Sketchbook Work

 During lockdown I have been doing a lot of work in my sketchbooks. I have been  building layers using mixed media working into the pages over and over again. 

Sketchbook

Monoprinted leaves on painted background and over painted  stencil on deli paper.

Scraped paint background, block printed,  circle cut outs.

Water colour background, rubbed circles, crayon squares, traced pot.

Mosaic photo over painted background, painted square stencil on photo, dried leaf.

Printed background, hand drawn poppy seed heads, pen drawn lines and handwriting.

As above

Photos of blue material cut into triangles pasted onto print and painted background.

Scraped paint, printed wide vertical lines, pen drawn narrow red lines.

Painted background, felt pen writing,  circular photo.

Photo, ink background, block print.

Collage, mono printed leaves.

Photo, painted background, mono printed vase, brush shapes.

Painted and printed background, block printed, drawing, writing.

Collage, cut-out shapes, painted background, pen drawing.

Printed background, brush painted shapes, pen drawing.

Ink background, eco leaf print, mono printed vase, stencilling.

Amaryllis

 Just before Christmas I bought an Amaryllis bulb to grow in the hope that it would bring some cheery colourfulness into my home during the Winter. It has not disappointed as you can see below.

Winter Tree Skeletons

 Once the deciduous trees have lost all their leaves you are able to see the bare bones of the tree. The shapes look beautiful against a winter sky or a shadow though the mist.

Temari Balls

 In October I was introduced to Japanese Temari balls. They are very beautiful with embroidered colourful geometric patterns all over the surface.

I didn't think I would get on very well with them as they look very complicated but the way the patterns fitted together was quite logical and also fascinating.

You need to make a ball to support the surface decoration. I used old tights cut into strips that were wound round and round. Then the ball was wrapped in soft baby wool and finally a fine thread the colour of which would be seen.

The colours for the embroidery need to be chosen with the background colour.

A narrow strip of paper is used to mark the poles and then by folding it other points on the surface are marked with pins according to the chosen pattern.

The first pattern I embroidered was the square pattern and you can see the guidelines and pins to help with placing the pattern.

You can see how cleverly the geometric patterns fit together.

The second pattern I tried was the chrysanthemum and for this pattern I had to mark out the ball in 1/8 ths. 

They are quite fascinating to make and also quite addictive.

Red Leaves

My Cotinus bush has been beautiful this Autumn and some of the leaves have developed the most beautiful patterns as they die and fall.

Medieval Linen Embroidery

  Last year the Heron Corn Mill, Beetham provided seeds for people to grow flax as part of a  Heritage programme exploring the flax industry in Cumbria from the Middle Ages. 

Flax plant

Retting of flax

The flax was then cut and the fibre extracted. It was woven into a narrow cloth which you can see below on the embroidery frame.

You can also see the linen threads which were dyed with plant based dyes.

The Corn Mill put out a request for embroiderers to reproduce the plants used for dyeing and I volunteered to embroider Madder.

I designed my  madder plant set within a loose frame with a medieval dyer at work. Part of the frame was a range of sample colours obtained from madder varying from pale colours to pinky-reds.

The dye is obtained from the root so I made sure that was given prominence.

The dyer was embroidered working with Madder. 

As another part of the frame I stitched some of the Medieval beasts using a range of plant dyed threads.

The name madder was also stitched

Below is the finished panel.