A Merry Kestrel Christmas.

A very Merry Christmas to all who read this blog from all the Brunel Broderers.

A new direction for the Stuart Casket?

There isn't much time for machine drawing at the moment because Christmas preparations are in full swing and I now have quite a few days to work. 

We are just back from a weekend visiting my in-laws. Whilst enjoying lovely food and company I also managed to discuss my work with my mother-in-law, Judith Perry, who is a textile artist. Whilst we both agreed that it was good reproduction of the casket, we wondered if it was enough to just be reproducing the box to explore the idea of faded splendour, damage and repair. I explained how I often thought  of the young girls who would have worked with bone needles by little more than candle light to make the beautiful boxes. Judith found this comment about how hard the boxes must have been to make and just how much time was involved, an interesting idea. What will todays generation of teenagers have to show for their spent time? Social media and gaming consumes  every spare minute of my teenagers lives. I often shout 'please do something useful with your time, there is a world out there that is passing you by and you will have nothing to show for your young years'.

Could I possibly include some images form their gaming into my design? And if I do, how could I incorporate the modern images? I do really like this idea as I love using personal arguments and issues in my work.

Here are some images of the work so far, and when the Christmas rush has settled I will begin some sketches and consider how I might move this project forward.

Completed right door

Partly completed left door 

initial ideas

this is the story so far, from initial inspiration, Carla's workshop experiments to sampling with fabrics.

Feathers

I am drawing feathers I found at Newark Park and a swans feather from Slimbridge. These are made with silk and assorted scraps on soluble fabric. I thought I would use them as tassels on my feather books.