Inspired by Landscape

These Days This Country My Family

Covid has kept us all close to home this year and consequently made us look carefully at what is around us and what are those little things we take for granted.

These colours change constantly maybe up to 30 times a day as light alters and casts its differing shadows. The colours alter seasonally too and after harvest a thousand differing shades sprinkle these moors.

Capturing this was my aim on a day I was missing my family so much it hurt. I wanted to remember that raw emotion I experienced and remember never to take them for granted.

At this time I had taken part in Fiona’s class to use paper layers within the felt both to texturise and alter the pliability or strength.

These are the coloured selection I used to capture the light on that 1 day at that particular moment.

Started by laying these colours randomly around my circle resist allowing them to mingle but staying in bands of strange linear shapes like the hills. Then the paper was applied and to add my outer colour layer as soon as I wet the paper I dropped with a dropper natural dyes onto the wet paper.

Some of the paper strips I used on the 2nd side of my resist I had already applied natural dyes with a roller and dried with a hair dryer then ironed. Some had been steamed into the Kozo paper and left to dry naturally.

I paid little attention to one side where the paper strips did not adhere 100% I needed this unattached sense to echoes my own emotions here.

After completing the felting stage I began grappling sections and folding and gathering, stitching them down whilst drying to keep that sense of gathering my loved ones close. I then inserted a ballon blew it up and pegged it out to dry .

The vessel needs me to stitch into it but not yet – this will happen as I start to see them all again and sense all will be well. A year to look deep and feel emotions strongly as both loved ones and ex colleagues and friends have succumbed to this dreadful virus as it’s wound its way through our planet Earth destroying us in its wake. Life is precious our time here short we need to care for one another more too.