done? I took the train to Sydenham and visited a textile exhibition of work by Dijanne Cevaal. I was the only one there for quite a while so was able to have an indepth conversation with her. Some of her Bush Sentinelles.

Whilst I was in that part of Sydney I went to Reverse Garbage - a massive version of our UK Scrapstores.

So you may be asking why I entitled this blog post - Out of my Comfort Zone. Well that’s because of the other things I’ve done!

I went food shopping in 2 different supermarkets. I don’t do that at home - Roger does the shopping.

I’ve prepared my lunch everyday. I don’t do that at home - Roger gets the lunch, and I do the dinner.

I’ve washed the dishes after meals. You’ve guessed it! Roger does the washing up.

I washed my clothes. I don’t do that at home - Roger puts the clothes in the washing machine. I do the sheets and towels.

Next week I have to put the bins out - Roger does that at home.

At this point you may well be asking what exactly do I do at home. Not a lot obviously. Although I do sort out the technology problems that we both run up against. Does that count?

On Friday night I was invited to the opening of a new exhibition at Hurstville Museum and Art Gallery. I’ll tell you about it next Tuesday.

See you then

Bernice

In Residence

2026-09-08T02:30:00.000+00:00

Well, here I am. In residence in an amazing one bedroom apartment in Carss Park, Hurstville, NSW. The studio is an amazing space. This was before I unpacked!

And here’s the view

I unpacked and set up my work space.

I spent the afternoon playing with paint, stencils and the gel plate. I also watched some of the videos from Jane Faase’s course ‘Next Level’ Laser Image Transfer - however my image transfers didn’t work, so back to the drawing board.

I’m pleased with the results from trying out the stencils and using cling film to create a background.

I have spent so much time in the last 2-3 years on textiles and neglected the mixed media side of things. It’s great to get back to being messy. I’m looking forward to seeing how this develops. I particularly want to experiment on taking what I’ve learned from Jane Faase and developing my own style.

I wrote this poem 12 months ago. I’m glad to say that I had the opportunity last night to chat with this particular friend on a video call before I went to bed. I had a much better night’s sleep than I predicted in the poem. Mind you, we had a torrential rainstorm and I suspect the creatures that would have produced the rustlings were sensibly holed up somewhere.

In Residence 2026

My dearest friend, how I appreciate
your prayers. In the night’s almost silence
they comfort me. Unknown rustlings
in the shrubs and trees surround me.
I’m alone in this apartment, alone in the park.
Only the twinkling lights across the river mouth
assure me that human life continues.
Sleep comes slowly. Reading past midnight,
in the hope that sleep will overcome
the apprehension of living companionless,
in an unfamiliar apartment,
in an unknown city, in a foreign land.
Daybreak. And messages from home.
Early morning risers jog past my balcony.
The café next door is open for breakfast.
The anxiety of the nighttime has passed.
The curtains opened to another day
of unexplored creativity.

And so onwards with my experimentation and play. More creativity and hopefully more ideas.

See you on Saturday for my next update.

Thanks for joining me today

Bernice

Not necessarily packing light!

2026-09-05T02:30:00.000+00:00

You may be wondering what I have brought with me to Australia for my Artist in Residence time which starts next week. Of course you might not be wondering but I'm going to tell you anyway!

My plan, such as it is, is to actually read 2 books that I've bought and follow the instructions rather than just look at the pictures. In addition I am going to do the Making Books and Gel Plate Printing online workshops I've signed up for, but not done anything with. For example, Jane Faase courses on gel printing and Toni Harthill's workshop Unbound.

So of course, I needed to bring gel plates and brayers. There were more gel plates and brayers originally but they were culled due to weight.

With gel plates I need paints. I was going to buy the paints in Australia - another weight cutting exercise - but Hobbycraft had a half price sale so each of these tubes was £2. On Amazon Australia they are around £8 each.

I will be buying a ream of printer paper here in Australia to use, but have brought a plastic bag full of a variety of tissue papers, and 3 Khadi concertina books.

Other media that made the cut were my Neocolor 1 wax oil crayons, 3 ArtGraf water soluble graphite blocks, a Koh-i-nor watercolour palette, Inktense Blocks - I have the pencil crayons but these are lighter, and my favourite Matte Medium.

Choosing a sketchbook has always been my difficulty. I actually use them as workbooks rather than sketchbooks and over the past few weeks various combinations of sketchbooks have been laid out and then discarded. I eventually settled on 2 8" square Pink Pigs and an A6 concertina.

