Small cloth #1: Stitching done.

Have to say, I didn't think I would have the patience to finish it, but I did! :)

Small Cloth #1: Hand dyed, stamped and stitched

Textile © Catherine V. Bainbridge 2013

Imperfection

Design concept. © Catherine V. Bainbridge 2013

One of the things that I have always loved about hand-worked repeat patterns, is the way in which the natural irregularities - the imperfections - make a repeat pattern not a repeat pattern anymore. 

Even though it still is. And I think that's the quality that appeals so much to me in so many world cloth/stitch traditions. 

Humanity

Design concept. © Catherine V. Bainbridge 2013

Design concept. © Catherine V. Bainbridge 2013

Design concept. © Catherine V. Bainbridge 2013

Pretty small

It's been a while since I stitched anything.

So, I thought, "be kind to yourself... start up again with something small."

HA!

Stenciled, on hand dyed cloth

Textile. © CatherineV. Bainbridge 2013

Pattern emerging

Textile. © CatherineV. Bainbridge 201313

Reverse side

Textile. © CatherineV. Bainbridge 2013

Half way

Textile. © CatherineV. Bainbridge 2013

Detail

Textile. © CatherineV. Bainbridge 2013

In spite of having an "active" area of just 14 x 8 cms, this little cloth has already swallowed several hours and made my fingers sore.

Currently looking just like a quilt designed for a contemporary doll's house, I'm convinced it wouldn't have taken me that much longer to stitch a full scale version ;)

Thinking small pouches.

???

Rice Moon

Tuesday night the tide was low at 6 o'clock. 

Flashlights in hand, we stumbled out across the rocks.
There were lobsters. Brittle starfish. And we saw the head of an eel poking out from a crevice under a rock, opening and closing its mouth, with small, needle-sharp teeth. 

I got a creepy feeling. Of wading in the warm waters in the dark.

We went back to the shore and sat for an hour, sky-gazing.
A fabulous comet - or suchlike - flashed across the heavens, with a streaming orange tail.
Perhaps once in your lifetime you will be lucky enough to see that.  

Nilo is 10.
 I will soon be 42.

A strange series of daily sketches. 

Each a few minutes.
You're not allowed to think beforehand, or to make corrections afterwards. 

Those are the rules.
It is what it is!

9th January, Watercolor and Ink.

Rice Moon [base]

Design concept. © CatherineV. Bainbridge 2013

Rice Moon [faux block]

Design concept. © CatherineV. Bainbridge 2013

Rice Moon [faux repeat]

Design concept. © CatherineV. Bainbridge 2013

Rice Moon [simple detailing - indigo]

Design concept. © CatherineV. Bainbridge 2013

Rice Moon [more detailing - indigo/lavender]

Design concept. © CatherineV. Bainbridge 2013

Rice Moon [even more detailing]

Design concept. © CatherineV. Bainbridge 2013

Do what you can to keep going!

Strange new symbol

I rushed home at the end of work, determined to use the couple of free hours I knew I was going to have - Nilo is spending the weekend with his father, and the man was fishing - doing something creative. I had been thinking all day about the wings from my previous post.

I blew up some very small sections of different parts of the image. Above is just one example of these. This one really captured my imagination. Very rapidly, and before any notions of perfection could establish, [that happens alot to me, it cripples creativity, does that happen to you too?], I scratched out what I saw as the essence of the form.

Inventing a strange new symbol.

  Nothing fussy. A scrap of tracing paper. and a broken fine line pen, to scratch out a possible repeat pattern.

Dragged into Photoshop with some block color added. The lines from my sketch were not strong enough for the paint can tool to distinguish the seperate fields, so it limited the areas where I could vary the color. Which maybe helped to stop me from over-complicating the whole thing! I was really pleased with this as the start of something . Feels like something that I can call mine. Fits with earlier efforts, that might be described as bold. Has a rawness about it that I find pleasing. 

What is this strange new symbol? 

And can I translate it into cloth and stitch?...

I think this was possible today because Morna has a big heart!