Tuesday 20 October 2015

Adventures and Experiments

Recently I've been experimenting with lots of new materials as well as honing my freehand machine embroidery skills. 

I've always had a thing for seedheads and the shapes and silhouettes they create. I finally started creating work using them as inspiration in May. I then took a break from the work due to various craft fairs, but have recently just got back into experimenting again. 

 
The work above is called Umbels and is one of the first pieces I created. I started by using a Thermofax print for the colour printed background and then used a bold black thread for the seedheads. I really enjoyed sewing the seedheads as it truly was drawing with my sewing machine. From their I developed the background and created more layers; experimenting with new materials, paints and dyes. Below are the results. 



The three pieces above are on display inf Square Umbrella Gallery, opening this Saturday (24th October), along with 2 more of my works and a whole host of works by other artists. Square Umbrella Gallery is a new venture I have entered into with other artists from my studio group at Commercial Square Studios. See the website for more details, www.commercialsquarestudios.co.uk. 

My most recent work is a further development again from my previous seedhead pieces. I have made the scale larger and used different materials in the background to create alternative textures. It is still a work in progress but here are a few pictures. 



I am looking forward to getting back to stitching this piece and can't wait to see how it turns out. I will obviously keep you updated.