A lot of catching up to do...

I've been struggling for the past month. The university year was over and I was so looking forward to doing lots of art and being in a relaxed and carefree mood. And... nothing happened.

I planned to list some goals here on this blog but, I just couldn't find any enthusiasm for art of any sort and the frustration grew. Finally I got my results from uni, having been very concerned about them, and found that I got much better results than I expected. A great relief and it seemed to open the flood gates. It is strange how something can affect me so much that I was frozen completely where art was concerned.

Since then I have been enjoying the 'holidays' and have had some fun experimenting with some artwork. There are several goals I would like to achieve and they are:

1. Complete two bags that I began earlier in the year. Machine embroidered, hand beaded.
2. Complete a pastel drawing of a scene from my time in Norway.
3. Carve and make lino cuts of the bottle tree design I created a while back.
4. Work this design into a major piece of textile art.
5. Begin work on a long planned wearable art outfit.

A while back I posted some drawings of a bottle tree that I abstracted. Yesterday I carved a lino mat ready to print and this morning I tried it out. Here is the paper test I made first of all:

I printed this in my journal to see how it would go and it turned out quite well. I love the texture that lino prints create.

Next, I tried it on fabric. The fabric is some hand dyed cotton I have had in the cupboard.
I first printed one copy and then wondered what would happen if a series were printed together and here is the result. There are some interesting patterns in the centre between each design. I will now work on it with stitch, but possibly not today as I stitched yesterday and it caused me a lot of shoulder pain so I need to take a break today.

And here is the other item I finished yesterday. I began making this bag almost a year ago and just didn't manage to complete it until now.
And here is a detailed shot. It doesn't photograph well, or should I say the photographer doesn't photograph well!