I started the introductory project by choosing the theme ‘Balance and Harmony’ because this appealed to me most from the choices. I then did some brainstorming of the theme and came up with –

joining, concord, pleasing, consistent, old and new, co-operation, peace, understanding, compatibility, empathy, meeting of minds, affinity, understanding, chords, musical notes, holding hands, yin and yang, dancers, choirs, matching, proportional, balanced, compatible, love, conflict free, Chinese symbols, spirals, stability, self control, steadfastness, equilibrium, stone balance, work life balance, bicycle, flamingos on one leg, diet, right and wrong, light and heavy, smooth and textured, lemon and lime, bangers and mash, tea and cake.

I wanted to create a pleasing whole and with this in mind decided to start by concentrating on the following items to create my theme – leaves, pine cones, wedding rings, music, stone, circles, a piece of crochet, walls, shells and patterns.

I gathered some items together – some from my list and some others that I spotted around my home, and took the following photos

I was looking for a pleasing composition to create a harmonious whole, using heavy and light materials, smooth and textured surfaces, and dark and light shades. The items I chose each please me as they are tactile, beautiful in their own right and each (apart from the pine cone which I just like) have memories for me of places and people.

Once I started to arrange the items I got the feeling of arranging a dinner place with the bowl at the centre, textiles as napkins, and various treats and favours placed in a way to entice the diner. It made me think of Feng Shui.

I chose a clean white background as it is pleasing to the eye and accentuates the lines; also I realised it looks like a tablecloth.

I was pleased with the results and settled on the black and white image.

My drawings were done with pencil and watercolour in a limited palette – I intend to do some more in other mediums while sticking with the monotone theme.

More to come on this!

Reflection

I was pleased with the items and final arrangement I chose even though I was initially worried about drawing them. I was familiar with the items as apart from the pine cone they had special meaning to me – they had either been presents, or were pieces of old jewellery and textiles that I have collected throughout my life. Apart from the bowl the items are not valuable, but I can remember things about each of them such as where I wore them, who gave them to me, or where I bought them. Some of the jewellery is broken and no longer looks like its original form.

I found I enjoyed drawing with pencil and tried to use different pencils to achieve soft and hard effects. I also liked the simplicity of mark making with a felt tip.

I realise that my drawings are all on fairly small pieces of paper and know that I need to try a different approach and ‘go large’! I also found it hard to move away from drawing exactly what I see and just make marks.

Since making these drawings I have studied the work of some artists who use drawing and mark making as an important part of their work, and have written a blog about this.

i have also obtained a book called “Mark making in textile art’ by Helen Parrott (Batsford 2013) which I hope will inspire me to explore mark making in different ways.

Because I have been travelling a lot during this piece of work I haven’t done everything in the order of the course materials and on reflection I can see that doing more research in the early stages may have helped me to be more adventurous in my approach.