making a place for.........

 time for a catch up after a lull 

now i have moved in to my happy hut, i have resumed progress with sifting through the result of my walks and collecting - one of the walk mapping cloths is turning into a soft bag/pot 

the stitching needed to be extended to cover the join, so that is still going on - lovely meditative work and the fabric is such a pleasure to work on

tricky to take pics as it is now 3D

i'm happy with how this is progressing - it will be a place made for something 

ps - february 2022 the completed bag  

                   

developing walk maps

 i've shifted my wavering focus to developing the printed walk routes

the routes are stitched in ecodyed yarns - this looked stark and lacked depth, so i experimented with a top layer of ecodyed sheer, finally deciding on a very fine silk organza with ghostly markings

i added areas of pavement markings drawn from my photos of street furniture

and for more dimension i am layering on stitching which refers to the texture of the security fencing i pass on my way to the supermarket, such a stark contrast to the more natural area i emerge from just before reaching it

there is a good reason for my distraction for once - a month ago my new workspace arrived and i have been busy moving into and organising my new "happy hut" - this has prompted me to do some serious thinning of my stash but i am feeling lighter with every item i choose to part with - hopefully someone somewhere will benefit from my recycling 

more sampling, with a purpose

building up pieces to assemble as a concertina or zig-zag book

slowly progressing with my stitched walk maps - drawing on my stash of ecodyed fabric and threads 

i'll be adding more to this .......soon

another WIP and it's starting point - 

the marks reflect my visual finds around the place i am exploring 

i am also doing a course which involves machine embroidery, so these hand-stitched pieces are my restful stitching - i really get absorbed in the rythm of stitch, building the marks

moving on a bit

 after a lot of procrastination i finally tried out my oak and walnut extracts, i won't call them inks as i have not added the relevant ingredients 

i used some to reproduce some pavement patterning - using slightly diluted extracts as background, adding a thickener for the dots

then i used my print blocks to build up a background pattern with slightlly different dilutions, again with thickener

the blocks show some of the routes i have been walking - traced from a map shown here and mentioned in an earlier post

this time i kept the prints separate 

these will all be used as bases fo further stitching

in the meantime i have continued to collect and add stitch to found items

i have a particular soft spot for leaf skeletons, the network patterns fascinate me - i'd love to stitch these to some organza with gossamer silk ....... if i feel that i can do the skeletons justice.......?

another half leaf, with a repair at the point

and a combination of finds

i am beginning to think about ways of bring some of these elements together but am a fair way from attempting it yet