The Importance of a Sketchbook

I'm not an artist and didn't know about the importance of the 'sketchbook'. There are even courses on sketchbook-keeping. I know I have to practice my life drawing or drawing in general and also keep a collection of samples that show my thinking and progress.

The problem is that I want to reuse everything, so a sample in a sketchbook feels like a waste! But I'm sure I'll get used to it. So far my sketchbook contains trials and tribulations from my CityLit textiles course.

A definition

It's helped me to define the purpose of the sketchbook as: to record, review and revisit ideas and work towards the mastery of art and design techniques.

I'm also understanding that primary observation (drawing from real life) is really important. I have yet to understand why.

My sketchbook so far

Here's how I'm doing.

That sample I made that I didn't like turned out well

Mixing and matching my samples in strips - not sure I like this; there's no real thinking behind it

Wing outstretched

Curious and beautiful shapes that appear in nature

What to do with murmurations of starlings

Quite liked this funny little bird made of wire

Eggs, and why not

I love how messy I'm allowing myself to be. That's quite a big thing for me. Nothing has to fit within boundaries. And I've stuck things down with staples, badly-applied sellotape with creases and fingerprints and clumps of glue. Better to get something done than to wait to do it perfectly and miss your moment.

Artists' takes on the sketchbook

It got me to wondering what do some of my favourite textile artists do. Here are some quotes from textileartist.org

Jane Neal

I spend a long time, sometimes years, researching and developing an area of interest by using books, images and visiting exhibitions to feed my ideas. I keep a sketchbook, often like a journal, in which I record all my thoughts and ideas, notes from books I have read, and preliminary trials and experiments. In this, I also draw ideas I have for a piece of work, and stick in images that link to my thinking or inspire me.

Aisling Smyth

I then collect loads of modern imagery and create a visual bank of inspiration. From this research I start to sketch a version of the end goal. 

Yes. I use my sketchbook as an archive of all my embroideries that went wrong.
Every week, I chop up my samples and sort into two piles: glitchy and finished.
The glitchy ones get stuck into my book and annotated as to why they went wrong.
The last and probably the most frequently occurring feature in my sketchbook is a list of aims. These could be daily, weekly or monthly. I can’t really settle until I make a list and it has almost become an exercise of habit rather than a practical organisational tool. The lists may not always be ticked off, but their existence keeps me sane, so why not?

Ana Teresa Barboza

My work starts from the notes I write in my notebook and from the things I read or see everyday in my life. I am ready to work when I have a clear idea of what I want to do and how I can achieve it. I do little proofs because embroidery work takes a long time to develop.

Alice Kettle

Q: Do you use a sketchbook?
A: Sometimes.

Another good source of sketchbook inspiration is a simple Google image search.

On a practical note, I've bought this great Artway Enviro wirebound A4 sketchbook in landscape and I love it!

And she's off

The record of my development starts here and I look forward to seeing the progress (I hope) over time.

Did you learn any lessons from sketchbook-keeping? I'd love to know.

A New Course

What are the chances of this?! I signed up for a course with no idea who the tutor was only to find it's Louise Baldwin whose work I adore. The course explores mixed media approaches to surface design with textiles. Less emphasis on stitch and more on the surface, which is new to me.

So there's lots of mucking about with paint and dyes and gluing things together. Like being back at primary school.

The theme is birds, which can be interpreted to be anything - feathers, eggs, murmurations, nests, flocks etc. Again, this might seem obvious to a natural artist but I'm having to learn how to take one word or idea and let it run to a place that I'm interested in. And that the interesting new place might be something I'd never imagined would grab my attention.

Here was the first exercise we did. Looking at mark-making, textures, composition and colour.

Using a magazine picture as inspiration for colour mixing I came up with this first which I didn't like

Same idea, using a magazine picture to pick a colour palette and trying out different mark making techniques

Rubbings with a graphite block

We then cut our sheets of painted paper up to join things together. Interestingly if there is something you've done that you don't like, for instance my first example above, try cutting a piece out of it to see if it appears different at a different scale.

Collage of mark-making and colour

I'll let you know how other classes go on this course as I've got a feeling I'll be pushing the boat out and learning all sorts of new techniques.

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This post is part of a series: this is Part I -- see Part II -- see Part III
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Building up my Stock of Remnant Fabric

I'm trying to find ways to quickly build up my fabric remnant stock (in preparation for a few textiles courses I've booked).

I've been bidding on eBay and picked up these great bits and pieces from Debby:

Remnant fabrics picked up on eBay

And the lovely Sally (who generously threw in an extra bit!):

More remnant fabrics picked up on eBay

It's a great feeling to see items on a screen and then be unpacking them at home. They are real!

And these wonderful silk ribbons and sari silk waste from YarnYarn.

Sari silk

Not to mention various multicolour embroidery threads.

Then recently I popped into John Lewis on Oxford Street to pootle around their upholstery fabric department. Result! Their remnant bin was full of ex-display mini-curtains at £10 a pop. I ended up with about £2000 of fabric for £190.

