Firstly I did some black squares which I cut into shapes and arranged to make a lines. The first one shows a narrow line which gets wider then narrows again. The second makes a continuous zig zag line but at one of the points you have a choice of route, either continuing on the zig zag or finishing your journey. The second set are circles, the first ones split to make a regular wavy line and the second set has differing shapes and widths to make an irregular line.
The third set are irregular shapes, again cut firstly to make a regular line and secondly to make an irregular line. The next sets are coloured shapes. Firstly colour on a black background and secondly coloured shapes on a coloured background.
Both the foreground and background of this piece are photographs of embroidered pieces cut out from an old magazine. I liked these little stitched houses or beach huts and nine of them fitted nicely onto my page. I cut each row of three differently to create different patterns and the middle row is stuck in upside down. The houses aren't all exactly the same size and shape so this made little differences to each row. I liked this piece when it was finished, I wasn't too sure while I was doing it. It shows what you could do with pieces of work that don't work out as you would like. You can give them a new lease of life by cutting them up and rearranging them.
Andy Goldsworthy.
Some of his work is amazing and I suspect on quite a huge scale. I have picked these three pieces from what I found on the internet. I loved the autumn leaves, very inspirational for embroidery. I hope I remember I have got this picture as some later date. The other two are sand prints, which living by the sea, I can relate to.
I started my extra activity with a bit of fun. This line in my lawn has been made by next doors cats as they cross the grass to get out to the front of the houses. It has been bisected by some shadows of canes. Are they the new Andy Goldsworthy?
I hope my subsequent pictures are OK as I have used lines that I have seen around me rather than making them myself. So the next picture has been made by dogs on the beach.
The next has been made by tractor tyres in the sand and is reminiscent of one of Andy Goldsworthy's pictures I chose. My photography isn't very good I'm afraid.
Here are some stacked lobster pots. This was at Staithes. There is a lovely pub right on the beach and the entrance door that faces the beach has a sign on saying 'In very high seas, please use other door'. I wonder how many customers have ended up with salt water in their beer!
Ten minutes in land and the weather was beautiful. This is on Blakey Ridge and the patterns are created by strip heather burning for the management of the grouse on the moors.
We had a lovely day out and both of us enjoyed using our eyes a lot more than we might have done and certainly more than those overtaking us at 60 miles an hour through this magnificent scenery.
