Bank Holiday Afternoon Creativity

I've got a hole in my sock! Then throw it away and buy a new pair. Why throw away a perfectly good pair of socks? But they are not perfectly good: you have a hole! OK I'll darn it - then they will be perfect again :-) On to some sensible creativity.... On Saturday I was invited to lunch by a very well known Embroiderer (Ecclesiastical :-) ) - this lady belongs to one of my Urchfont groups and had recently seen my Free Machined Zentangle (click here to see the post about it a year ago) and has commissioned me to do a piece of work for her based on the Zentangle. Yes ME!! I can't tell you who or what at this time (just understand that I am seriously, seriously honoured and very nervous!!) and what I need to do is practice, practice, practice!! So here is a tiny zentangle card I have created to send as a thank you for the lovely lunch and the honour of working for her!! This is on a fine silk.

Zentangles

As usual - procrastinating - no really waiting for fabrics to dry (like watching paint dry)!! Blog surfing came across Zentangles - or 'mega doodles' as I am going to refer to them!!. I thought I should have a go!! so I drew around a plate in my 'Be Creative' ex diary journal and doodle filled it in as one does with a zentangle. Apparently this style is called a mandala zentangle ! .... Then I decided to have another go but with a jumbo marker..... to get an idea of scale here is the open spread.. I know completely filling a page is not a 'real' zentangle. They are supposed to be odd shapes or rather freer shapes, but I must admit it is addictive. I have spent the last hour looking for more on the web to get more ideas.

MUSE 1 and scale

My plan for MUSE 1 is to work on a combination piece - to sort of translate this rough design, using colour but using zentangles for stitch texture, and finally 'quilting' the whole thing. My trouble is that i am rubbish at scaling. Here is Muse (the zentangle piece) I showed you in a previous post on the stitched grid ready for Muse 1. As you can see the scale is increased. Muse is roughly A3 in size already. I have stitched a sample using a scrap of the dyed fabric from the weekend to test my thread colour, I even 'quilted' the sample. It is random shapes just for fun. However when you see my sample against just one rectangle of Muse 1 I am not sure how the stitching will scale up !! Should I use the stitching scale of the sample - it will look rather compact/busy or do I try to scale up the zentangle designs. Each row of the sample (and Muse) is free machine stitched three times. to scale up it would need to be many more times - 6 or more. I am unable to decide the best way forward.

Free Machined Zentangle complete

So here it is - my finished free machined Zentangle. This started out to be just a quick practice of free machining but gradually continued. It is one width of calico measuring 57" (145 cm) x 9" (23cm). I had to stand a bit of a distance to take a pic and get it all in (I taped it to the back of the door so you can see how long it is). Then there are the three close ups which do join up properly!! Now I must get on with my latest costume ideas!

Textile 21 and my Special Zentangle

I am in the middle of a wonderful time at Urchfont with 4 other members of Textile 21, sadly the bad weather has kept the others away - in fact the five of us have Urchfont completely to ourselves!!

This was my garden before I left home this morning..I have been coming home in the evening (as usual) although today I did get a bedroom key just in case I decided to stay - although the road has been bad I have driven really slowly and I like my own bed!!

Any way, amongst several things we have done so far, (including some brilliant drawing exercises from Jane Wild - thanks Jane), I have been working on a version of my latest Zentangle - --- Here is the drawing in my sketchbook...... and here is the start of my free machine embroidered one....... Black cotton on calico - it is going to grow!! I'll show you when I eventually finish it!!

Zentangles take over my life!

It truly is becoming an obsession - it is strangely very very relaxing, and I find I surprise myself with the finished results!! - For the moment the textiles muse has gone on holiday and been replaced by the Zentangle monster!!!!
I finished my page of small ones... and then.......Now I have the henna designs I am going to see about trying some of those in a Zentangle or two or three or four or......... !! :-)

More Zentangle Practice - Complete

A whole afternoon of stitching and the practice piece on rough silk is complete - now it is a simple slip cover for a sketchbook - front, back, and in case I forget what it is and when........ (inside the cover!!)

Can't keep up with myself

This morning I realised that my creative spirit is back with a vengeance! Yippee!! If only I did not have to look for a real job!! I have two lists 1) current in progress projects and 2) ideas (flowing thick and fast!).

