It’s here. WOWbook 5 is a real cracker of a book, bursting with ideas. Folk tell me that they love the fact that the artists in the book not only share their working methods but are generous with ideas for taking the work in other directions. In doing so, they enable you to fit the ideas to your own way of working, with your own favourite subjects. I’m working on a new series of sketchbooks and I can see just how to make use of the Alice Fox method of making botanical inks,
I’m also going to try some of Jenny O’Leary’s batik ideas (see below) with my long-standing obsession with wall paintings. That is just for starters. You can see a full list of the artists on the home page.
I shall never forget driving up to interview Jean Draper and pick up her work for the book. I always prefer to talk to artists face to face for these interviews and, with Jean, a visit was essential as we felt it better to pick up her Forbidden installation, rather than trust it to a carrier. Jean’s house is a treasure trove of art as she is a serious collector and has some wonderful pieces. I had only just started my City and Guilds textile course when our tutor organised a trip to see an exhibition of Jean’s work in Bristol. Her figurative series featuring Indian scenes showed me that textiles could portray images in the same way as paintings – I came to stitch through the drawing and painting route.
It was the distressed books exhibit, Forbidden, that I really wanted in the WOWbook. Clive and I saw it in a Textile Study Group exhibition and it made a very deep impression on both of us.
For me, the strength of the WOWbooks is the additional resource of the Members’ Club and the Facebook group for sharing ideas. This time, to start us off with a great ‘how-to’ workshop, we have our WOWbook editor, Lynda Monk, talking us through techniques for design transfer, including foiling, bonding, encaustic wax transfer and much more.
We also start you off with two videos – Lynda speaks to textile artist Sharon Osborne about her work and also shows us shows us a great transfer printing method.
We are all looking forward to hearing what you think of the latest edition and seeing some work in the Facebook group.