Fantastic variety of fabrics

Fabric length with matching waxed tablecloth

This one has beautiful silver motifs block printed onto it

The ones that came as mini-curtains had lining which I unpicked. Looking forward to incorporating the printed numbers in the things I make

It's a good idea to have a look in places like John Lewis or Peter Jones or Selfridges etc. just after the change of season stock.

Well, I'm all set.

I'd love to hear about where you get your fabric stocks from.

Experimental Stitch - a Recent Course

I did a course this year at CityLit (again) called Experimental Stitch with Amarjeet Nandhra. Three consecutive Sundays.

Amarjeet is a fabulously patient tutor and has an excellent way of drawing out the best in you. Then pushing you a bit more.

In each class we covered a set of stitches and applied them in thematic ways to the samplers we were making. For instance looking at a particular stitch and taking it to extremes of scale: huge and tiny; light and dark; dense and dispersed. So imagine French Knots in thick raffia or in sewing thread, bunched together or far apart.

If you get a chance to do a class with Amarjeet, take it! She co-founded the Windsor School of Textile Art which runs lots of interesting courses.

Here were two of the samplers I made.

The postcard that acted as inspiration
(apologies that I can't attribute the photographer)

Fabric paint - taking advantage of a crease

Some stitch added - not all results to my liking - running, couched, stem stitches

Downtown - woven picot, bullion and other stitches in metallic thread on tweed - beads added after the course

Downtown - beads added along the faint blue line in the tweed

Downtown - beads sewn in between the raised stitches

Learnings

I feel I learnt to take inspiration from a source (the postcard) which was something new for me. Learning to translate inspiration from the world around you is an important skill. This may seem obvious to natural artists but it's something I had to learn. I always thought the finished product was something that flowed out of you whole. And that if that wasn't happening it meant I wasn't an artist and should just give up.

I also think I nudged a bit closer to understanding when to stop working on something. And into letting a sampler be a sampler.

One of the things I may try to do with the work produced here is cut it up and use it as part of another piece. That takes some nerve but it may be a way to kill your darlings. I would never have thought of that but for another course I took where we were asked to do just that. See my post A Class from the Past.

On another tack, I'm a bit of a course junkie. Anyone else out there who could recommend some textiles courses that push some boundaries?

Learning Filet Lace Like my Grandmother Used to Make

I decided I want to learn to make filet lace like my grandmother used to. I hadn't been able to find the needles and kit anywhere. So I looked in her Singer sewing machine cabinet which I inherited.

My grandmothers Singer sewing machine

Singer sewing machine - pedal powered

Singer sewing machine - lid open - the machine swings up and locks in place

Singer sewing machine - ready to go (the flap on the left usually falls flat and is propped up by the fully open door, such brilliant design)

This was what was in one of the drawers - untouched since the day she died 20 years ago - among other things, a full filet lace kit with a piece even started for me. I more than ever believe that they are looking down and see when we need them.

The contents of my grandmother's Singer sewing machine cabinet - including a piece of filet netting she had already started

Progress in two afternoons

I have learned to:

• cast off
• do a nice even net stitch
• turn a corner on one side (to make a square/rectangle)
• turn a corner on the opposite side (instead of, ahem, on the same side again)
• reduce the net holes to create the rectangle
• and close off (kind of, there is a stray saggy thread) 

Here I go...

My first loop

Lots of loops

My first row

Getting into the swing

Finished trial piece

Trying out a triangle - which actually turns into a square

Finished examples - I lost confidence on the left hand one and thought I was going wrong but it's actually correct

And that's just the start. Next are all the embroidery stitches to fill in the net so that I end up with something like this.

Beautiful filet lace bedspread inherited from my grandmother - reputed to have belonged to the last king of Italy

Resources

Here are some more resources for anyone interested:

• sisan881 on YouTube explaining filet lace in (not in English)
• giuseppa nania on YouTube showing techniques for filet lace net-making
• Save the Stitches by nordic needle filet lace guidance and patterns
• Tristan Gloaguen on YouTube - Confection de filet à maille irrégulière avec Andrée Flock (in French)
• Chihiro K on YouTube how to make a net filet lace useful for the left-handed

I found it really useful to watch and rewatch, pause and rewind videos of people actually doing filet. Which is why videos in different languages are not a barrier.

It's impossible to find the specialist shuttle needles here in the UK so try buying them from Italy instead. Search for aghi da filet on eBay in different sizes (ago = needle; aghi = needles).

Next ambitions

Once I've got filet down I'm moving on to tatting and needlelace. All techniques my grandmother was expert in. I was also thinking of building up to bobbin lace but that is really complex and I think I'll need a teacher (I was looking for a course in Honiton to no avail, surprisingly).

But for now, filet it is. Future progress will be posted.

Would love to hear from anyone who has had to teach themselves a difficult technique and how you did it.