Wednesday 6 November 2019

A weekend treat.


A couple of weeks ago I treated myself to a weekend textile course tutored by Hilary Beattie at a very nice hotel a few miles from where I live.   The theme of the course was 'The Language of Flowers' and we spent the first day doing various drawing exercises followed by more considered drawings of our chosen flower.   We were not allowed pencils for any of this and had to use a fine black pen.  Above is my drawing of clematis.

My piece was smaller than everyone else's as I didn't want to mount mine on a canvas.  However, the work looked very impressive when mounted and each of us went home with a finished piece of work.  I intend to press mine carefully, apply a couple of coats of acrylic wax for protection and used it for the front cover of a sketchbook.
Our drawings were photocopied then traced onto deli paper from which we transferred the design onto our background of collaged fabrics with machine stitching - rather hair-raising as I haven't done any free machining for a long time.  There was a small panel of net behind the drawn image in order to stabilise it for stitching.

These two photos show close ups of the fabric collage behind the drawing.

It was a delightful if exhausting weekend (all that concentrating).  Great tutor, lovely companions, very good food and comfy bed.  One slight drawback for me was the fact that the first night, the couple in the room above mine decided to have a blazing row at about 11pm and went on till 1.30am!  Well, you can't have everything, can you?