The Image Bank

'A drawing a day' started out as a pre new years resolution. The idea was to exercise discipline and allocate some part of my day to create a drawing of anything or nothing in particular. As the days passed, I started to be more enthusiastic about what I was drawing and when. And then came my love for my new jumbo colouring pencils. I used a craft knife to carve out a blank space for writing my name on them, and put them in a special tin, and occasionally I line then up in order of colour preference. Yes, this is my life. Anyway, as the time passed, and my portfolio of drawings increased, I realised  had in-inadvertently created an image bank for further development for my sewn images. Win.

The emergency chairs

The Archive of errors

Sometimes I spend HOURS making things that fail; piece by piece dismantling furniture, spelling a sewn word wrong mid sentence, but, not noticing till i've finished and forgetting I own a quick un pick,  throw the entire thing away and start again. In my haste to succeed I will not measure twice, and cut once wrong. I methodically mix paint for the better part of 45 minutes to achieve the desired colour, paint the furniture once, twice, wait for it to dry, take the entire thing outside to photograph and realise the colour is naff. ..and have to re paint it all again in a nicer colour. I never think to mix the paint in a better light to begin with...until...just....now. So, i guess reflecting on failure is how we evolve and learn, and sometimes failure is just as important as our successes. But only if we don't make the same mistake twice that is. 

    ( part one )

The cat nap.

I never really understood why people wear those masks over their eyes whilst sleeping. When your eyes are shut its as dark as night time anyway. I guess aeroplanes are an exception because sometimes you have to sleep with the lights on. But if you can't afford to go on an aeroplane, and if you have a sleeping problem you can be practical whilst looking fabulous catching some extra zzzzz's in your house, or in the bus station or whilst grabbing your morning coffee because there is nothing wrong with being pretentious.  

                                            ( Also available in pink/fox/face/fluff/rabbit )

The three part problem

I have a friend who is slightly obsessed with space invaders. One day he asked me to put my talent to good use and make him a space invader cushion. I agreed, so dug out my graph paper and drew my favourite space invader (the one with his mouth like a pincer). I translated said drawing onto calico using a continuous sewn line with cut out fabric squares for eyes. But i decided this attempt wasn't good enough. I did some more thinking, and some more cutting up of fabric, and eventually decided to applique the entire space invader outline using faux leather onto three joined pieces of my favourite fabric. I liked this outcome enough to want to keep it for myself. But I didn't. 

The one line drawing.

I have started applying a technique with sewing I learnt at Art college during life drawing lessons, called 'the one line drawing'. Basically the idea is to not let your drawing implement leave the paper whilst you draw. Often these exercises were timed so you had thirty seconds for example, or a minute and a half to commit as much to paper as possible. More often than not it was the lack of detail that created the point of interest. Plus you draw less with your brain and more with your hand. 

The Method

(Just incase anyone forgets how to bake a cake as often as I do.)