Dyed Fleece; the fleece I brought back from Islay.
The bottom of the photo is just washed fleece; the chunk of wool at the top of the photo, has been dunked in a dyebath of oak leaves. It's a very, very subtle shade of beige. Both of these pieces of fleece have been carded/combed. All ready for using in making future felt pieces!
A small piece of the fleece I got from Islay last summer; dyed with the procion dye from my textiles course.
I have to card it yet; it's dyed patchily, but I think that will be quite effective. It's quite dark; with some lighter areas here and there.
This is the second felt that goes with the brown felt (below) that depicts the Uffington Horse; the second piece of the diptych.
The colour has changed; the tiny stitches at the forefront of the felt, isn't blue, as it appears here, the cotton is a 'silver-grey', from Green Fibres, an organic cotton thread.
I've been embellishing the Uffington Horse felt piece. Using space dyed cotton I dyed on my course, I stitched these marks. In the background is the stitched Uffington Horse.
The second part of this diptych is about completed I think.
The birdbox that Jon put up outside the window, is now home to some blue-tits.
I can see the parent birds flitting back and forth (and boy, do they!) taking food to the nestlings, as I sit in the living room, on the sofa. Yesterday I went out and took the photos above, and the blue tits hardly broke their stride! I didn't disturb them at all. They just kept on, feeding those nestlings! The cat was pretty interested though, so I might have to keep an eye on that, when the baby birds begin to fledge.
A piece of cotton dyed with procion dyes, onto which I then painted a flour resist.
I've since added magenta procion dye; and another layer of flour paste resist; and then painted the grey/black procian dye. In class, I used a batik tjanting, and added another black procion dye to the outlined shape. Got to iron off the wax now.
In the conservatory I've begun a tin-can 'rust dye' experiment. I've wrapped linen fabric around a tin can and added pennies. Soaked it through with tap water, and await the results with interest!
Oil on canvas; a painting from 2008.
From one of my visits to Luce Bay up in Scotland.
A late night walk along the shingle beach, bouncing over the scrunchy kelp and almost stepping into a scrape nest of three eggs.
Oystercatchers like clockwork toys, running to avoid the waves.
The boom of the sea on the shore; the undertow of the pebbles. The cries of the seabirds.
The smell of the beach; salt; kelp; putrefaction.
Something mysterious beneath the shingle.
Layers.
