Anny – Page 17 – Dreaming In Stitches

Cranking Up…

Well, I said I’d draw every day, and so far I’m managing to do it – but it’s a strange process. If I don’t have an idea of what I want to draw, I end up doodling – relaxing, but not exactly developing the drawing technique. But what to draw?

I have various books on the subject, most suggest that you draw your breakfast (or coffee cup, or bathroom cabinet, toothpaste tube – etc) – in other words that you draw what’s around you. OK I suppose, but it doesn’t make my spirit tingle – and I do want to get that ‘flow’ sensation.

So instead, I had a think about the sorts of things that I do like to draw, or more importantly perhaps, the things that I’d like to be able to draw.

My list is short. I like drawing (for which also read painting) trees and landscapes. I would like to be able to recreate buildings, in particular ruined castles and churches – but these I find very difficult indeed.

Well, I don’t have to be a genius to know that if I want to improve, I should practise the bits I find hard – and so (drum roll please)…

IMAG0691 — Lanercost Priory – pen and watercolour sketch.

Here is my first sketch of the inside of Lanercost Priory. We went there on holiday, on a simply horrendously wet day, and I absolutely loved it. The lady at the ticket office deserves a medal for being so enthusiastic about the site, despite the weather. She gave us a fabulous description of what to see, which even managed to inspire the daughters.

It took a lot of sketching to get this far – how on earth do you get those gothic arches to look even vaguely pointy, rather than distinctly wobbly? I think I could go mad. Anyway, this is as much as I can manage on this picture – I’m seeing arches in my sleep.

I’m using ultramarine, new gamboge and permanent magenta – my scanner doesn’t know that.

IMAG0693 — The photo I used for reference.

Springing Into Autumn

journal

The new term has put a spring in my step. I have never really understood why people talk about fresh starts in January – for me, Autumn is the time when I feel energised, enthusiastic and ready to start again.

So the children are finally back at school and I’ve just about re-established contact with the bottom of the laundry pile, and at last I feel able to have some ‘me’ time. It’s been ages since I wrote here, but that’s because we spent most of August camping in Scotland (well I know that might not suit everyone, but we had the best time imaginable).

It’s my intention to scatter the odd post about the holiday on my other blog Mostly Motley from time to time, so if tales of wet walks up mountains, soft golden sandy beaches and castles galore are your thing, do pop over there occasionally and have a look.

But this blog is my creative space, so it’s time for a quick update.

Well full of good intentions, I actually took a small bag and some tapestry supplies away with me, thinking that I would sit and watch the sunsets, whilst putting in a few stitches. But in truth, I never actually took out the contents during the whole holiday. The fact is that we were either too wet or too tired to sit outside very much, and on the occasions when we did, I found that simply gazing at the views was enough. Oh and I suppose that having to move around quite a lot to avoid being midge fodder was an additional disincentive.

I did however, take a lot of photographs of the sort that my husband calls ‘arty’, but are in fact simply pictures without him or our daughters in them.

Kerkaig Falls — Kirkaig Falls, near Lochinver.

I also spent a great deal of time just looking. The scenery on the West Coast of Scotland is unsurpassed in my opinion. Ever since I was a small child, going there on holiday with my parents, the combination of mountains, lochs and the sea has had me in thrall. We drove to the Corran Ferry through some of the most atrocious rain we’ve ever experienced, but as we got to Glen Coe, the rain disappeared and the weather changed. We got out of the car to stretch our legs before the ferry arrived and tears came to my eyes, it’s just unspeakably beautiful and I felt that I was being welcomed back.

After three weeks of Highland scenery, I feel well and truly re-energised. My inspiration levels are topped up and at least for a while I’m calm again.

For two years now, I’ve been mangling my brain, trying to fit my square career experience into the round hole that is the real me, and I think that I might now have tipped the balance properly and decided not to beat myself up any more, (well I expect the occasional relapse), but no more attempts to come up with the perfect solution. For now, I’m going to be nice to myself and see where it takes me.

My Autumn resolution is to draw and paint every day. I can’t do that when the family are at home, so I’ll make time during the day. At night, I’ll always be able to sew – that remains my best therapy.

It’s been thirty-three years since I gave myself permission to draw and paint just for pleasure – I wonder what’s lurking inside.

Anyway, enough of this introspection.

Here is a pastel sketch of Hadrian’s Wall from a picture I took while we were there. I did it yesterday. Well, it’s a start!

