Butterfly Nature

I don't know if you've noticed but I sometimes flit like a butterfly between my works in progress. I've had to leave this work for now because I need more supplies to complete it and haven't had time to get them yet.

I kind of like working on several pieces at a time though as it gives me a break to work on one instead of another for a while. It also allows me to be flexible; if I'm feeling tired or something, I can work on easier things like simple sewing or drawing, like this, my drawing of an ocelot:

If I'm feeling at my best, I can work on more complicated things like intricate sewing, painting or detailed work, this painting for example:

Then there's all the other stuff in between for when I'm feeling in between. 😄

If you remember, I carried out an experiment with rusting fabric last year (you can see my post by clicking HERE) I left it for a while to decide what to do with the fabric I'd coloured with the rust and now I've carried on with it. Here is the result of the rust dyeing:

I've added a rust heart to one of the fabric pieces using rusting powder:

And this is how I've sewn it so far (complete with pins holding some of it together 😊 )

I've printed a key onto fabric which will be involved in some way.

I'll show you the developments as they come.

I found this in my garden the other day:

I love the shape of it. It's only a little piece of faded plant but I find it really beautiful. Maybe it'll end up in a piece of work. 😉

Marianne North

You may remember that in a post last year I mentioned artist Marianne North because I’d seen a programme about her. Well, due to that I became interested in her and I’ve done some research on her.

Marianne North was born in October 1830 and was the eldest daughter of Frederick North, a Liberal MP for Hastings, and Janet North, daughter of Sir John Marjoribanks MP.

Marianne North

She originally trained as a vocalist but her voice failed and she turned to painting. After her mother died in 1855 Marianne travelled with her father to Syria and along the Nile in Egypt.

After her father’s death in 1869, Marianne, now aged nearly 40, continued travelling with the intention of painting the flowers, landscapes, animals and birds she found. She had a true passion for recording the things she saw, some of which was new to science and as she painted with scientific accuracy, the viewer could see exactly what the plant looked like. She said:

‘I had long dreamed of going to some tropical country to paint its peculiar vegetation on the spot in natural abundant luxuriance.’

Marianne North

Marianne North

That’s just what she did. Over the years Marianne travelled to Sicily, Canada, the United States, Jamaica, Brazil, Tenerife, Japan, Borneo, Java, Ceylon and India. After encouragement from Charles Darwin, she also visited Australia and New Zealand.

Marianne North

Marianne North

Marianne travelled through rough landscapes and through jungle, staying in huts, living there until she had recorded everything she wanted to. She lived in India for 18 months and visited many areas all over the world which were unknown to a lot of Europeans. She also travelled unaccompanied, something very unusual for a Victorian woman.

Marianne North

During 18 years of travel, Marianne created 832 paintings, brightly coloured and valuable to science and art. She discovered new species and due to this, Marianne had one genus named after her: Northia, and four species: Areca northiana, Crinum northianum, Kniphofia northiana and Nepenthes northiana.

Marianne North

Marianne North

Marianne had a gallery built in Kew Gardens. It was designed by James Ferguson but she paid for it herself and personally arranged all the pictures inside, row upon row, all tightly packed together. The gallery opened in 1882.

Marianne North

Due to failing health, Marianne retired to Gloucestershire and she died in 1890.

Marianne North was very adventurous for the time that she lived in, but she was well connected and had support from the people she knew. Many Victorian women didn’t have the means or the freedom to do something similar even if they wanted to. However, what Marianne did was a great achievement. Her work is beautiful, colourful and detailed and she had a great determination and dedication to her aim. It allowed people who might never travel to the countries she visited to see the plants and landscapes of exotic lands. She was obviously a strong woman and deserves to be remembered more than she is, alongside the male explorers of the same era.

New beginnings

We’re in the second week of February already. Do you think this year is going fast as well? 😉

I’ve begun a new project:

You’ll see what it is soon, for now it’s a work in progress. Maybe you could try and guess what it is but it might be quite obvious by its shape.  😊

Speaking of beginning new things, did you make new year’s resolutions? Have you kept to them? I don’t make resolutions, I gave it up a long time ago because expecting to do something new in a new year never worked for me. I try to practice mindfulness (I say try because I sometimes forget 😃 ) and I love the idea that comes with it that every day is a new beginning, a time to start again with whatever you intended to do. Even every hour – or even every minute – is an opportunity to begin again. It’s kind of like saying if you’re having a bad day, take some time out and start anew. It’s something I try to keep in mind if what I’m working on doesn’t seem to be going as I thought it would.

I came across this poem recently. It goes along the same lines of taking each day as it comes and I thought I’d share it with you:

Write it on your heart

that every day is the best day in the year.

He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day

Who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.

You have done what you could.

Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in.

Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;

begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit

to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,

with its hopes and invitations,

to waste a moment on the yesterday.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

So if you’re annoyed or down about not sticking to resolutions, don’t be. Have a break and begin again tomorrow. Don’t be hard on yourself. 😊 I think I see Spring as more of a new beginning than the new year as Spring is when nature is waking up and the plants really begin to sprout new shoots.

The winter flowering jasmine and violas are still going in the garden, providing lovely colour and the primroses are blooming:

My mother’s camellia has blossomed like mad:

I’ve done some quick sketches of the blooms:

And also of some mini daffodils:

I hope to involve them in my work at some point, a painting maybe, or in some textiles.

The camellia always flowers in January and brings beautiful colour to the grey days. It also seems to attract blue tits. I’ve seen quite a few pecking at the centre of the flowers but I don’t know what it is they’re after. Part of the flower? Insects? If you know, do tell me!  J

Autumn Wall Hanging

I've finished my Autumn version of my Wild Nature wall hanging. You can see the Spring/Summer version here if you haven't seen it: Wild Nature

With this one, I've used the rich ambers, browns, reds and golds of autumn leaves and tree bark. I've tried to evoke the warm tones of the natural world as the year draws to a close and nature begins to prepare itself for winter with its shorter, colder days.

I began with strips of amber and brown fabric.....

.....then sewed on them with decorative machine stitching.

I printed the amber and yellow toned leaf pattern on to organza, layered it on top of the strips and stitching, then embroidered the swirls and leaves by hand.

I created a string with the same colours to hang it.

Here's a close up of my hand stitching:

I machine embroidered leaves on gold organza with brown and gold coloured thread.

Then I sewed them to the wall hanging and put it all together. Once finished, it looked like this:

I'm very pleased with the result and really like the colours. I think the leaves being different in colour to the main body provide contrast and a bit of depth.

As we've come to February and the 1st being Imbolc and the 2nd being Candlemass, hopefully Spring will be here soon. I came across this old rhyme today:

If Candlemass Day be fair and bright

Winter will have another fight.

If Candlemass Day brings cloud and rain

Winter will not come again.

It was cloudy and rainy here, so fingers crossed! 😃