G . O : Workspace During Lockdown

 

Getting On :

Workspace During Lockdown : Desk, Study & Dinning Table

Like everyone I know - workspace at home has been a major change for a lot of people. For me - I don't have a fully dedicated space that fits me and my work, alongside side everything else in the home. I did my desk and hung art in a few places - this hasn't changed much during lowdown. However, I have had more time to work at home on art and other mediums, but not the space to keep ongoing work out for more than a few days at a time.

I have a good desk setup, which will be getting a new chair and a monitor stand (with a drawer) - Though largely unchanged during this time. Unless you count all my mess. I have knitting and embroidery projects to my right side at the moment. I've had some projects to use up materials, rather than buy. Including those boxes I've decorated for my partner and me. This has helped to make a little more space and create at least some more storage, before having any clear out.

Over lockdown I've had only 3/4 clear outs - only two focused on my work stuff and hobbies. The first was to make space for die-cutting and paper crafts, as you can see my shelves are decently full, in the pictures below. The second time, was to accept some fabric due to a clear-out of another home-sewer. While this meant getting rid of some scraps that weren't being used (tiny pieces), making quick plans for larger pieces and donating anything I knew could be used by someone else. 

Pulling everything out and organising usually takes a good while to sort. Last time, it took me 3 days, as I gave myself breaks and space. Walking away can let me see what I actually can use versus something I want to keep for the sake of it. For my process - I need to have a project even if it'll take a long time before I start or finish the project. I will need to go through these shelves and the cabinet on the right again, soon and plan sewing clothes or larger projects before lockdown is fully lifted in May.  (This is my deadline no matter what occurs, I need deadlines and timelines so times to focus on projects).

Dining table is another space I use but I like making a point of using it a couple of days a weeks for dinner, while my partner enjoys eating at his desk while there are other plans for both of us. We have a wooden table, second hand - so we have a table cloth to make it look nice. Protecting the table isn't much of a priority due to age and previous owners. The table has an extension but I rarely use this when working on art or hobbies, as I will just spread to fit the space I have. When I should keep myself under some control, when I don't need a 6 person table. 

This table has seen me through acrylic painting, watercolours, die-cutting, sewing clothes, pattern drafting, photography and plant care. Along with all my project planning and organising. This bit of space has been good to keep organised with my mess and make sure I clean up regularly and plan my weeks. Planning my time has been a something that's helped my mental health during lockdown - Knowing they aren't set in stone also helps. 

The rest of my space hasn't been decorated - hence the white walls but adding art and keepsakes to my areas has been great. I wanted grey carpets and white walls so whatever furniture and décor we pick will pop with colour and details. I am hoping to add a lot more with our current plans for our space.

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G . O : Workspace During Lockdown

G . O: Cross Stitching: Stitch Practicing

Getting On :

Cross Stitching : Stitch Practicing

I also picked up some Aida fabric when I bought the ribbon, I also choose to pick up some thick embroidery floss, in a dark royal blue colour. I got a little piece 27 x 30 cm in size. To practice properly on, its got a high density but as a scrap piece I bought to practice on I can't promise the size. 

So, I put this piece of Aida to use, along with the thick embroidery floss. Practicing a lot of different stitches, I also wanted to use this fabric scrap to add some interest and see how some stitches might 'couch' down the pieces of fabric on top of the Aida. I couched, I used a branching stitch, a petal stitch, and french knot. I also included a seeding stitch, straight stitch, and practiced filling in areas.

I think this looks quite sweet for a lot of practice stitches - the massive loop is a bad french knot that tied too quickly, but the floss is so grippy it is difficult to do such stitches. I have made a note to be careful with such stitches and embroidery floss. I do love the colour. I have enough to do several practices on this single piece of Aida. I look forward to some interesting colour combinations.

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G . O: Cross Stitching: Stitch Practicing

Practicing my stitch work

I've been practicing my stitches and it developed into something else. This little practice has really surprised me, though I did pick out some pretty complementary colours. I didn't really expect a design. However, I was repeating whatever I  did on one side, on the other to reflect the design and fill an area. This meant I could use more colour and  also practice stitch counting, and counting the area.

I used a woven cotton fabric, though it is uneven - this was intended as a practice only, so I didn't need to worry too much. I did keep count and try to keep the work even. I explored a lot of different combinations of colours, thread counts, stitches and tensions.  A few stitches were left loose to gather more thread on top of the fabric, allowing for a slightly different texture and depth to the work. 

I also applied different coverage. Using couching, heavy stitches, larger thread counts, and layers of stitches to build colour in areas and hinting at areas that are only outlined.

