'Just turn up'

I always enjoy Jane Davies'blog and in particular her video demonstrations,recently she posted about an artist's black and white work which she enjoyed and was inspired by; her theme  was also about 'just turning up' and doing the work, making marks, playing. I did the same thing in my own way using Indian Ink, graphite and pen marks. I then cut up the result into smaller pieces and added more pen marks and doodles.

I decided to add some free machining lines in red thread.

There is some suminagashi marbled tissue paper just visible in the one below.

I took photos and made collaged images on the ipad.

I also made cards of these images as I have two family birthdays coming up. So I turned up and had some fun with the idea.

Project continued.

10x12 inches.

I honestly don't know where the idea for this project came from, I suppose it brought together my current interest in drawing, doodling and trying out more block printing. I found it satisfying because I could  do a little at a time ,with the machine set up with black thread I could  draw onto the fabric when I felt in the mood. 
Use zentagel patterns as inspiration for free machining:

Here are a few more photos and the outcome as I decided to make the piece into an album which will probably be used to hold stitch samples. I made it up like a book cover and added some pieces of recycled card to stiffen the 'covers'. 

If I had thought it out a bit more I could have added some pockets to hold the samples; I could I suppose still  add these by hand stitching.
I hope you have a go and send me any links to your work.

New Year Project.

This is a small project for the New Year. You could have a go at this if you are stuck for inspiration. Take a selection of small pieces of fabric in a colour way or theme of your choice; I used whites and creams, bits of felt, lace, silk etc.. I wove them together without stitching and then put them onto a background of wadding, I used some 505 fabric spray to hold them in place.

I printed shapes cut into a soft cut block and coloured with Speedball water based block printing ink for fabric.

Each day I added some stitching, in places I used patterns on the machine and even some needle felting,but in the end I stuck to drawing with the machine using a large headed darning foot. I was surprised at how easily it coped with the layers of lace and varied thicknesses of fabric. I doodled into the background adding line drawing as I fancied. Stuck for shapes, have a look at some zentangles on YouTube, and adapt them.

To be continued .......

Say Your 'Thank yous'.

Don't forget to make and send your 'thank you' cards, so much nicer than an email.

On the wall.

On the wall coming to the end of the year.

Best wishes to those who read this blog, to followers and especially to those who have taken the trouble to comment over the year and kept me not only blogging but creating on days when it has been more difficult.

Sketchbook Challenge

Unfortunately the time has come to roll up the Sketchbook Challenge Blog, since its start in  2011 I have been a contributor to the themes set each week and have added photos to the Flickr blog, more recently I was invited to contribute to the Challenge and had to come up with my own theme ‘words’ this year. Most excitingly I was asked by Sue Bleiweiss to contribute my chapter to the Sketchbook Challenge Book and chose Rhythm from the topics on offer; many thanks to Sue for coming up with the main idea, which I am sure has given pleasure to a lot of people, and especially to her for sharing her own excitement and satisfaction as the book came together.

Above is my first contribution to the theme Highly Prized in 2011. If you want to see the tutorial that went with this post it is Here. This is not the last chance to see the work on the main blog as I understand that it will stay up indefinitely.

Album/Journal

At the end of September we were so lucky to have a warm and sunny week in Swanage in Dorset, warm enough to swim in the sea and to take a trip on the steam train to visit Corfe Castle.

  I took quite a few pictures of the holes in walls, gaps to look through and old window casements.  I have put some of these through apps on the ipad and then am gradually adding them to a sort of album/journal. Drawing on and around the photos is influenced by Lisa Congdon’s line drawing and the work of Duane Michals.

Starting some sort of journal like this is highly to be recommended, you can doodle in it when you have a ‘down’ time or just feel stuck and it really is therapeutic. Don't forget that you are able to click on the images to see them in more detail.

Reading

I am currently reading two books, one is ‘Playing with Sketches’ by Whitney Sherman; it flew into my inbox in one of those cleverly timed emails, those that come before you are thoroughly awake, from Amazon which are so hard to resist. I am pleased I did not, as it is a book full of ‘drawing callisthenics’, new ideas and links to the work of those who have contributed to the book. I thoroughly enjoy books like this which are so packed with ideas that they are an exciting read.

The other book is ‘Mark-making in Textile Art’ by Helen Parrott; I managed to get this book by ordering from my local library, although it involved a long wait. It is a well presented book, with some pages showing textures and colours which are lovely. On the whole I would recommend it as an interesting read, but am pleased not to have bought it as I don’t think it is a book that I would keep going back to, but it may be a good one if you are starting to gather ideas for how to collect and use marks in your textile art. I liked some of her ideas for using straight stitch and reef knots as marks. I am working on finishing a few pieces which have literally been hanging around and I tried out her idea for radiant stitch and knots on my black and white waxed and discharged piece.

I have been taking some square photos to make some new cards using Moo.

I hope you have a few good books to read, a pleasure hard to outdo; perhaps leave a note with your suggestions, textile or fiction.