I decided to work first on the left side one, and if I’d been smarter I’d have used a thicker thread for the seed stitch… but I did want to use the flouro green and it is a pretty fine thread. Richard uses very fine seed stitch in his work, so there is that … I may do another to make a companion pair, with a ‘cloud’ of another kind of stitch filler, but I haven’t decided.
Right now I am resuming applique of the gold on black, and getting back to finish the motifs being stitched onto the little landscapes in progress.
it’s always interesting to learn how individual artists are inspired and motivated to create what they do. The next workshop, starting this coming weekend is with Mandy Pattullo, a UK textile artist I’ve been reading about https://www.textileartist.org/mandy-pattullo-from-conception-to-creation. For a prominent artist to claim to do little research before she starts making a work was very interesting, and a little reassuring to know I’m not the only one with this approach. She commented for the last 40 years she’s been ‘researching’ – by collecting postcards, photos, books and many other visuals which she pins on her board for inspiration (she might also have added Pinterest …) and all that time ideas have been formulating in her mind. I feel the same about where my ideas come from, though a big heap of my physical collection is in actual storage in Australia.
In this very stimulating series of Stitch Club workshops, it’s also interesting to me that there’s a very strong encouragement for us all to use recycled or repurposed fabric where possible in the various projects, and several of the artists have very strongly signalled that recycling is at the very core of what they do. I myself love seeking out remnants and discard bargains in outlet stores, but I do prefer to work with ‘new fabrics’ as in not repurposed. In a post by someone on a textile art organisation’s FB page this week, a member showed a very nice wool jacket she’d made for a relative, having recut and embellished a wool coat she bought in a thrift shop or somewhere. I’m not sure if the main intention of her post was to show thrift or art. A bigger question in my mind is this: does the use of recycled materials and fabric bestow some extra value on an artistic work ?