Sunday 23 March 2014

Catching up

After a very hectic few weeks - time to find some space to start some new work. Spent a week up in the Lakes on a textile retreat with like minded souls, mainly from the northwest contemporary quilt group. A perfect restful setting for contemplative textile pursuits - Rydal Hall is a large Victorian  house converted into a residential centre.
Even in February there were plenty of sources to inspire work.





















Rydal Beck was in full spate as it tumbled through the grounds into Rydal Water.


I loved the bracket fungus on the ancient tree - I am sure I will use the image in the future.


A lot of time was spent sketching - found some more jug shapes!

The week was the opportunity to complete work and start developing new pieces.  I had started working on
my 2014 pieces for Voyage - an international group I belong to - the theme this year is 'Earth' and I am approaching this  from the perspective of earth marks, marks made by early man  - from incisions on stones and early construction to the early trail marks and pilgrim trails.

My first piece is based on the pots of the Beaker people, who lived across northern Europe around the time just before the Bronze age. My earlier work based on Jugs - helped me here! I researched the shapes and incised marks made on the pots (I found some examples locally at the Lincoln Museum) and then tried to create a design where the decorative marks would appear to float over the surface.

The piece started as usual with white cloth, dyed, then inktense blocks were used to create the pot images and shading. The incised marks were painted on with thickened dye before quilting the piece.


This evening I have been preparing some screens ready for a bit of deconstructed printing on dyed cloth as I need to create a lot of background cloth for future work.

Jean