The Remnant Menagerie

Made from the scrappiest scraps in the bits bag, the wool that is usually just thrown, the thread from old material, the tiny ends of cloth, the buttons that have fallen off and dropped in the road, and stuffed with leftovers, they cost nothing but time and love to make and will be attending the Rayleigh Windmill Exhibition in August.

Cornflour and Coffee

 Painting on handmade paper with coffee and cornflour, the darker blue is part of the paper. Quite difficult to paint with and cornflour and water dries very quickly, however having used cream cheese earlier (thank you very much for the suggestion, but it really didn't work). When it was first painted it was ok but as it started to dry

 it began to fade and blur. I will try to paint each substance separately and see if I can get clearer colours.

As the day goes on the cornflour 'paint' is beginning to crack.
More experimentation needed.

When the Windmill was Working

Some costume ideas for when the windmill was first built and working. I am not sure about the knickers.........

Twig Weaving Sticks

 So found lots of scraps of ribbon lace and cord and am knotting them together to weave on the weaving sticks. Have added beads to the bottom of the weaving for no other reason than I like them.

 You can weave with anything, A normal ball of wool or string is fine, I am just experimenting.

Only 1 disaster so far, the end twig was too brittle for the eyelet I had attached to it and snapped. Apart from that all going well.

Twig Lucet

This works as well! Not as comfortable to use as the first one but makes an acceptable cord.

Broken Branch Lucet

This is really easy to use and makes a lovely lucet cord. I have just used the branch as I found it, with an old ball of string so the pattern of the cord is clearly visible. It fits comfortably in my hand and because of the size, I can use my fingers to move the wool without using a hook.

Making Art with Found Things

Uses for Broken Branches

Found these whilst walking the dog this morning and I can see weaving sticks and lucets! 

Shall post as soon as I have tried them out.

Musings on an Invisible Castle

Rayleigh Castle was built in 1086 and had ceased to exist by 1386. However the Motte, the Bailey the Lake and most importantly the Moat are still in existence. This seems like a good enough reason to all dress up as Normans, Anglo Saxons and sundry peasants.
Here are some costume ideas:

Reference books

Thanks Dezi for the loan of the Thrift Book! Has a great curry recipe in it.............and hopefully some ideas for repurposing stuff, but I haven't got past the curry yet.
The Craft Book, a 1966 edition, was 10p in the charity shop and has lots of vintage patterns to play with and a recipe for goop that I shall investigate.

Teabags

Poured boiling water into a cup full of used teabags, left it for a while then painted it on cartridge paper.
Could use it with other colours, a bit watery and pale.
Will try drying it out first next time.
Added tumeric, much brighter colour.
Paprika, bit powdery.

Making Art Supplies

Broken Branches Art Collective have an exhibition at Rayleigh Windmill from 26th August to the 13th September 2015.
The theme for this exhibition is the Art of Transformation.
Recycling, re purposing, inclusivity and access to art are themes we are exploring.
More information on this can be found at:
http://brokenbranchescollective.weebly.com/
www.facebook.com/brokenbranchescollective

As a traditional artist I am investigating ways to create my work without buying any new art supplies.

I am going to experiment with found items and post all of my results here (including the complete disasters).

I would be grateful for any ideas and suggestions and promise to try them all.

If you have used found items in your art or are willing to experiment with me, please post pics here and I will include them all in the exhibition material.