Brown Paper and Stitch Book

Another  experiment - working with recycled material. Inspired by my workshop at the end of last summer with  Frances Pickering  I wanted to make a simple book using paint and stitch. This little prototype is made entirely from the brown paper packing material used by a well known on-line company (other brown papers are available!) :)

 I've been  playing about with the momigami, (paper kneading) technique, I found in Cas Holmes
 ' The Found Object in Textile Art'. I'd love to know if anyone else has used it?  The cover was molded and bonded  to stiffen it - and hopefully make it durable! It gave a nice, leathery effect.

Inside colour pencil worked  quite effectively  on the dyed paper. 

On the right are a couple of blank notebooks I put together with momigami covers.

 This is my favourite page. I have a thing about the arum family!

 I'm happy with this and learnt a lot of useful things making it!

One of the good things about being a curious bumblebee is that  you can buzz back to the same flower. Over the last few weeks, I find myself being drawn back more strongly to embroidery.

Isn't it odd though, that when you feel the need for a change,  the past rears its head?
Last week I had three separate enquirers asking me if they could see my dolls - and would I run a doll class again?  It was  lovely to be asked - then I realised I hadn't actually got one single place with my photos  - so I decided to add some new pages here. It did seem strange to put them back on my blog, after all!

Regency Rabbiting

Dear reader,  a most interesting  thing! A young lady has of most excellent character has called this very morning.  A chaise pulled up at 11 o clock - just as I had settled to my correspondence;  and Miss Elizabeth Bunnet was announced!

Miss Bunnett (of the Weston Bunnets) has recently arrived in the district and caused  many heads to turn amongst the young bucks at the Bath Assembly Rooms last week.  She is a most gracious and charming young personage and I was delighted to make her acquaintance!

Such dewy eyes, flexible ears and simplicity of style and manner make me think it quite likely she will be the darling of the season.

Her Mamma,  I believe, is overcome with joy!

To be sure, such excitement seldom reaches us here, secluded as we are. I am not at liberty to divulge more at present,  but I can say  - I expect news of an attachment soon! x

Blog Hop

I’ve been tagged in a round the world blog hop by Rachel of  the excellent VirtuoSew Adventures .
Thank you so much Rachel for giving me the opportunity to  take part, and here's my take on the hop! 

What am you working on?  

I'm developing a way to uniquely link both my art and hand embroidery. I've kept sketchbooks for years, and am revisiting themes and ideas. I've become very interested in documenting life through my sketchbooks, and found a whole new art community, including the Urban Sketchers. Using your sketchbook as a life journal, drawing the world and events around you really appeals to me. For me that's normally something related to the natural world.

How does your work differ from others of its genre? 

 

 I've always had an overactive imagination!   I've always invented characters and writing about them, and this eventually found a way into doll making.  I love detail, (probably too much for someone who longs to loosen and simplify) and I'm interested in the process of how I can make something work. 

I call myself a textile artist,  but I wonder if that's really a misnomer?

 'Jack of all trades - master of none',  is more appropriate I think.
It's only in the last 2 years, since giving up the day job, that I've realised I've never gave much thought to developing my own style. So I'm concentrating on that now and just seeing what happens. There's certainly a simplification in my work of late -  finally I no longer feel I have to  'prove myself' by mastering complex techniques any more.

 The good thing about being a Jack of all trades is that you can revisit media and techniques and apply them in new and different ways, and no longer follow the 'rules', which is so liberating!

     

Why do you create what you do? 

Blimey! I can't imagine not creating. At age 4 I was given a little embroidery kit for Christmas. That was it!  I drew pictures, stitched and designed tiny felt toys.  Creating is like eating and sleeping. If I'm not drawing, embroidering or doing something creative I get tetchy and miserable. Certainly at difficult times in my life, being able to draw and make things has kept me sane.  I'm a great believe in the power of creativity to support and improve our health and well being.  

Making something out of nothing has always had great appeal for me, and even more so our concern for the environment  grows even stronger. I know I have far too many media at my disposal now, and I'm striving to strip back even more, which is not always easy!

 

     

How does your creative process work?
I have far too many ideas and not enough time and resources - or hands! I'm frequently inspired walking in the woods and marshland, and constantly jotting down notes,scribbles and sketches. I also take lots of photographs. Then I go home and do something completely different! 

When I have an idea I often tend to do a rough draft and then start work. If I'm designing a character I usually cut as I go - and then work out the pieces afterwards! This does make life interesting if I then need to create a pattern afterwards!  I  learned to work this way through having very little time when I was working in my career, and creativity was my luxury (or, this could just be my excuse for having a butterfly approach, and being incredibly impatient!)

    

I hope  you haven't got bored  with my ramblings as I'd like to point you on to some wonderfully talented - and extremely lovely, people.  I'm tagging two bloggers across the pond;

Tammie at  Spirithelpers takes the most stunning photographs of the natural world in the stunning State of Montana USA, plus adding beautiful words to go with them. They inspire and delight me! She also has another charming and whimsical art blog,  Beauty Flows

Deb is a self taught folk artist in British Columbia and creates all kinds of wonderful things with paper, fabric and paint at Paxton Valley Folk Arts.  She's ingenious and fun  -and amazes me with how prolific she is!