Creative challenge complete!

      Weeks 3-4

1. spiral green vessel, 2. bracelet band, 3. Felted Pod, 4. Not available, 5. snakey, 6. jubilee earrings 2, 7. Not available, 8. snakey bracelet, 9. Pod detail, 10. green shield 2, 11. camino bubbles, 12. button detail, 13. jubilee earrings 3

Now we've moved into September, I thought I'd collate all the projects from the last two weeks of August's creative challenge into a little mosaic. Seems I made less finished pieces in the last fortnight but quite a few were two day tasks or more, so that's cool. As much as I like the excitement of making something in a day, the more complex patterns and experimental vessels are just not that quick! But sometimes the best ideas take time to grow if they're given a little space.

It's been a very interesting creative month where I've learned new wire and beading skills, refreshed on some textile ones like felting and the crochet wrapping, and of course it's always fun exploring new challenging knitting patterns! There are a few experimental samples that I'd like to revisit from this group of projects - the camino bubbles is ongoing and I feel there will be a few more little pods to keep POD company:) And I do intend to get back into pattern writing so the crochet lace parasol will be a definite contender.

     Weeks 1-2

1. turquoise ring, 2. waves and ladders, 3. copper wrapped earrings, 4. Sparkly!, 5. swirl sample, 6. spiral pendant, 7. Hand dyed yarn, 8. firebird, 9. turquoise ring, 10. green shield 2, 11. turquoise monastic weave, 12. copper bracelet, 13. knitted bracelet

Looking at the whole month overall, I am surprised at how much jewellery has made it's way into my creative journey. The wire wrapping is especially important as I can intergrate that into my vessels and hopefully take them to the next level. The beaded jewellery has been a very happy surprise. I've found that I just love constructing with beads. I suppose all my projects have a strong emphasis on construction at the moment - wrapping, weaving, knitting, even felting.

So where to now? Well, I have a good creative flow going on right now so I'm going to see where the creative journey takes me this month. Maybe slowing down just a little though but I'll still be posting every day or two. I'd like to spend some time designing patterns and doing more sketchbook work on new directions for the vessels too. I have a few ideas percolating away :)

I've also got ideas to open a jewellery etsy shop soon as at the rate I'm making beaded bracelets I could seriously stock a shop, lol! And I'm going to re-open my dyed yarn Esty shop for a bit too. I remembered this month how much I love playing with colour and I couldn't use all the yarn I'd dye - even if I tried super hard!! So when I dye some up for my vessels or create more graduating colourways, I'll pop some in the shop as well. I'll let you know in advance if anyone is interested.

But for now, I'm going to take the rest of the weekend off and knit me some camino bubbles watching a film - or two!

See you next week and thank you all for following and supporting me this month!
elaine x

Little felted pod...

Once upon a time there was a little felted pod. He started off a lot bigger but got felted and pulled and shaped and felted.... again and again. And he began to shrink, just a little. At one point you couldn't even see the lovely colours on his surface there was so much soap. But he began to notice that he could keep his organic curves better now and he was kind of liking the deliberate lopsidedness of his shape.

When he was put beside the other stones in the garden, he thought he was the best dressed Pod in the neighbourhood :) He had lovely ochre yellows and grey/green contrasts with some nifty highlights in there too. And as if to prove that, he was now getting lots of attention from someone with a camera, obviously admiring his looks!

So he maganimously obliged and gave a few poses showing off all his lovely colours from many angles. Click, click... and a close-up? Of course, don't mind if you do..... did you catch that lovely orangey/yellow detail?... you did! Excellent :) Click, click......

And then.... it was over. Pod relaxed again, contentedly basking in the sun. It would be nice, he thought lazily, to have some other little pods to talk to. Stones weren't the greatest of conversationalists. Maybe he could persuade the pod maker to create him some company? Now there was a very good idea.......

......and then they could all live happily ever after :)

Spiral green vessel

As I was working on design ideas for the wrapped yarn samples over the weekend, I decided to finish the green sample that I showed you last week. The sample was designed to work on the flat and be part of a much larger suspended wall piece like 'sunburst'. As I didn't like the joining method that kind of stopped it in its tracks.

So what to do with this little sample? Although this was a tester for wrapping several wires together, it also tested the support method for larger organic shapes. This has worked well and these shapes moulded into a small vessel hold their form successfully. I think they would be even stronger with the wrapped method so I'm very excited to try that out as soon as possible.