Hunting For ‘The Hunt In The Forest’

heritage hunting, slow stitching

I wish I could remember when I first fell in love with Uccello’s painting, The Hunt In The Forest. It must have been some time ago, but since the babies came along, my brain seems to have developed sieve-like habits. So, you’ll just have to take it from me, I’ve liked that painting for quite a long time.

IMAG0441 — A postcard of The Hunt In The Forest

Anyway, having been lucky enough to go to Paris a couple of times in the last two years, I’ve rather got back into the habit of visiting galleries – it’s just something that wasn’t easy with two small children in tow – so it had been a few years coming.

By the way, a handy tip here if you do end up in the National Gallery with a bored eight year old – tell them to go round and count the number of naked bottoms they can find – worked a treat for me! Oh, and just so you don’t think I’m too weird, my children have now progressed to counting horses (horse mad children), but I’m sure you could adapt the principle to suit.

Having been to The Louvre, The Musee D’Orsay and various others, I was feeling well and truly cultured-up again, and then one of my favourite bloggers, Stephanie Redfern, mentioned in her blog that she’d recently seen the Uccello – The Hunt at The Ashmolean, in Oxford. Now, as we live less than an hours drive from Oxford, I was pretty stunned to find out that it was so close and I’d never realised.

So, anyway, that’s the background – this weekend, I finally got my trip to The Ashmolean and yes, there it is, on the second floor – wonderful.

Now I know it probably isn’t to everyone’s taste. In a way, although it is hailed as a great and very early example of the use of perspective, it can look almost two-dimensional – even a bit cartoon like with some of the figures, especially if you only look at it from close range. But for some reason, this matters not a jot to me. The picture simply has ‘something special’ that makes me tingle.

What I hadn’t realised before, is that it was actually designed to be displayed at eye level. Having had a very good look at the picture close too, I then walked back a little and adjusted my height, to give me that eye level perspective, and guess what – suddenly, you’re drawn straight in to the darkness where the vanishing point is. And with your sight, goes your imagination.

Why are they hunting in the dark? What exactly are they hunting? Why has the man on the right suddenly pulled up his horse? Why is there a straight river on the right hand side?

I could go on, but I think perhaps that’s the beauty of the work, it triggers my imagination. I think the thing that most excites me, is imagining a fourteenth/fifteenth century painter, sitting in his studio, deciding that what he most wants to paint now, is a hunt scene in the dark. You have to admit, there aren’t that many of them around.

I bought an interesting little book by Catherine Whistler about the picture. It’s very informative, but ultimately, I think it still leaves the viewer pondering their own response and I think that’s something Uccello might have approved.

PS: If you’re into random wafflings on various topics, you might like to see my ‘other’ blog, Mostly Motley (if you do, there’s a post about the day in Oxford – click here, if not, no problem).

New project: Stained Glass inspired tapestry.

slow stitching

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I’ve been having a lot of fun over the last few days, looking at pictures of various John Hayward and Keith Day stained glass windows (inspired by my recent visit to Norwich Cathedral). I must admit that I didn’t know anything about either man before that trip, so it has been fantastic to be able to find out so much about them without having to travel miles around the country – which although I’d love to do it, simply isn’t a practical idea at the moment.

I’ve found Flickr to be a particularly good source of information and pictures, as there are obviously people with similar passions, who go out and photograph windows, then kindly upload them for us all to enjoy – thanks chaps.

Anyway, having engrossed my self in the designs and perhaps more importantly for me, in their colours, I’ve now started to work on a new piece of tapestry – now I know that technically what I do is needlepoint or canvas work, not tapestry, but these days, so many people refer to needlepoint as tapestry, that I feel really feel more comfortable using that term, so sorry if it offends, but there you go.

The composition of something which is conceived as a whole, then broken down and worked in tiny pieces, and then finally pulled back together to present the whole once more, fascinates me. However, working with threads and canvas is very different to glass, so I’ve had to have a think about the elements that I can use and those that I need to change.

For this piece, I’ve painted my design onto the canvas – another piece of upholstery canvas, but with a tighter and more uniform weave this time. I tried using watercolours to give me variations in tone, but as they dry, they lose a lot of their intensity and in fact their colour, so instead I then went on to using pastels, which I have fixed as best I can with several applications of very smelly fixative.

