I have started the degree course at Opus ..........at least I have started the 'summer work' - a sketchbook of thoughts and ideas based around 'The Senses'. Using set words such as luscious. tardy, sumptuous, tarnished etc ........the idea is maintain a sketchbook of thoughts on the subject.
Firstly though, I have been giving a lot of thought as to exactly what I what to gain from this course . I have been aware for a long time that I have become increasingly dissastisfied and irritated with the zap, burn and distress technique that has become synymous with embroidery during the last 10-15 years .
I trained as an embroiderer, I learned all the techniques that so epitomise English embroidery and I have stood in front on wonderful, fantastic embroideries that have literally taken my breath away with their stunning intricate work. And yet my own work is so far from this heritage that I am unsure as to where it came from or why it settled in my hands.
When I consider what it is I want to do, it is clearly this:
intricate embroidery - gold work - whitework- English embroidery - canvas work - silk embroidery, box construction........... all the types of embroidery that are so embedded in my culture and my roots that it is time for me to stop ignoring it and revisit it with a rekindled passion.
I have been reading this book
'Perfume' by Patrick Suskind - in this book, which is about the intricacies of smells and fragrances, he describes the overwhelming perfume of wood and how he almost becomes drowned in its smell ......................
That describes how I feel about my stitching, my embroidery and my art perfectly ........... I want to become drowned , immersed and totally engaged with my embroidery, with the smallest finest details, with the intricacies and intimacy of its stitches and its construction.
Does that sound like my work? does that sound like me ?? Far from it, but inside my head is this passionate embroiderer who has a desire to reach to the depths and roots of her culture and endeavour to examine if that exists or not.
so far I have looking at metal threads and their construction ..........trying to interpret the words for my summer sketchbook
no-one said this journey was going to be easy
