Finding Fragments with Shelley Rhodes

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Finding Fragments: Respond Rework Repair Mixed Media with Shelley Rhodes

This is an online art course designed for people who are ready to push the boundaries and bring new ideas to their artwork.

Learn the techniques and processes that UK artist Shelley Rhodes uses to create her popular contemporary fibre art inspired by the smallest of inconsequential things.

Taking inspiration from traditional methods, this online art course combines Shelley’s love of fragmentation and repair through drawing, mark making, cloth and stitch. She shares ideas, demonstrates techniques, and walks students through her process from start to finish, so you too can enjoy the flexibility of working in small units through to creating and displaying completed works of art.

Finding Fragments: Respond Rework Repair is a rich creative resource ideal for students ready to indulge in the interplay of intention and chance. It’s a worldwide community where you can connect in a private online forum, share your work directly with Shelley, ask questions, bounce ideas, and gain the skills needed to propel your mixed media artwork forward.

Learn From Shelley Rhodes

UK Mixed Media Artist

“Hi, I’m Shelley!

I am drawn to the environment, the landscape, particularly the coast, and the things around me. I like to walk, observe, record and gather. I collect discarded objects, fragments and small unimportant things but I am also drawn to museum collections and how they are presented. I embrace imperfection and often look for peeling walls, worn surfaces, broken shells, a fragile leaf or rusty corrugated iron.

I’m here to show you how to:

Take your inspiration and develop it into daily practices
Have an experimental approach to your work
Think differently and
Push your ideas further

During this course, we will explore together and find ways to turn small discoveries into unique pieces.

What inspires you?

I can’t wait to see what fires you up and gets you excited to make new art.”

MODULE 1: MAKING FIELD NOTES

Inspired by Shelley’s popular book Sketchbook Explorations: Making field notes is an important foundation for adding personal resonance to your work.

You’ll prepare walk cards and long paper grounds before heading out to observe and extract macro and micro marks from your chosen landscape.
Learn different ways to record and organise your research for further development.

By the end of this module, you will be confident observing and recording using different formats. You will be able to capture the essence of a place. Then, you will be able to rework or develop the notes, drawings and marks that you have made.

MODULE 2: REWORKING A COLLECTION

Enjoying the process without worrying about a finished product is essential. Shelley talks through her thought process, allowing you to enjoy the process of marking and layering.

Learn how to use a collection of objects as a source of inspiration for colour, drawing, printing and mark-making on a variety of surfaces with different media.
Excitement builds as you begin to fragment, cut, move and re-join.

You’ll look forward to making observational studies and combining photographs with drawn marks, feeling more confident with your drawing and mark-making. You’ll really learn to understand how ink reacts on different surfaces as you build up layers.

MODULE 3: MAKING A MARK

As you build on your foundations of a strong art practice, you’ll be ready to develop some exciting new work, and there’s no better way than with personal mark marking.

You’ll begin by combining fabric and paper to make mixed media grounds.
Shelley introduces many ways to make a mark through text, making your own tools and simple but effective printing blocks.

By the end of this module, you will have a stack of paper and fabric that you have marked in your own unique way linked to a source of inspiration that really excites you as you move towards creating your own unique and exciting mixed-media artwork.

MODULE 4: FRAGMENTATION AND RECONSTRUCTION

In this exciting part of Shelley’s process, you’ll fragment the paper and fabric that you have just worked on before reconstructing it in some way.

You’ll learn how powerful and exciting the fragmentation of marks can be through a series of fun exercises.
Distress edges, identify segments and rejoin using traditional stitch and other exciting methods that can form an integral part of your work.

This approach’s flexibility will help you achieve a dynamic and well-balanced piece of work as you learn that anything can be cut out, moved, reinserted or rearranged and continually altered until you’re happy with the overall composition.

MODULE 5: INSPIRED BY BORO

It’s time to put a twist on the traditional. Using old garments and using up every last scrap, you’ll make layered, hand-stitched pieces influenced by Japanese Boro.

You’ll distress fabric and investigate repairs, patching and overstitching.
Learn Shelley’s method for working in a series and how to make links and connections through each piece.

By the end of this module, you understand everything can be reworked and altered – even work made many years ago. Hand stitching can be a slow process, but you have seen that working on something regularly for short periods of time could be a helpful approach.

