Sketch books or journals?
On day 15 of September Textile Love I wrote about how I was still working out how to use sketch books. I have conversations with several people since then, which has helped me clarify my thinking somewhat.
I have been keeping a journal for a number of years - it is a mixture of planner, log, and reflections. This has been in a variety of formats over the years - Filofax, Traveler’s Notebooks and these days in Moleskine notebook, in a customised binder to keep together other notes and documents. I have also kept a separate notebook logging my knitting and stitching projects so that I could look back and remember how I adapted a pattern, what size needles I used, and what yarn or fabric.
To help my thinking I’ve been looking again at Shelley Rhodes’ book Sketchbook Explorations for mixed media and textile artists. I think am going to try using two kinds of sketchbooks - an art journal that I use as a working notebook. And then there will be specific ‘workbooks’ to record the work of identified projects such as ones related to my course; I already have three of these recording the work from last year.
So an ongoing project that is not course-related but does look like becoming some kind of series is making textile postcards. These are a lovely way to share work - making small scale items is doable alongside the other things. I have been involved in several postcard swaps over the past 18 months - some within the Quilters’ Guild regions; I have joined a series organised by Ellie Taylor using Instagram; and now I’m just beginning another one with York Embroiderers and Stitchers. As some of these are ongoing I have decided to keep these ideas together. So a new workbook has been brought into action.
Bricks, Stones, Tiles
The first post card to be planned in this journal is Ellie Taylor’s most recent Textile Card Swap, Bricks, Stones, and Tiles. I immediately thought of all the times i have stopped an a walk to take photographs of walls. I collected together a series of photos of walls from our recent trip to the Isle of Man. They became the first thing to go in my go in my new workbook - immediately it belies the name sketchbook as I didn’t do any sketching on the page .
On the next page I sketched a wall, and made some notes of how I might stitch it. I was going to try to implement some of the new ideas I had learned in classes with Justine Warner, including using Lutradur, the way it shrinks when heated reminded me of the texture of lichens on a wall.
After making a practice piece, to try threads and stitching I went on to make my postcard. Of course, that isn’t in my workbook, because it has been posted off for the swap, but I have printed a photograph to compete the entry in my workbook.
