Plotting Strands and Filaments

Days ahead

The silence here has been no lack of ideas, drafts or edits on my textile journey but loud echo of the thud of recent accompanying health challenges which have meant any completed chapters would have had to be viewed by the proverbial blind eye. My paper copy of the first module of the C&G course is very well thumbed and annotated with doodles and scribbles galore in the margins and on the backs of pages and I find no reason to abandon ship before I have really headed in to open ocean... metaphors and medication do appear to come hand in hand:0)

In the silence there has been much thought and I have definitely decided a few false starts do not an end make however they do point to the undeniable fact that health is not something that I can either ignore nor forget to accomodate in ways that meet need not want.

So for another few months C&G course will be gently zipped into it's portfolio and will wait for new start and concious awareness of the right moment.  In saying that I do know there is never a right moment there is just the moment to begin again. i certinly do not wish to approach the course as half arsed as I have thus far, it and me deserve better:0) So, I am leting it rest whilst I do too and we will meet again in a few months refreshed and renewed and ready to go - ever the optomist that's me even as I reach for pain meds or some such. Thankfully Distant Stitch and my tutor Sian Martin agree with my postponement and we will engage once again when I am ready. In the meantime I will keep a eye open for the short courses Distant Stitch is going to be offering in the coming months plus anything that is actually going to be happening locally to me which will feed in to the C&G course and other work.

One thing I am very clear about is that enrolling on the course was not a bad move, that its contents and challenges are at one with a need and that I will do this course not for a qualification or some such but for me to explore engage and embrace new understanding not only of textile skills and techniques but how to translate those in to communication with others and my self.

Star Cat

Ah this learning curve really is one of those I'm going to slide off regularly... but even if this week so far has involved searching through bin bag thinking I had actually managed to throw everything away including the module one work book, considering contacting tutor to inform them it was never to be, wondering why I had placed a stamp pad on the table and a few other hurtling thoughts I put a log or two on the stove sat with RnB either side of me and tried very hard to think where on earth I might have put everything, they weren't in the bin:0)

The solution was simple I had actually done something logical, had begun to place worksheets etc in a portfolio case I'd rescued  but then of course promptly forgot that and didn't write that in my diary/day book. Eventually this morning I wondered what the black case standing by the side of my desk was and opened it to find module one work book plus notes and lots of clippings etc.

I also found a rubber stamp in there with a note attached reminding me it was something I wanted to play with, so I did.

Blank Pages

One word really, Stemitil... a mighty fine chemical save for the small fact it took the whole week for it to truly  'catch' my body  and the fallout meant that any sort of concentrated activity save that of travelling speedily to bathroom if I could work out where the floor was seemed the only kind I had energy to entertain.

However, along with bucket, fluffed up pillows and hot water bottle the latest copy of 'embroidery' travelled with me and always I found much within its covers to enchant, educate and excite. It's a very slow process trying to read as the vertigo attack disipates but means that each sentance and paragraph does get read and re-read :0) I really enjoy this magazine for the always good images and thoughtful articles. This is not a how-to magazine, not one vast advert for a particular must-do craft but a thoughtful wide ranging exploration of different artists practice. It is always fascinating to 'hear' how an artist sees the process they engage in and how others interpret it.

As someone who cannot travel to many exhibitions I am pleased that this magazine offers reviews and glimpses to places I find it difficult to reach in person. That it also lets me know of exhibitions within the maximum 50 mile radius I can consider is also reason to have my diary handy when I read it.

One of the artists in the January/February issue is Paulina Ortiz who I knew nothng about before. She has a website HERE, worth a look I'd say. Her work may not be what some people would consider or expect to come under the umbrella of embroidery but for me it is an expression of the connections found with others and oneself when thread in watever form is worked with as a language. There's a quote in the article from historians Elaine Hedges and Ingrid Wendt which cetainly got addedto my notebook "For women, the meaning of sewing and knotting is 'connecting' - connecting the parts of ones life, and connecting to other women - creating a sense of community and wholeness"

As I'm almost upright again, with the usual starboard list I am hopeful that the coming week will find me continuing hands on work but cannot really say this past week was a complete blank page as thought, some reading and even a few notes went on... between other less welcome activity:0(

Work of the stars

I really like this diagram because even though I have only a passing understanding of the maths, the fact that science proves the existence of such a form makes me smile wryly at the enormity of non proof about how I see stars and even more feel them to be important in my life.

This is what drew me to this particular course really, the thought that I would be able to spend some serious time exploring this simple motif and at the same time exploring my response to it by creating 'new' stars through lines and colour on paper to 3D objects.

Looking around my home I realised just how many stars are here made from a wide range of materials. i also realised that though i was educated and grew up in the Christian tradition it has always been the star that has excited me not the cross, even the wonderful Celtic stone crosses we have here don't do it for me as much as looking up into the roof struts and seeing the star shapes formed there and I am not just talking about Ely Cathedral like roofs here.

Gathering all the bits of paper, pictures, line drawings of stars together has been a process of discovery and remembering, always a gift for me. Finding so many books on my shelves with stars in them has been a little overwhelming but kind of thrilling too.

Melodrama alive and well then!

Anyone familar with the C+G course I have embarked on will be scratching their heads at the image above, you and me both:0)

Complimentary colours shades and tints is part of this chapter so a colour wheel/circle is a requirement. Surprise surprise guess who couldn't remember what the implement in her hand actually could do and compasses became spelled connundrum which took me hours to work out and that was only the beginning... if in doubt, trying to clear my mind, dig myself further into a hole:0) doodle.

It did help and eventually this week has found me with some sort of colour wheel many notes on why I found it so difficult etc., plus research and gathering of visual information on stars, which is the shape I have chosen to do this module on.  It was between a star or a cross, no contest really.

I will acutally post the images and notes next Sunday now as the day is almost over and my eyes cannot cope with scanner and camera at this moment.

But posting here today was important and a blank piece of paper would not have been the reality.

Beginnings

Enrolling on the City and Guilds course was a major step not just the obvious stretch on small income, which was and is an ongoing consideration, but making that step midst the absolute mayhem that was certainly my life when I made the decision added to an already overloaded oft times dysfunctional brain but it felt needed, and I ignore such promptings at my peril I have discovered over the years.

I did the research, considered the options and my particular ‘complications’ and found that long distance learning seemed best option. Then I trawled through as many places as I could find offering textile courses, at first not really knowing what area I needed to explore. Got totally confused and demoralised in the search until I decided to stop, take breath and consider why this need was driving me on midst the obvious physical mess of a home needing attention and a daily life that had slipped more towards basic survival rather than living life as fully as it deserves.

Finding an old knitting pattern was the first drop of oil on a very rusty hinged door, the door had never been locked, bolted and key discarded it had just been forgotten like many other things in this life.

Here’s the front of the pattern –