Developing Ideas.

I said yesterday I'd talk about how I might use some of the images I took at Callender Park, so I'm going to talk about two of them, specifically.  The first is a rhododendron; there were a lot of rhododendron bushes, and a happy family clustered in front of them, so I couldn't take a range of photographs as  I would otherwise have done.  I did, however, get up close and personal with this one, at the end of the group.

This is the photograph I took, uncropped, au naturel, as it were.  I like the colours, the variation, the texture implied in those petals.  I thought it might be fun to tweak the image a bit...so...

Loud, man, loud!  I wanted to take a look at the way the colour is grouped, so fiddled a bit with the settings, to produce this... I rather like it, though I could live without the white, and could have done something about it, I suppose, but given this is a reference photograph, I let it be.  Besides, I love the semi abstract shapes that are suggested around those white patches.  It would be interesting to do a monoprint based on these shapes, or possibly an applique.  Finally,

Looks very similar to the first one, except... I've fiddled around with the colour intensity and the amount of contrast, to show up the texture a bit more.  Again, the shapes of the flowers are shown quite clearly in this image, good for applique reference, or painting, for that matter.  Flowers change almost moment to moment, so drawing from reference photographs seems a reasonable thing to do.

My eye was caught by lots of things in the park; the second one I'll discuss here, is a section of the wall of the main house.

This was cropped from one of the images I took yesterday.  I didn't particularly want to get up close and personal, so it was taken from a distance; often I'll photograph individual stones, or groups of stones, if I find them interesting.  I've always been interested in stone walls; that interest grew in Norfolk, with the incredible flint buildings there (I've talked about them on this blog before).  I like the variation in colour, texture and shape in this.  I photographed it because it struck me that it would make an interesting basis for a quilt.

So, once more, I played around with this image, cropping it again and playing with the intensity of the colour.  

Not a lot to choose between the two images, but when you look at this third one...

There's a distinct difference; much stronger colours, more contrast.  What this exercise has done for me, is to suggest how a series of quilts might develop 'about' walls.  I've never been interested in brick walls, because of their regular nature (the reason I don't make patchwork quilts is my dislike of regular pattern).  Taking a wall like this one as a template of sorts for a series of pieces, but varying types of fabric and gradually turning up the visual volume, as I've done in these photographs, would be an interesting way of exploring this form, as well as providing a challenge.  A bit like a crazy quilt, but in a far more regular form.

Will I ever get round to either of these possibilities, or any of the others I found at Callendar Park?  I don't know, to be honest.  My energy is limited, and there are plenty more ideas where they came from... I'll talk about choosing an idea to work with, tomorrow.

Finally...

...the sewing machine is set up.  The red box contains half a dozen UFOs waiting for this moment, on top of my DIL Tracey's sewing machine, which I have on long term loan.  The Bernina you see here is reserved for free machine work; it means that I don't have to fiddle about with tension and settings.  Of course, the first thing that happened when I started stitching was that the thread broke... predictable for metallic thread...sigh... 

I wanted something small to work on for the first piece, something that didn't matter if I ruined it.  This is one of Bertha's prints, on canvas.

Not entirely sure what kind of petal that was; might have been a tulip, but I'm pretty sure it's a magnolia, manipulated in Paint Shop Pro.  I love the way it's possible to change what's visible in a photograph by playing about with what's already there, rather than by painting over the top of what's there (if you see what I mean).  It gives a different perspective on the image, makes you look harder, and differently.  

This particular image is on canvas.  Not overly fond of canvas as a vehicle for stitch; this one is water resistant, which seemed like a good idea at the time.  It's hard and unforgiving, and shreds metallics like nobody's business.  I do like the effect of the metallics on this dark surface, though the image isn't ideal; I've muted the colour of the print to let you see the stitch fairly clearly.  The thread has a mixture of all the colours in this print, other than the brightest of the yellows, on a dark background.  Hopefully, when there's enough stitch, that'll show up well.  

It's a start, for this piece as well as for my creative life in this new house.  It may work, it may not.  Doesn't matter, really.  What matters is the process.  The journey, not the destination, and the learning that comes with it. 

