"Blogs that bring me inspiration" award

I was as pleased as a very very pleased thing with a big smile on its face the other day to find a message on my blog from someone who had nominated it as a blog that "brings me inspiration and makes me appreciate the blogosphere" - thank you Laurence from France. So now it is my turn to pick 10 inspiring blogs and pass on the baton - so in no particular order:

1. Juju loves polka dots - you've got to admire anyone who crocheted the Italian flag for a geography project. I love this site and it was one of the earliest ones I came across. For some reason I've never left a comment.

2. papéis por todo o lado - babelfish probably doesn't do many favours in translation but the pictures are fab and don't really need words.

3. Anna Maria Horner - just those bright colours would be enough but there is so much more to enjoy.

4. Ruby Crowned Kinglette - really great photographs, some food and fantastic textile art - what more could a gal wish for in life?

5. A Garner of Stitched Thoughts - Alison is on the same distance learning C & G course, and I have become quite addicted to her blog which is a great mix of the 300 different art projects underway at any one time, progress on the course and family life as it is lived

6. Another shade of grey - only recently found this one, seems to consist of pics from Etsy of fab items, and I love and need each and every single one right now

7. Gosh darn knit - love it, a mix of her stuff and stuff she's seen and loves

8. Retro alchemist - beautiful pictures and lots of doodles, makes me happy!

9. Angry Chicken - ok so loads of people have a link to this blog but yet again I am seduced by art and cooking and all of that and its great so there

10. Girl gone thread wild - I am running out of superlatives so just visit and enjoy

"I can resist everything except temptation"

I keep up a regular email correspondence with Anne who I met on last year's summer school at Urchfont, and Anne has the good sense to be very strict with me at times. Emailing over Easter I warbled on about various other crafty things I was half way through and I was roundly reproved for neglecting my work on the C & G course. Anne, there follows the visual proof of my ongoing reprobate behaviour (look on it as a sort of confessional). There's the memory blanket I'm working on made from material from some of Emily's toddler clothes (why can't grown-ups get clothes that cool?WHY?!). Then there's the Rowan cardigan I have been knitting that only needs its collar and it will be complete (I'm knitting smaller stuff after this - phew!). I tried macrame again after many many years and made a belt which I am really pleased with. And I finally got round to uploading my collection of photos of doors and windows in France, and ordering a collage picture from Photobox (http://www.photobox.co.uk/). I try to defend myself by claiming I am getting more rounded experience and one artform may inform another. Anne just thinks I am very very naughty indeed.

Module 2, chapter 2 - tonal column in stitchery, and part of chapter 3

I ended up doing two stitched columns. The one on the left was the first. I kept adding to it - a bit of black here, some more white there, until it threatened to grow to several inches deep. So I tried another - and pretty much the same thing happened. There's only so much squinting I can do in one lifetime.

Onto some blackwork

I tried the sample on the left and while it gives the general idea I figured I could do better.

I drew the sheet using pink and black so I could tell one segment from another. I think it works out better and shows the concept more clearly.

Left - showing tone changes from different spacing.

Right - showing tone changes from differing thickness of thread but identical pattern.

Chapter 3 - machine stitching

Left - zigzag stitch, width 3.5 length from 0.3 to 4.0

Right - zigzag as before but adding increasing gaps between lines of stitching

More samples until the machine started to play up.

Module 2 has begun

The animal markings I have chosen are pythons. To the left is a typical example.

I made some pictures based on the list of words. I intend to make a few more a little later on, but these are a start.














Top left picture (from top left, clockwise) : sandpaper, candle wax swirls, then black and white pastels added and smudged; reverse print from next picture (taken at the point when I didn't think the next one was going to work); sandpaper, wax dripped over with some gaps left, black acrylic paint poured over, wax removed when dry; wax dripped on to palette paper, black paint poured over, wax removed when dry


Top right picture (from top left, clock wise) : 'snakes' of candlewax as a resist, snakes of thick black paint, then thin white; 'hissing' flicks of white paint a la Pollock; daubs of polyfilla that refused to do anything remotely interesting like crack on top of sandpaper; candlewax resist covered by white paint


Third picture (from top left, clockwise) : boring experiment in paint shop pro; polyfilla and black acrylic splodged on - but it refuses to crack even under duress; sandpaper with swirls of polyfilla (intend to do some reverse prints from this that may be a bit more interesting); more boring polyfilla


CHAPTER ONE - TONAL COLUMNS



















From left to right: a piece of dark paper was photocopied, then the photocopy was copied etc each one getting lighter and lighter; tracing paper and tissue paper strips; patterned scrapbooking papers; white pen stripes on black paper; black scribble on white paper; black dots on white paper

















From left to right: black felt tip pen and ruler; flower stamp and black ink; white acrylic paint, white pen, white pastel and white pencil (a la Monet's waterlilies); black acrylic paint smeared on with piece of card; more very oredly white ink on black card; black paint splattered































From left to right: black watercolour paint on white paper with added white pencil; thumbprints in black paint; white acrylic paint; various shades of pastel; black paint applied with rag; black watercolour

This is a shot to show how the final mounted piece will nore or less look. The thing is so HUGE that it needs two A1 sheets of card, although obviously when finally done, the border around it will not be so wide as it appears now.

I wonder if the width of the blue material still needs to be reduced a little, maybe an inch all round?

Here is a close up of some additional stitches addes to link the pieces together. They are 'escaping' from the piece on the right, or disintegrating from it.

To the right some more escpaed stitches between the other two pieces, and some detail of the stitches attaching the main pieces to the backing fabric.

Some progress, further distress, and a resolution?

Ok, well all three pieces have been distressed much further by fraying, burning back the edges with a heat tool and introducing some holes through the felt:



Picture 1 - The top fabric has been pruned backed to show much more of the layers beneath (25cm x 25cm)








Picture 2 the straight edges have been cut and burnt back and some minor holes introduced (21 x 21cm)




Picture 3 Likewise cut and burnt back to reduce the piece (19 x 19 cm)














When laid out on the proposed backing fabric it looks out of balance to me.




















So I have tried adding extra sheer fabric behind the second and third pieces, although the amount gets less for each piece. See picture 5 below:







However, are the sheer fabrics behind too straight and is there now too much going on? Do I need to remove some of the backing fabrics to lighten it up a bit?

A new work room

I have finally completed my new work room. This has been a huge undertaking, involving putting boxes and boxes of books and stuff into storage, then decorating three bedrooms and shifting the contents of one to the other so that all three are swapped around. Then every single heavy box had to be taken back out of storage and unpacked and sorted. The decorating was predictably not simple and straightforward. Instead of the walls just needing a quick wipe down and a splash of paint, each wall had to be laboriously stripped with paint stripper and then washed down before any painting could begin.

However now I have a dedicated work room (ok its still a spare bedroom). You will get some idea from these pictures. The other exciting change is that I now have a shorter working week which gives me a day in the week I can dedicate to getting on with the course!! YEY!!