Sunday 25 September 2016

Inverkeilor Art Exhibition

Three of our members will be participating in this upcoming exhibition, so come along for some lovely exhibits and home baking.

Wednesday 21 September 2016

A Journey in Design

Textile artist Margaret Stanford took us on an illuminating journey through the creation of a piece of textile work from the original idea to the finished item. She wishes to create a unique handmade book for her sister, soon to retire, and who had taken up felting as a hobby. The book was to be a resource of her samples and inspirations. Margaret made up the signatures for the book to include pockets for her sister's work. The cover and binding took much longer however. Margaret started with photos of dogwood, beautiful red leaves and stems. She played with these in Photoshop, creating a variety of effects. These pictures led on to experiments with charcoal, oil pastels, coloured pencils and various papers to work out compositions and textures. She made leaf stencils, printed on fabrics, stitched and quilted to try out her ideas. She made leaves out of silk paper, and end papers with gouache and cling film. Eventually it all came together in a delightful and original book, which her sister will be bound to treasure and fill with her own ideas. It was fascinating seeing the steps from idea to completion and the pathways the creative mind takes to achieve something beautiful.

Isolating part of a photo of dogwood

Manipulating in Photoshop


Trying out ideas in paper and paint

Making silk paper leaves

A sample with stencils and quilting

The finished cover

The lovely end papers

Signatures with pockets

More of Margaret's work can be seen at her website www.clothpaperstone.com

Friday 16 September 2016

Meg's Magnificent Ginger Tiffin

As Meg has received many requests for her recipe for the gorgeous ginger tiffin, we are putting it on the blog for you to copy, and bake. Enjoy!

Ginger Tiffin
Ingredients:
300g Ginger nut biscuits(1 packet)
100g margarine
300g white chocolate(3 bars)
50g coconut+ more to sprinkle on top
50g chopped mixed nuts
50g chopped dried cranberries (or cherries)
2 tablespoons syrup
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Method:
Prepare baking tray (Swiss roll type) by greasing and lining with greaseproof paper.
Crush biscuits until powder (I use food processor). Place in bowl. Add coconut, nuts and cranberries to bowl. Mix together.
In saucepan, melt margarine. Add syrup and 150g of chocolate.
Melt slowly.  Add ground ginger and mix together.
Add this mixture to the dry ingredients in bowl. Mix thoroughly together.
Empty onto greased/papered baking tray. Press down evenly. Allow to cool then place in fridge for two hours. Tiffin should then be solid. Remove from fridge.
Melt remainder of white chocolate in bowl over hot water. Spread over Tiffin. Sprinkle with coconut (if desired).
Allow chocolate to harden then cut Tiffin into squares.

REMEMBER TO WARN THOSE WHO EAT THIS THAT IT CONTAINS NUTS AND CRANBERRIES.

Talk by Aileen Ogilvie - “My Journey with Glass”

Wednesday 14th September saw our new session first talk by Aileen Ogilvie about her career in making stained glass. Aileen explained how she had started in this demanding discipline, mainly working to commission. She showed how the panels of glass are constructed, how the beautiful glass itself is made by skilled craftsmen, how it can be painted or engraved to add details personal to the client and her slides showed examples of the work in situ in the client's homes, with the sun shining through the glass to show it in its true glory. It's a very precise skill, working with tolerances of 1mm and must require a lot of patience and good eyesight!  Aileen also makes glass jewellery.

Aileen's website is www.amostainedglass.com








Thursday 8 September 2016

Remembering Janetta

Sadly our dear friend and member Janetta Armstrong died last month, and her sister Marjory brought in a display of her work. Janetta was a talented and versatile stitcher and also a painter, and was an active and enthusiastic member of the club.  She will be much missed by everyone, and our sympathies go to her sister at this time.





The Summer Break is Over

Our program started off on September 7th with a tea for all our members, provided by the excellent bakers on the Committee - watch out Bake Off! A table was set up with some of the work the busy hands have been creating during the summer, some pictures of which see below. Apologies for some of the reflections in the glass.
We finished with a fiendish quiz of stitch anagrams, only one group managed to complete all the questions.