hand stitched pages

Despite many moves over the years I have held onto a three inch pile of postcards from art museums around the world. Some I bought and some were sent to me by an early art mentor. Finally, after rediscovering the collection for the umpteenth time, I decided to use them.

Given that the subjects ranged from Byzantine icons to modern art, I decided to detach figures from their settings and recombine them with other papers to create unexpected narratives. I pasted them all in a children’s board book, where I look at them more often now.

Front and back ...

 This quarter's theme for the Endeavourers Challege was Collage and, I must admit that I really struggled to come up with something to fit the theme for most of the quarter :( 

At a Textile Printing Summer School last year, I had put together these pieces of printed fabric but not progressed further with them so they lay in a cupboard for a year. The theme for the summer school had been leaves and grasses and, at the time, I felt that, although I really liked the colours ...

embellished, design sheet

collage, cloth, surface design.

pages, soft papers and collage

collage on soft papers

hand stitch, cloth, paper and collage

collage and hand stitch.....surface design

design sheet, with added embroidered cloth

creative options, Sunday

wall·​flow·​er ˈwȯl-ˌflau̇(-ə)r 

1a: any of several Old World perennial herbs (genus Cheiranthus) of the mustard family

especially: a hardy erect herb (C. cheiri) widely cultivated for its showy fragrant flowers

b: any of a related genus (Erysimum) of herbs with showy flowers

2a: a person who from shyness or unpopularity remains on the sidelines of a social activity (such as a dance)

b: a shy or reserved person (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wallflower)

Am I the only one who sees a contradiction in the above definitions? Showy yet on the sidelines? But that contradiction applies ...

I finished my last 100 day project collage on June 2 and am now pondering exactly what to do with a plastic bag full of 4 by 4 inch collages. Almost all are abstract compositions, though some could be considered impressionistic landscapes and a few have recognizable images.

My original parameters were to glue painted, printed and magazine photo scraps onto squares of card stock, and add a stamped image to them. I had a plastic tub full of scraps left from previous projects that I augmented with magazine photo strips about halfway through. I tried to use the scraps ...

extending design sampling for embroidery

design sheets in progress, paint and stitch

colage and embroidery, surface design

collage and embroidery, surface design

collage and embroidery, surface design

When I am given interesting materials I like to play and see what I can do with them. Recently in my volunteer work I came across the first of five volumes of a Braille book. No one knew what happened to the other four, so I got to take that volume home.

The Braille printed pages look like code, with raised dots on both sides of each page. According to the American Foundation for the Blind, “Braille symbols are formed within units of space known as braille cells. A full braille cell consists of six ...

collage and embroidery, sampling, surface design