textured textiles

It's been a while.  I got caught up with school and basket making last year.  Although it was this last basket of mine which sparked something new.

 I loved where it was going at this stage, but I wanted to give it a bit more structure....

 I have learned so much over the last year about the texture and structures that can be obtained with textiles and fibres that a new idea began to formulate... and hence this project was born:

 It started simply enough.  A piece of raw canvas and stitching straight into it. I very soon became brave and started cutting into it, changing shapes and tension.

 The process is slow and each new stage requires some risk taking; lots of unknowns.

 Whilst from the beginning I dyed some of my own threads, this has become a major part of the process with many slight variations in colours and many many different types of fibres (plant and animal) being used.

At one point, I incorporated some weaving, and I love how it adds another texture to the cloth.

 It is still a work in progress, and it grows and changes on a daily basis as it obsesses my life right now.

 Not a day passes when I don't work on it.  A slight change here, an addition there.

 I have been lucky to find the fabulous string harvest and the lovely Cass quickly supplies my needs.  Not a small thing for me, living here in Singapore.

 It has taken on a bit of a life of it's own; like some kind of microbe or bacteria, slowly growing, changing and adapting.

 With new fibres, come new ideas.  New colours, spark new shapes, and contrasts.

 It is starting to remind me of a landscape from above, and there is still a long way to go....

 But my palette is full and I am just enjoying the process so much.

 After years of keeping art and craft as 2 distinct areas of my artistic repertoire, I feel such synergy in this piece.  I could not have created it without the years of "craft", but it is so much more than that, and evolves in the same way as an abstract painting (albeit much, MUCH slower).  So, if I'm not here blogging, you know where I will be.  Instagram with it's instant point, shoot, feedback loop has become a really important part of the creative process for me, and with a full time job that is more than full time (as all teaching ultimately is) I just don't have time for the slower reflective process of blogging.