Five Amazing Days with Sandra Brownlee.

Sandra Brownlee is a weaver, tactile journal maker and artist living on the east coast of Canada. I have had the privilege of spending the last five days in a workshop led by Sandra, called TACTILE NOTEBOOKS and the WRITTEN WORD.

To start with, we made covers for our journals/notebooks, choosing our own fabrics and choice of stitched decoration, so that they can become something that we want to handle, and go to each day. They are somewhere for us to record experiences, explore feelings, thoughts and emotional responses to anything we may hear, read, dream see and experience during our daily routines, walks or wherever we may be. At least, this is my understanding, and something that I find extremely exciting.

I used some linen fabric that I had sampled some time ago when considering curtain fabric, but as each of  the three pieces were not large enough, they needed to be joined with hand stitch. 

I found aspects of this workshop very moving, but also exciting and inspiring which I'm sure will help me to move forward in a very positive and more personal way in my creative work. We were encouraged to explore different ways to use our pages, so that all our senses could be engaged. After a breathing exercise using paint and movement, I decided to pierce the paper surface, following my paint marks, so that I could 'feel' the rhythm of the breath. 

Exciting ways to present thoughts, ponderings or ideas are important, and writing them out can help to consolidate them more firmly in our mind.

Taking more notice of our surroundings, and seeing the beauty in shapes, textures silhouettes etc, can also act as inspiration for ideas. I know this is something I need to nurture, as I can quite easily walk from A to B without taking notice of anything at all!

I'm finishing off this post with some images I took of the building work that is presently going on in Eastbourne town centre. There are some really interesting structures to be seen on the skyline, and I have also included the roof top of the Victorian building that houses Eastbourne Railway Station, making an interesting contrast with the new.

Thanks for looking in, see you next time.