exploring the mystery of nature with painting & embroidery & mosaic
Today I submitted my offering to the Open Exhibition at the Midlands Art Centre in Birmingham (MAC). The submission process involved being filmed holding the piece of work which felt rather strange but kind of nice. There will be four curated exhibitions over the summer plus the final open exhibition at the end which will …
My first ever published embroidery tutorial has come out in the summer edition of Workshop on the Web! I’ve chosen to do a two-part article on one of my favourite hand stitching techniques – bokhara couching beloved of the makers of Suzani which I adore – do have a look at the article – and …
Here’s an update of my peacock embroidery. It is proving one of those embroideries that never seems to be quite ‘right’ somehow. It started out life as a very tight drawing of a peacock which I painted in inks on silk habutai, having done that it looked dull and contrived so I spread a load …
[wpg] I’ve been planning a large peacock embroidery involving the whole peacock not just the imagery of tail feathers. I started out drawing it out carefully but the composition didn’t feel quite right, I went ahead anyway but after I started painting it out in the silk, the feeling continued and the imagery felt stilted. …
I feel like I’ve come to the end of this particular poppy piece; “Large Poppies” and it is now ready for stretching onto a box canvas. The piece was painted on silk then machine embroidered using free machine technique basically “drawing” with the thread. There is a LOT of stitching! I especially enjoyed doing the …
My love of poppies was rekindled yet again (!) by the late appearance of clumps of sumptuous oriental ones in my mother’s garden. They were surrounded by Michaelmas daisies and the glowing red and purple hues made for a heady colour combination in an otherwise drab October garden. How delicious! This started out as a …
[wpg] I’ve fallen in love with Copic markers recently but after some research, found out they are not very light fast and washable on fabrics so sadly relinquished them as serious fabric colouring contenders. I’ve been trying out Liquitex Acrylic inks as they are washable on fabrics and are superfine so suitable for use in …
[wpg] I’ve been having a little go with some hand stitching trying out various stitches. One of my favourites that I haven’t used for a long time is Bokhara couching. I like the solid, but textured effect it produces. I’ve also been trying out some shisha using large sequins and some other cretan stitches. I …
[wpg] I’ve recently become interested in doing something different with fabric painting – so trying a few textile experiments. I want to get away from the old school style of silk painting – which consists of a gutta resist outline, usually in gold, with the shapes painted in and maybe a bit of salt sprinkled …
“Brown Grasses”. It was created from Bogoak tweed bought in Donegal Town, Ireland at McGees. It’s gorgeous fabric and it’s a real pleasure sewing it. I started this piece a great deal of time ago and it looked like it was one of those that might languish forever scrumpled up in a box almost …