and another ..

Whichever angle you choose...

Meeting Points

Our group has talked about working in 3-D for a while. This can be quite challenging, I certainly find it difficult to visualise how flat shapes act together and become three dimensional forms. Our challenge was to incorporate equilateral triangles somewhere in the design and the theme was 'meeting points'.

I started exploring the theme and very quickly 'meeting points' and triangless became interlinked. The geometry of triangles imposed itself, the logical principles just surfaced and I just couldn't get away from them. My work had to be based on the triangle itself.

I then chanced upon an article about the sculpturer Anthony Gormley. In this he mentioned a geometrical principle that "If you trisect a triangle's angles internally, the intersections provide the vertices of a smaller triangel. Whatever the original shape the smaller triangle will always be equilateral. It shows the relationship of the random to the absolute". Once I got my head around what that really means, I was carried off with the beauty of the patterns that emerged. So from higher level mathematics to creating with textiles! So maybe patchwork with its underlying patterns and logic is my natural home?!

Here is my 3-D journey - 'Whichever angle you choose...'

Unearthing the Staffordshire Hoard at Reading Arts Week

Our group were inspired by the discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard to make a series of pieces using any technique but all being presented on the same 'earthy' brown canvas. For me the excitement was about the thought of uncovering such a find, and my response was to create this felt piece Unearth. The series of pieces by all of us will be shown Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th June at Reading Arts Week at the New Directions Centre.

The Staffordshire Hoard

I, like many others, stood back in wonder when the first pictures of the Staffordshire Hoard were published in September 2009. This Anglo-Saxon treasure had been buried for centuries, the land had been farmed, but the treasure lay hidden till one day, 5th July 2009, it was unearthed again.

My facination is with the amazing craftmanship, how did they manage to create objects of such beauty, so very small and delicate yet radiant and strong. We met as a group a couple of days after the Hoard was reported in the newspapers, we all felt so inspired that we each created our own response to it.

Merete

Connected:disconnected - Part 2

My response to this theme was based around the idea of personality. I started with the idea of internal emotion and the external image and how the two are inescapably connected and yet so often are disconnected. However I became increasingly fascinated by repetition and how the internal and external varies the appearance of personality from day-to-day. I repeated 'doodles' using highly twisted handspun yarn and was interested by the element of uncontrollability and the way in which this influences how the figures can appear: bold, weak, bouncy, enthusiastic, fearful ...

The piece is contructed from two thick layers of wet felt. The figures are needle felted in place, and then stitched onto the background layer of felt.

Connected-Disconnected

One of our recent projects was called Connected-Disconnected. We each made three pieces on this theme. I worked through some ideas of how we connect and disconnect with people around us at different times in our lives. This exercise prompted me to return to felting, as in the very process of making felt the fibres connect and get all entwined.
Merete