And finally various tools which eventually included paper scissors, a ruler, pens and pencils.

I will be blogging my progress, hopefully twice each week, during the 4 weeks of the Residency.

I applied for this in May 2024. And now it's finally here. It starts on Monday.

Watch this space.
Bernice

Summer School

2026-08-29T02:30:00.000+00:00

I have spent a lovely 4 days at Littleheath Barn taking part in Summer School.

During the first two days we printed our fabrics. The theme overall was the colour of the seasons. I chose Autumn, not because I want to do work about a season, but because I'm hoping to do some work on my Australian Connections.

These are my fabrics washed and ironed. The brown pieces, bottom left, are actually more purple than brown. Despite all my years of breakdown printing, my screens didn't breakdown and the fabrics look more stencilled - not a look I particularly like.

However I carried on and started making a book. I tried out some Cotton Woven Fusible Interfacing as the base layer. It's okay but not really suitable if the fabrics are also lightweight eg. muslin, cotton lawn, organdie.

Here are some of the pages for the book.

I also started making another book in a different colourway.

I didn't like the big orange bit in the top one and eventually covered it up. I experimented with transferring images to the pages using a paper lamination technique with bondaweb. The original pictures aren't very good so I'm pleased that it worked at all.

At the end of the 4th day we had a Show and Tell.

You can see how I covered up the bright orange next to the ship!

I've got lots of fabric left so who knows what will become of it!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

A finished series

2026-08-22T02:30:00.000+00:00

Over the past year I have made a series of work about the negative labels we put on ourselves and that society puts on us. I also looked at the positive labels and how we change our view of ourselves.

I started with a piece called I'm Fine -NOT! This started with a sketch a friend had made of me during lockdown. I had it made into a Thermofax screen and printed it onto the fabric. I painted the grey dye over the fabric leaving the white masks. I embroidered the words that you might want to say when someone asks you how you are and you answer 'I'm fine' when you really are not fine.

Three months later I did a workshop with Leah Higgins and dyed and printed the fabric with the theme of labels in mind. The workshop was about building layers of print so these fabrics were busier then the fabrics I had been printing previously.

I didn't necessarily make all the next pieces in the order they make sense but here I'm going to show you them in the order they will be exhibited.

Piece 2 is called Negativity Chained. There's a possibility this title may change!

Following on from this is Cancelled. On this piece I stamped the words and machine stitched a line through them to cross them out. I embroidered the opposite word over the top to cancel out the negative with the positive.

Piece 4 is a transition piece between the negative and positive thinking and feeling. It is a fabric hanging attached to a canvas. It is the smallest of the pieces but shown large here. The gold scar uses the repair idea of Kintsugi.

The next piece represents how we change our thinking from the negative to the positive. It's currently called Restored.

The final piece takes the original I'm fine - NOT! and becomes Confidence. I put the original drawing into ChatGPT and asked it to remove the mask and give the drawing a nose, mouth and chin. Then I asked ChatGPT to give the drawing a smiling mouth and then asked it to remove the shadows. I had each of the three images made into a screen. These were printed onto the undyed calico with yellow ochre fabric paint. The words below the faces are positive words that give you confidence.

These 6 textile hangings will hopefully be hung in order at Forge Mill Needle Museum in 2027 when Becca and I have an exhibition entitled Expressions Too.

Thank you for joining me today
Bernice

Bricks and Water

2026-08-15T02:30:00.000+00:00

Next let's look at the pieces I've made for the Stitch in the Middle exhibition in Ledbury in October. The title of the exhibition is Bricks and Water, with the emphasis being on industrial. The exhibition will also be at Forge Mill in 2027.

If you're a regular here you know that I am a big fan of the canals built across the West Midlands and the redbrick industrial buildings.

I went on a workshop at Littleheath Barn called Abstract Landscape. I took with me left over fabric from my previous canal pieces and some odds and ends from my stash. I wanted my landscape to reflect the canals. It's called Along Industrial Canals.

It has wavy horizontal machine stitched lines across it and some hand stitching which yo uhave to get quite close up to see.

I made a hanging book for the second piece based on photos I had taken at Forge Mill when I was on a course there. I transferred my photos onto the fabric with bondaweb.

And lastly I'm sending the piece 1771 which I blogged about last August. This is another piece you have to get quite close to in order to see the hand stitched outlines of cogs.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

Fragments

2026-08-08T02:30:00.000+00:00

Today I'd like to show you the pieces I have made for the Midlands Textile Forum exhibition in September. You will have two opportunities to see the exhibition.

