Ineke Berlyn

A couple of updates first on the barn, where work is flying along.

I can’t keep up with the pictures – they’ve done all the insulating and finished off with a nice blue layer of Tyvek. Now the steels inside need to be strenghtened.

Last week was Landscapes in Textiles week again and I just let the pictures do the talking. The artcloths that are being created are simply stunning – I’m really proud of the girls!

The last picture is Jeanette’s bag, which started life as a Ricky Timm’s conversion quilt years ago and never got finished off.  Early on in the course it was heavily overprinted and destined to hang in her house in France.  Then the lovely bag handles came along and now it’s being turned into a handbag!  Bag handles will be available from this site soon, in a fabulous range of colours and two lengths.

This is the barn today – whilst I was in Germany working hard the boys got on and put the new side in.  It looked great in the sunshine and the smell of this new wood!

I’ll try and catch the sunset tonight and add the pictures in the gaps. Last night I came back from a couple of days teaching in Munich at Christine Kohne’s shop – always lovely ladies and good fun too! We did black magic and Lutradur.

The week before was the textile landscape course and here are a few of those results…..

Work on the barn is continuing at great speed – thanks to the weather and the hard workers.  The ground work has been done, drains are in and they’ve started covering up the gaps between the existing cladding.  Windows and doors are being cut out,  the wood on one whole side has been taken off, steels inserted and next week it will be re-cladded. I now have to mix a good colour to stain the outside – we fancy a browny grey.

This is how it looked today (Sunday 23rd January)  - its a long old building!!

This will give you an idea of the plans we have for the inside.  Studio at one end, our bedroom and the two guest rooms in the middle and living at the far end.  All very exciting.

inside the barn

We have a barn – now all we have to do is change it into a beautiful studio and a place to live as well. It’s pretty big now it’s empty.

jb and andy first day

These are two of the guys who are going to do this – husband John on the right and ‘Handy Andy’ after their first day of chopping trees.  Still smiling!! Son-in-law Ian and others will be joining them next week

outside the barn

You can see there is lots to do.

My task tomorrow is to work with spray paint and draw the rooms on the floor – you see they find me an arty thing to do.

Watch this space, I’ll be keeping you up to date. Lets hope the snow stays away.

I’ve just finished the last few of my journal quilts and this is my favourite of the final quarter for 2010.  It’s based on Appingedam, a pretty village in Groningen, in the north east of Holland.  My mum’s hometown where we visited family in November.  It’s got these lovely houses on the canal with their wooden kitchens jutting out over the water. this is the journal quilt that I made from the watercolour design above. Very simple.

Here are some of the others I did, all waiting to be published in a new book next year!

Vendee vines – just before the harvest late September – another good year, cant wait to go and buy it next April.

The best view to wake up to in St Hilaire la Foret on your 32nd wedding anniversary with a cup of tea, a good book and a lovely husband!

The snow has turned our walk into a winter wonderland – it gets more beautiful every day.

A white Christmas awaits!

Merry Christmas to you all.

Last week we continued with our ‘landscape inspired’ textiles – some wonderful ‘art cloths’ were being created -and this is only the second session.  Can’ t wait to see the end results!

This one by Lynne was inspired by Venice.

The next piece by Judith is based on windows etc at Worcester Cathedral.

And another one – result of playing with screens and masking tape.

And Tina’s printed cloth inspired by Hydrangeas.

I’m working on time tables for next year’s course and they should be up on the website sometime next week.

We’ve exchanged contracts for the barn and final plans are expected soon.  I will post them as soon as they arrive.

A quick update from Holland wherre I’ve been teaching for a few days up north.  This picture is between Appingedam and Groningen – stormy weather as you can see.  In Groningen we did a couple of days of screenprinting.

As always some fabulous results.  Recently I made a new thermofax design with a teddy bear; to make a baby quilt for a niece in Shanghai. One of the ladies used it to make this gorgeous fabric:

After  Groningen it was onto de Ganzerik in Friesland where we worked with the different degrees of transparencies and this was a lovely piece made by Ria, showing what can be done with a simple shape and lots of different fabrics like organza,  painted Lutradur and paper and some handdyed fabric. Perfect design for a Christmas card!

