Zest

I signed up for one weeks worth of art stuff. Called 'Zest' it's being run by Este MacLeod these are some of my drawings from today.

Birds

Pages of drawn birds on eco-dyed paper for the start of my book in the Stroud Artist Books round robin. The theme for my book is Nurture Nature as I don't think we're doing enough to support our wildlife and the habitats it needs.

Embroidery class at Brewery Arts

Thankfully Brewery Arts in Cirencester have started up their craft classes again. Oh what a joy it is to be stitching with a few other embroiderers after those long dark art & craft starved months. For homework last week we were given a small stuffed calico 'pebble'. I turned mine into a little Russian doll.

Jug collage

A challenge on textileartist.org by Cas Holmes, to make a textile piece based on an object with meaning & using materials at hand, led me to create this. It's a handstitched fabric collage inspired by a little jug that I have which was made by Annie Hewett.

New book

This is the book I've been making over the last 3 days. A repurposed old book cover with text block removed. Filled with random papers cut to size - old paintings/drawings, cartridge, watercolour paper, squared, tracing, wrapping etc. Stitched using long stitch binding.

Dyeing

A little book of circles

Latest work

Recently I've been dipping into various books on textiles as well as going to a mixed media sketchbook course. A few things have resonated with me.
- Sketchbooks don't have to be bound, they can just be a collection of 'pages'.
- The pages don't have to be presented in a 2D way, they can be in a 3D container.
- The pages can be worked on in a 3D way, any stitching doesn't have to be flat.

Bookmaking course

I'm doing a bookmaking course with Emily Northen at Brewery Arts. This is the built up base for the cover of the book ready to be covered with a thin leather. Design based on an art nouveau embroidery.

Sketchbook Challenge. Day 17

Something that doesn't smell nice - the compost bin just before it gets emptied. Hopefully there'll be lots of lovely compost to go on the allotment this year.

Sketchbook Challenge. Day 16

Something that smells nice - new baked homemade bread. Half eaten already!

Sketchbook Challenge. Day 15

Something that floats from a photo of a boat on a lovely sunny day in Cornwall.

Sketchbook Challenge. Day 14

Something beginning with F. Fields that are still flooded and have been for nearly four months now. The level of water has gone down a bit but we're forecast more rain ne t week.

Sketchbook Challenge. Day 13

Sketchbook Challenge. Day 12

The theme was 12. A recent family birthday was on the 12th January & there are still 12 candles left on the cake. Pen drawing with water soluble crayons - my go-to medium.

Sketchbook Challenge. Day 11

Signs & Symbols. I've been doing a bit of research into ancient British rock art for another project. There is no way of knowing what the marks meant but surely they must have been important signs &/or symbols for the tribes who created them.

I experimented with resists using gesso, oil pastel & candle wax which were then washed over with quink ink.

Sketchbook Challenge. Day 10

Today's theme was the colour yellow. I immediately thought of the newly bought lemons in the fruit bowl, but then noticed this little zipped bag in a more orange yellow so added that too.

Sketchbook Challenge. Day 9

Musical instruments! I was in bed with a nasty cold & this ukulele was on the other side of the room so it was an easy choice. Pencil drawing first, left there as inked over the top.

Sketchbook Challenge. Day 8

A few of my favourite things - small pieces of pottery collected here & there, painted with Art Van Go waterbased dyes. Some wet in wet & spattering.

Sketchbook Challenge. Day 7 Money

A page from 'The Metal Mirror' a book of photos of old coins by Stephen Sack inspired this artwork. A printed horseman on top of a sponged & spattered background.

Sketchbook challenge. Day 6

Day 6 had a theme of clothes which meant an opportunity to practise drawing people too. I liked the dramatic reds on the clothes. Definitely need to pay more attention to proportions in the collage which I found rather tricky.

Sketchbook Challenge. Day 5

After a lot going on at home I'm trying to get back on track for the sketchbook challenge. A lot of catching up to do! Theme for day 5 was garden tools. Inspiration from a book by Laura Stoddart. I was going to do a catalogue of my gardening tools but ran out of time...!

30 day sketchbook challenge Day 4

Got a bit behind today as very busy and things did not go well. The theme was toys. It was very had to try & get the right proportions for this owl soft toy & it ended up looking more like a penguin!

Sketchbook challenge Day 3

Butterflies & moths today. I've always liked David Measures' book - Butterfly Season 1984 so I went to that for inspiration for a washy watercolour look. Of course no butterflies out at this time of year so I looked in a Collins book for reference.

Mark Hearld's collages amaze me. His have beautifully hand coloured & printed papers to form all the separate elements but I didn't get time to try that & had to resort to a food magazine. Beetroot salad for the pink one & iced chocolate brownies for the other.

64 million artists challenge Day 2

Today we had to make something to be left somewhere for a random person to find so I made a little notebook. Not sure where to leave it?!

30 day sketchbook challenge Day 2

64 million artists

30 day drawing challenge. Day 1