Where does the time go?
Back in April I wrote about beginning to use colour in my FDA Textiles Practice course. Four months later, I have been so busy using colour I haven’t given myself time to step back and reflect on my practice here. I am going to try and change that; stop being busy ‘doing’ and make head space to think.
In my last post I wrote about working from a still life to develop a colour palette for weaving. Below are some of the outcomes from that process - a collage of the still life, and three pieces of weaving that resulted from the colour play.
The end of term came in May, and we were set our holiday task to look for patterns in the world around us; seeking out patterns in nature, and patterns that occur serendipitously, rather than deliberate manufactured patterns. We have been taking photos of these patterns and using the tag #patternfinder21 on Instagram. Of course there are so many intriguing deliberate patterns out there, particularly in buildings, that we can’t help but enjoy them too.
As well as taking photographs it was suggested that we sketch them - or use other media to record them. I certainly need to keep practice my drawing and use of media other than needle and thread, so I set myself the challenge of finding a pattern a day, and using other media at least once a week. I haven’t kept up with that precisely, but having that in my mind has given some focus to my summer thinking. To fine tune my pattern finding I began to look particularly for radiating patterns, below are a few of those collected so far. Looking at radiating patterns in nature brings to mind two mathematical ideas - the Fibonacci sequence, and fractals. I hope to pursue these further.
With an eye to my need to keep drawing and mark making I signed up to Tansy Hargan’s (@palimpsestparade on IG) Mixed MediaThumbnail Sketching course. I am currently in the second week of this course - though not keeping up with the daily programme, it is certainly challenging me, and keeping me trying things out. We are encouraged to use viewfinders to help crop the whole vista to a manageable size, and then use a few marks to make an initial thumbnail sketch. this thumbnail sketch can then be used to develop a more considered multimedia image - ether on site or back in the studio.
The photo below shows the outcome of one of these exercises - I took my view finder and small concertina sketchbook into the garden, and then came back to my workroom to use a mix of painted papers and other media to create some larger images, picking up on the radiating patterns enabled me to fulfil two strands of summer ‘homework’ at once :) .
Our summer patterns are to be collected in a pattern journal. I had been thinking for a while that I wanted to learn something about bookbinding, so creating a pattern journal was a great target. I signed up to an online Zoom course Intro to Upcycled Bookbinding with Cassandra Barron, (@BookBindingwithCass on IG). The course was hosted by Edinburgh Remakery and over four evenings we learned four different ways of making a book : Japanese Stab Binding, Exposed long stitch, Accordion Fold book, and Exposed V stitch. I went on to make another book - a concertina fold book at the Festival of Quilts with InStitches - all my mark making experience came into play when making this colourful book, the final photographs below.
Today I have been to the Bowes Museum to see the exhibition of their recent acquisitions of North Country Quilts. Whilst I can admire the craft of the typical hand-quilted North Country quilts on show, I don’t aspire to do anything like that. However my favourite was the museum’s most recent acquisition is a quilt by Pauline Burbidge, Plantforms, markmaking and stitching to inspire!
Pauline Burbidge: Plantform Bowes Museum (my photograph)