I’m hoping that enough will stay in place to make working it straight forward, and that I don’t need to wear overalls when sewing, but I think I’ll be OK. I really didn’t want to use acrylics this time, because I wanted to explore a greater tonal variety than I’m usually able to manage with acrylics.

The abstract design is again one of my curvy structures. I feel very drawn to swirls, curves and circles (especially after working straight lines for so long in the meditation piece).

Next job is to start sourcing and deciding on the threads. This time I will combine metallic threads, wools and silks, as I want to give the piece more of a shine, to communicate the values of light on glass. I’m going to try and take my time with this, as my usual habit is to just dive straight in and work it out as I go along. This is fine, but occasionally, I’ve discovered a colour or texture once a piece is quite progressed, that I wish I’d used more, or in different places. Who knows, maybe I’ll manage to be fabulously organised this time, but if I’m honest, I do quite like the fact that pieces develop a life of their own as they emerge from the surface.

Meditation piece completed.

slow stitching

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Well the piece of tapestry that I’ve been working on as my meditation piece is now finished.

I’ve really enjoyed the process with this piece. I think that knowing right from the start that the nature of the canvas would produce quirky and uneven stitches has helped me by removing any imperative to keep it going anywhere in particular.

All along, the feel of the canvas (a piece of upholstery canvas), has been one of my favourite things. Although I am now ready to go back to regular weave, and even probably willing to go back to a frame, the freedom to sew as the piece draped over me was very liberating.

During the working of this piece, I have experimented with Appleton threads and with a few from Renaissance Dying. The addition of these subtle colours to my yarn palette has sent my mind off into new realms. Now that I realise that it is possible to find the type of shades that I particularly want to use, I feel much happier to work on some ideas that would have been too restrictive with the yarns available to me locally.

I do wish it was possible to see the range of Appleton’s wools somewhere near to home – the nearest stockist, although helpful, only has some of the colours and keeps all of them in the stockroom, so you have to tell them the shades you want and then hope they have them.

I’ve been buying the missing shades that I wanted online, which is fine, but I really appreciate being able to see them in the flesh. I know I could buy shade cards, but even then, it’s not always easy to see how one colour might respond to another. I’ve started to dream up a little shop of my own. Who knows, maybe one day.

I’ve experimented a little here with variations and combinations of colours. Some I like and will want to do more with, others aren’t so appealing.

I’ve no idea now what to do with this piece itself. I expect for the time-being at least it will go, rolled up, into the bag I normally put everything into when it’s finished.

A Norfolk Inspiration.

heritage hunting

At the weekend I was over in Norfolk and had the pleasure of a visit to Norwich Cathedral. It’s a fantastic building which beautifully weaves together architectural styles from the Norman period, right through to today.

There was much to appreciate in the Cathedral, but for me, the highlight was undoubtedly the stained glass and in particular the six windows in the north wall of the north transept, designed by Keith New and later complementary windows by John Hayward.

john hayward norwich cathedral — The central image of the Virgin and Child, by John Hayward

Now for a long time I’ve had a passion for stained glass, I wonder if it even dates from primary school, when we had a project to design our own, using black sugar paper and coloured tissue paper. For some reason the combination of dark leading with translucent colours and the effect of light streaming through stained glass windows, gives me an enormous thrill. I can almost sense a type of energy being created by the action of the light through the glass.

But there’s something else that has occurred to me more recently about stained glass, and that is, that I want to use the compositional methods and strong colours in my needlepoint.

This urge was given a veritable kick up the backside on Saturday, when I first encountered the John Hayward and Keith New windows. Frankly I think I could still be standing there, looking up at them, if I hadn’t been with friends (and gagging for a coffee). There is (for me at least) a mesmerizing quality to these works. The John Hayward triptych is fairly straightforward to understand, but the Keith New set had us all pondering the symbols and meaning – and that alone is significant, because neither of my friends is particularly ‘artistic’, they were simply responding to the glass as it is probably meant to be, as a mystery and a call to the spirit.

Since I’ve been home, I’ve been trying to find out more about these artists. John Hayward died in 2007, but appears to have had an extensive career, with his works being incorporated into churches across the country (and abroad). Keith New was one of the artists responsible for the stained glass at Coventry Cathedral, which having only seen once, I can remember was incredible – even somewhat overpowering.

There is a fabulous section on Flickr dedicated to the works of John Hayward, click here to go there. For more information about the stained glass in Norwich Cathedral, click here to go to the best site I’ve found – loads more information.

