Monday, 13 January 2014

Sewing a meadow.


While off over the Christmas break I started mulling over an idea for a new project, something I could sit and stitch in the evenings after work or develop on my days off. 

Sewing a meadow was roughly sketched out on note paper and then I dug out some fabric that should have been a plain table runner, as it was a natural cream colour it would make a great back ground for my meadow. It was too long as it was so I cut it into smaller sections, this also makes it a little more in proportion and easier to manage. I then hand painted the background and roughly sketched some trees.

Then onto tackling the large tree in the fore ground. I love the textures you find on some trees especially old knarled ones. I also love silver birch trees and how they sometimes have that lovely smooth silvery bark or another type has a rougher texture with silver bits peeking through. Here I used a mixture of textures to portray that including lace and felt.

After adding some branches to my tree and stitching the trees in the mid section, I started creating the plants and grasses in the fore ground. The varigated thread that had been sitting in my sewing box was brilliant for the dried colours of this hedge row grass. I'm also adding other textures to add a bit of variety to the piece and help with depth.

As it progresses I'll post images onto my Facebook page, although for some reason instagram has stopped posting straight to my page, not entirely sure why. But you can click on the small image and it will open up or alternatively see it on Twitter.

Another topic close to my heart is architecture and I have enjoyed the walk down to work in the peace of the morning and looking at the great buildings we have in Newcastle and snapping any that inspire me. This drawing was inspired by a reflection of an old building in a newer building and the sun was a blaze on the lovely sandstone of Emerson Chambers, gorgeous!

Friday, 3 January 2014

First post of 2014!

Happy New Year everyone and I hope 2014 treats you all kindly :-)

It's been a little while, I know and I'm sad I've neglected my little blog, but things at Ballistic Owl have been a bit busy on the run up to festive season. As previously mentioned in my Ink, cards and robins post, I've been working my four days in the fabulous Details art shop. It has been lovely to help people with their purchases of arty gifts for loved ones to open on Christmas day.

If you love creating things then why not drop by and see what we have! Details is a great place to get all the media for your projects and we have a frame shop on the premises so you can have your master pieces framed. Stock includes, papers for all media, oil, gouache, watercolour and acrylic paints, pastels, pencil crayons and canvas. We also have lino and printing ink, so those of you who print can get supplies too.

Details is part of the Newcastle Arts Centre and is located on Westgate Road just around the corner from Newcastle train station. The lovely gift shop is at the front and sells work by local artists and designer makers, as you walk through the gift shop you'll see the gallery space and then Details itself.

Details art shop, full to the brim of great art materials.

The other activity that has kept me busy involved preparing my work for a gallery in Sunderland called Creative Cohesion, an art collective that converted an old garage near Sunniside  and are now promoting many creative practise's in the Sunderland area. They organise workshops, markets and loads of other great stuff for all ages to drop in and do something creative, from glass blowing to sewing.

Here are a few of the pieces I took down and enjoyed working on and are available to buy in the gallery.

 Bird in the flower bed. Ballistic Owl 2013
 Green Humming bird. Ballistic Owl 2013
Autumn Owl. Ballistic Owl 2013
A collection of screen printed home accessories. Ballistic Owl 2013

I'm now working on new projects and in the process of creating a new textile piece, as well as drawing and being inspired by some of the photos taken on my new camera. Here's a couple taken on Christmas day at one of our favourite nature reserves.

 Nuthatch having a spot of breakfast. Ballistic Owl 2013
Sprucing up the feathers. Ballistic Owl 2013

Thank you for popping by and hopefully it won't be so long between posts next time!

Friday, 29 November 2013

Ink, card and robins.

There have been some changes in routine here at Ballistic Owl, for those of you who follow me on Facebook you will already know why, but for those who don't, perhaps you could join in the owly fun over on www.facebook.com/BallisticOwl. I post updates as and when they happen and little studio bits and bobs, as well as inspirational images from my travels about the region. 

Anyway for those of who don't know I now have a job four days a week in the fabulous Newcastle Arts Centre  in Details art store. It's a great place to work and I've met some lovely people and starting to recognise the regular customers. The shop stocks a vast array of media and materials from tracing paper to artist quality oil paints and anything inbetween.

I've been enjoying my time in the studio more as time here is more concentrated than before, but in a good way. It means I have to plan my activities such a this week,  where I've been making my own Christmas cards, something I've not done for a while. I had a great day printing and getting the ink out and covering the room with prints on Monday and had already made a start on my robins, but did more of those on Monday afternoon while my prints dried. Today (Friday) I've finished off my robins and I'm now assembling my cards, with the wishful thinking I'll get them written on Sunday!

Screen printing session

First few robins being made

All felted and outlines stitched (sure there's a pattern in there somewhere!) 

A finished card!

I've also been enjoying drawing (with a little purchase from the shop!), I love drawing and I've got loads of media to play with, but these pencil crayons are beautiful. They're Faber-Castell polychromos and beautifully smooth to draw with and blend well too. There's 120 crayons in the series and I have 47, so I may be on the look out for the others too!
An evenings entertainment.