I had a lot of fun with the cross stitches covering the roof - layered with more cross stitch work and couched thread.

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Practicing my stitch work

G.O: Butterfly Doodles

I've mentioned my interest in Spoon flowers contests and weekly competitions - well I thought I'd share my work to draw butterflies. I actually went out of my way to but a little antique book of English Butterflies.  I posted an image of the book on my Instagram. 

This little book with its coloured plates of butterflies - claiming them to be true to size, allowed me to explore different sizes, shapes and colours of Butterflies.

I used felt tip pens with water - to dull the colour and then build it over layers. It also allows for  strong lines of colour and bleeding in areas. I used the pens like watercolours and it can create similar results though some colours are much harder to build upon (e.g. yellow) and grey/blacks are hard to keep strong without it bleeding into several other colours when too much water is used.

I also played with composition to create a much busier pattern, something I don't often do. I wanted all the colour and the clashing of all the butterflies. I played with scale, with different sizes and never repeating a pattern. Though this allowed me to play and explore more than create a final piece.

I am sorry, but I won't be sharing my final designs any time soon. However these 

studies and drawings will inform further work. This will be created using a digital

 tablet and software. I am really looking forward to continuing this work.               

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For those interested:

 Spoonflower's weekly contests

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G.O: Butterfly Doodles

G.O: One summers floral work

I've mentioned this floral theme, for a summer project, two years ago. This is mostly the resulting work - the imagery developed differently for the different sections of work to suit the textiles. This also revolved around developing digital work in each area, using the industry machines and software available to create the work - from  Print, Knit, and Weave. Print was the first section, followed by knit then weave. This allowed me to develop the imagery very quickly. Using my sketches to make rough sketchy prints and another set with line drawings to being in colour and detail in different measures - Allowing for clearer detail. Though we also had to create manual/hand processed work for each section too - on domestic knit machines, printing, 

Though its difficult to pick up detail in some machine knitted work I choose to continue with sketchy work  like the flowers below with ink drippings and painterly textures flattened into 3 colours - the back ground, the flowers and the detail. Designs like this and similar to the one below would need to be cleaned up make any imagery clearer. This could be done through varying the stitches rather than colour with the machine we used. We did use manual technique alongside our digital work to make a varied collection of designs and textiles.

As print meant using more software and layers to my work than before - I played with layering my textures and designs. My designs consisted of digitally drawing and designed imagery, as well as cleaned up sketches and scans. I also scanned different textures I created with different mediums - from pastels, acrylics, inks, watercolours, etc.

I layered different effects as well, with layers that played with hue, opacity, saturation, contrast and other effects. The colorful pieces like those in the center and to the right, below make great prints and are simple to recreate when printed digitally on silk - I choose bamboo silk. 

Whilst, the line work I created for prints lent itself nicely to inspire digitally design woven pieces, like the design to the left, below. print allowed me to explore different flowers and styles quickly. I wanted a more following collection of designs for my weaves

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This project was from before the summer I had the flower project - My 1st year of 

textiles (2nd  year at university). This was all hand processed prints - a theme was

  different and didn't cross over for each section and textiles area - knit, print and weave.

Screen and stencil printing. With an urban theme. The focus was on structure 

from the architectural photographs for the screen printing, and was expanded 

on with the stencils of people - which were each cut out by hand. These 

stencils added more simple detail, block colour and something relate-able.

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G.O: One summers floral work

New Layout and Plans

My new layout - this makes me extremely happy to see! I updated this yesterday, and it is a brought layout, not made by myself, but an etsy product (I'm happy to give out the etsy stores name to anyone who asks)- I choose to buy one as I plan to continue this blog after university, as a hobby. 

Blogging is something I've really come to enjoy, even though its small, and needs development to bring in more ideas and articles for my audience here. This blog has changed over the years and I want to continue seeing it grow.

I'm hoping it will encourage me to show off my work and little projects more in the future. The confidence boost will help me to continue working. I never show off my work to it's full advantage nor do I show it off very often.

This is my old layout - I'm not sure why I picked a teal and lots of blue, but it worked for me at the time Though the background art is ruined if you try to use a wider template. That was kind of restricting and this layout was not very creative of me. It's not too simple, thats not the problem with this old layout but it didn't have all the thought and planning it could have had. The colour was too cold and the white background was too much. However, I have never been a fan of coloured backgrounds for text.

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Next I plan on sharing some of my weave patterns and the doodles for my boards. 

I'm hoping this will help develop my ideas and the layout I want to create, and possibly

 the theme too.

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New Layout and Plans