This week I have been working on a Circle challenge by Lisbeth Degn I have only just started and the challenge is half way over! I am inspired by friends who are doing the challenge and Rita Summers of Gone Rustic. I want to add to my textile vocabulary and have chosen to work small collaging on to a khadi paper book. The brown piece is a teabag using a South African tea.
I have also been learning to machine couch and plan on using this technique in my textile practice.
I have been working in my Studio each day this week working on a variety of projects.
First I have eco printed some fabric and papers using a free type approach. I mordanted the fabric in alum and then sandwiched with leaves from my garden between some thick cardboard squares and tied tightly I placed in water on the stove in which I had placed some onion skins and some rusty bits and simmered for one and a half hours. I was aiming to get fairly abstract prints. The results below
I also worked on my two sketchbook challenges - one a wee altered book and the other mainly abstract pages.
On my design wall a have a large procion dyed whole cloth pieces. I am studying it to hopefully get inspiration to complete on the theme of Place.
I have been fascinated by trees for a long time and have decided to return to this subject as a source for some new work. There are some amazing trees in the Scenic Rim of Queensland, Hutt Valley, New Zealand and Bogor, Indonesia to name a few.
Several years ago I began a series of tree and branches and this resulted in this quilt blocks.
I later made this into a quilt.
I also made an 80 inch by 80 inch quilt of a cross section of a large tree. I was not happy with the colour combinations in this quilt and it has remained as a quilt top!
I have taken a some photos recently of trees in a paddock in the Scenic Rim.
I am going to use these for inspiration for some further work particularly relating to line and colour.
