Textile work inspired by Claire Coles

On the textile course over the last couple of weeks we have been given the details of the final exam. I think it is about 8 hrs but split into bits and it sounds like you have 5 hrs preparation time beforehand. The subject is Rhythms & Circles of Life and we've started to think about what we'd like to do and what we will be creating, i.e. a garment, wall hanging, accessories etc.


My initial thoughts are along the lines of surface decoration as I like design, print and embellishing. We have to research artists whose work has captured our imagination and we are now starting to do samples along the theme of the exam.


I found this wonderful textile artist called Claire Coles and I will put a link to her site where you will see some most unusual work. The work which I was particularly taken with was Claire's use of vintage wallpaper where she has embellished other fabrics and drawn with stitch over it to create an almost 3D effect. The results are quite quirky and have a dream like quality.

www.clairecolesdesign.co.uk

As I'd like to try different surface decorations I went and got some wallpaper samples so that I could try to do a Claire style technique. They were very helpful in Laura Ashley and Cath Kidston so I got a bit of wallpaper and I also bought a few remnants whilst I was there.
I have used one of the less 'pretty' wallpapers I picked up, it has a beige background and grey florals and leaves. Have shown picture before I  got to work on it. I then found some fabrics in my stash, mainly black, white and reds and I had this halloween fabric I hadn't used so I thought why not put some skeletons in for a bit of whimsy! Gradually I cut out fabric florals, created a bird, stitched them on and did some embroidery stitches. I'm quite pleased with the result so far, it's one of those things which is quite addictive and you can keep adding to it. For now I've had to stop and get back with work but it's something I will continue with.