A measure of time.....

It's finished (well almost), just a few finishing touches to add and a trim. I'm really pleased with this piece and glad I managed to resurrect it from the land of unfinished embroidery. I've really enjoyed sitting by the fire on these chilly nights and sewing away. I also like the way it grew organically and is quite different from the plan I had originally sketched out. 

It reflects on the thoughts of too many things to do and not enough time to do them in, but also that I'm away a fair bit and do not always have the time to indulge some of my other passions. I am though more determined to make more time for my other indulgences and enjoy the progress and the final product of that time.

 A measure of time, 

copyright Tracy Bidwell February 2013

 Bird detail from: A measure of time, 

copyright Tracy Bidwell February 2013

 Detail from: A measure of time, 

copyright Tracy Bidwell February 2013

So what next you may wonder........Well I have lots of ideas and pieces of fabric waiting to be worked into and developed. But I have enjoyed the embroidery so much that I'm going to continue with it especially on these dark nights. I have this piece in progress, which is on a cyanotype print I did last summer when we had that one day of sun! So watch this space, I will post pictures of it's progress here or on Facebook.

My next project......

A step into the surreal and reviving the forgotten.

I was pottering around the other day on a rare occasion of having a bit of time to hand, oh how I love that feeling and having the time to think and let the mind wonder. I had caught up on all my jobs and had spent a couple of days creating a photo book of Barcelona, which I had thoroughly enjoyed doing and I wasn't back to my other job until later in the week. With this time I began to think about some of the work I had started or maybe re-developing some other ideas when I remembered about a piece of forgotten embroidery I'd started way back in Feb/March last year.

I had torn an image out of a magazine that documented the demise of an old building in America. It had caught my eye because of the colours within the image and also the way it had deteriorated. I did a drawing and used mixed media to get across the textures within the image and had thought there was more to be done with it. So I had started this embroidery. However as with some things it got put aside, partly because I'd got stuck on an element and partly because other work called. It then languished in my sewing cupboard for months, until this free day I had.

The images below show what I managed to do in the process of a day and a bit. I had discovered a technique through a friend and I had been wanting to use it on a project and why I had not thought of this particular piece at the time I do not know. Anyway thanks to that I've now filled in the main image and now need to embellish it's surroundings so it's not floating on the cloth alone.

 Copyright Ballistic Owl 2013

Copyright Ballistic Owl 2013

Perhaps as well I'd been inspired and reminded of it by our recent visit to Dali's Museum in Figueres. These images are from the museum and show Dali's most popular surrealist style of morphed images and distorted objects. Perhaps in my subconscious my clock was sitting and just waiting for the right sort of inspiration to revive it.

 Dali: self portrait with grilled bacon.

 Dali: Two bedside tables and a bed ferociously attacking a cello.

 Dali: scene with his famous distorted clocks.

I loved our time at the museum and discovered that Dali did so much more than just the famous clocks and alien creatures. He also painted in a more classical style and enjoyed optical illusion imagery which makes the viewer stop a while to discover more. 

Well I'm not promising optical illusions, but I will work into my clock piece more and enjoy a taste of the surreal world.

It's been a while!

It's been a little while since my last blog, but I have been pretty busy. I've been spending my days sewing and embellishing my embroidery samples, and where the time goes while your sitting sewing I'll never know! I've made quite good progress with my 3rd piece under way and 1st and 2nd are almost done. I hope to start my 4th sample next week, but time is ticking and still need to trim and mount my work eek.

Over Easter I went with my family to Twycross Zoo, somewhere I've not been before. It was a great day out and we saw lots of animals including this magnificent giraffe. It was a very hot day though and ice creams were needed. There was also lots of shady places needed for the animals and humans to retreat too when it got all too much. We did find the elusive Snow Leopard, fast asleep in a shady spot.