MODULE 7: ALTERATION, DESTRUCTION AND TRANSFORMATION

American artist Jasper Johns said, ‘Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it’, so similarly, Shelley invites you to explore the idea of working on something, re-working, and then re-working again.

You will make a series of stitched work using some of the methods covered in earlier modules before altering, weathering, distressing, manipulating and exploring the interplay of intention and chance.
Shelley demonstrates her process for piecing and constructing work, making holes, distressing, exploring alternatives to stitch and altering the cloth in some quite dramatic ways.

By pushing yourself to explore, experiment and be inventive, your work becomes unique and personal to you.

MODULE 8: DISPLAYING YOUR WORK

Presenting your work in a simple but professional way relevant to the actual work is essential and needs to be considered.

This module gives many ideas about ways to present fragments into finished work.
Considering multiple units and how they can be built to create one large piece of work and present fragments in boxes, containers, assemblages, and books, as well as ways to frame, present, or hang finished work.

In the end, you’ll understand the flexibility that comes from working in small units and feel more confident when considering the presentation of your work.

Why Enrol in a Fibre Arts Take Two Signature Course?

Joining Finding Fragments: Respond Rework Repair Mixed Media with Shelley Rhodes includes:

Lifetime Access: Revisit the course content anytime to refresh your skills or find new inspiration. Learn at your own pace!
Student Community Group: Engage with like-minded artists and form connections that could last a lifetime.
Two Live Q&A Sessions: Get direct feedback and insights from Shelley herself.
8 Weeks of Tutor Support: Shelley will be there to guide you, answer your questions, and help you overcome any artistic hurdles.
Showcase your artwork: your enrolment includes an invitation to participate in an online exhibition.

: Shelley will be available in the private Facebook Community after enrolment closes and will be active for a minimum of 8 weeks.

There will also be 2 live Q&As during this time which will be broadcast on YouTube. Questions can be submitted in advance and a recording of each Q&A will be made available in your course portal.

Please do not email your tutor directly. All questions can be submitted through the Facebook group or via email to support@fibreartstaketwo.com to be answered during our live Q&A sessions with your tutor.

Please note as a practising artist and tutor it may not be possible for Shelley to comment on every post. She will engage as much as possible between her other commitments and the Fibre Arts Take Two team is always available to help.
: From the moment you join us – you will receive the entire 8-module course, which includes over 9 hours of beautifully filmed content with lifetime access, including downloadable PDF resource guides. You’ll also be welcomed into our online community, where you can introduce yourself and meet all your other new, aspiring, and growing artists. Once you’re all settled into your new digital home, you will meet Shelley with your classmates for two live Q&A calls. The details of the Q&As will be emailed two weeks in advance. We can’t wait to see you there!
: Not at all. This course was created with you in mind – the creative who wants to watch in your own time, hit pause, re-watch, take a break, and then return for more! While you will receive live support during the first eight weeks of enrolment to cheer you on and help you through the art you make, know that there is no set schedule to complete this course – plus, you’ll have all the material for life!
: Fibre Arts Take Two believes in valuing the arts and creating a high-quality learning experience. For lifetime access to the course content and a minimum of 8 weeks of online mentorship and interaction with Shelley, you can expect to pay between $348 and $450 USD. Payment plans are also available and will be listed on our website during the enrolment period.
: Because we have students from all around the world – we have geolocation set up to try and accommodate where we can! Therefore, we currently accept USD, AUD, GBP, Euro, CAD and NZD… with more to come! And if your currency wasn’t mentioned, your bank will still automatically convert it to your local currency once the charge goes through.

(And on the topic of being international, Fibre Arts Take Two, the course producers, are based in Australia… hence the spelling of things like fibre, realise and enrol!)

All Australian purchases are GST inclusive.
: Absolutely! The course content is fully responsive, so it will work regardless of whether you’re on a computer or mobile device. All you need is an internet connection.

Register your interest
Receive helpful insights about this course, and be notified when enrolment is open.

Are You Ready To Combine Your Love Of Mixed Media And Textiles To Create Contemporary Fibre Art?

Finding Fragments: Respond Rework Repair Mixed Media with Shelley Rhodes

Here's what you can expect from Finding Fragments...