Sample Project 2013 - December

Here it is, the very last instalment of my 2013 sample project! I've been making little textile samples every week inspired by the photos in a John Muir Trust Wild Nature Diary. Usually a pretty quick response, just for fun and variety.

Week 49: Tail of White -Tailed Sea Eagle

(Photo of White Tailed Sea Eagle flying over Skye)

We watched three of these magnificent birds soaring together when we were in Skye ourselves in September! 

Free machined on calico with applied felt, cut away.

 

Week 50: Falling water/aluminium

(Photo of Falls of Foyers, previously used to generate electricity to smelt aluminium)

Free machined lines representing falling water on crumpled aluminium foil (over felt).

 

Week 51: Pine Pollen

(Photo of Scots pine tree in snow)

Couldn't resist doing the pollen rather than the tree, pine pollen is so weird with the little air sacs for wind distribution.

White Lutradur rubbed with blue and grey fabric crayons. Free machined with different shades of blue on top and bobbin. Burned out with soldering iron.

Week 52: Oak leaf on snow

(Photo of golden oak leaf dusted with snow)

Bondaweb leaf shape ironed onto white polyester felt. Gold and copper transfer foil ironed over, lightly. Free machined outline and veins.

Week 53: Limestone pavement in snow

(Photo of limestone pavement near Ingleborough, blanketed in snow)

Small blocks of stitch/weave using white pearl cotton. Painted over with acrylic.  

Sample Project 2013 - November

Aaaaahh... nearly there! And thoughts begin to turn to next year's weekly sample project - or is there even going to be one, maybe this madness has gone on long enough? Hmmm.

Week 45: Waterfalls
(Photo of Cotter Force, Wensleydale)
Three layers of black felt with Tencel fibres embellished over.

Week 46: Moss-festooned trees
(Photo of mossy woods in Glen Orchy)
Wool yarn embellished onto brown felt branch, with trailing ends. Branch then embellished onto suiting fabric.



Week 47: Colourfully banded fungus

(Photo of polypore fungi)

Free machined straight stitch on muslin stretched in a hoop.

 

Week 48: Elgol five ships legend

(Photo of Elgol, Skye)

According to legend, the name Elgol derives from a sea battle fought by the Picts and Scots against the five ships of Aella, a lieutenant of Vortigern (5thC ruler of southern Britain).

Ship outlines free machined on hand dyed calico.

Sample Project 2013 - October

Another five sample month!  My John Muir Trust Wild Nature Diary is getting nice and fat now, with textile samples sparked by the weekly photos.

Week 40: Bracken among heather

(Photo of Cumbrian fells)

Purple scrim embellished onto green felt. Bracken fronds made by free machining on dissolvable fabric.

 

Sample 41: Confluence of two streams

(Photo of two Cumbrian becks merging)

Built in machine embroidery pattern stitched on Kunin felt in two different shades of blue. Cut out then twisted together.

Sample 42: Kingfisher plumage

(Photo of kingfisher)

Orange and turquoise/blue wool fibres embellished onto white wool felt. Free machined spots.

Sample 43: Giant's Causeway polygonal columns

(Photo of Giant's Causeway)

Hand stitched on paper with stranded cottons.

Sample 44: Hedgehog spines

(Photo of hedgehog)

Kunin felt embellished with hand dyed scrim. Hand stitch with stranded cottons. 

Sample Project 2013 - August

A five sample month! And three of them geological.

Week 31: Puffin beak
(Photo of puffin with beak full of sand eels)
Based on close up of the banded beak.
Free machined on calico. Shaded orange thread used instead of accurate colour bands.

 Week 32: Granite under microscope
(Photo of Dartmoor granite tors)
Inspired by a thin section under a microscope, showing the different minerals.
Scraps of fabric and metal flake bonded under sheer fabric using Misty Fuse.
Doesn't photograph very well!

 Week 33: Rocks on a beach
(Photo of rocky beach at Diabaig, Torridon Mountains)
Acrylic paint on black Craft Vilene. Stones outlined in black free machining.
The paint didn't go on easily, as I hadn't bothered to mix it with fabric medium - but in the end I liked the effect it gave, with some of the black showing through.

Week 34: Pattern inside foxglove flower

(Photo of foxglove plant)

Commercial wool felt, embellished. Tiny bits of felt break up well when needle felted with the machine, giving a suitable fuzzy effect.

 

 Week 35: Ammonite suture patterns

(Photo of Jurassic coast, Dorset)

Jurassic = ammonites, but let's not be too obvious... The suture patterns are the intricate boundaries separating the chambers of the ammonite shell. They became more complex as the creatures evolved.

Free machine embroidery on Kunin felt using a light gold rayon thread reminiscent of the iron pyrites often found in ammonite imprints.    

 



 

 

Sample Project 2013 – July

And still it goes on… four more textile samples inspired (sometimes obliquely) by the weekly photos in a 2013 John Muir Trust Wild Nature Diary.

 

 

Week 27: Bee Orchid
(Photo of bee orchids)
Crocheted to my own design in stranded cottons (the only threads I had with the right colours).

