Friday 23 March 2012

Seaweed Abstracts in Textile

Following on from Sunday's experiments with a whole heap of naturally dyed fibres, I continued to experiment with more fibres and yarns and the embellisher machine.

I also intorduced some free machine embroidery and shibori into the mix along with some hand stitch and here are the results.

The shibori piece here is inspired by the suckers found on the roots of bull kelp.
It's usually a greeny yellowy brown colour but a bit of artistic license lets me make mine teal and purple.


Aquatic Roots (1)

The background fibres in the piece above are hand dyed in Orkney.

The fibres in the background below are all handspun and were bought on the Isle of Skye.


Aquatic Roots (2)

The hand dyed nature of the fibres lends itself well to art pieces inspired by nature.

I really love drift wood as well and always pick up a few bits when we find ourselves by the sea. I made a point of collecting some tiny bits last time we were at the beach in Elie a few miles away on the Fife coast.

I have looped some faded pink chiffon around a piece here as it reminds me of the way seaweed drapes itself on pieces left on the shore.
The background here is a wet felted fusion of hand dyed fibres, silk flibres, Wensleydale locks, hessian fibres and hand dyed scrim.

Drift (1)

I've had this triple apperture frame for a while but couldn't decide what to put in it. This tryptich of felted fibres suits it well I think.

Abstract Seaweed Tryptich

More dfrift wood, a few shells and some beach glass have been incorporated into this piece below.


Shoreline Finds
I have enjoyed using all these natural shades in my work and have had some of these ideas floating around in my head for over a year! I would love to push the ideas further to see what would develop but it's back to landscapes this weekend and onto jewellery after that.

I did have time to make this box though.


I have enough of the felt left to make another tiny box and might possibly make some more to make a treasure chest shaped box. The ideas are flowing already! Oh for more hours in the day.

I have some printed cards available featuring landscapes made using the naturally dyed fibres.


You can find them in my Etsy shop here

Our Open Studios event here in North Fife is on Saturday 5th, Sunday 6th and Monday 7th May 2012. We are working hard to get our beautiful brochures distributed far and wide all across Scotland so look out for one in a gallery, library, gift shop, cafe or business near you.



The brochures are free and also available to view and download online.

You can also keep up to date with us on Facebook 
Even if you are too far away to attend our event, by becoming a fan of our page, you can help us to spread the word.
Thank you!





7 comments:

  1. I just love all your designs - especially those incorporating driftwood. There is something about driftwood!

    Great cards too.

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  2. Thanks Kathryn : ) There is definitely something about driftwood : )

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  3. Gorgeous colours and textures as always!

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  4. These are beautiful, AIleen!

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  5. I too l really love these and the designs with the driftwood are so good, they match your work so well giving it a new dimension

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  6. Gosh Aileen, these are beautiful - especially the driftwood ones. All the very best with your Open studios..

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  7. Piękna oprawa w dwóch deseczkach.

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Your comments are very welcome and much appreciated ♥

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