Saturday 21 November 2009

New Directions




My work has changed direction, as you can see I have abandoned the small layered idea. Instead I found a bit of fabric larger than I normally use and began painting onto it. The result and its progress is as you see it in the images which I have included. My plan is to continue working on this larger scale developing the painting then working into it with some stitch. I also have to put on the body painting on top of this, then the background fabric. I am feeling really good about this piece so far.

Wednesday 18 November 2009


Today the weather has been really windy, when I left home this morning, I couldn't wait to get back to the warmth of my house and then into my studio. I have had only a short time to work today and in 10 minutes I will have to leave for a class at my local school.

My design which I showed in my last post has been cut up and deconstructed. The sample I am working on is done on lutrador appliqued on to a gold coloured silk fabric and then quilted. Remember that this is a beginning and is also only part of the design, I will see where it takes me.

Monday 16 November 2009


Today I spent some of my time developing my latest sketch which I showed last week. I tried layering painted papers on top of the sketch as one does in collage. I like the idea of layering and I have done two examples one in white paper and the other with blue/green printed paper using the same shapes taken from the painted face.

I have been researching the turkanan tribe from northern kenyan as this is my source of inspiration for this piece of work. The result at the moment seems very simplistic but I am hoping that by developing this further I will begin to see some more exciting images emerging.

Friday 13 November 2009

Return of the blogger!


I am back! It has been really difficult to get back to blogging, first it was halfterm workshops and then a messy studio. I have finally managed to get my self organised and back to the job of creating and teaching. I have continued playing around with my textile heart challenge but the results have not been as interesting as I would like them to be so for now I will not display them.

Today was spent exploring my embellisher with a friend, this tool is really facinating and although it is very basic and simple to use, with time I am sure very interesting results can be achieved.

I am posting a sketch which I did yesterday instead of the hearts because I am hoping that this sketch will be the begining of a new piece of work based again on my theme of body decoration. It is again a portrait but I am not sure if it will remain that way or if I will develop it into an abstract design, we shall see. It was a hasty sketch and I used oil pastels. I am in a constant battle with myself because I always want to work on stretched canvas and yet again this sketch is driving me in that direction but I will try another approach, maybe in addition to the canvas.......