Thursday 4 April 2013

Working through the ugly


At the early stages of any new piece of work I go through a stage of hating what I am doing and would like to consign the piece to the scrap bag. If I have learned anything during the past few years of crafting it is to carry on working through this stage. Very often the worse it looks at the beginning of a project, the better it ends up. I hope this piece of work based on the grids I've been drawing doesn't prove me wrong. My challenge to myself is to have a layer 'floating' almost free of the background. I think I am trying to control the layers too much.

   
I have printed the base fabric with a wavy grid design and hand and machine stitched it onto a layer of soft batting. I really liked it at this stage, I have loosely cut out grids in various sheers and nets, some of which I've stiffened and I'm currently attaching them to the background.
I've also spent some time formatting a lot of painted papers that I've made over the years, It's lovely to see them as a cohesive 'whole', rather than being tucked away in boxes and not seeing the light of day.


I love this way of layering up the pages, Dionne Swifts workshop has really made me rethink my sketchbooks.


I thought that I was a bit random in my choices of workshops and practice but I'm starting to see connections at last, maybe I'll know where all this is heading sometime soon. I would really like to concentrate on just one area, the problem is, I love it all!

6 comments:

  1. I've just read Annabel's latest blog and she says to cram it all in! So keep on doing everything!

    Oh, and I'm seriously thinking about doing Dionne's sketchbook course. Thanks for the introduction.

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  2. I like the way that the textile piece is going and your papers look great. I'm looking forward to starting Dionne's class on Monday.

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  3. I know exactly what you mean about sometimes wanting to stick to just one thing... but everything you do looks good!

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  4. This all looks lovely - and why do you have to choose? ... Though I do know what you mean about being a butterfly.

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  5. Pam, your stitched piece is looking wonderful and your sketchbook pages look fabulous! I know what you mean about loving it all...such fun and that is the fun!! And the best part is, you get to do it all as you wish. Ain't life grand!!!

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  6. I'm doing Dionne's sketchbook course this week and am really fired up by it. I love the look of your last photo and this is the first time I've seen your grid piece and it looks good. I can see where you've come from the previous sketchbook work.

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