Planning and Dreaming

I have been looking back at my sketch pads hoping to develop another experimental piece. I selected a bit of fabric which I had prepared about two years ago to be the starting point for this. It was created  using newspaper bonded onto a piece of furnishing fabric, stitched and then distressed.

I really liked the effect and could not think of how I would develop it further so I have made this my new challenge. The wonderful textured surface is crying out for a strong shape to give it stability and direction. I selected the work below from my sketch pad as I liked the strong contrast of the geometric shapes over the delicate figure in the background and thought the two could be combined successfully.

This piece above resulted from another work based on patterns used in body painting.  It has great potential and it continues to give me many ideas which I hope to explore completely. I will share my progress as it develops.

Purple circles

I have been trying to complete a piece which began as an experiment. I started it in June with my friends Catherine and Alison. It began as a doodle on  a piece of paper using pastels, I did a bit of stitching, added felt, and odd bits of fabric. I liked the spiral in the centre and began to make that my point of emphasis. I knew that it needed a lot more development so I cut it up into three strips and then added it onto a base of felt , to this I added lots of hand stitching and some machine felting using merino wool fibres.

I was pleased with this development and felt that it was going in the direction that I wanted. It was unusual for me to work without a planned design and I found it was somewhat liberating. I continued looking at  and analysing the piece. What does it need to make it a successful piece in my eyes?  I liked the random circular movement of the design so I focused on that. I then covered the entire piece with pink organza and stitched random circles all over it. I then zapped it with heat tools. This distressing changed the effect completely.

The entire piece was again covered but this time with  silver - grey organza, to this I added drawn silver circles, stitching, purple dyed fabric circles and  a few seed beads. The design has taken on another aspect but what I find really interesting is the layers created before are showing through and it works well.

I believe it still needs further development so I will let it hang in my studio while I work on yet another experiment. Maybe a strong border will be all that it needs.

Life goes on!

Melissa (the accused on the left) and Selena

Summer has almost gone and the routine of school and life slowly gets back to normal. Over the last few weeks I have only been able to get into the studio for brief moments  BUT everyone else seems to get out there. My daughter Melissa was working in there a few nights ago with the dog Rascal for company, having retired to bed for the evening I was surprised when she appeared with my Bernina foot pedal in one hand and cut wires in the other, Rascal had bitten through the wire  I was not a pleased mum, I jumped up and started searching the net for a replacement, to my horror it will cost me just under £100 to replace it. I was fuming! Dave being the handy man that he is, seeing my distress had also jumped up out of bed, he pulled out his tool kit and in no time had soldered the wires back together - What a man! and all this done in his pajamas!  It works BUT who wants to sew with a Bernina QE 440 sewing computer, which has a foot pedal with taped up wires? Not me - I will have to order a replacement and I have decided that Rascal is not allowed in my studio at least until he is over his chewing wires phase and when the steam stops coming out of my ears maybe I will allow Mel back in there again! LOL