STITCH DOODLES

Here is the sample piece I started just after Christmas as I was trying to focus myself. I like to have little embroideries like this on the go all the time if I can. I call them stitch doodles and find them very therapeutic. I think they're the textile equivalent of expressive drawing and taking a pencil for a walk and they free my mind.

Above and Below Ground
Handstitch on manipulated mono-print ground

Interestingly, I always handstitch when I do these little pieces.  I love the feel of the fabric in my hand and can experiment without the stress of finishing something specific for an exhibition. I also like the creative scope it offers. I can consider each individual stitch before I commit myself which machine stitch doesn't allow.

I usually start with an abstract background in appealing colours, perhaps related to the larger project of the moment, choose some threads and just let my needle and my mind wander across the fabric in whatever way seems appropriate. All sorts of things happen that I don't expect.

This one was begun on a small mono-printed background that I'd photographed and then manipulated in Photoshop (I love it!). I then printed the image out in various colours onto a cotton ground using jet FX inkjet transfer paper.

I'm calling it Above and Below Ground as I think it has a nod to my current geology pieces with a hint of layers at the bottom of the piece and of the landscape and its contours above. I guess it doesn't really matter what I call it. Others will have ideas about what it represents.