From inspiration and developing a design to stitch

Thanks to Linda Watts and Jean Campbell, we had a fun day investigating sources for our own original designs. With Linda we used fabric crayons to draw objects with our ‘other’ hand, painted with sponges, made ‘blot’ pictures with transfer inks, traced interesting segments from random photographs and even played ‘pass the picture’, adding our own marks to those of our neighbours, resulting in group designs. In short we did everything to loosen us up and get us away from a traditional starting point.

Then we were presented with a selection of shoes – not, you might think, the most inspiring start for a design - wrong! Under Jean’s guidance we looked at insides, outsides, sections, negative spaces and arrived at our own individual motifs that could be manipulated. None looked like shoes! My chosen thong sandal with copious beads and bling became a radiating design that I worked in appliqué (fabric selection thanks to Jean and Linda). Later work with this on my machine produced a bright image that may front a bag.

During the day we met familiar themes with new techniques and tackled unexpected themes with friendly help and enthusiasm. We left with plenty to inspire us for our next designs. Thanks for a great Dayschool.

By Barbara Bexley