Blog
Hello and welcome to my Blog especially for textile artists, combining inspiration, personal growth, creativity and design. All the good things!
Dynamism
There’s one thing I want from a piece of art and that’s excitement. I want to feel reverberating, unrestrained energy, not just glimpse it. I want my eyes to gallivant all over the work, not just puddle in one place, if at all. And that’s exactly what Dynamism’s should do.
The Attitude of Learning
The skill to learn is an attitude – the attitude of interpreting information to your wants and needs, not someone else’s. It’s the measure of being able to improve, expand and refine techniques and ideas into your own artistic voice.
You’re Invited to PatternPlay
PatternPlay encourages originality and individuality in design using beautiful lines and your own creativity. You’re invited!
Design Development
My design’s finished and I’m happy. It’s animated and full of life. I love working this way. Making mistakes, filling the whole page, making do and having confidence in the process. That’s what design development is all about.
Signs and Symbols
It’s signs and symbols in the artwork I find so fascinating – that hidden-in-plain-sight allegory. Now that’s clever.
Drawing: From Design to Reality
For me, art is all about engaging an audience and assisting that interaction the best way I can. Looking at the manifold ways other artists engage their audiences, opens other doors to imagination and creativity.
Grow Your Own Garden
Now you have the best possible set of conditions for a magnificent garden. Trust in yourself and allow time for all your endeavours to blossom and bear fruit. Setbacks happen. Pick yourself up and continue. Positive change is a result of these little challenges.
On My Desk: The Subversive Stitch
This book offers well-supported explanations surrounding the premise for ‘the feminine ideal’ and its link with needlework, from medieval times to the twentieth century.
Technology
This greasy tech pole has had me climbing and sliding. But I stuck in there and committed to learning what I need to know – not necessarily what people want to teach me. It seems to be working.
Begin
How I would love to sit down with the designer of The Bayeux Tapestry and just talk. There’s such value looking back to what’s been done before – and the beauty of that is that I can utilise that work as a stepping stone to inspire new work, steeped in historical meaning. Now that’s fascinating to me.
Serendipity
I believe in listening to or taking note of, these little signs. Perhaps it’s more about knowing where I’m heading, and the outcome I want to achieve, whatever, I believe these little auspices have some form of attached meaning. It’s like a road sign saying ‘Look at me, look at me.’
Define Time
Analysing how and when I work best and linking that to a do-able timeline, is my way of making the best of my time as well as achieving focus on the things I love to do – that’s how you define time.
The Adventure Begins
It’s too easy to have an idea, and then keep ‘looking’. Sometimes I just have to bite the bullet and begin doing, otherwise, I’ll flip and flop my way around to procrastination, and that’s just not going to happen. The adventure begins now.
A Flight of Fancy
Is being scared part of the creative process? Absolutely. It seems to me when we push ourselves, and I mean really push ourselves, that’s when the fear sets in. But it’s also, for me at least, the time when I know opportunity and possibility are at a premium, and I need to lose myself to find both.
On My Desk This Week
Two more books to add to my suggested Reading List. The Bayeux Tapestry and Guo Pei Couture Beyond. If you’re interested in Stitch and History, read my blog for more.