I have just come back from a lovely walk in order to inspire me in my venture into 'texture' as part of a design unit I need to complete as part of my City & Guilds course in stitched textiles. I love taking photos which I can then use as sources to draw and stitch from, now and in the future. I actually did the same walk yesterday with some lovely friends but I did not have my camera!!! and so today I retraced my steps to take 'pics' of all the inspirational things I saw which have interesting textures.
I am totally inspired by a textile artist named Alice Fox who has created some beautiful textile pieces based on her collections and observations of the coast and more recently, the 'pavement', in a beautiful place called Saltaire in the North of England. Alice Fox 'combed' as she calls it, the pavement and used her collections and observations to create gorgeous, stitched, printed and collaged pieces. And what is wonderful is that I could see these pieces first hand in my favourite gallery, the Masham Gallery, North Yorkshire. I bought one of her books as her work so 'got to me', as it related to what I am currently thinking about with regards to texture and also using fabric manipulation and stitch to create texture on fabric and paper. It was like I was 'meant' to be here seeing it, and I am so excited about what fabrics, yarns, techniques, I can play with and what the outcomes may be for this project, as I am already brimming with ideas for products and things to make for my projects too - for this course.
Another textile artist I am inspired by for my future projects is Maggie Smith who creates gorgeous texture on fabric using materials such as polyfilla and emulsion paint to name but two! So, I think it is time to put all my creativity into action and post some pictures of my samples, happy accidents and experiments very soon!
You can find Alice Fox's work at Textileartist.org - I have just subscribed to their newsletter and their website is fab for all things textile! Also see : www.alicefox.co.uk