Great news!  Yesterday we received planning permission to convert this barn into a studio – big enough to teach a dozen or so students and a place to live as well.

We’re really excited – it’s not far from where we are now – about 1 mile, close to Littleheath Lane Nurseries.  Of course it will be a while – lots of work to do and our own house to sell.  I will keep you up to date with the developments on this blog.

we finished the final of the summerschool sessions on wednesday

This was a gorgeous second piece Eileen made after this one below

And some more:

The view from Jenny’s house towards the Malvern Hills

These are Maryanne’s circles made of the fabrics she dyed and printed the week before.

And some more, as ladies were travelling back to their countries they were leaving early and I did not get the chance to photograph their work. I’m sure they will send me pics and I will add them to the blog as they arrive.

Off to France on Saturday, reporting from there. There is good news about the barn we’re hoping to buy – planning permission is imminent!

Watch this blog…..

Yesterday we finished yet another print and dye summerschool – the class graduated with the  brightest of  colours!  We had a truly international crowd with ladies from Holland, Germany, Scotland, US and the UK.

All the fabrics turned out brilliantly.

A perfect colour run from indigo to orange….

With bleached out indigo and discharged and bleached black cotton by mother and daughter team Sue and Rachel Castle.

My own mum found inspiration in the pretty town of Appingedam where she was born in Holland and created lots of fabrics to work with when she gets home.

Maryanne’s tried to get bright oranges on the left and Marina printed ammonites with neutrals.  They’re all off to the Festival today – I hope they’ve got some energy left.

I went to the opening of the European Art Quilt exhibition and found Jane Dunnewold as their special guest opening this gem of a show – I’ve  been preaching her creativity and been recommending her new book all week.  So it was a very special evening – here she is:

This week we had another creative couple of days dyeing and printing at Bromsgrove Rugby club.

A colour-run was dyed,  designs were made for printing with thermofaxes.

Black fabric was discharged and overprinted

Even t-shirts for the grandchildren were discharged and printed and overprinted.

and fabric for a shirt …..

look what can be done with one design in two sizes!

We’re doing it again next week – so keep a look out.

Last week we did the first of our summerschools  ’Degrees of Transparencies’ – we only had 7, but that meant plenty of room and lots of time.  Here are some of the fabulous results.  We’re doing it again on the 23, 24 and 25 of August with an international cast.

All totally different and all as good as finished.  Thanks to Tina for the pix.

Also just done 2 days of dyeing and printing with fab results – forgot my camera again, hopefully I will remember next week and post the results then.

Here are some of the fabrics I’ve been printing in France.

There are the  very dutch houses and tulips and above the fabrics inspired by the ammonites and oyster catchers found on the beaches of the Vendee.  These are just a sample of what we’re going to do at the summerschools in August, all the classes then are fully booked, but you can come to France and have a go there in September!!

I’ve also finished my ‘Summer in the City’ entry for the Festival of Quilts, and here’s a preview.

It’s a colourful version of the quilt that has been accepted for the  European Art Quilt exhibition, also opening at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August.

Another quilt finished is Elvis …..  The idea for this started at the classes with Edwina Mackinnon in September last year.  We had to bring in one word; mine was Elvis and it’s amazing what can come of this.  It’s not just the person, but there are the lyrics, the music, the guitars.  Lots of fabric was printed and eventually – after 3 attempts – I chose this version.

ammonites

Finally I have found some time to update my blog.

I’m in France and its raining – the first in three weeks so not complaining.

I have been very busy dyeing and printing.

Here are some of the results.  This is a piece purely for self indulgence.  Dyed in a rainbow of colours then bleached thermofax screen with ammonites, rinsed again before overprinting with fabric paint and more ammonites. 

Delft Blue

I brought about 20 meters of white cotton with me and turned the ping pong table into a print table – here are my favourite dutch things in blue.

It’s exhibition time again!

We’ve got our yearly exhibition at Bromsgrove Rugby club on the 4th (2-5) and 5th (10-4) of June – brilliant work, traders and lovely cakes! Do come along.

See you there