I'm busy drawing, stitching, weaving and printing material to inform my next and final brief for college. This is the last module in my two Year journey to attain a foundation degree in textiles, this work will hopefully go in the final student show so it needs to be a bold statement of what I have learnt this last two years.
I've been looking back at my collection of work so far, and my research of artists and ideas that have inspired me and its so eclectic it kind of gives me plenty of scope but also rather too many ideas. It ranges from the delicate ideas using embroidery both machine and hand rendered that Cas Holmes and Anne Kelly produce - lovely natural colours with subtle highlights and trim to the bold robust multi coloured multi patterned work of some one like Kaffe Fasset whose colour combinations know no limits. All this via more traditional artists like Marc Chagall - a long time favourite for once again his use of colour and his distinctive style and shapes and Lisbeth Zwerger for her clever illustrative drawings for childrens books.... there are so many different styles and ideas for inspiration..
At the moment I'm just building a large body of drawings, supplemented with some preliminary weavings as I want the finished product to represent my preference for constructed work rather than print design, Although, I have come to love printed design since I got to grips with digital work.
My inspiration for the project is the nature and nurture of my garden which currently is organised chaos - a wild but cared for space - a bit like a cottage garden but not quite so twee. Also I've done this on a budget, showing how a lovely garden can be established by using cuttings, begged plants, and the odd 'borrowing' of overgrown plants for example I have a lovely buddleia which I 'liberated' from the wall bridge next to the Metro Arena Centre.....
In the summer the garden is colourful and busy and this is what I want to convey in my work. The working intention, as it stands at the moment, is to produce three or four different handmade books which depict life in my garden. These books will contain drawings of favourite plants and insects made into samples using collage, weaving, embroidery stitched and appliqued. The working title is 'Where the Bee Sucks' a Shakespeare poem which ~I remember singing in school- all this might change as the project evolves but at the moment I have a large collection of plant drawings happening in various mediums, ink, pastels, charcoal and graphite, some crying out to be made into stitched collages, lino stamps... the possibilities are endless... and there lies the problem! what to actually do next. It's so easy to get carried away with ideas and overwhelmed with possibilities so one of the outcomes I need to address within this module is knowing my limitations and keeping the workload realistic and manageable - after all there is always another day to experiment new ideas with!
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