It is on at The Artery in Worcester from 8th - 12th September. It is then moving to Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery from 26th September to 7th November.

The theme for this exhibition is Fragments.

This piece was supposed to be stretched around the canvas but ended up as a hanging attached to the canvas instead. It's made with fragments of fabric leftover from previous projects.

The next piece you have seen before. You can read the story here: Echoes of Memory.

And my final fragments piece is called My Imperfect Messy Life and is really difficult to photograph. It is also made with leftover bits of fabric from other projects. I used Solufleece - a water soluble fabric - to attach all the pieces and then machined over the whole thing to attach the pieces together.

This was it hanging on the line to dry after washing out the Solufleece.

And this is it finished with something behind it!

I do hope you get an opportunity to see the exhibition.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

1st August

2026-08-01T02:30:00.000+00:00

I'm back!

After a longer hiatus than I had planned. I have missed sharing my textile work on here. I have shared photos on Instagram but it's not the same.

As I mentioned in my last post, way back in the mists of time, my focus this year has been to make work for two exhibitions whilst I'm away in Australia. I've also needed to schedule blog posts for the church website through September and October. I've also been making pieces for the exhibition Becca and I have at Forge Mill in 2027.

And of course, finishing my entry into the 3D category at Festival of Quilts.

I ended up making 11 little fabric books to fit the shelf. Five of the books have mini collages in them, using fabrics of a similar colour to the cover of the book. And four have variations of a particular stitch - chain, feather and fly, herringbone, and buttonhole stitch. One has random other stitches and the last one has 7 synonyms for captivity and 7 synonyms for freedom.

I tried to make the covers relevant to the contents.

And here it is on display at the Festival of Quilts:

The judging was on Wednesday and I wasn't awarded one of the prizes. However yesterday someone congratulated me on being shortlisted. So I had to go back and take a look. And found the sticker I had overlooked before.

As you might imagine, I'm rather chuffed.

Thanks for being here today,
Bernice

A Creative 2026

2026-01-03T03:30:00.041+00:00

It's happening! THIS YEAR!

Yes, after 19 months since I made my application, instead of saying 'the year after next', and then 'next year', I can finally say it's THIS YEAR. Only 9 months until I'm the Artist in Residence at Hurstville Museum & Art Gallery in New South Wales.

Hurstville Museum & Art Gallery

In my last post I reviewed 2025. In this post I'm looking forward to this year and what's already in store.

I belong to Midlands Textile Forum and to a contemporary quilt group called Stitch In the Middle. Both groups have exhibitions this year. Fortunately the first MTF exhibition is the same work as that exhibited at Nottingham last September. However I do need to make new work for the MTF 'Fragments' exhibition in Worcester in September this year. I also need to make new work for SITM's October exhibition in Ledbury called 'Bricks and Water'. All this new work will need to be finished by the middle of August, before I leave for Australia.

In addition I am still inspired to make pieces in my series 'Captivity, Freedom and Identity' which will be exhibited in 2027. At least the deadline for the work isn't this year!

I recently found Ricky Tims' Convergence Quilts and that had given me ideas for a hanging.

I'm hoping to enter a 3D piece into the competition at Festival of Quilts this year. It's a Chained Library. So far I've almost finished the box. I'm planning to make several fabric books to go in it.

I probably need to write down all my ideas - just to get them out of my head! There are so many ideas buzzing and rather too many pieces that I've started and really need to finish.

Keep coming back to my blog to find out how I'm getting on.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

2025: A Creative Year

2025-12-27T03:30:00.006+00:00

It's been a while. So how about a look back at this year.

There are times when I wonder if I've achieved anything. Which is a bit daft because I know I have but then the whispers come (or even the shouts) that say it's not been enough. Do you get that feeling?

So here goes. In no particular order:

I'm Fine - NOT!

Tears of Oppression Tears of Transition Tears of Joy

Made a few years ago but finished this year

Promised Land

Negative Labels

Positive Words

1771

Distant Echoes: Fragments of Memory

I've exhibited with Becca at Forge Mill. I've exhibited with Midlands Textile Forum in Loughborough and Nottingham. I demonstrated my fabric books in the Creative Textiles Studio at Festival of Quilts.

I've taught workshops in Solihull, Birmingham and Shropshire. I've given three talks including one on zoom.

I've continued to take part in a poetry zoom workshop. And continued to host a ladies photography group, a textile group and a writers' group - all monthly on zoom.

So all in all it's been a full-on creative year and there's more to come in 2026.

Thanks for joing me here during this year.
Bernice