Slow progress!

I have finally managed to get my sewing/art space up and running after the move, although I still have a couple or three boxes left to unpack as you can see in the picture below!

It's a smaller room than I had before, so I need some more storage! The bookcase is going onto the landing, so that will free up room space.

Mrs. Frou Frou cocking a snoot at me!

It seems so long since I actually really got down to some serious stitching, so apart from the abstract piece I posted about last week, the above little Christmas wall hanging is one of my first attempts at getting back to being creative. If you subscribe to Linda and Laura kemshalls' DMTV, you will know where my inspiration for the Partridge in a Pear Tree, and the little sketchbook below has come from!

For those of you who don't subscribe, the sketchbook is made from a large sheet of good strong cartridge paper that is printed on both sides with acrylic paint, using stencils or printing blocks that you like to use. If you prefer to paint straight onto the paper then that is ok too, in fact you just cover the paper with paint in whatever way you want. The beauty of this technique is that you don't have to be necessarily good at painting or drawing, because the paper is going to be torn into much smaller sections, so that you are left with pages giving some interesting colours, textures and shapes that may inspire further working into.

The spine showing how the four signatures have been stitched together with the back and front cover. I used mountboard for the covers. I used some gelli printed papers that I found in my stash to cover them both.

This page seemed to form a sort of frame, with a space in the middle, just crying out for a small sketch or painting, so I decided to make a small painting of a Six Spotted Burnet Moth.

Some pages are quite densely  covered...

...others less so. I also included some tracing paper in a couple of places, although I'm not sure yet how I will use them.

I found this small ATC that I made a few years ago when I was unpacking. It had been inspired by a visit I made 6 years or so ago to the public toilets in Kawakawa New Zealand, designed by Hundertwasser. It perfectly picked out the colours on this page, with a space that it fitted into perfectly.

If you live in the UK, it looks as though we're in for a very cold snap this coming week, so keep snug and warm. For those of you who live elsewhere, have a good week too, and thanks for reading.

Inspiration from my new home town.

My new home town! I took this last week from Beachy Head, looking back and down towards Eastbourne. It was sunny down there, but very misty up on the Downs, but you can still make out the pier.

Talking of piers, just before I moved (which was three good weeks ago now), I decided to explore mark making with acrylic paint on paper, layering it up, scraping it back, drawing and scratching into it. The result was a bit of a mishmash of shapes and colours, and although enjoyable, it didn't really excite me in any way!

So last week, I decided to make it up into one of those books that fold three ways across, and three ways down before making three cuts along part of three of the folds. Sounds complicated, but is in fact quite straight forward. The paint was so thick in places that it cracked on the folds, but that just seems to have added even more interest to the texture.

This action gives smaller sections from the whole piece, which are often far more interesting, and can inspire some ideas for further work.

The section above reminds me of the structure for a roller coaster, and the section below reminds me of an old, damaged pier!

I printed this one off onto some cotton cloth, which seems to have picked up quite a bit of the textural detail. I have started to machine stitch into it, but will continue to add yet more stitch, and maybe some extra colour.

It has been a very busy couple of months, packing up one house, and then unpacking everything again into my new home. Trying to find my way around a new area, working out where the best car parks are, and how to get to them without getting lost!  All very exciting, and I am absolutely loving being here. However, it was really good to be able to get back into some creative stuff today, and as the weather was very wet and windy, I wasn't so tempted to explore outside!

My new garden is also rather lovely, and I'm sure it is also going to keep me quite busy once spring arrives! Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you will continue to join me on my new adventures by the sea, I am sure there will be plenty to inspire me in my new surroundings.