Experiments in spontaneity

This is a picture-heavy post, so apologies for that, but hopefully you'll like them!

I wanted to do something different in the Thursday class, something to break us all out of our comfort zones. I also wanted to revise some neglected stitching techniques, such as whip, feather and cable stitch, and teach them to the "new" girls. So while I was pondering how to go about doing this, I tripped over the work of Lauren Shanley, entirely by coincidence at the same time as Gina! I posted the results of my first experiments back here.

So fast-forward to this term. First off, stick a quick collage. Use pictures from magazines, keep your eyes peeled for motifs, shapes, colours that appeal. Try and get things stuck down fast before the inner critic wakes up and starts getting you to double-think and dilly dally.

These are all postcard size.

Hopefully you will have warmed up your spontaneity muscles by now. Repeat, but this time stick down fabric onto a piece of Bondawebbed calico. We used an approximate A5 size of fabric. Again, work fairly fast.

You will find as you do this, that you start to "audition" different pieces. This is absolutely fine, just don't over-think it or worry about the colours clashing. You will instinctively know what colours to use where, and whether you have got the balance of light/dark/size "correct" (whatever that is). Just go for it.

Here are Carole's collages, paper and fabric:

You'll note that Carole has actually followed the paper collages quite closely with her fabric piecing. This wasn't my intention, and was in fact a mistake as Carole now freely admits. It has made it very hard to continue with the spontaneity.

The first fabric piece is the hardest to work with, as it is the most similar to the collage. This is now a practice piece for the stitch techniques. The second collage is more successful as it loosely follows the colours and blocks of tone, but without being too prescriptive.

Onwards!

When you have ironed your fabric pieces firmly onto the Bondaweb and backed the whole with some sort of stabiliser (I use a tearaway paper type of thing) you can start to stitch. 

I outlined most of the blocks then started to add some detail. I used free machining patterns and doodles, and some textured stitch with whip stitch and cable. I also couched some thicker threads by hand. 

At this point, there was a halt in proceedings for people to get to grips with pulling up the bobbin thread to create whip and feather stitch, and using thick threads in the bobbin to stitch cable stitch:

And here's where we're up to after today's class. 

First of all, Maureen's fabric collage, only started this afternoon:

The Indian motifs were 'found' not stitched today :)

Then for those who had already stitched their "backgrounds", we tried breaking out of the confines of bands and blocks, with large patterns and motifs crossing the whole piece. Doing this helped enormously, and things are starting to take shape and feel more cohesive, less random. This is Sheila's:

This is Sue's - she included a fabric/paper transfer (using the Bondaweb on organza method) to add the flower - the other half was used in her paper collage:

and here is Jill's:

I must say, I am mightily impressed with Jill's work! She probably struggled the most to feel "happy" with her paper and her fabric collages, but now she's off and away and starting to enjoy it!

Here is where I'm at (my excuse is I am busy teaching not stitching, so I'm lagging behind now!)

I'm not sure I like them, I prefer Jill's! They might grow on me...definitely need more work, I've only really just started...

Finally finally, to complete this very long post of pictures, I have started a mini book of collages, trying to use bits and pieces I find every day. Here are the first couple of pages:

Look at that, some bits and pieces found at Brighton's Open Houses a weekend or so back.

And looky here, some other bits and pieces I found!

None other than Emma from Skye, and Alison Fibre Frenzi! Oh, and some tea and very good banana cake...

Fluency and flow

When I was nine years old I swam in Lake Geneva with a German girl.  She couldn’t speak English and I couldn’t speak German, but we had fun splashing about nevertheless.  When it was time to leave, her father said to me “tomorrow, you will be a fish!”. 

Well I still haven’t grown fins and a tail, but my swimming is definitely coming on – and is feeling more flowing than drowning.  And as I’ve been wafting my way from one end of the pool to the other and back again (repeat 32 times) I’ve come to see swimming as a bit of a metaphor for life.  (Whether I can now remember any of my great, watery insights is a different matter, but here goes!)

