Bringing More Texture to my Natural dyes

Playing around with my naturally dyed

on a thundery rainy day.

Arranged and pinned silks on the wall.

stitched and added in some wedding dress.

Really like this as it is.

It's about 22" square.

Threw it into the washing machine

and now it measures about 12"!

Tried different stitches

got different effects.

Tried different threads

got little specks of colour.

 

My favourite section 

of fine wrinkles

below those puffy rows.

If you want to know how

you'll find it in India Flint's inspirational book

"Second Skin".

I'm going to try for a gentler effect next time.

Mulling Things Over

While in Toronto I did a talk about Environmental Influences.

In preparing the images I decided I had way too many.

So I collaged j-pegs of the inspiration behind the finished pieces.

Brilliant eh!

Bev misunderstood me and thought the background inspiration

was part of the whole stitched piece.

Since then Bev has caused me many sleepless nights

lying awake ruminating and mulling ideas over.

I'm  exploring hanging pieces over a backdrop

of the original photographic inspiration.

Photo transfer onto fabric is not something I am interested in.

The idea of a contrast between the textured stitching

and a smooth print on paper is a possibility.

The colour saturation on those prints would have to be cut back.

Viewing these images from my talk

I can see that the photo inspiration needs to be knocked back.

The stitched work should be the first thing you see.

Still have not had a moment to settle down to some stitching

but as you can see it is never far from my mind.

Another Path that's Percolating

Another layer in the recesses of my mind

is wondering how to stitch the ripples and reflections

of a rain filled puddle.

What fascinates me here is the transition from perfect circles

to the broken messy reflection of a vertical tree trunk.

Recreating water would not be my intent

though the character of those flowing lines and shapes could never be lost.

So many levels of line and shape are captured in water....

from underlying currents to rippling surface disturbances, 

  

from the shapes of things in and under the water to...

a million reflections of everything around and above that water.

Perhaps too much 'white noise' but so many possible stitchings.

What interests me in this one is the wake from the beaver

breaking the straight lines of the woodland reflections.

I will be isolating bits and enlarging bits,

exploring ideas

until this Penny drops!

Nature's patterns

Things grow in the unfriendliest of places. These two puffballs appeared on the driveway overnight.

Had to try out those tiny little piramid shapes in stitch.

Started out with a solid pattern in the middle...not too thrilled with that. Found that I preferred to leave gaps and might just leave the drawn outlines around the edges.