West Cork Collective: A Creative Community Hub
It’s been a busy few months since February, read the post to see why! Continue reading West Cork Collective: A Creative Community Hub
Tag: artists life
More adventures with seaweed
It seems like an age since I wrote a post! I have been so engrossed in my creations I have been very remiss with my writings. I only have to scroll through photos on my phone to see how much time I have spent eco printing and dyeing fabrics, experimenting and evolving my adventures with seaweed. There has been quite a bit of interest in what I am doing with seaweed and my plan is to get involved with heritage festivals here in Ireland to further my interest. There is one called the Ellen Hutchings festival dedicated to young women who painted intricate and incredible botanical art of seaweeds, lichens, liverworts and mosses along the coast and woodlands of Bantry and Glengarriff here in West Cork, Ireland. She was the first female botanist to research and create a huge body of work on seaweeds. I hope to get involved at that festival next August. Continue reading More adventures with seaweed
Stone circles and summer scenes
I recently bought this little car. Beep Beep, I call her. An amazing little car! My friend Ildiko and I took her for a road trip down into the wilds of Co.Kerry for the weekend and discovered hidden roads, piers, beaches and magical stone circles over the summer solstice days. A mix of downpours, drizzle, fog and gorgeous sunshine gave us plenty of variety to see and not see! Continue reading Stone circles and summer scenes
Dye colour using Wallflowers
Some years ago I spent much of the year living in small mountain villages in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco south of Marrakech. One of the houses I rented had an old garden behind it which hadn’t been tended for a good number of years. It had an abundant corner of wallflowers along with stunning hollyhocks. I was aware that local women use plants to make dyes for their wool which they make into beautiful rugs but no-one could tell me if wallflowers were one of those plants. Back home in Ireland, I planted wallflower seeds and now have a healthy patch to test my theory. Continue reading Dye colour using Wallflowers
Solo Textile Art Exhibition
Next Wednesday marks the end of a momentous event for me. The end of my solo textile art exhibition in our local library exhibition space. It started on March 28th and finishes on April 24th. Mixed media textile exhibitions are still a rare sight in Ireland, especially down in the South West and even more so, a solo one, so I am feeling very grateful to have the opportunity to show such a large body of work in such a public place. Continue reading Solo Textile Art Exhibition
Eco printing and dyeing with Seaweed
I am super excited about the experiments I did with local foraged seaweeds on silk fabrics. I hadn’t done any research on the topic and just followed my gut instincts and my small amount of knowledge on eco printing and dyeing. I chose red seaweeds and a gorgeous tactile piece of kelp for this. Continue reading Eco printing and dyeing with Seaweed
Modge Podge photo transfer on silk fabric
As a textile artist I am often exploring ways to diversify and methods of reaching a desired look on my work. Occasionally I like to add some text, a few words or a piece of prose I have written. Modge Podge is a medium I came across during my Moroccan Art Escape Holidays with Katherine Soutar Caddick a few years back. I had read a few posts and articles that said it didn’t really work for text. I wasn’t that easily deterred. Continue reading Modge Podge photo transfer on silk fabric
Killarney National Park.
There are places we visit around the globe that just resonate with us on a deeper level. We feel an unspoken connection with them. Killarney National Park does that for me. It’s a place I go back to a good few times over the year to see it in its changing seasons, different lights, weather and moods. Continue reading Killarney National Park.
Autumn is upon us
We are a bit mushroom mad in our house too, the ones that grow in the woods now, not any other kind! we love hunting for them, identifying them and cooking up the edible ones. With Autumn now upon us, the woods are our favourite place to wander. Last weekend we went to Killarney National Park to hunt for them for reference. You aren’t allowed to pick anything there, only take photos. With all that inspiration I decided to have a go at creating some with wool. A mix of wet felted and needle felted mushroom have started emerging from my studio and I have to say I am rather pleased with them. It also gave me an excuse to random dye a whole pile of Wensleydale curly locks that I got from a local farmer and to card some of Leiko Felts gorgeous dyed merino wool from my stash into mushroom blends. Continue reading Autumn is upon us
Karima Rebecca Powell Artist 