To Collage...

...or not to collage, that is the question.  I've talked about this already, here.   I've done a bit more work on several of the collages, but the only one I feel is reasonable is this one...

That's something of an improvement, but I doubt I'll keep it.  I've been trying to work out what my problem is with this; there seem to be several reasons for it.  Firstly, and possibly least directly, I'm not a fan of using other peoples' work in mine.  This doesn't use images or newsprint, but several of the other collages do.  I like the theory of using newspaper and found images, but the practice is something else.  Secondly, I don't seem to have the same relationship to collage as I do with paint.  Paint is a mark, and another mark, and another mark.  Collage, though, somehow seems to be more structured, at an earlier stage, than either paint or textile...and I don't really do structure.  There's also something about meaning... if this piece has a story, I can't seem to access it.  Perhaps I'm too caught up in the techniques involved, to be able to hear it speak. 

I'm not sure much is going to be gained in pursuing this particular approach...at least, not on paper.  Intriguingly, while sorting through fabrics for a completely different project, I found this.

I don't remember making this, to be honest, but I rather like it.  The base is cotton, dyed with tea and onion skins.  Then there's a layer of Japanese paper which has been coloured with what looks like Brusho.  Then, a layer of transfer dyed lutradur, with some pieces of painted paper and a scrap of constructed cloth.   I like this.  Perhaps it's because it's much closer to my usual style than the paper based collage.  Perhaps it's the combination of elements (though, looking at it, I think I want to hit that lutradur with a heat gun, put a few holes in it, to relate more closely to the Japanese paper).  So if I do make more collages, this looks like it is the way forward.  Okay, I feel comfortable with that... glad we sorted it out.  Back to work...

Somewhere...

...over the rainbow... well, okay, it's pink.  But somehow this naive-ish piece makes me think of rainbows.  You may not agree, of course, and that's fine.  I rather like it though. 

It started life as an exercise in mark making on a piece of pale green sheeting.

When I picked it up to add stitch, I decided to cut it in half, because, whilst each half is cohesive enough, there's not a great deal of cohesion across the whole thing.  I think it was a decent decision.  And, the human mind being what it is, it tried to make sense of it.  The first half doesn't actually make much in the way of sense: there's not a motif or shape to rest your eye on (which was really what I was going for in the first place).  The one above, though, does read as an abstract landscape, and I'm happy enough with that.

Now to tackle the other half.

Shifting Direction...

...again.  Another mini relapse, another rethink.  As I can't work at a machine for more than fifteen minutes at a time, work needs to be small scale.  And, I discovered, hand stitch is meditative, but painting is joyful... and who wouldn't want joy in their lives?  So, another shift in emphasis.  I bought some canvas boards to work on, but I'd been reading recently about watercolours on fabric, mainly people enthusing about Inktense on fabric.  I have a few inktense pencils, and did contemplate buying blocks, but thought I'd start with what I had to hand.  I've been playing with watercolours, and remembering why I don't work with them, predominately...so maybe not inktense.  Acrylic, now... so I worked with watered down acrylic paints on a scrap of sheeting I had to hand.

Not my usual palette, but, like I said, what I had to hand.  Once it was dry, I started markmaking with oil pastels...

Oh, look...there's a figure... entirely unintentional, but the unconscious does what it does.  She looks like a dancer.  Now... as a child, all I wanted to be was a dancer.  I love dancing.  I'm married to a non-dancer, so I can't say I miss it, entirely, as I haven't danced in years...last time was possibly my son's wedding.  But this is undeniably a dancer.  And making this piece is a way of having dance in my life, probably the only way it will ever happen again.  And here she is, finished.  

She is outlined in machine stitch, with accents provided by two different variegated threads, though they read as very similar in the image.  Definitely worth working some more in this way, I think.  

I did promise a look at the finished felt piece... here it is.  

Can't get excited, to tell you the truth....but I started, so I finished.  Not worth framing.

Mixing It Up...

For a long time, I tried to keep things in little boxes, when it came to art.  For someone who prides herself in working outside the box, that has never really sat well with me.  My drawings didn't seem to relate to the textiles, or the paintings.  But recently, I've been pushing myself to let go of those false barriers, and I finally found a theme to work to, that allows me to do that.  I thought I'd show you several  examples of work in the same theme.  That theme is 'Linescapes'.

I've been making drawings for years that simply incorporated a minimum of three lines, or three lines and a curved shape of some kind, usually an egg shape.  It struck me recently that they are 'linescapes', and that they are a way of expressing space and shape.  Some of them are abstract landscapes; others are not.  The images, I hope, will show you some of the potential this approach has.

These are postcard sized pieces which I drew while waiting for a doctor's appointment; Linescapes at their simplest, single colour, three simple lines and the relationship they have to each other, and to the surrounding space.  I will probably add some background colour...or not... it will be interesting to see how the additional colour changes the nature of the individual pieces.  The marks were made with crayon, so that I can paint over them with watercolours, but still retain the original colour of the lines.

This rather peculiar image shows a textile variation of the same theme, Lutradur XL with yarn stitched into it. It's not finished yet, I know, though I'm not entirely sure how it will progress.  I know that text will feature...but that's about it.  Currently, it is sitting on the window ledge in the dining room so that I can see it (and puzzle over it).  The colours feel like the Scottish Highlands in late summer and early autumn.  Perhaps a haiku... or two...

This is a Linescape of a different nature; far more lines, much less space.  It is made using layers of transfer dyes on Lutradur XL, which were then stitched into,.

