Needle sketches

As soon as I had done the continuous line drawings - drawing (mostly) without looking - of the weathered oyster shells and mermaids purses I collected from the beach at Eastbourne I could see that they would make great stitched designs, and had potential for incorporating into my Narrative Thread work for Diversity.

I want to put them on rusted fabric, as the colours are so sympathetic with the subjects, but I have had  problems stitching into rusted fabric in the past; my 'prima donna' top end sewing machine refuses point blank to stitch through it, with the message STOP FOR SAFETY REASONS. Personally I think it is getting over dramatic, but there's no arguing with it. My workhorse semi-professional machine behaves a little better, but you can tell it's not really happy. I've tried various combinations of fine needles and different threads, but I think the oxidised metal clogs up the weave and makes tension very difficult to control.

So I've decided to stitch first and rust later. The samples are testing out different combinations of quilt sandwich and a variety of background treatments.

I'm pretty happy with the 'drawing', each slightly different but quite recognisable. I wanted to densely stitch the background so that the images gained dimension, 

and I've tried conventional quilt sandwiches with white cotton, hand and machine stitched, linen with felt and linen with felted blanket. 

I though this was going to be too heavy, but once the the stiffness of the quilted background might be a good thing. I think I'm going to leave the edges raw, so it's important how the backing and wadding reacts to the rust too.

Next step layer them up with rusty finds and tea a wait and see what happens!

Rusty plans

In case you've been wondering what I've been doing since the Alice Fox course, the answer is mainly painting walls in Uplyme, in an effort to render them not bubblegum pink!

However, wall decoration of a different sort has appeared in my work room, in an effort to gather my thoughts. This is a mixture of the drawings and some fabric from the course, plus rusted fabric I had already and other likely bits and pieces.

I do find it really helpful to pin things up and then 'visit' them every so often. I can add things and move them around, and having a visual image to mull over whilst I'm doing other things really helps the creative process.

Having said that I have not managed to get organised in time for a couple of juried exhibitions with deadlines earlier than I expected, but I'll be in good time for the Festival of Quilts, where the challenge this year is 'On the Beach' - I really couldn't miss that could I? And of course Diversity's exhibition at Walton on Thames in November.

On the beach again

On my travels again - this time to sunny Eastbourne and a course with Alice Fox at Studio 11. Right up my street, it's called Adventures in Beachcombing. 

We've started each day with a walk along a local beach, gathering detritus and natural items, plus words, sounds and thoughts into a makeshift sketchbook.

On Eastbourne parade seafront the haul was enormous 

Couldn't detach this wonderful collection though

Next day to the fishermen's beach, to find rusty things (didn't manage to drag the old mattress home either!)

And today to Birling Gap, between the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head.

A strange chalk landscape similar to that at Lyme and West Bay, with towering, crumbling, striated cliffs and flat pavements, but with white cliffs and grey flint pebbles instead of ochre.

Back in the studio came the bit I'm not so good at - actually doing something with all that collected stuff!

We've been rust printing on fabric and paper

Monoprinting and embossing 

Sketching and drawing 

And today we've been looking at weaving and other textile related ideas - no photos of mine, but here's what Veronica (who is a weaver) is creating 

Great to have four whole days dedicated to doing the work - lots of ideas for forthcoming exhibitions ...

See more of Alice's work on her website: alicefox.co.uk

The poetry of decay

So here I am by the sea again, this time in Eastbourne, on this great four-day course with Christine Chester at Studio 11. The course, developed by Christine and Jo Lovelock, is all about creating exciting surfaces for stitch and mixed media work, exploring decaying and weathered surfaces and using them as inspiration. We have a limited palette - black, white and brown/rust - but that is the only limitation. The ideas, processes and inspiration are endless, and Christine is an extremely knowledgeable and generous tutor. I haven't had time (for which read 'I haven't remembered - I've been too wrapped up in the doing'!) to take many photos, but here are a few for starters ....

Stacks of cards with their first processes - marks, flat 'colour', beginning to distress the surfaces at the end of day one. It's all about layering ....

And this is the drop sheet - happy accidents always worth saving.

Real live rust and decay on Eastbourne pier ('it's closing in five minutes, you won't have time to walk to the end AND take photos' - this from the guy who was locking up - don't think he could work out why I was photographing the lamp posts!) 

Great sky!

More later - I'll remember to take more photos tomorrow!