A Year of Exploration
Earlier in the year I set myself the task of exploring lots of different art techniques and styles in order to clarify which ones I most enjoy. I have tried painting with both acrylic and watercolour, gelli printing, drawing, constructing books, fabric dyeing and eco-printing as well as several different embroidery techniques.
Drawing of spring blossoms.
I often return to drawing. Increasingly, I am finding that it underpins everything else that I do. I enjoy drawing flowers and foliage in particular but simple mark making can also be a simple warm up to start the day. I have also found abstract, mindful watercolour to be another good warm up. I make marks with the paint that respond to sounds I can hear or the shapes of the clouds. I’m sure that this abstract mark making will inform some of my stitched work in the future.
Embroidered dahlia flower with beads and goldwork.
In the past couple of months, I have started to play with different ways of turning my foliage and flower drawings into embroidery. I have tried from simple couched outlines all the way up to long and short stitch filled petals with stem stitch outlines. There are aspects of both that bring me joy but I am still in the experimental stage of the process and I have to keep reminding myself to be patient and the breakthroughs will come. Hand embroidery is a slow process, offering much time and space for reflection and contemplation. This is one of the reasons I love it so much; it reminds me to slow down and be present to the moment. Everything is an experiment and I learn just as much from a failure as I do from a success. This experimental stage of the process is exciting and in many ways never really ends; there is always going to be something new to try out. I am measuring my experiments on a scale of how joyful they feel. If it brings me joy to work this way then I keep going, if not then I move on to something else.
Bead embroidery from a kit by Imogen Melissa.
In the summer, I learnt some new bead embroidery techniques, which I really enjoyed, so I would like to find a way of incorporating them into my embroideries too. I am working on a fabric collage base for some of my work at the moment, so perhaps there will be an opportunity to include some sections of beading in these pieces.