Talking about learning... I went to visit a new fabric shop in Bo'ness, called Fabric And More; lovely owner, huge space with lots of potential.  They're running workshops, and there's a possibility that I'll be running one or two...watch this space...  

Silk Purses...

famously cannot be made from sow's ears.  I showed you a painted photograph, this one, in fact;

and wondered what it would be like if the white stitching was not so white... and here it is.

I think it's an improvement... but only in photograph form.  (I notice that the colour is different in the two images, the top one is closer to the real colour).  The piece itself is too small, I think.  The curves are interesting, but the intense stitching detracts from them, rather than supports them.  I also think that it looks better on screen  because the darks look darker.

All in all, this has been an object lesson in how not to do it, really.  I admit to having my doubts about this piece from the moment it came off the printer. So...what have I learned?   Perhaps the real lesson should be, listen to the inner voice that says, there's not much you can do with this, and spend your time on stuff that does work.  Then, if you insist on ignoring it, think properly about what stitch is going to do.  Stitch is our friend... but not in this case, where it draws attention away from the important parts of the image.  I also think there's a lot to be said for working with these macro images at a larger scale; if I had done that, it might have worked better...there certainly wouldn't have been a place for that fussy stitching.

So what next?  I'm going to overprint it, I think.  In black.  And then, probably, cut it up.  But not today...today, I'm going to work on something that is working well, just to cheer myself up.

Things As They Are...

are beautiful.  People talk about portraits as 'warts and all', as if warts were not fascinating little things in themselves.  Scars are not blemishes, but rather signs of healing and change.

I found this piece along with the others.  It was the trigger for all the macro photography I've done over the last few years, the very first image I took and stitched into.

I didn't go out meaning to take pictures of flowers.  I went to a graveyard in Dereham, to take pictures of lichen (some of them were used in the depression photographs I showed you last time, manipulated).  There are always flowers in this particular graveyard, which is right in the centre of the town; they are usually in a little area beside the church door.  This tulip, and some of its companions, had obviously been kicked around a bit, before being abandoned where they fell, one or two in a nearby tree.  They were slightly bruised, and turning slightly limp.  This one was on the ground underneath the tree, covered in dirt.  I thought it was important to record it as it was, because despite all these things, it remained beautiful.

So, that's why there are little black speckles over the piece, and some interesting colours.  I do, however, still believe that it is beautiful as it is.  I could have removed the blemishes and the specks of dirt, but I really don't think that would add anything to the image... if anything, it would compromise its meaning.

A detail shot shows the specks of dirt...war wounds, or  medals.  Beauty spots.

The Things I Forget...

...are many and varied.  I blame the breakdown from hell, myself.  My memory was pretty good up til then, but now it's appalling.  I forget names, faces, places, visits, keys, handbags...the list is endless.  Someone says, have you been to such and such a place, I say no, Robin says, yes you have, and tries to get me to remember by describing the landmarks.  Nope.  Doesn't work.

I don't often forget making work though... so how did I forget this piece?  It's bright enough... but not only have I forgotten making it, I can't remember where I took the picture, or even what it was of, originally (yeah, yeah, it's a flower...just don't know which!).  I do try to write things down, but I'm really not very good at it.  The only reason I found it is that a friend has offered to help me set up a website, so I'm sorting through my work, deciding what to put on it.  This will certainly feature... I love the richness of the colour.  Must hunt through my images, see if I can work out what it is... meanwhile, I'll just enjoy it for how it looks.

Knowing Where To Stop.

Sometimes, it's tempting to gild the lily.  Have a look at this...

I went into my software, intending to edit this  image.  And then I realised that there really wasn't anything I wanted to do to it.  It's got the right look and feel to it.  I really like it.  So... I thought, don't do anything.  And so, dear reader, I didn't.  I feel some stitch coming on, when it gets printed out onto Evolon.

And then I thought... oh my, that's a short blog post.  So I thought I'd use one of my favourite techniques.  I cropped it.  And here it is...

This has a completely different feel to it, somehow.  I don't like it as much.  The contrast of light and shade and colour, is much less, and I feel that the delicate feeling of the first image is lost in the second.  So...I'll not be keeping this one.  Nor will I be keeping the next one, where the colour has been intensified.

Yuck.  I think what I'm trying to say is, when in doubt, don't.