Poppies - Sketchbook work

I had some beautiful big poppies in my garden this year and I decided to use them for some sketchbook work.

The poppies have a wiggly circular shape with an inner black and green circle so I made a simplified collage shape of the poppies to produce a pattern.

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I drew and cut out a stylised drawing of a poppy seed head on card

to use as a rubbing board. The first few rubbings were made on deli paper and then cut out and stuck to a background.          

Three more rubbings were made on copy paper. The rubbings were then worked into with eraser and pencils, to add shape and contours.

The rubbings were then stuck to a background.

Some more rubbing boards were made and then used as templates to make collage seed heads. These were then stuck onto a two tone background.

Once dry the seed heads were worked into with marks and straight lines were drawn to mirror the stems.

I made a rubbing board based on the pattern on the top of the seed head. Rubbings were made on deli paper.

The rubbings were cut out and stuck to a background to produce a pattern.

The sketchbook work has enabled me to learn more about poppies and possible ways of representing them.

3D weaving inspired by a Geode

After I spent a weekend in Edinburgh on a 3D weaving course I decided to have another attempt at home.
I found some photographs of geodes on line and then collected blue and gold wool ready for weaving.
I warped up my frame with a blue warp and started on the weft.

Using a variety of shades of blue I started weaving a zig-zag pattern inspired by the pattern in the rock.

When I had woven a few inches I then started to weave in sections of about 3-5 warp threads joining the sections in a few places.

When I had nearly reached the top of the loom I stopped weaving, turned the frame around and cut the top warp threads leaving the bottom attached so I could push against the frame as I pulled the warp.

By pulling more on the outer warp of each section the weaving curved reminding me of the layers in the geode.

When I was satisfied with the curving I then tied off the ends and bound them, leaving the warp hanging as decoration. I then cut the other warp threads to remove it from the loom and neatened them off.

I am quite pleased with the result and going to have another go with a pinky/purple one.