Module 3, chapter 2

Continuing the theme of strapwork, I have been researching and drawing examples of Celtic knotwork. The first photo shows sketches on graph paper of knots made using David Nicholl's method as described in Celtic Inspirations for Machine Embroiderers (Valerie Campbell-Harding and Maggie Grey). The knots in the second photo were drawn on grids from How to Draw Celtic Knotwork by Andy Sloss. The one on the right, with the black background, is copied from a page of the seventh century Book of Dimma - I find it interesting that the ends are different with a closed loop at one end rather than a continuous line. In the central drawing, I used the same design but on a curved grid, and the one on the left is an attempt at drawing a tapered knot (it is a bit wobbly!). I have played with drawing simple knots before but never done anything more with it, so I am trying to take it further this time.

Bird Book

This weekend I went on a two day workshop with the Embroiderers' Guild, Bristol, run by Frances Pickering. Frances makes wonderful decorated books using craft vilene, gesso, stitch and paper - see her website here for examples. This is the one I made, not quite finished. I still need to add a fastening and tidy up the edges of the cover, and then think about the contents. At the moment, the pages are just washed with Brusho but the idea is to fill them with drawings, words, colour, stitch on the chosen theme. I decided on birds because I had a lovely woodblock, bought on holiday a few years ago, which I used to impress in the gesso and then stitched in places. The book cover wraps over itself, this next picture shows the back.

And here it is open to show the pages.

Joining In

I have been having fun this week joining in with the online tutorials by Maggie Grey. To take part, you need to have her latest book Textile Translations and visit the publishers website. Lesson 1 is making a vessel/book - here are some pics of my work in progress. I have also been keeping my sewing machine busy making quick and fun christmas presents, but I can't show these just in case the recipients are reading.

Cogitating

A few pages from my sketchbook playing with the printed cog designs and adding some extra lines - not sure where this is leading but they seem to be heading towards some sort of hanging. Haven't done much this past fortnight partly because of half-term and also because I have let myself get distracted with other things (as usual) - will be posting about that on my other blog soon.

**Ed.s note - something very odd happened to my photos after I published this post, they went all pixelated - I have re-added them. With luck they should look clearer now.**