fiddle faddle

for me summer is not a time for studied explorations, heavy thinking, serious reads... it's a time to lighten things up and embrace the transience of the season

a bit of fiddle-fiddling around with no serious intentions

letting things flow freely, as does the water in the mountain streams all around us, filling the lake, and flowing out again

always coming and going

lately I have found it easier to work in paper, paint and ink - it's certainly quicker which allows for a less considered approach than when I work solely in stitch

there's something about it that encourages me to just get going, gluing and painting in quick succession, and though I haven't yet figured out why that is, I am enjoying it very much

likely the impulsivity of the inner child at work

I do like a slightly more considered approach with stitching - probably because it takes so long I hate to get it wrong

a week ago I started experimenting with doing both; one day a paper-based version of whatever comes to mind and the following day I interpret some aspect of that work in stitch

below is a collage I made using gelli=plate printed papers, a scrap of tissue paper previously collaged with a bit of lace, and a piece of paper I had dome some random lettering on

the next day I gathered up all my lace scraps and tacked them on to a piece of vintage linen

I'm debating adding some embroidery in off-white, something simple - right now I'm leaning toward either  straight lines extending from the lace to the outer edges in the upper right area only

or

detached fly stitch scattered in the other area

your thoughts?

in the next set (which was actually the first one I did) the collage is a bit of a mess but I do like the stitched piece that came of it... it was enjoyable to stitch, varying the number of threads in the needle and randomly couching the branches as I went

very freeing

yesterday it was back to collage, this one a mountain scene

 the foreground paper is one I bought and represents water...  the others are, from the bottom up, the lighter green "grassy" section was stamped with a stamp I carved, the mountains were cut from a larger piece of paper where I had dripped on random blobs of paint and ink and then pushed it around with a painting scraping tool and the sky portion is cut from a gelli-print

I love making scenic collages using random papers I have painted - I don't have to try and paint a mountain, I just look at piece of paper and see what I see in it and work with that - the results are always unexpected and something I could not have done if I tried

no idea how long I'll keep at this - daily practices are hard to sustain, but they have such a huge value I do find them worthwhile

regardless of how long it lasts I think it a good exercise to draw on when need arises

and a very nice thing to fiddle around with on a hot day

Layers

been a busy few weeks here in these parts...

lots of "doings" as my Grandmother would have said

I've been mucking around with trying to abstract something and it hasn't been going very well so yesterday I had a think about why not and decided layers was the answer

 I've been using a previous piece of work as an inspiration/starting point - it's handmade textured paper embedded with rose petals and ferns to which I added scraps of lace and fabric followed by machine embroidery on top... trails of tiny circular stitches meandering here and there, catching the edges of the lace and fabric, holding them in place,  adding texture to the whole

I began my first few samples with a piece of muslin and then added scraps of paper and fabric to create a base followed by bits of lace added here and there

I didn't like them much - too contrived I think

I tried added some random stitches, creating and then breaking up patterns but that wasn't working either

yesterday I got fed up with trying to force things so after a bit of finger drumming I realized what I wanted was layers... glimpses of lace and cloth here and there, with scraps of paper... hints of things caught in layers

I gathered up a pile of lace and cloth scraps and then rooted through a box of paper and started tearing strips and chunks... some plant-based glue, a soft brush and several sticky fingers later I had collaged/assembled/layered half a dozen small surfaces that once dried would give me a new playing field

this morning they were finally dry

all in a stack... layers yes, and edges too...

tissue paper, scrim, broadcloth, silk, lace, handmade paper

it was a sticky, messy job layering all of those bits and pieces but the results are what I wanted and now comes the stitching

I love how the lace shows through the tissue paper on this - softened but still very visible

and on this one a few hints of blue

seems layers are all around right now... I went to Margaret Falls   a few days ago... a beautiful canyon across the lake,  a waterfall at the end of the short hike in... 

to give you a sense of scale... here's an image where my son's girlfriend climbed along one of the leaning trees

as I walked the trail I noticed the sides of the canyon were composed of thin layers of rock that crumbled easily... some golden brown, others almost black

I emptied a zippered pocket in my bag and filled it with a variety of small rocks found on the edge of the path

it's my intention to grind these up and make watercolour paint with them...

and then I can paint the rocks

with the rocks themselves!