From Weeds and Rags !

JOIN ME FOR SOME FUN ! 

You can join me most Wednesday in the Woodlands Community gardens in Glasgow to help printing the garden through the seasons… this runs from 1pm to 4pm and is free, the work produced is kept for the project exhibition later this week. details here

I will run a full day workshop in the Woodlands workspace on the 15th of September where we will print some on the garden’s botanics and stitch what we print… if you want to join look here

I will run a full week end workshop in my lovely Glasgow West end studio in October in Eco Printing… details and booking here

I will be running a creative retreat week end in Edinburgh with the bookbinder Cassandra Barron on the 1/2nd of November we will produce beautiful work with recycled material and some botanical material… bookings are here

THE STORY :

Everyone who knows me will be aware of my passion for leaves, any leaves or botanical material sends me into deep meditation… I am well known for crossing a busy road at rush hour to pick up a couple of small leaves on the other side to print on a piece of paper/cloth. It is an addiction , but in this case something I am proud off. It connects me deeply with Nature and the real world.

I have never been much of a drawn but by printing this material onto surfaces I know they will produce the most delicate watercolour type impression. And I cant stop myself from testing on any possible surfaces 🙂 my worst possible surface so far a glazed mug and the best … my recent banner initiated in the community garden I work with this summer onto Painter’s cloth… a beautiful impression of the seasonal changes of the garden.

When it comes to selecting material I am quite choosy… it has to print well, be of good nature and be very very cheap… I just can not cope with wasting lenght of silk on testing colours at a beginners worshop. So I use recycled all the time… and if preferable if it has been donated to me by local bed and breakfast… and I invest in my own time at preparing it to give the best print.

I am an Eco Up cycler. Off course I love a beautifully printed raw silk scarf … but nothing pleases me more than seeing a beginner unrolling their first bundle and finding out about the magic of a print from the leaf they only picked up in the garden earlier.

I am a child of the 60’s and I first discovered the concept of pollution in the 70’s so the whole Climate Challenge/save the world thing is like the music on which I danced my adult life … and it makes me cringe to see the wastage in “creative material” all around me in the name of “hobby time” my participants always leave my workshop with harmful of achievements having learned a lot and recycled a lot … but before anything … it is beautiful!

I like working with communities and this summer I am running an EcoPrinting workshop in the Woodlands Community Gardens in Glasgow with the locals and it is so much fun … every Wednesday we print whatever the garden has to offer.  This is a typical Weeds and Rags work but it does not mean that the technic I use for it is Hap Hazard…

I like to be in control of the results I produce nothing happens by complete accident… that is what happens when you lack knowledge and don’t understand fully your skills. You play with it happy with whatever result you get. I prefer to know in advance that I can get a great result… for that reason I prep always all my workshops wether they are with a full fee paying group or a community group. I like the technique I use to be fully proof because I like participants to be able to understand what they do.

My love for Rags and Weeds comes from a deep sense of achievement when you produce great work out of your sheer determination to save the world 🙂 don’t you agree thats a great way to live your creative life?

Why don’t you join me one day to see how it works? my next dates are above.

Have a great recycling day…

Betty x