I have made a gentle start to 2023. A chance to wallow in this liminal time between the hub-bub of the festive season, and the new energy of spring. For me this has meant slowly returning to the studio, stitching small gifts and patches, falling back in love with tiny, English Paper Pieced hexies, and using the time to learn new skills (marketing, business planning and photography), review (work to date) and plan (art, business and holidays!).
However, my dog walk along #GarlickLane yesterday provided the energy and inspiration I needed to start some new, stitched work using my naturally dyed, #PaletteOfPlace fabrics.
I selected a couple of offcuts of black, dress-weight linen, which I pieced together, before adding some cowparsley dyed, linen hexies. I embellished with some of my favourite, Kantha-style stitching and couched down a length of lichen dyed wool. I had collected the blackthorn thorns last year when a branch had fallen down, and these I couched in place using oak and iron dyed tapestry wool.
This piece, as yet untitled, will be the first in a series of smaller works inspired by the colours, shapes and stories of Garlick Lane, each mounted simply on a sheet of A5 cotton rag Khadi paper, ready to frame.
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