Samples 2015: Week 23, Thyme

Tea-dyed calico over felt, French knots in pearl cotton and stranded cotton.

Source picture

From this article in the Saturday Guardian 06/06/15:
“Alys Fowler: plants for patio cracks. If cracks appear, celebrate them. Many plants are adapted to harsh conditions.”

‘The obvious choice in paving cracks is thyme.’ Photograph: Gap Photos/Michael Howes

Sample design
The old L-shaped cards helped me pick a section – deliberately not my preferred square shape. Different sizes of French knots suited the plants and gravel nicely – and it’s a few weeks since I stitched any. Well I don’t have to take the difficult option every time, do I?!    

Samples 2015: Week 22, Great Barrier Reef

Layers of felt, cut out then meshed together using the embellisher machine from front and back. (Only about 7cm wide.)

Source picture

From this article in the Saturday Guardian 30/05/15:
“Great Barrier Reef shouldn't be on 'in danger' list for now, says Unesco. World’s largest coral reef to remain on UN’s watchlist as draft ruling calls on Australia to ‘rigorously’ implement its conservation commitments."

The Great Barrier Reef in Australia has lost more than half of its coral cover in the past 30 years. Photograph: Andrew Watson/Getty Images

Sample design
A simplified but fairly faithful copy of a small section. I wanted to capture the raised areas and the colours – bright blue, white and brown isn’t a combination that would occur to me but I like it in these proportions. (My blue felt is closer to the source picture than it came out in my photo!)

Samples 2015: Week 21, Agnes Martin

Lutradur 70 painted metallic gold using acrylics. Machine stitched grid in variegated thread.
Boring! Even if the gold had shone in the photo. But, another week ticked off. 

Source picture

From this article in the Saturday Guardian 23/05/15:
“Agnes Martin: the artist mystic who disappeared into the desert. In the summer of 1967, Martin left New York and went off-grid before reappearing in New Mexico. The art she made there – with its buoyant bands of colour – offer no clues to the turbulent life of an artist who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Ahead of a major retrospective, Olivia Laing celebrates her visions of pure joy.”

 

 Friendship, 1963 by Agnes Martin

Sample design
Martin’s piece is incised gold leaf and gesso, so I used a metallic gold background for my sample. A machine stitched grid was an easy choice, but to diverge further from the source I chose a bright variegated thread.