Trinkets

a little look over some trinkets, contained chaos, a sprinkling of frivolity....

                     a sparkling Moon over a jumbled wood

.....why the strange fascination for flaking paint and rust?

I don't understand why I'm drawn to metal, in this instance corrugated tin, when it has peeling and flaking paint but I know I'm not alone in this judging from the most viewed/favourite posts on here. 

I couldn't resist capturing this tin shed which stands outside the Solva Woollen Mill in Pembrokeshire inWest Wales.

In its peaceful rural setting the mill produces beautiful woven floor coverings, blankets and many other related items. I last visited a few summers ago but am looking forward to my return visit this summer. I wonder if this little shed is still standing.....

I find the green paint peeking out from beneath the blue very appealing

mystery quilter....

So to a quilting related mystery, this is an image of a painting, a print of which belongs to a friend of mine, she has not got any details about its painter or of whom the quilter is. 

This makes the image even more compelling to me. I find myself wondering about the fabric, the many colours presumably from previously used items, loved items? Did each fragment mean something to the quilter? 

How were the women related, mother and daughter or sisters, maybe friends? Who painted them, someone close to them or commissioned for the job? Where are they from?  Has the painter painted other textile related works? Is the painter a man or a woman?

The colours of the painting are so warm and even seem to show a warmth between its subjects. 

Who, what, where....?

playing around with surface pattern....

these images are part of a study on tea shops and cafes that I undertook for my BA in Textiles, where hearing threads of conversation made me think of beaded strings, the background layer was acrylic pallet knifed onto paper, the colour mixed to emulate tea, I then set about building various layers with Photoshop, just playing around with some of the exploration work I had undertaken in my sketchbooks

I had sketched, with ink, many the chairs I had found in the tea shops I had visited

wanting to see what blue looked like to balance out the 'tea' colour

gingham had shown its face in several of the tea shops  and so went on to appear  in my images

the original background before adjusting it with Photoshop

Bejewelled Chandeliers

I found these lovely chandeliers in a small Ludlow Antique and Vintage Shop last year, I especially loved the bejewelled fruit. These photos make my mind girl with images of silk embroidered velvet again all in jewel like colours, perhaps something abstract this time

there is inspiration every where....

This is a post box situated at the entrance to a Country and Western venue near Warton in Lancashire, I have always loved miniature things and including miniature houses. I love its naivety and find its life worn look very appealing. I also like the colour palette and the metal name plate.

I can see several outcomes arising from this and they may well appear here...

metal bent and rusted by the force of the sea, just waiting for transformation into artwork...

I came across this rusted metal, probably a ships container,  thrown up from the sea while it hurled itself about during the winter storms along the North Cornish Coast. These shots are taken on around Towan Beach at Newquay, near the damaged BlueReef sea life centre.

I do try and understand why something appeals to me but with this image I think it may be because of several things ~
the once pristine, overly shiny, metal man-made box, totally crumpled by the power of nature, the erosion of the paint, the beautiful colour of rust, the way the metal now resembles crumpled textiles, the combination of the blue and rust colouration....the list goes on the more I look at it. I do know it is a terrific source for surface pattern, original colour-ways and would lend itself beautifully to art journal exploration.

.... metalwork from fridges also found its way onto the beach

I particularly like how the shadowy lines from the temporary barriers overlay the  intricate lines  of the metal grid

these permanent railings are slowly becoming coated in rust

these railing are above another Newquay beach but I have included them  again for the rust factor but also because of the  way the missing rail was replaced with bent and riveted strips, also again because to the lines and their interaction with each other

patchwork carpet, wonder if you can still get it….

I love this crazy carpet, would so like it in my work room. I wonder where, if anywhere you could get it?  The £20.00 note is just there for scale…..I didn't drop it.

This carpet is in my daughter's Dolphin Bar & Restaurant in Newquay in Cornwall UK.

just remembering the Harrogate Knitting and Stitch show….

Well it was wonderful being a the Knitting and Stitch Show, with so many great memories of my time there.  I exhibited as a member of the Textile Bursary Group, with 10 of us at the show and the time spent on the stand with others from the group was very much enjoyed. My beautiful niece Bethany also came along to assist and we couldn't have managed without her!

Around 40,000 people came through the show over the four days and as a Textile Artist and Designer it is a very positive experience having so many people come up to you and compliment you on your work. 

It was also great to meet many of the other exhibitors from the other stands with such a wide range of working practices and supplies. A wonderful experience, meeting so many like minded people.

I love this picture of someone looking at my work, thank you for letting me share it.

These are the pieces I took, from the series “Conversations”, sourced from my observations around the activity of drinking tea and the human interaction that often accompanies it.  My mixed media processes for these pieces were inspired by Blackwork embroidery, surprisingly not just black, which I researched through a study visit to the wonderful Gawthorpe Textile Collection in Padiham, Lancashire.

“Connected” originally a charcoal sketch, digitally printed onto cotton, embroidered with cotton and embellished with plaited silk cords and brass pins.

“Conversations Past” mixed media piece made as a reference to the older stronger women in our family, although often overlooked by todays cultural slant towards youth I felt the need to acknowledge their hidden strengths. Comprising of derelict teacups, sewn into organza with and fused with heat.

“Voices   a page from my art journal /sketchbook referencing the hum of conversation in a tea shop, linen, acrylic paint, ink, thread and organza.

Tea-towels; the “Cups” design created by drawing and carving small blocks, working with acrylic paint into my art journal and then manipulating the page on Photoshop and digitally printed onto cotton.   “Random Conversations 1 & 2”  were created after haunting tea shops and collecting conversations, then collaging them onto 00 sized paper with ink, acrylic paint and torn strips of paper, photographed from above with the aid of a stepladder and then digitally printed onto cotton.

some of the Textile Art I will be taking to the Harrogate Knitting & Stitch Show this November....

.. this mixed media piece was created from derelict teacups, fused into organza with heat and tied with thin but tough wire and made as a reference to the wonderful, older and through adversity  stronger women in our family, although often overlooked by todays cultural slant towards youth and who I 

felt the need to acknowledge their hidden qualities and strengths.

to me it seemed as these smashed cups had some stories to tell....

more crockery, this time sawn apart from a loved aunts house, I wanted to see what the  fragments would look like if more uniformly cut but decided they were not as interesting

for one of the many samples I embedded the pieces into clay, the tags represent teabags and the conversations that accompanied them. I did not choose to further sample along these lines but find that 'embedding' with a slight reveal of itthe item now seems to often pop up in my work

this is one of the pieces I'll be taking along to the Knitting & Stitch show this November in Harrogate, come along and say hello!

 http://www.twistedthread.com/pages/exhibitions/viewExhibition.aspx?id=45