Textile Artists.org has brought Gwen Hedley back for an updated Stitch Camp 2023 and I’ve joined in! As some of you know, health issues have prevented me from accomplishing very much, particularly textile art. A combination of spinal stenosis, worsening arthritis, sciatica and Restless Leg Syndrome has been pretty severe this past year, leaving me with little mobility and serious pain. I’ve begun to improve and will be starting much needed physical therapy next week. So once again, it’s a great way for me to get back into the swing of making art!
It begins with a focus on mark making: “Mark making describes the different lines, dots, marks, patterns, and textures we create in an artwork. It can be loose and gestural or controlled and neat. It can apply to any material used on any surface: paint on canvas, ink or pencil on paper, a scratched mark on plaster, a digital paint tool on a screen, a tattooed mark on skin…even a sound can be a form of mark making. Artists use gesture to express their feeling and emotions in response to something seen or something felt – or gestural qualities can be used to create a purely abstract composition.” Tate Modern. https://www.tate.org.uk
This was my first take and I wasn’t happy with it. The dark green looks black and there wasn’t much of a difference between the dense and the spare parts.
My second piece was much better to my eye. Instead of looking black, the dark green ran truer and the blue was a somewhat deeper color; in addition, the dense and light sections are distinctly different.
The first two pieces I cut were sewn together with two stitches. It wasn’t easy, not only because the size of the overlap was so small, but also because I did some damage to the fabric when I first tried to sew it. So, on the second attempt, I ironed on a narrow strip of misty fuse between the two pieces at the stitch area and proceeded successfully from there.
All six pieces finish steps one and two of the Stitch Camp process and I’m liking it! The idea is to choose and layout your blocks in such a manner that there is some link between them; something that connects them. This was not so easy to do with my piece and, although the links are not very apparent as is, they will be clearer in the next step.
So far, so good – movin’ on! Stay tuned!
Thanks for hanging with me and hope this might inspire you to check out the Textile Artists.org site to see what else they’ll be doing for future workshops.
Turtlemoon Impressions 