Faces in the Mist

 This weeks creation (mum screamed when she saw it, it's not that freaky is it?!) is a needle felt face framed by a plethora of french knots, random stitches, silk shading and couching focusing on tone and texture. I'm not really sure what my inspiration for this was, other than a desire to practice my felt faces, except that a few days ago we studied this guy in biology:

and I think he might have nestled himself into a more gruesome part of my subconscious because I didn't see the link until someone else pointed it out.

TOP: Close-ups and process images of my

definitely-not-gruesome-I-hope felt face. I particularly proud

of the silk shading in the eyeballs

even though it isn't very clear in the

pictures

BOTTOM: (from wikipedia)The Tollund Man is the naturally mumified corpse 

 of a man who lived during the 4th century BC,

during the time period characterised in Scandinavia

as the Pre-Roman Iron Age.He was found in 1950

buried in a peat bog on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark,

which preserved his body. 

Such a find is known as a bog body.The head and face

were so well-preserved that he was mistaken at the 

time of discovery for a recent murder victim. 

Men of the Land

 

Above(clockwise):Gary, Family Portrait

(Sheepish, Gary & Junior)&

Close up of Sheepish. Sheepish. 

Above: Sheepish

Below: Gabriel

A Spot of Inspiration

Jaume Plensa (http://jaumeplensa.com/)  at The Yorkshire Sculpture Park

 Above: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

I love the light (that almost feels like emotion) coming from inside the figures. Their presence in the space was awe inspiring. In a strange way it was like standing in a room with your emotions and thoughts looking down at you.

Below: The giant alibaster heads were more disquieting,

like sleeping giants. 

The lighting and cleane, whiteness of 

everything gave the faces a super human beauty.

Needle Felting Process

Needle felting-
I've been proficient in wet felting forever but needle felting is something that had past me by until recently. We went into a shop in Edinburgh and the woman behind the counter was putting the finishing touches on a sort of extra-imaginary mermaid, she showed me how to do it ("it's simple" ... if you've already been doing it for years) and sold me the necessary basics, 100g marino wool and a felting needle. The journey home from Edinburgh produced Gabriel (see next post) and above is the process pictures for Sheepish. 

My lovely, hand printed, pain-stakingly sewn, beaded and embelished Staithes inspired water colour quilt

Staithes Group inspired Quilt - Development

(Above and below) Playing with form, colour and layout inStaithes inspired by the Staithes Group

 
REPETITION -  Different Staithes Artists use the same focal points or quircks of the village and the uniformity (and also the oxymoronic uniqueness) of each of the houses makes them great for editing together and just generaly playing with

(above) My beloved sketchbook with the original design for my 'water colour' quilt (by this point anyone who knew anything about quilting was worried about me but I was too in love with the idea to give up on it)

 

The final designs for my two screen printed fabrics and in true Staithes Group fashion it's ....(drum roll)... houses and boats but there's something about the angles and fall of the lines that I'm really pleased with.

  

Along side the screen prints I added a few lino prints and some silk painting. Somewhere along the line the area that started out as sand ended up pink, maybe it was that sunset again.

A collection of Staithes Group which helped inspire my quilt (mostly contemporary artists)

Ian Burke (above) and Lucy Wilson (below) see the ever present fishing boats as very different objects. Burke's approach seems more worn and the boats are hard-worked while Wilson's seem sereen, soft and romantic.

also Lucy Wilson, and oh look it's those boats again

John Spence Ingall (1850-1936) - Runswick by Moonlight (can anyone spot a particulr colour theme in attracted to? :p)

Robert Shaw (above, you can tell which ones) - A completely different way of looking at the architecture in a tiny fishing village but captures something about the place perfectly (and it's a really fun style to work in)

Carried Away

 

A fancifully walk into wonderland that's either a reach from the moors around RAF Fylingdales up to the satellites and stars

...or

The sunset kissed sea giving way to the new moon framed by a curl of clouds, mist and waves 

TOP: Painted silk (left side) and machine work (right side) pull together 

the land and sky against a dark night (or is it an icy sea) of 

grey dupion silk hand embelished with glass beads, 

french knots and white silk top

SKETCHBOOK: My beloved moleshin with the original

concept drawing (pen and water colour)

PHOTO: Sunset photographed from Whitby peer, taken a few years ago

but the sight of it realy stuck in my head.