Week 28: Coastal wild flowers

(Photo of Bedruthan Cove, Cornwall)

Background of brown felt with bits of green yarn embellished on, then green straight stitches. French knots in yellow and lilac pearl cotton.

Week 29: Red squirrel tail

(Photo of red squirrel)

Red-brown tapestry wool machine stitched onto hand dyed calico then fluffed out with a teasel brush.

 

Week 30: Cwm Idwal gate

(Photo of Afon Idwal draining from Llyn Idwal)

This is one of my favourite places anywhere! Went a bit off piste with my sample…

 

I decided to use the design of the gate on the path to Cwm Idwal, designed by Joe Roberts, one of the National Park’s Seasonal Wardens, as a tribute to conservationist Evan Roberts, who was appointed first Warden of Cwm Idwal in 1953.

 

The top of the gate represents the topographic profile of the Cwm's headwall, whilst the rails show the bedding planes of the geology and the notch of Twll Du (Devil's Kitchen). The lower part shows a lateral moraine and the whole scene reflected in Llyn Idwal.

 

I machine stitched the design on Aquasol using wire on the bobbin so the curves would keep their shape, and then zigzagged over it. Fiddly! I couldn’t just stitch it out on fabric, could I…

 

 

 

Sample Project 2013–April

So here are we are, a third of the year gone – or 17 weekly samples. I’m still hanging on in there…
I’m quite pleased with how little these textile bits resemble the photos in my John Muir Trust Wild Nature Diary!

 Week 14: Cross bedding
(Photo of Millstone Grit outcrop in Derbys.)
I used a typical cross bedding pattern as found in Millstone Grit, from a geology text book.
Free machined on Aquasol, in moorland colours over a white supporting grid (which wasn’t supposed to show up against a white background!). Tedious. 




Week 15: Adder markings
(Photo of adders)
Knitted (!) in tapestry wool then embellished onto black felt.
Makes a change but I think I’ll stick to embroidery.


Week 16: Dandelion
(Photo of dandelion seed head)
Decided to do an Angie Lewin style dandelion. I see a lot of AL rip-offs, not always credited, but I think I can be excused for a fun sample.
Bondawebbed applique and free machining on cotton. Fun! Maybe I should try using actual permanent fabric more often.


Week 17: Heron feathers
(Photo of heron)
Based on the rather straggly looking feathers on a heron’s wing.
Long straight stitches in a subtly shaded Stef Francis mercerised cotton thread, on a double layer of hand dyed cotton fabric.

Sample Project 2013 - February

One sample per week inspired by the photo in my John Muir Trust Wild Nature Diary. I’m keeping up so far, but not finding enough ways to go off piste yet!

 

Week 6: The Old Man of Storr

(Photo of Trotternish Peninsula, Skye, in snow)

The text mentioned this iconic rock formation. I used one of my own photos of it for the shape.

Solid free machining (straight and zigzag) on Aquasol.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 7: Plant enclosed in rime ice

(Photo of heather I think, each sprig completely surrounded by clear ice)

Free machine embroidery on Aquasol. Dissolved, then trapped in file pocket plastic, machine stitched round and cut out.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 8: Hooded Crow

(Photo of two hooded crows in snowy tree)

Black and grey wool-viscose felt cut out and embellished onto white.

 

 

 

Week 9: Kelp in rock pool

(Photo of limestone shore with kelp in a pot hole)

Kunin felt with hole cut out, free machined all over, including edges of hole, on Aquasol. After dissolving, orange ribbon was bunched up in the hole, with black felt behind, and secured with a few hand stitches. 

Sample Project 2013 - January

Ta dah! Here beginneth the SEVENTH year of my weekly sample projects!

This year I’ve got a John Muir Trust “Wild Nature Diary” to work with. Each week has a photo – wildlife, landscape, plants – which I’ll use as the inspiration for a little sample that I’ll stick on the facing page.

BUT, I’ve given myself permission to stray as far as I like from the photos, as I’m feeling the lack of hard lines, unnatural colours, man made patterns etc. after last year’s 52 samples from marine life.

If you’d like to see all my 2012 samples, just put Sample Project 2012 in the search box on this blog. 

So here’s the first batch for 2013.

 

Week 1: Ice crystals on tree branches

(Photo of robin in frosty tree)

Black and grey speckled chenille thread couched onto blue polycotton using spiky straight stitches in stranded cotton.

 

 

 

 

Week 2: Reeds in lochan

(Photo of Rannoch Moor)

Straight stitch in stranded cotton on poly “silk”.

 

 

 

 

Week 3: Snow shading

(Photo of mountain hare sheltering in snow hole)

Pale blue felt embellished onto white felt from the back.

 

 

 

 

Week 4: The Schiehallion Experiment

(Photo of Schiehallion mountain in snow)

The mountain was used in 1774 for an experiment to determine the mean density of the earth. Contour lines were devised to survey it.

Free machine embroidery, built in patterns, and hand stitch on cotton.  

 

Week 5: Red deer fur, contrast where neck meets shoulder

(Photo of red deer stag in snow)

Background of brown and rust felts embellished onto white felt. FME in several shades of brown.