I still like the design ideas I had for the large wall pieces so I'm wondering how wrapping would give me more flexiblity of design there too........ and what if the circles vessels were wrapped, how would that affect the stability of the structure - could I go bigger and bigger?? It would be so cool to have something large enough to actually walk inside - imagine!! 

So many possibilities! Got a lot of sampling to do before I get there but let's see where it goes :)

See you all tomorrow,
elaine x

Filigree circles

As promised, I have photos of the filigree circles vessel for you :) Although it still needs some more height and more considered shaping when I get nearer to the top, I think it's working out quite well so far. I didn't like the randomness of the dyed yarns at first but it's growing on me more now when you see it all assembled in the round.

A wee bit closer for you. Each side of the circles has a distinct look from the crochet chain. In the last vessels I deliberately matched like for like and then decided which side would be the 'right' side but I've decided to mix them as another layer of textural interest going on. It's amazing how more relaxed you can be creatively when you've already decided that this is a tester so it doesn't have to meet the standards you automatically set yourself - and it's working out so much better because of it. So everything is a tester from now on :))

And a lot closer now;) Circles within circles. You can see a bit more of the crochet definition and the graduating colours in this one too. I am still mulling over whether I like the 'perfect' circles the wire creates v's the more organic circular shapes created without a core.... practical support v's aesthetics.... but why not room for both? :)

And the last one using the light to create shadow circles on the table. So far this is a simple vessel/bowl shape but I think it has the potential to morph and grow into so much more. Thinking of lots of interesting 3D forms..... Thank you everyone for your supportive and helpful comments here and on flickr. It really helps me along the creative path as I develop these ideas of mine.

Let's see where it goes from here, shall we?

elaine x

Seedheads study



I realised while I was over on my flickr account that I forgot to post about some artwork I made for my family as christmas presents. I couldn't show you at the time as they might have been peeking on my blog and I didn't want to give the game away but now I can show you a little more. As is the way of presents made at the last minute, I didn't manage to get as many photos in good light as I would have liked but hey, I'm just glad I remembered to take any!! So here is the first piece I made based on dried flower head drawings from one of my sketchbooks.



Quick sketch of flowerheads

Fabrics before stitching

 The background is two layers of different fabrics that were hand painted with dyes which were then stitched over using free embroidery. The background stitch size is a bit bigger than I wanted but my machine was playing up with the thread so I decided I could live with it:) The fabric strips for the stems were just stitched in place although I think it would be nice to fuse them with bondaweb to avoid having frayed edges - unless you want them as a feature. In fact you could just fuse the two layers of fabric together if you wanted to exclude the 'texture' of the free embroidery stitch altogether or keep the stitch and back it with wadding to have a quilted piece which would resolve the wrinkled effect.



The main issue I think with this is the close-up detail looks fine, all in proportion and balances well but when you stand back and look at the piece overall you realise there are areas that need a bit more attention. The stitch detailing is lost from a distance and it doesn't hold its own compositionally. I also got a bit carried away stitching the little curly stems at the bottom so I need to remind myself when to stop too! Hopefully I can get a really good picture of it in its frame soon as it looks so much more intense and detailed in real life. The poor light in these photos has bleached the intensity of the dyed colour somewhat.

This was more in the nature of a quick colour study in fabric and stitch. In retrospect, I would have planned the compostition a bit better beforehand if I had had more time, but saying that there are elements I really like and elements I'd like to change so lots of ideas to take forward for the next study.

New beginnings

Ruby - mixed media collage 2007

Hello, hello! I'm back! Yes, back with a plan - of sorts ;) It's still very fluid and will probably be subject to lots of change as I go but, hey, the best plans should be flexible! As you can see, I've been doing a lot of procrastinating this week by focusing on updating the blog rather than plunging in the deep end workwise but it has helped me clarify what I'm wanting to do and where I'd like to go with my work and ideas. I've written up a little bit about that in my new 'about me' page, if you fancy a read but to summarise things, I'm going to move back into textile art again and spend more time developing my creative ideas with the ultimate goal of exhibiting and selling work. A big goal for this year but I'm happy just to make a start and see how things go.

