Workshop on Lichen Llandudno

On Saturday 18th November I was picked up at my hotel and taken to the church hall where the workshop was to be held. I had packed my suitcase with samples of embroidered lichens, dyed material, fibres and threads plus some extra backgrounds.
Arriving about 9 o'clock I was set up by about half past nine and glad of a cup of tea.

I was made to feel very welcome as the members arrived and they were very keen to have a go at embroidering a lichen. We started about 10 o'clock and I demonstrated a simple lichen and then suggested that by embroidering onto muslin the lichen could be reduced in size and then a variety of textural stitches could be added thus building up a background.

The members worked hard and most were able to work on at least two pieces. At the end we all had a look at each others work and suggested ways of developing more work using lichens as inspiration.

It was a good day and members went home pleased with their work.

Llandudno, North Wales

On Friday I travelled to Llandudno by train complete with a suitcase full of fibres, samples and backgrounds. The trains were on time and I arrived just after 2 o'clock. It was a short walk to my hotel on the sea front and after a cup of tea I was out exploring. The bay is a beautiful C shape with the g-Great Orme one end and the Little Orme the other. I started to take photographs and realised I had left the camera battery in the charger so had to make do with postcards!

The next day was the workshop day which I will write about separately.
On the Sunday I decided to go up the Great Orme. The tram is now closed until Spring so I took a taxi to the top and walked down.

The Great Orme is a beautiful limestone headland which has been used by man since Neolithic Times. The views from the top were beautiful but the Orme has a very interesting human history.
There is evidence that the first hunter gatherers arrived on the Orme about 12000 years ago[about10000 BC] while we were still connected to Europe by a land bridge.
Also found on the Orme is a bronze Age copper mine with a part of the mine as old as 4000 years with other parts about 3500years. Sadly the mine was also closed but some parts could be seen from the fence.

I was also lucky enough to see one of the feral goats that live on the Orme.
After I reached the bottom I explored the Christmas market which looked very pretty as it got dark and the Christmas lights began to sparkle.
It was a good weekend and I was very lucky with the weather. Llandudno is well worth a visit.

Getting ready for a workshop on Embroidered Lichens

Half finished lichen ready for more stitching and beads

On Saturday 18th November I am leading a workshop on Lichens in llandudno, North Wales. I am busy preparing the fabric suitable for backgrounds, collecting curly fibres and threads suitable for embroidering the colour and texture of lichens.

Cotton and muslin dyed ready for use as backgrounds

Felt pebbles and pieces ready for lichen embroidery

Some backgrounds have been made with puff paint and then coloured with dyes to look like bark or stone.

All I have to do now is pack and get my working samples ready!

Minoan pots

Just over a week ago I visited western Crete and viewed some more Minoan sites and their artefacts. There have been some spectacular recent finds which have shed more light on this ancient culture.
I love the earthy colours, patterns and decorations of the pots and with a view to making an embroidery inspired by the pots I collected some of my photographs together.

Time to get out my sketchbook and have a go at some patterns inspired by the Minoan ones.

 I had a go at exploring the pot shapes. 

I then cut a stencil of a pot shape  scraping a mixture of paint, polyfilla and PVA glue all mixed with water through the stencil or using the cut out as a resist.

I explored colour and stitch but settled on the original earthy colours.

I have now made my pot ready for the embroidery and to consider how to make the background.

An afternoon walk

Today has been a beautiful Autumn day so I thought I would take a walk down the lane and see if there was anything interesting.

Because of the high winds of last week, many of the trees have been stripped bare but a few are stubbornly hanging on  to their leaves.

Acer in my garden

Down the lane the oaks in the hedges were still hanging onto their golden leaves and will probably keep them until January.

The ivy is in flower and is useful as a nectar source for any surviving insects.

However, since the gales last week most of the deciduous trees are bare with their  silhouettes against the Autumn sky.

There are  quite a few berries still around including rose hips and honeysuckle which will help the birds through the cold winter

 weather.

 Over the next few days I hope to make some drawings of some of my finds but the thing which stood out for me was the acid green of the lichens on the dry stone walls. I hope they will also inspire the embroidery group I am going to in two weeks when we shall be embroidering lichens.