Finally, a painting.  Acrylic on board, and the largest piece of work in this series so far... accompanied by the smallest, a textile ACEO.

The ACEO features yarn, hand stitched onto Lutradur XL, with a watercolour background.

I hope this selection of work gives you an idea of the potential I think this approach has for my work.  I love working in series, but I've never before felt that I had found something that I really wanted to explore, and that had so much potential.  This is the tip of a very large iceberg, I think... I'm going to have fun!

Collaboration...

is fun.  One of my Facebook friends, Mary Kaye Catone,  is a keen photographer, and regularly posts her images.  I just as regularly say, that could do with stitch.  This time, she said, go for it.  This is the original image;

I love the textures and colours in this, and my initial intention was to make some long stitches in parallel running down the way.  Because I wanted to work small, I printed it out on some commercially prepared cotton...well, actually, it turned out to be silk organza.  That proved to be an additional bonus, as you will see.  But the transparency both added and detracted; I found myself struggling to put something behind the image that worked well.  In the end, I tried a stitched piece, which worked like a charm.  It was a piece of lutradur to which I had added encaustic paints, and then stitched.  Here's the back of the finished piece, to give you an idea of what I started with;

And here is how it turned out... 

and yes, I used those long stitches I was talking about earlier, though there is a row of small stitches at either long side, to keep the thing together.  And that's that, right?

Well, actually, no.  The thing about using silk organza, is that a lot of ink gets transferred to the backing paper.  And it would be wasteful to ignore that, right?

This is Ghost Tree, made from the backing paper, collaged onto mountboard, with swirls of shimmery medium to suggest mist.  I'm quite pleased. If you get very close up and personal with the piece, you can see silver leaf shapes drawn onto the board, my original intention, but somehow, it wasn't enough.  

So there you go; two for the price of one...and counting.  I still have some scraps to use up, probably in another collage.  Collaboration is fun...why not try it?

The Birth Of The Brooch.

  I've been playing with lutradur and evolon, particularly with Lutradur XL, mainly to make journal covers. and found myself making this with some of the scraps I had left over.  Predominately I was thinking about Ben Nicholson, and his painted reliefs, like this one.  The XL is chunky enough to give the same sort of look as board does; it is, of course, transfer dyed in layers, rather than painted, though it has been done in a painterly way.  It needs stitch, but I haven't yet found the right thread...watch this space.

Playing on this scale, though, made me wonder what it would be like to work on a much smaller scale...and that led to these :

I see them as miniature abstracts, but they are also brooches.  I like the idea of being able to take art wherever you go, and enjoy it with others, rather than have it hung static on the wall.  The middle piece is an aberration; I have been playing about with needlefelting, and this was the result.  The rest, though, I'm pleased with. I've always liked working small, but this is smaller than I've done before at about two inches square; certainly no more than two inches in any one direction.

I've now made about forty of these, and they're going into my Etsy shop, slowly, together with some earrings, and more of them can be found in the Gallery, Dereham (next to the Memorial Hall).  I've got an idea for some that are a bit different to these... as you know, one thing always leads to another... I'll show you when I've worked it out.

I've got several favourites so far, but I do like this one; most of my buttons come from Incomparable Buttons these days, but this didn't.  I'd love to make my own, but there are limits (and I don't have a kiln).  So, I think I'll just continue to use the wonderful work of ceramicists.

Moving Things Around...

is a good way of seeing them with fresh eyes.  This textile piece has been sitting in the conservatory, but at such a height, and with so many other things, that it was difficult to actually look at.  Now, here it is on a clear wall, and it can be seen for itself.  To good effect, I hope!  I forget what I called this piece, which is alarming.  Usually titles stick with me, but clearly I must have got the title for this one wrong.   I'm tempted to call it 'Palely Loitering', not entirely sure why; probably something to do with the abstract figure to the right of centre.  We'll  see if that one sticks.

I like this piece, partly because it has a lot of movement in it. As part of the tidying up process, I looked through a couple of large sketchbooks and found these images in one of them, along with several black and white versions.  I realised that the feeling of movement in the textile piece is mirrored by these earlier sketches.  Interestingly, though, I find myself wanting to use them in a very different way, now, as works in their own right, and I'll doubtless ruminate about that until it's clear in my head, just as I must have done, unconsciously, with the sketches.

I've been ruminating on the other blog about not getting things done; this has been moved because I'm making a space for Big Bertha, my large scale printer, in the conservatory.  Mainly, I'm doing that because I'm about to go on a dyeing and felting frenzy, and steam and damp are not good for the printer.  But it does also mean that I might actually be able to sit in the conservatory, once I've finally finished tidying it up.  It is probably my favourite room in the house, simply because of the amount of light in it.  Of course, all that glass means that it's very warm in summer and cooler than I like in winter.  At the moment, though, I'm ironing hand dyes, and the coolness is very welcome.  More of the handdyes later...

You've Been Framed...

or at least, this particular piece has. It's a follow on from 'It's In The Trees', called 'Blue Trees', and it is sitting happily in a lovely wooden frame.

I have a love hate relationship with frames, but I have to agree with Robin, who said that he thought that a piece looks more finished than when it is hung without. I think that, as well as that, that there is an expectation that art work comes in frames. People know what to *do* with art in frames; I think they are less sure about textiles that hang unframed. Either way, I think that this particular piece looks good in its frame. I hope you agree; all feedback welcome as always! Find more detail shots here

And yes, of course, the piece is made from lutradur. Well, I suppose it would be... I'm obsessed with the stuff. Who wouldn't be, when you can get results like these.