This doesn't mean I will be abandoning knitting or crochet - not at all! I mean, who can resist lovely lace scarves and bird in hand mitten patterns?  In fact, that is another thing I'd like to work on this year - designing patterns. I'm going to start small - hats, bags etc - and then work up to some big mamas like lace wraps or shawls. Ambitious, I know! But it will take as long as it takes and as long as I am enjoying the journey then who knows where any of this creative journey will take me?

It's taken me a while to commit to this new path - or more an extention of the old one - and I know the hard bit of just starting is hovering at my shoulder so I'm thinking about something I saw today on Kit's blog Diva Quilts.  She's taking part in a quilt journal where although you don't have to commit to make something every day and you can work at your own pace,  you do have the incentive to upload your work to a flickr group. I like the idea of some kind of structure to work to and a journal type of project seems more manageable to me. I think I would have to commit to a minimum of work per month though or I'd just drift! But how much is manageable? Maybe this week I'll give it a try and see how I get on. Some work may be 'in progress' but thats sometimes more interesting :) It may help me blog more regularly too!

So new week, new year, new beginnings. Let's see how it goes, shall we?
 

Flower vessel

'Ello, ello, ello:)) Yes, I'm back! Whew, no break intended..... just kind of happened. My power supply went on my computer so I had to stop blogging, then once fixed, I didn't have much to post as my mojo upped and disappeared on me - but it's come back this week with a vengence! So I have lots to show you so hopefully I can get back into the habit of regular posting again. I've missed chatting with you all :)

Today's little project - which you may recognise from my new banner - is a further experiment with the crocheted vessel idea. I wanted to try making a bigger unit before joining them together, hopefully giving the piece greater inherent stability as well as less sewing for me:) The unit was meant to be a circle surrounded by other smaller circles but the method I used to form the second row of units ended up looking more like petals so the flower motif was born.

I haven't used any wire or other form of internal strengthening for this one as I wanted to see if the bigger unit alone would achieve this. As it is, this small bowl holds its own - just - but I wouldn't want to make it much bigger without reinforcement. I will try either starch or sugar water on this to see if it gives a nice light hold to the form - well, thats what I'm hoping anyway. The yarn used is a remnant of a stripey sock yarn I had in my stash. I liked the randomness of the colours but I knew it had large stripes which the motif can handle. I wouldn't want it getting too colour crowded though as I like the simple form and the shadows too. (I know, me liking form over colour - what next?!)

I've just started experimenting with wire inside the units now - although crocheting around the form is proving to be a tad awkward with all the unforgiving wire in the way, there is no flow to the making so far. And I don't think I'll be bothering if it's a right pain in the rear to make :) Well, I've a couple of methods to try so we'll see how it goes.

So back to the 3D crocheting and some more traditional crochet for you over the next few days - more pineapples, clusters and shells than you can shake a stick at:))

See you soon! elaine xxx

Experimental Flowers

Being in the process of producing a report on a printing and dyeing workshop I attended last summer, I realised I hadn't shared any photos at all. I was limited to 4 photos for the report so I cheated a little and used the flickr toy link to make a mosaic. So 20 pics for the price of one! ( it also looks quite smart and peps up the presentation!) But since I'm not quite so limited here, I can give you some larger images to see.

Bleach paste printed through photographic stencil

It was a really interesting workshop that concentrated on photostencils for devore and discharge printing (bleaching out colour) - something I hadn't done a lot of. My main interest was to see if I could introduce this to my students without overwhelming them!

Seed heads - discharge printing (bleach)

The techniques were fun and the devore visually works best with the japanese rose pattern. The shine and two tone colour of the velvet is just lovely.

Each design had to be worked out as a repeat pattern for the design to follow across the fabric and the double dyeing of the fabrics was fun and very enjoyable - instant colour! I had forgotten just how much I love playing with colour and dyeing makes it so instantaneous. You can't see it well in the photos but some are dip dyed and overdyed to get just the right colours. Can you tell I had fun?

Since I was meant to be updating skills for my students to use as a resource, I kept a mini sketchbook of the design and techniques processes as I went. I must admit I was so busy trying to get the huge amount of printing done that I did neglect it a bit and had to add things later...

Working out repeat pattern for lace flower photostencil

As a teaching resource it was an excellent course and now looking back at it, it has sparked lots of new ideas for my own personal development in creative textiles. Hopefully I will have the time to experiment on mixing print and mixed media collage and see what happens.

I'll keep you posted!