1) Current in progress projects:

a)Titania - bodice complete, small ruff complete, Rebato currently - 2nd lot of wire stitched and ready for shaping. b) Oberon - currently at planning stage

c) Fool Bodice - still at same stage as posted HERE.

d) Waste Not Waistcoat - still at same stage as posted HERE.

e) Red/Gold Bodice - is now looking more like a bodice than it did HERE. I have chosen the threads I am going to use for hand stitching (note - not the blue or silver ones!) f) Zentangle bodice - front panel still work in progress - this is time consuming and needs a lot of concentration!

g) Black/Shot bodice - working on again today!!

h) A small 'scrapbook' in the style of the ones described HERE ready for January 25th when we start the One World One Heart giveaway see the Tab on the right for more information.

Perhaps I should at least finish one of the above - H is quite urgent so that may be worked on later this afternoon when hand sewing is the order of the day!!

2) Ideas

Well that would be telling !! - Suffice it to say there are several ideas floating in my head (really need to get them documented) including three more bodices! One to be made from green velvet and gold organza, one called 'tattered hearts' and a rusty one. Here is a little about the last one. Yes I have done more rust dyeing in the last few days. Here are the packages I took out of the airing cupboard this morning.... the two cans looked like this before unwrapping and like this when unwrapped and like this when washed - even after only 3 days dyeing you can see the rust has eaten right through the fabric in places..... as you can see the can has not much life left but hey I will still use it!! The other package contained the stuff I want to use for the idea I have mentioned. You remember the horrid lace I used for Titania's small ruff? Well I have loads and loads of it so I cut a strip and thought rust dyeing. Here is is before unwrapping from around the rusty item. Unwrapped..... washed.. you can see the lovely colour variations.... this just must go onto a bodice don't you think??

More Z's and the start of yet another idea

Two pages together then another coloured one, then - can anyone else see a whale????? Or is it just me - I have terrible eye sight :-). I will do one more Zentangle tonight (I think) because tomorrow I start another crazy idea that struck me at 2.30 this morning!!!! I will be using these..... (sorry the pic is so bad). On a different note - you know we textile artists are magpies in disguise..... well today at work - by the way I gave my week's notice in on Tuesday!! - there were some men re cabling an area and I happened to say what a pretty colour. The chap said they were throwing it away - a four meter length was no use to them!! So it's here now!! Not sure what I will use it for but it is such a pretty colour!!!! :-)

Busy Busy Busy and Mustard Seed

I have had a fantastic few days recently and more to come now too!!
Where shall I start to tell you... In no particular order - yesterday my daughter and I went to see Matthew Bourne's ballet Cinderella at the Bristol Hippodrome! What a brilliant production - set during the Blitz - such an original idea - it was just superb! Last weekend I attended a course at Urchfont tutored by Viv White - Learn to love your sketchbook - what a fun weekend that was - brilliant - We had to take our favourite things to draw - I took this statue - my first drawing... not bad! Then a close up - I got inspired by copies of my drawings and did several coloured versions - which then had a grid over the top - I won't bore you with the various combinations just suffice it to say I am inspired and when I have finished the costumes (very soon) I will be working on this design to see where it will lead me - possibly a panel or hanging - although I have ideas for costumes too I think I need to break away for a little while - especially as I currently have nowhere to exhibit them. OK Just one more design picture then..... Of course I had to Zentangle a version.... (This is the most inspiring for me !)
Now an update on Mustardseed.. I have been working on the seed pods, but the more I do the more I thought they were too heavy looking to hang on the bottom of the dress - then on Wednesday morning I woke up at 5am with a start the idea had come to me...... Don't have them hanging from the dress - give her an accessory to carry them in - I had to tear a piece of paper out of my diary and draw a rough idea..... but that was not good enough - I had to get up and pin a very rough idea straight away...I have also been busy hand stitching on the Volume Covers as mentioned in the last but one posting.. progress so far - all three have had some of my favourite Sorbello stitch in swirls (Little Secret for you ---- if you look carefully at the above photo you can see the covers were resting on a very rough draft of a future costume - The Queen of Hearts - but shhhh don't tell anyone!) and I have started some beading - yes beads - I don't often use beads but I have a large collection so time to use them up.
So this is what I will be working for the next few weeks -
Finishing First Fairy

Finishing Mustard Seed

Finishing the Volume Covers

Statue designs - she really needs a name - any ideas?

Queen of Hearts costume (design is in my head at present)

Blue silk Corset (fabrics collected and laid out in the workroom but not worked out yet).

This weekend (ie starting tonight) I have another fun packed weekend at Urchfont with the MEG group so hopefully some of the above may be close to done. Busy Busy Busy!!