Looking Back

Have been unable to move "Coastlines" on this week so looking back over a workbook and the piece of work connected to it.
"Plouin."
This was inspired by a Scottish poem and was made for an EDGE exhibition.
My work at this time was all connected to my local landscape. The farming year and the history of the land. It is 84cm. + 44cm in size

The poem was printed onto fabric and torn into strips which formed the spaces between the drills.
It was fun to make. I printed,painted and dyed a variety of fabrics then tore them into strips. Lots of hand stitching added to the texture of the piece.
At this time I was adding little pockets of earth to my work.
In this piece they are under the brown, thick, lines.
My thinking was to include the essence of earth into my work. It was all part of the many layers of thinking and making in my work at this time.
I buried fabric in the local fields to have the fabric with a retained memory of earth and then used the fabric in my work. I thought it was important to use the earth as a component in my work.
It is not the best photo and does`nt show how richly textured this piece is.

This last photo is of fabric which has been buried in the earth for 3 weeks. Washed, dried and ironed. I love the marks the earth leaves.
The hardest part in the making of this work was the top edge. I wanted the top to represent the curved shape of the fields. The piece is backed onto thin plywood and turning the thick fabric neatly over this  backing broke a few nails and made me doubt the wisdom of that idea
It has been interesting for me to revisit a piece of work but I hope I can return to new body of work "Coastlines" next week.

 Bye   Bye