Where now?

It is reassuring to find we all have blocks to our creative process from time to time.Kirsten came along this time with some felt pieces ,her lovely felt locks mats/cushions,

Which are very warm and comfy to sit or stand on.She was agonizing that she has made little progress towards 'Echoes'.She felt that her work tended towards the commercial rather than the creative.We felt she was being hard on herself as she has such talent ,her pieces are always creative.We reminded her of her 'things with wings' exhibits in Heartspace.We also think her drawings are exquisite and perhaps she could include some of these to link with the felt.

Look at this beautiful little bird,how is that not evidence?

Work not workshop.

We have seen the lovely things created by Debby and Carol in the Margaret Beal workshop.However, we have still to see what they have been working on since last month.

Carol ,as we saw,has completed her backgrounds but is now beginning to add the life,creatures etc.She has been thinking about colour and thread choice for this.She had stitched a piece but found it wasn't the effect she wanted.

The colour and thickness weren't what she was after.Several suggestions were made for her to follow up.

Debby meanwhile had been continuing her 'bug ' theme and had created these lovely little critters.

She also brought this...

Silver and Thread at Newark Park

This was a beautiful and inspiring exhibition at Newark Park (NT) of silver jewellery by Rosemary Cochrane and textiles by Louise Watson.  The sketchbooks were wonderful, as was this window of old stained glass. Here are some of Louise's delicate embroideries:

Books and recycling.

Sally has continued with her River book.trying some stitch into the pages and ways of edging the page to finish off.

She preferred the hand stitch but found it hard going perforating the fabric.Liz made a useful suggestion of using a long machine stitch without thread then 'stitching' by hand into the resulting holes.Sometimes there are simple but effective ways of doing things.

She also brought along a piece of work that had been recycled into a book cover for her Christmas trip to Prague.

A detail from inside....

A very effective way to incorporate photographs ,stamps,stitch and ephemera.

Of the sea.

Jenn's fossil piece was brought along so she could get some feedback.Her idea for a hanging has suffered from indecision and has moved forward not a lot.There were lots of suggestions from the group ,and she decided to go away and give it just one more try before banishing it or cutting it up!

In an effort to do something more positive she stitched this while the tennis was on.

It is based on a sea urchin and at this stage still has more stitching ,beads and sequins to be added.

Ira,meanwhile.had taken away the suggestions we gave her last meeting and came back with these.

Finding ways to interpret brain coral in textiles.

 

and a stitched piece.

Textures.

Sue uses an embellisher to create some wonderful textural pieces.In this one she has incorporated some silk ties.

She has also used some  wool 'locks' .She explained that the embellished pieces were done separately before assembling together to create her cockerel.He has the main components but there will be lots more tweaking and adding touches before he is revealed in all his glory.

She had also been playing cutting into shapes to see what would emerge.This is a circle.

It might be interesting to see what each member would do with the same shape and set of rules...... A circle and no more than two cuts for instance.

Colour.

Debbie brought along some colorful knitting cottons purchased in Bath.They are very good quality and as useful for embroidery.Good clear zingy colour.

There were about a dozen or so colours but she was very good and didn't buy them all!

Continuing with the theme of colour Ira had brought along the book "Exploring Colour" written by the late Julia Caprara.She had used one  of the ideas in the book to create a sketchbook reference for colour stotries.

A rich  page using a whole variety of collected items to explore blue green.

and another referencing rusts,orange and gold.A lasting inspiration to turn to again and again.