The whole experience has really got me thinking about how to translate the composition style to the canvas. As soon as I can, I’m going to sit down with my paints and do some planning.

Photo credit: The Norwich Cathedral Website.

Needlepoint Therapy

slow stitching

We’ve had an emotional few days here. I won’t trouble you with all the details, they wouldn’t really register as a tiny drop in the ocean of many people’s woes, but suffice to say, we’ve had tears aplenty. It’s at times like this, that I find myself sewing, purely for the benefit of the process itself. For me, this really is needlepoint therapy. Somehow, when I pick up my needle and start to fill in the holes in the canvass, a gradual calm comes over me, that can be difficult to find in other ways.

I’ve come to realise that for me this is a kind of meditation. At some point in the process, my mind comes in from the cold and begins to focus. This I find enormously relaxing. The downside is that when I’m in this state of, shall we call it ‘process flow’, I don’t always stick to the design ideas I started out with. This doesn’t bother me at the time that I’m doing it, but sometimes the outcomes aren’t exactly what I’d been expecting.

At the moment, the only really satisfying piece that I’m working on, is the one on the upholstery canvas. I find that the texture – somehow both soft and firm at the same time – is comforting to hold as I work on it, but of course as I knew it would, it bends like crazy. The design is rectangles and lines – a greatly inspired choice I hear you say, for a wonky canvas, but I don’t mind that. The thing is, it’s not really achieving the ‘look’ I’d had in my mind when I started, and I think that’s mainly because I’ve spent more time working on it while I’ve been upset, than perhaps is good for the design.

So, I think I shall make the most of it, by designating this piece my therapy canvas. It won’t matter to me whether or not anybody else likes it, what matters is that by doing it, I’ve been keeping my self together. It’s my self-healing work.

IMAG0285 — Probably not an inspired choice of canvas for a straight line design!

Retail Therapy Morning

slow stitching

This morning it has rained! That’s put my in a good mood because we’d begun to imagine that we were living in a drought region, but I digress, no, this morning despite already being in quite a good mood, I decided to treat myself to some retail therapy.

I wanted to find a local shop selling interesting embroidery/tapestry wools. I don’t know about where you live, but around here, there is very little choice. There is in fact a lovely little shop in town, who carry a reasonable selection of the basic Anchor and DMC yarns, but ever since the VAT went up to 20%, they seem to have lost the plot a bit on their pricing. I know it’s probably easier for them to punch through £1 per skein, but when I can go to Hobbycraft and pay 89p, I’m afraid with the quantity of wool that I buy, I’m going to look for the cheaper option.

This is a shame, because I do like to support local businesses, but I’m not really impressed by their current pricing policy.

Of course I could buy online, and indeed, as you’d expect, this is considerably cheaper, even after postage is included. But often I’m quite intuitive about the colours and especially the textures that I want to sew with, and it just doesn’t make that easy when all you can see is a tiny patch on the screen. I like to be able to feel the colour with all my senses (I know that doesn’t make sense, but I’m right).

What I’d really like to find its someone selling individually dyed batches. I love the yarns that Stef Francis produces, but unless I’m being dense (quite possible I know), I don’t think they do wools – if you know otherwise, please let me know, as I love her silks and cottons. So is there anyone producing similarly exciting effects and shades in wools?

Well I haven’t exactly found anyone around here – yet, but I will keep looking. Nevertheless, this morning I discovered ‘Threads & Patches’ in Fenny Stratford, near Milton Keynes. Although I’ve lived nearby for years, this was the first time I’d been there. It’s a quilter’s paradise. The most amazing fabrics and lots of friendly people buzzing about. They have workshops there regularly so it had quite a community feel. The telephone barely stopped ringing the whole time I was there, so I’d say they were doing pretty well on the customer service front.

inside Threads and Patches — Photo by The Balancing Kiwi

One lovely touch, they have a ‘do-it-yourself’ tea room – what a fantastic idea!

I couldn’t find the Appleton’s threads I’d been hoping to look at, but Heather quickly obliged me, despite it obviously being quite a tricky request – why can’t Appleton’s supply display/merchandising units? Come on chaps, get your act together. Anyway, Heather was wonderful and I’ve come away the happy owner of some new colours to add to the piece I’m working on from the car boot sale.

I had a quick chat with a couple of ladies in the car park – (yes, they even have their own quite large car park) – who were clearly regulars at the shop. One lady told me that she came regularly from Luton. I told her it was my first visit and she said she thought I’d be coming back quite often now, and do you know – I think she’s right!