• You can spend a lot of time faffing about before you even get to the pool: where’s my swimsuit, oh no it doesn’t fit, have I taken my contact lenses out, where are my goggles, where’s my towel, have I got 20p for the locker, oh no look at the time I haven’t got time to do this I should just forget it for today and do something more constructive I’ll go another day….
• Having shown up at the pool, there is still scope for faff – are my goggles too loose, too tight, have I got my shampoo, where shall I put my towel, how cold is the water – maybe I could just dip a toe in….
• When you get in, you could just bob about in the shallow end for half an hour then get out and dry off.  But you won’t achieve anything or feel any better for it – you’ll just get out feeling cold.
• To get that lovely warm and glowy feeling, you have to exert yourself – take your feet off the bottom and move.
• Once moving, you have to keep going for a significant period of time to get any benefit – one lap isn’t going to do it.
• You have to get your face wet.  In fact, to move smoothly through the water, you have to look straight down at the bottom of the pool, confront its watery depths, and lead with the top of your head.
• The water gets deep.  You have to go to the deep end in order to stretch out, leave the bobbing old ladies behind, and get up some speed.  You can’t touch the bottom, it can be scary because you can’t put your feet down if you stop.
• The more you struggle, the harder it is.  If you struggle, you sink more easily and all your effort goes into staying afloat instead of moving forwards.  The more relaxed you are, the more fluid your movements, the less you splash, the more you find you actually float and glide and moving forward becomes almost effortless.  You can go faster and further for the same level of exertion if you just learn to let go, relax, trust yourself and the water, stretch out, be completely in the moment.
• Swimming then becomes about refinement and technique, not about avoiding drowning.  Lose yourself in thinking about your feet, your ankles, what your fingers are doing, the water flowing over your head, watching the tiles go past underneath you as you glide along.

So to put that in context with the past week:

"Faffing about looking for goggles" was not doing any of the grand plans I had for this week, but spending too much time noodling about on the internet...

“Bobbing about in the shallow end” was just finishing this piece from last weekend.  It’s quite simple, different to anything else I’ve done, unplanned, wrinkly…



“Trying not to struggle and be more relaxed and fluent” was French class on Wednesday.  Heck, it hurts my brain.

“Getting my face wet” was talking to a lady in a gallery about how to submit work and join.  It’s a cooperative gallery ie. you pay a small monthly fee, do a stint behind the desk every 3 weeks, produce lots of work which has to be changed every 6 weeks, pay a small commission on sales…that’s it.  The only catch is arranging to show them my front crawl or breaststroke whereupon I realise I’m still in armbands…

“Swimming in the deep end” was an impromptu chat with another lady in a local fabric shop/workshop venue about teaching machine embroidery classes there…the water’s so deep with that one, I can’t even see the tiles at the bottom.  And yes, the tendency is to panic and thrash my way back to the safety of the pool edge and hold on tight!

Spontaneity

We went for a walk in the Hundred Acre Wood yesterday.  We'd forgotten about the Remembrance Day ceremony at the airman's grave until we couldn't park at our usual spot, and as we didn't think anyone would appreciate a Whippet tearing through the proceedings at 38mph, we drove on and found a new walk in a different part of the Forest.

We were all glad we did. 

We found leaves to kick through, a deserted hillside in brilliant sunshine, an old moss-covered bridge over a stream - very Tolkienesque and elvish, some old ornamental fish ponds with bamboo-covered islands, secret wooded paths winding back up the valley....layers were shed, the sun shone on our faces and arms and we topped ourselves up to the brim with vitamin D.

And when we got home, after a homemade soup into which I had successfully smuggled a large cauliflower, I "painted" (scribbled)  a couple of sketchbook pages:

They really are nothing special at all, I'm just pleased I did something spontaneous!  I couldn't be bothered to get the paints out so I used watercolour pencils. 

And then in the evening, with absolutely no natural light, and working on my lap in front of a telly programme about vegetables, I continued the spontaneous vibe by grabbing a piece of fabric and my box of random bits and offcuts, and started putting this together:

It's wrinkly.  But it's spontaneous.

I would have done more today, but I seem to have spent a lot of the day mucking about trying to get my head around Facebook.  I've added some buttons and whatnot to the blog - see if you can spot them!  (Blimmin' well hope so, or I've wasted a lot of time!). 
xx

(I also added a few more bits to the shop)