Eclipse

The completed piece. Found fabric; dyed fabric; stitched fabric. From the eclipse in April. The moon covering the sun.

Close up.

12 Circles

12 Circles; remains unfinished.
The last 3 weeks have been lost in a blur of labyrinthitis. And the future looks pretty hazy too........I get a couple of 'good days' where I feel better......then stumble back into illness. I'm not daring to work on this, in case I mess it up; so I'm pulling out fragments of fabric; and stitching them together in a random linear fashion.
To go in the exhibition at Westgate Chapel for the Artwalk on 30 September.
Since Kate died earlier this year, there's been no-one to co-ordinate the Artwalk exhibitions at the Chapel; so I offered to take it over.
Six exhibitions a year. Organising publicity through the website, and facebook page. Not massively onerous. And, of course, contacting artists. I've got 5 of the 2016 slots filled; one more to go. Next year may prove a busy one then! 
 

slow stitiching

 Nine Circles; complete.

 Close up; and incomplete

How one piece begets another......Twelve Circle.......unfinished.

July was for hols.......

 In July I went to a festival. Took a photo of this lovely van! 

 The view from my lovely van!

The weather stayed warm, and clear all weekend, despite rain during the night. We all had great fun; listened to music; danced; drank beer; laughed; ate some fabulous noodles! And I had the best cuppa in the whole field!

And now; here's September.

honeysuckle....Vessels

Work ongoing on the honeysuckle frame; printed paper; stitched together and onto the frame. It's tough on the fingers. I use a thimble. I need to bind the frame together with less 'twist' in the honeysuckle. It has a tendency to pull in different directions, which makes the stitching even harder. More thought needs to go into the initial frame. A steep learning curve!

Tee-shirt commission

So I was asked to print a tee-shirt; a paid commission. Course, it's done on 'mate's rates' which means the cost in no way came close to the amount of time it took me; but that doesn't matter.
Above is the completed design...sideways on. All hand stitched...I couldn't get to my sewing machine, due to various furniture being moved around. And hand-printed.

Close-up of the print, and some stitching detail. I printed from a collagraph plate I made a while ago. It had feather, and seed-heads on it, which you can see has been picked out in the foreground of this photo.

This blue fabric is from a pack of rather wierd and wonderful fabric....which is somehow impregnated by chemicals that make 'photograms'. You place objects, or made stencils, on top of the fabric; leave out in the sun, and you get this change of colour. Solar printing I believe it's called. Took me back to the days of doing black and white photography in my loft!
The tee has ended up with 2 methods of printing; and hand-stitching used on it. I have more pieces of this fabric, so I'll be making some stencils, that I can use on them, in different permutations.  

Eyemouth beach-combing

Last weekend I spent the Solstice at Eyemouth in Scotland; at my friend, Paula's place. I spent many happy hours walking on the beach; collecting stones and sea-glass. 

 Treasures; a small handful of sea-glass.....and a stray button........

And even found quite a bit of green sea-glass. I'm thinking of how I can use them in my textile work.......I've passed on 2 pieces to my friend Paul, who has a small drill. At some point he'll drill a hole through each, and I'll make earrings out of them.

Some of the small pebbles I collected. I brought back a big bag of larger stones with me; they're in the garden; waiting for the right place to sit.
I've also noticed that a lot of the photos I'm taking on my phone, have this square (of the photo shape) and the circle within it. I'm considering this. And; I've begun painting again. Well......one painting. It's a step forward; I've not painted for three years.