If I’ve managed to do it correctly, you should be able to click on the picture and go to The Balancing Kiwi’s brilliant post about the shop. If not, well try clicking here instead

A celandine sort of morning.

hedgerow watching

My mum loved celandines, she thought of them as the first real sign of spring. When she made her will, she specified that my brother and I should scatter her ashes when the celandines were in flower.

This morning when I took a walk along the path near our house, I was struck by the drifts of celandines. It was still quite early when I took the pictures, so most of the flowers were still closed up, but you can get some idea.

It was just as if nature had laid a green and speckled yellow carpet down on this side of the stream.

Last weekend, we finally took mum and dad’s ashes and fulfilled mum’s wish. It was a moving day, but it also felt right. We knew that it was what they wanted, and letting them free seemed to release some of the tension and feelings of grief we’d been holding on to.

Somehow mum must have known that spring is a good time to deal with grief. It’s impossible for me to be entirely downhearted when there is so much new life happening all around us. Although it was a completion in mum and dad’s life, it was also a new beginning and I feel strongly that we are all part of a cycle that carries on through eternity. That too feels comforting for me.

The only thing that I can’t quite get my mind into, is the colour scheme. Yellow and green are just not hitting my creativity buttons. I try to use this combination quite often, but it generally turns out just looking a tad mucky. I think today, if I get the chance, I’ll have another go and see if this good mood I’m in can transform my colour block. Don’t hold your breath.

The tyranny of a blank canvas.

slow stitching

You know how writers talk about getting ‘writer’s block’, they sit and look at a blank page and it almost taunts them – well I wonder if there’s such a thing as sewer’s block?

There are ideas buzzing around my head at the moment, waiting to gel into a new piece of work, but I keep looking at the roll of canvas in the corner of the room and itching to just pick it up and start stitching. It’s as if the canvas is calling to me, tempting me to put stitches in it.

I feel the need to sew, regardless of what I create, but I also know from experience that if I do start without at least having a strong colour or pattern in mind, I’ll soon become disillusioned and bored with it. And I think the canvas knows that too, it’s just testing me.

So I’m resisting, but I don’t think I can hold out much longer.

Inspiration from nature

hedgerow watching

This morning we tried out the new path that links the road we live in, with the riverside path that until very recently was a long diversion to reach. It’s simply wonderful, because now we can leave the front door and in just a couple of minutes be right in the countryside. I feel as if I’ve moved house and gone to live in the country, which is something I’ve always wanted to do.

Now we can get straight to the school without having to cross roads and we have the benefit of a lovely nature walk instead.

If I set off in the other direction, I can be on the towpath of the Grand Union Canal in about five minutes from leaving the house, and if I walk northwards, I’ll be in countryside for at least eight miles.

This is so liberating, I feel as if I’m on a bit of a high.

So as I walked home this morning I was fascinated by the way that spring has suddenly started. Well it is Imbolc today so I suppose that’s as it should be. Welcome spring, and a happy celebration to all pagans.

A heron flew along the river for a minute or two with me – sheer delight.

I’m still having to do my preparation mentally at the moment, but the work is coming along well, so with luck, by the end of the week I’ll be able to get the paints out.

A Home For My Stitching Musings.

slow stitching

Hello, thanks for finding me here.

This is the first post on my new blog, Dreaming In Stitches. I’ve always been a closet stitcher, ever since I was a young woman, and over the years, whatever else I’ve been up to, I’ve always used sewing as a means of relaxation and a way to escape from the busy stuff going on around me.

For practically my whole adult life, I’ve never told anyone about my love of stitching and textile art, or indeed admitted to doing it myself, I just thought it was something I did to unwind. But recently, I’ve realised that it’s the art form in which I feel most at home, and it’s actually important to me to have pieces in progress in order to express myself.

So I suppose you could say that I’ve decided to embrace my creative streak and get involved in the world I love.

I’m no textile artist, I’m just a woman who loves to sew. Mostly I sew canvas work pieces, what some people call needlepoint and others call tapestry, but I’m a sewing tart, and can quite easily feel happy trying out all kinds of techniques.

In this blog, I’m going to talk about the things I’m doing, what’s inspiring me and who’s work I’m drooling over – amongst other things. There might well be the odd rant or ramble too.

So thanks for stopping by, I’d love it if you’d come here again, and if you feel the urge, it would be great to hear from you too.