Daily Drawings... The Journey

A sketchbook drawing experimenting with a series looking at a story of a group of people. This is a bit vague at the moment but I wanted to try out a few ideas. I have to say the character's faces are not my favourite so I will definitely be working on those- i think they look a bit too much like children's storybook characters. Any works that i'm happy with will, of course, be worked into an embroidery. Oh and this has a border design as well that i've managed to cut off in the process of photographing- sometimes you would not believe that I studied photography at art school!

Daily Drawings... The blackbird

Animals in clothing is always a winner-right? We have set up a bird feeder in our garden which my two year old girl is crazy about so i've been chatting a lot about birds lately. Anyway I felt inspired to draw a portrait of the faithful blackbird that appears in our garden every morning for breakfast (I might also do one of the squirrel family who have taken over the garden as well at some point).

Daily Drawings

My little girl picks up random flowers, sticks, pebbles and any other 'treasures' that she finds when we're out. We constantly have flowers sitting in bottles around the house so I decided to draw one for her and combine it with a bit of pattern.

Daily Drawings... Oh Hello

Apologies this image has been taken early in the morning to it has a crazy blue cast over it but hopefully you get the idea! A quick drawing from sketchbook- thinking about pattern and characters merging.

Paperfolk Loves ... Rieko Koga

Rieko Koga is a contemporary artist based in France. Working with textiles and thread in both 2D and 3D construction is the main outcome of her practice. I particularly enjoy the spontaneity in the process where it appears as if the work is forming and taking shape as it is being worked on which is very organic. This is the way I like to work in my own practice where I have a loose idea/outline to get me started and then all of the pattern, layering and stitching evolves from there. I always try to keep this way of working even when it is on a larger scale (which can be a bit more daunting since there is always a possibility that it won't work out!) I have quite a few disaster canvases in my loft to prove that it doesn't always work. Rieko's art has the feeling of taking that raw and exciting material from a sketchbook and actually allowing it to evolve into a piece of work. 

If you would like to read and see more please check out Rieko's beautiful website

Daily Drawings... Among the Balloons

A sketchbook drawing I worked on today...

Embroidery: Dotty Egg Girl

I've been trying out some hand embroidering with metallic thread (not an easy task!) I used one of my sketchbook illustrations as a basis and then embellished as I went along. 

The original sketch...

Monday Musings... Ray Eames

I love this image of Ray Eames standing amongst geometric sculptures. I can only imagine that as a designer, it would only be natural to hope that your work will inspire designers for generations to come and that is exactly what the Eames' have done. When I look around my own living room that is filled with bits and pieces of textiles from a variety of stores and designers yet all of the designs have definitely taken inspiration from Charles and Ray Eames. So inspiring!

Paperfolk shoe doodles

So I bought a pair of plain white tennis shoes about two years and have never worn them because I actually never where anything that's plain white. Whatever possessed me to buy the shoes in the first place I have no idea but the result was that they were just lying around. 
I came across the shoes yesterday and thought I would just doodle on them with permanent marker. Here are the results... 

Daily Drawings... Boy meets Girl

Another sketchbook drawing. Always doing these with the intention of them becoming embroideries but I always end up doing miniscule patterns with a 0.05 pen so I always have to alter for the embroidery anyway- i'll never learn!

Daily Drawings

A drawing from sketchbook using black fineliner and felt tip pens. The background is filled with tiny black dots and I used some plants at home for inspiration. 

Paperfolk Jewellery

This was a bit of an experiment for some new jewellery collections constructed from clay. The thing I liked in the past about using shrink plastic was that I could spend a long time creating patterns with fineliners in the same way as I do with my sketches. Other mediums never gave me this freedom. So, i've been looking for different ways I can use clay for the same sort of purpose. Still lots of experiments to come!

Daily Drawings

This a a sneak peek of a drawing in my sketchbook that i did for my little girl, Amelie. She asked if I would draw her, so I did. The idea was to create some cloud transport for her to zoom about in.

Daily Drawings

So I decided to draw a collection of ghosts with a polka dot background. Enjoying using my new sketchbook a lot!

Daily Drawings... Fresh Start

A quick sketch done while i was watching Fargo last night. Looks like Fargo didn't influence me at all since it's turned out nothing like anything I was watching!

Embroidery: Dancing Ghost

Dancing Ghost, 2015

 I actually meant to post this before now and thought I already had (oops). This dancing ghost embroidery was inspired by a sketchbook drawing. I felt it needed a little injection of colour so I added the emerald green satin stitch and the lavender shoes to lift it a little. It's always funny how the medium dictates what you do. Everytime I think it will be a straightforward drawing- to- embroidery, it always ends up being changed after the outline is finished!
I've added the original drawing to the bottom of this post for comparison.

Dancing Ghost, 2015 (detail)

Sketchbook drawing for Dancing Ghost Embroidery, 2015

Daily Drawings... Planet Girl

Say hello to Planet Girl, a new doodle from sketchbook...

Paperfolk Picks

What I'm reading...

I've been a fan of Vivienne Westwood for years. Westwood's clothing isn't to everyone's taste but I love the cut and use of pattern in her clothes. It's funny that although I didn't know a great deal about her, I somehow knew her life story would be interesting! Westwood's new autobiography is a hardback tomb that is surprisingly easy to flick through. Each segment deals with important points in her life that have been inspirational and vital to her life in the world of fashion. I haven't quite finished it yet but i'll be sad when it's all over. Buy it here

What i'm listening to...

I'm a big fan of Sufjan Stevens but over the past couple of years i haven't been bowled over by any of his works. Carrie and Lowell is a return to Steven's older style and is a bit of tear jerker (although to be fair i'm pretty soft when it comes to sentimentality in music). Give it a whirl you won't be disappointed. Buy it here

Paperfolk Loves... Aisling Smyth

Aisling Smyth is a textile artist from Northern Ireland. With a first class honours degree under her belt it looks like we'll see great things from her. I particularly enjoy her use of everyday mundane objects (banknotes, CV etc) that we all have some exposure to and pieces of embroidery created on a large scale. I always feel playing with around with scale, be it large or small, can draw attention to the formation of stitches, the technical part of embroidery. 

More of Aisling Smyth's work can be found on her website

Confessions of a counterfeiter

Embellished CV

Embroidery: Triangle Girl

Image of an embroidery I managed to eventually complete last night. Working on some research drawings tonight for the next one.