So remember if you want to keep up with my studio snippets pop over and find my page on Facebook or follow on twitter. I will continue to write my blog with news too, so do keep popping by.

Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Patterns going mobile!

The last few weeks have been really exciting for Ballistic Owl! I've not only been working on a commission, but I've also had 10 of my designs licensed! 

Keka Case is an American based company who design and produce cases for mobile phones and devices such as Kindles and ipads. They have a core group of designers, which include Rachael Taylor and Debra Valencia, but have expanded their design collective to include some new kids like me! 


At the moment 6 of my patterns are available, but soon that will go up to 10 with my remaining patterns still being mocked up at present. I chose a mix of patterns based on my themes of botanical gardens and microscopic plants cells. So some are more illustrative and others more funky.

They are available to order and are shipped to the UK as well as throughout America. So if you're wondering what to buy your friend this Christmas, why not get them a designer ipad case or phone cover.

News on my commission will follow shortly and I also have now got a job at the Newcastle Art Centre working in the art shop with a possibility of leading some print workshops :-)

Tuesday, 8 October 2013

Mixing it up

I have had fun over the last week or so and have got back into screen printing after I had a light bulb moment on what I could try with the designs I currently have on my screens. I knew I hadn't finished with the design, but until now had sort of run out of things to try. 

A while back I read a post by Clarissa Hulse whose work I really love and admire. It was about a trip the John Lewis team paid to her studio and what a great time they'd had experimenting with print. I have always loved the colour blends in Clarissa's work, but for some reason not dared to try it myself.

Last week I had a go and had great fun mixing my inks and allowed myself to be looser in my work and not worry about straight lines or miss prints. If you check out my facebook page you'll see some of the results.

The piece featured below is one of those prints that I decided to use as a further experiment. I've been given a book that explores mixing up techniques and textures and includes a lot of collage using layers of paper as well as fabric. Based on some of those ideas and inspirations I got sewing and playing around with bits of wood, paper and scraps of fabric.......

Across the meadow - by Tracy Bidwell copyright 2013

Detail of Across the meadow - by Tracy Bidwell copyright 2013

On the same day I printed the background for Across the meadow, I also printed these lovely table mats with my Gothic print. A friend gave me the mats to play around with and I'm pleased she did, may have to find some more now! 
Gothic printed in dark chocolate and coffee - by Tracy Bidwell copyright 2013

Off now to play with another print that I did in a similar style! 

Thank you for all your support and encouragement and for reading all my ramblings :-)

Wednesday, 11 September 2013

Made By Hands of Britain.

I can now reveal that after a few weeks of preparation and some tweaking that Ballistic Owl is now featured on the fabulous Made By Hands of Britain website!

Made By Hands of Britain was started by Gillian, who after seeing a basket weaver on the BBC show Victorian Farm, and was the only person in the country now doing this particular craft, felt that something needed to be done. This spurred Gillian onto create a platform to showcase and promote craft and hand made products within the UK. The website has within it "mini shops" where individual artists and designers can show and sell their work.

I feel so privileged to be part of this and in my own way keep some of the traditional skills alive, of course with a little Ballistic Owl magic! There are lots of fantastic artists on the site including the lovely work of Louise O'Hara from Drawn to Stitch, whose work is full of texture and atmosphere and I love seeing snippets of her work over on Facebook.

My little shop has a mixture of my creations, from digitally printed pieces with hand embellishments to my screen printed cushions. So pop over and have a look and spread the word.

http://www.madebyhandsofbritain.com/makers/tracybidwellprintsandhomeaccessories/home


Tuesday, 13 August 2013

Structures - if only they could talk

Lately I have been experimenting with a few ideas and have really loved the results so I thought I'd share them with you.

I have enjoyed printing with my little birds and stitching into them, but thought that perhaps a change of theme would be good. I have always loved architecture and the details you might find if you look carefully, and love both old and some new alike. In the North East as with many historical towns and cities there is a vast array of buildings that if they could talk would tell many a good tale.

So I decided to start a new series and so far it's called Structures, I wanted to keep it open so that I could perhaps add other interesting architecture not particular to the North East too. I'm also experimenting with digital print and loving exploring the effects and layers you can build up. It's not to say I'm leaving the beloved hand printing behind, that may come into it later so keep your eyes peeled!

Here are some of my first pieces in the series.

 Flour Mill - copyright Ballistic Owl 2013
 The old school - copyright Ballistic Owl 2013
 Tryptych - copyright Ballistic Owl 2013
Millennium Bridge - copyright Ballistic Owl
Detail from the Quayside - copyright Ballistic Owl 2012

All the prints are created from images in my own vast archive, collected for college projects and trips around the UK. I've loved adding little embroidered details just to highlight key features, sometimes very tiny features! These are now available through my Etsy shop and I will be adding more as I create them, more waiting to be printed as I write this.

Don't forget to look out for my variations, will post about those once I've had a play around.

Thank you for dropping by and don't forget to tell your friends about Ballistic Owl and where you can find me on the web.