Here are the results of my studies, along with the views which inspired them…
2. Nottingham Beach at Market Square. A sense of fun among the civic structures
3. Debenhams on Long Row. The real entertainment!
I took part in a fantasticcally stimulating and confidence boosting Summer School course at Nottingham Trent University last week.
It was run by Cuban born and passionate and compelling Architecture lecturer Carlos Marquez Diaz, who must have been most surprised to see someone like me among the young aspiring architects from around the world.
I was able to sit in my home city for several hours and look and study in a way I have never done before. And it was beautiful – not just the buildings but the people too!
I also loved seeing the city through the eyes of the visiting scholars from China and India and I really enjoyed working in the beautiful location on Maudsley building on the NTU city campus.
I was hugely inspired by this photo I took at Haddon Hall in May.
I took to wet felting again to produce this:
Here’s some of the detail…
All the hand embroidery is chain stitches of various lengths and thicknesses.
I’m very pleased with the result!
This garden is getting more and more beautiful each time I visit this year.
Orders are starting to come in on the Etsy PaperRosesShop
The very first order was for a wedding in London – half purple, half plain music. I included a list of the music I had used, which was a nice touch for a remote customer!
I have found Etsy very good to use. A bit complicated to set up at first but easy to monitor and operate once everything is in place.
I decided to try and create a bluebell wood using the wet felt/hand embroider technique.
Here’s the result of hours of work…
Another beautiful visit to Haddon Hall.
The flowers have started to emerge.
Some inspirational alliums and evergreen textures to luxuriate into.
Mossy stone brickwork, wavy grasses, walls full of budding roses.
Here’s a little thing I have been doing on the side which has grown quite big!
I started making paper roses out of sheet music for fundraising for the excellent Nottingham organisation Music for Everyone.
I now opened the PaperRosesShop on Etsy and I am supplying across the country!
Here’s that first piece of work from the Jane Marrows course again.
Here it is after some machine sewing to define some rolling hills, another wash and then the addition of some embroidered buttercups in the foreground.
Here’s the detail of the hand embroidered buttercups…
EXTREMELY pleased with this – my FIRST piece of wet felting embroidery.
I have been dreaming about this process for months!
I went to an amazing wet felting course with Jane Marrows, courtesy of the Living Threads Group.
I have been wanting to try this technique for ages.
Loved it!
It felt like I was using watercolour techniques to build colours.
The dry soft felt is beautifully textural.
KAttwood at Creativity Online 