home to St. Ives

I've been feeling a lot better about things lately ...

for being at home and slowly catching up with things

I've been stitching new seaside hearts and there

will be some new ones in my shop later today

thank you always for visiting x

a bit about the jar project

 I began the jar project in January 2013

it started as an idea that I mooted with my sister in November

... that we collaborate on a photographic project together

a project that allowed each of us to work within
our usual styles, colours, themes, etc.

whilst exploring new ways of looking at things

6th March 2013 - week 7
the jar project

each week we explore  refraction, reflection, distortion

opacity, light, bokeh, colours and textures through photography

by photographing objects/subject matter

either in or through our jar or glass vessels
you start to find there are so many other things gong on
there are beautiful reflections, light bouncing, colours changing
shapes bending and distorting

as well as noticing and capturing interesting backgrounds
the jar itself can be interesting
the photo above is of the thread of the jar

each week the subject matter of my jar has been either
connected to something that I'm working on at the time
or something on my desk ... 

which serves as a kind of diary thought 

as all of my jars reflect my thought process for that day

here I used my oldest and most faithful paint brush

it's the brush I use a lot for painting backgrounds

painting tyvek, fibretex, geospun and collages

it's a sadly neglected brush ... I do wash it out (of course!)

but it's rusted with bristles splaying ... and does the job

so my one word title for this jar is ...
"neglect"

also on my desk you can make out William Shakespeare
and some other papers that I'd started to gather
for a paper swap with mixed media artist Brian Kasstle
organised by FM of Lawendula

my parcel of things was posted to Brian in Long Beach, California
a couple of weeks ago and I'll share more on that another time

William Shakespeare in my jar huh?

who'd have thought he'd be that famous lol ;o)

mish mash

the thing is ...

most of the time I have many projects on the go

but I do like to complete everything I start

even if, frustratingly, it's not as quickly as I'd like and

sometimes there may be no apparent semblance of order

things may appear to be a muddling mish mash

a collection or mixture of unrelated things; a hodgepodge

but this can be a very refreshing way of working ...

refreshing

1. || 2. living at Canteras Beach 3. stitched 4. Noel Betowski - painting detail 5. tTextiles & fabrics & cloth 6. the EZ 7. white brown and blue vase (4) 8. . 9. dream of cool summer stars 10. . 11. petit dessin 6 12. St Ives Cornwall 13. free texture 14. sailing day 15. cold waters 16. raindrops

it's the way I work ...

and I'm sure many of you do too ...

quite often I have a specific train of thought going on

but one thing leads to another before the first thing has met fruition

and, before you know it, there's a big pile of UFO's

(unfinished objects)

 the only way to manage this way of working

is to accept that some projects serve their purpose at the time

and reach completion

and others are either best left to be revisited at a later time

or, perhaps, will never be finished ...

they may be cut up and used in a new project

 and this can be a very positive thing

... a way of connecting your work

especially if you work with recurring themes

acceptance is liberating

this happened to me recently on one of my Crow Days with Jo ...

 when we  met up for our usual monthly get together to "play"

we decided to have a go at making faux chenille samples

so I prepared my painted papers the night before

choosing to work with the colours in my photograph above

(my usual St.Ives/seaside colours)

 I used pages from my local paper - The St. Ives Times & Echo

in particular the art pages about

William Scott's exhibition at The Tate

  

as well as some pages from a daily tabloid and some bondaweb

 I coloured the pages so the text can still be read and enjoyed

and ironed some of the bondaweb onto the painted newspaper pages

 the painted papers were then mixed with layers of chiffons

on top of a base of stiff interfacing/pellon

and machine stitched in straight lines through the layers

then cut with a pair of scissors through all the layers

except for the interfacing base which holds it all together

 then I fluffed up the edges with a rough nail brush

to distress the chiffon fibres and reveal some of the text

although I really enjoyed playing with these samples

and was pleased when assorted St. Ives and sea related words

were serendipitously revealed ...

I can't, ultimately, see a purpose for this technique in my work
(that's just my own personal opinion)

so I'm not sure the exercise was wholly successful ...

and I came to this conclusion rather quickly

so I only stitched and cut up a small piece of faux chenille sample

you can see some good examples for end use
in Kim Thittichai's book "Layed Textiles"

so ... what to do with the rest of the layers? mmm ...

leaving the newspapers, chiffons and pellon in a random order

I folded them over and double stitched down the middle

to make little newspaper books

I only made two as my sewing machine decided to have "attitude"

and refused to stitch through the ironed on bondaweb

(something you may find of interest before you attempt this)

anyway ... when I opened them ... I was surprised at the
serendipity of them ... of the randomness of the papers and text ...

this pleased me very much

(and when I got home I began working into the pages)

 on my desk

preparing the base layers and beginning to decorate the pages

using pieces of fabric, scrim, lace and paper from my erosion bundle

the next stage is to embellish the pages with things I love

such as St. Ives related things, words I like and hand stitching, etc.

 this is how the front cover is looking ...

it will have a gorgeous blue mussel shell attached when it's finished

it's just placed there at the moment so that I can work on the pages

 now these I can see will have a purpose

one will be a mini journal filled with thoughts of St. Ives

the other will be a comments book for my show in November 2013

and I will share the pages later ... as I work into them

 anyway ... my point is that the faux chenille will always be a sample and will not progress to anything other than a sample which I will stick into the newspaper journal ... that leaves me with the newspaper journal ... an "as yet" unfinished project ... but an ongoing one ... as you know how long hand stitching takes ... and it will be revisited on an "as and when I get time" basis because I've got more pressing projects to complete first ... such as things for my shop, custom orders and tags ... so this is how it goes ...

you will be getting a mish mash of stuff from me ...

meanwhile ... back to our Crow Day

it was a Wednesday so it was time to photograph my jar

week 6 of the jar project

27th February 2013

[my jars for weeks 4 and 5 will be on Love Stitching Red]

I took my jar to Crow Day at Jo's studio at Krowji in Redruth

I used the mussel with the barnacles as my subject

and placed the jar on some of the painted bondaweb

through the glass it looked like a "watery" beach

and then I placed the jar on some of the painted pages

about the Tate exhibition ... love those distortions

William Scott and Peter Fraser

and then looking at the same page through the bottom of the glass

  mmm ... lovely colours and distortions and light

if you read down to the bottom ... thank you so much!

I  hope it may have inspired you a little to "play"

thank you always for visiting

and for reading my rambles ♥