December 2020

Posted on by carolinehiggs

So, here we are at the end of the year, mid December to be precise, and I honestly don’t know where the time has gone, or more importantly what I have done with my time. I haven’t the excuse of being elsewhere, since the end of October we have been under lock-down…. I have been very focussed about walking daily and at the same time looking for photo opportunities, after a month of walking the same 5 km circuit daily I think I knew every blade of grass! With the restriction of a 1 km radius it did encourage me to be more observant and really look around me, hopefully some of the photos will be put to good use.

I have continued with my on-line course with Sue Stone and produced a couple more portraits adding appliqué and mixed media and just have the last section to do, all that I need is the right photo! I have found it a wonderful course and hopefully I will use what I have learnt and take it further. 

A nepalese lady high in the mountains. This took ages and due to the amount of stitching and I don’t think I will work in this way very often, but it was a good challenge!
A cook in a taliban restaurant in the north west of Pakistan where I ate one evening many years ago. appliqué and hand stitch.His mouth was difficult because he had no teeth!
A mixed media piece depicting a young woman carrying a basket of hay high up in Nepal.

On the subject of courses I have also continued to do some of the Textileartist.org workshops which have pushed me to try techniques I might not otherwise have tried, again there are techniques which I intend to return to.

A sketchbook made after Ali Ferguson’s workshop.
A glove made of plastic as a result of Jennifer Collier’s workshop. Rather more enjoyable than I had expected!
This and the following photograph are inspired by Richard McVetis’ workshop encouraging abstract work, neither piece are really abstract but I had great fun doing them…all hand stitched.

With the uncertainty of how the world will pan out next year I still have pieces stored away for exhibitions and I would like to add to them, I have the feeling that my productivity has really dropped and I must try and get focussed. I have finished my year of journal quilts, (subject Out and About using used materials) many of which used techniques from workshops. I think that next year I might take a break from monthly journal quilts, I will see how I feel in January., although they do give one the chance to try out ideas in small pieces before making a something larger.

Samphire on the coastline with the shelducks swimming.
Painted shell appliquéd on to an old handkerchief which was also painted.
The sand as the tide goes out, base fabric with a metallic thread painted and then an old paper bag appliquéd.
A partridge without his seasonal pear tree, but he was eating things in my garden one morning so I photographed him from the kitchen window. Hand stitched then painted on an old pillow case.

I have completed the monthly SAQA regional challenges here below:

The subject was the garden, I played around with the photo programme on my ipad to produce this pattern of some ornamental grass in the garden.
Colour; one of my projects is to look at colours , inspired by the work of Albert Aymes.
Cities: inspired by floor tiles at the basilica of St Servatius, Maastricht.
Mono-colour: my interpretation of a rock sculpture by Valentina Dusavitskaya and Yury Tkachenko at Les Lapidiales, Crazannes. I felt that their idea of man/women, yin/yang or night/day reflected the state of my emotions over the last month, sticking my head in the sand included…

The year has also ended for the Fifteen by Fifteen pieces and my series is complete. we were working on a different letter each challenge and I decided to use places I have visited as my subjects, with the inclusion of the letter in morse code.

M for Murano, a Venetian island which is renowned for its glass production, the millefiori marrina in particular. I have replaced the water and some parts of the buildings with fabric which represents the glass.
A: Akko (Acre, Israel). I sun printed the letters then stitched the stones. There are motifs from the city flag representing the city as a port and more recent industry, a motif of an old bread press I saw in the museum , the colour is an entry ticket which I printed on ExtravOrganza. The whole then had some roof vaults from the Knights Halls.

Looking back over 2020 it has been a strange time for us all, it started for me with a flurry of activity and a heavy work load trying to complete things for exhibitions which gradually fell by the wayside, the result is a feeling of emptiness. On the whole I am happy in my bubble and I have not lacked time for reflection, the result is that I think in my head I am getting a clearer picture of the direction I want my work to go in…

Seasons greetings to those of you who have read to the end!

One comment

  1. Claire Maillet · December 13, 2020

    Bravo Caroline pour toutes ces belles réalisations. Tout a un sens profond dans ce que tu fais et c’est ce que j’aime! Je t’embrasse. Claire

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