Mark making

 

Spent a lovely morning making marks on fabric. Using green sap ink, black ink and red clay. Also some marks with oil pastels. The clay was powdered and it was then diluted with water until it was the same consistency as the inks. Don’t think it will be colour fast. But this is not for an article that will need washing. The second one from the top and the bottom one are two halves of a vintage hand towel. 

52 Tags

 just can’t help myself. This seemed like such an easy challenge, quick enough with out too much time needed each week. Also plan to use only what I have. I only found 20 tags in a drawer. I remember purchasing them years ago for some arty purpose but never got round to it. Will make the other 32. But then found three that I had tea stained and another that I had covered in teabag paper. Then some smaller ones that I may use. These might give the finished tags some interest. They will all be kept on this ring binder again that I found, one of those things you know you have and keep finding everywhere but never use. 

There is a theme each week. The first was white, for fresh

start to the year. The second was to put a heart on. This has been set by @hannemade. 

Quilt Freedom

 Today I did an online quilt workshop with Joe Cunningham, called Quilt Freedom. He is know for his freeform piecing and this was a base then the bias tape forms the ‘sketch ‘ on top. So it was a still life in this free form style. He moves fast and you have to keep sewing as he is talking. I am amazed that I was cutting and piecing the background with no measuring. I haven’t really done any sewing on the machine for a long time so felt the background came together well.

The bias tape is another thing altogether. He suggested 1/2 inch or 1/4 inch tape and as I only had 1/2 inch,that is what I went with. He used 1/4 inch which may have been easier to fit all the elements of the still life in. I will persevere. I really enjoyed it .

Auditioning

Sometimes it seems I spend more time in auditioning than actually doing. As I spent time sorting and clearing in my studio it is amazing the number of small vignettes, scraps put together, textile pieces gathered. All planned but never got further than the auditioning stage, then put away becoming covered in other things in the mad rush of life. So when I slow down it is fascinating to uncover pieces like an archeologist digging for treasure. Well not that it’s treasure but good to find and discover again. 

This image was made today auditioning flowers, stems and leaves to go onto a page in my journal. So instead of leaving it I am just going to do it, stick them down , don’t leave for another archeological dig in years to come.

Too bad that I’m trying to fit all the flowers onto one page where maybe less is more, too bad I haven’t painted a background, too bad there is no colour pop. It CAN be added to later, that is the fun of journaling this way. Always room to alter