Meet: Aislinnn McKinnis

Aislinn McKinnis is a local artist and neighbour of ours who works in the most incredible coloured embroideries, I First met Aislinn at a 'crafternoon' last year and was mesmerised watching her work.

Determined to give it a go myself, Aislinn gave me some fabric and swatches of yarn and I got cracking! Although it was heaps of fun free-forming the design I found myself struggling to break out of the grid-like structure of the embroidery fabric and turned to Aislinn for some lessons.

On the 8th of June Aislinn is exhibiting with us alongside Pauline O'Shanessy-Dowling in a show called 'Fandango'. Both of these artists work in vibrant colours and free-form designs, yesterday I watched her work on the below piece and had fun taking pics of her working.

To begin Aislinn ties a simple knot in a length of yarn and beginning from the back she works stitches into the grid, in this piece she works stitches just one little grid length long, in others she might work longer stitches.  I learnt that to reduce the visual spaces between stitches she places the needle in the little space between the larger grid hole. (see the pic below)

My fave bit to watch is tying off the ends, using a simple granny knot she slides it close to the work using her needle, and then weaves the end into the work before cutting off.

It might seem annoying at the time, but the below examples show how much more 'compact' the back becomes if you take care of this little detail. It makes it so much easier to mount or frame once you are complete. Another handy hint is to leave a boarder of a few inches to make hanging or framing simpler too.

It's interesting to meet an artist working in colour through textile, rather than a textile artist working in colour... does that make sense? I can't wait to hang 'Fandango' and see the collaboration currently in progress. Keep posted for photos of that process.

Yesterday was my 'weekend' and I had a great day, I will be posting what we got up to tomorrow. Till then,

X Steph

Rugging up

Ask anyone in Ballarat and they will tell you how unpredictable the weather in this town can be. this time last week we were sweltering, several days later we almost got flooded and today, on the 3rd day of Autumn, we are still at a steady drizzle.
It looks like I was just in time to re-vamp the street furniture outside our little shop. Over the summer we have been loving this piece of street-art, but after a bit of... ahem... unsavoury defacing I thought it was time for a tidy up!

 

Remember last winter, I had a blast wrapping the city in some snuggly blankets? Well this tree stayed wrapped up warm until it was time for the council to put up Christmas decorations and became known as the 'Ballarat Banket Tree'! How cool is that?

 With Autumn making it's self so clearly felt I thought I would show you how we go about getting cozy over here at Red Brick.
What you will need....
Some cozy blankets. It's a big ask to knit or crochet on this kind of scale so I keep my eye open in our local op-shops, often these colourful handmade blankets can end up in the dog-blanket boxes! I love giving these bright rugs a new lease of life. Unlike my own crochet, acrylic is best in this case, retaining it's vibrancy and shape well.

 If you have plenty of time on your hands you can sew or crochet the blankets on but I find cable ties to be seriously handy! They are really tough so withstand attempts to remove them but can also be cut with scissors so aren't permanent and can be removed if said 'rugging' offends!

Here is me in cable-tie action on our main street!

Looks like I was just in time as look at the lake that grew around it a few days later!
Have a really awesome weekend!
x Steph