Studio visit

April 6, 2015

I caught up with a friend this weekend who came to see me in my studio. Bronwyn happens to be a talented photographer ... and she brought her camera. It was fascinating to see the space through her eyes - I particularly liked some of the details she picked out:

My studio used to be our garage. It has no windows, just a door opening out into the garden. I have an inspiring view of one end of our hedge and not much else. No distractions! I have three main work areas - one for clean work (mainly stitching); one for wet work.

The third used to be for drawing, but that activity has now moved inside the house, so it is now general purpose ... but holds an ever-growing collection of found objects. These would take over if I let them ...

Every available space is used for storage - hand-built shelves and cupboards, plastic crates and Ikea. But I keep large areas of wall clear, covered with foam-core, to use as pin boards. I pin up work in progress, samples, photographs and drawings. There used to be a lot of images of other people's work for general inspiration, but I removed almost all of these. I prefer to have my own photographs - often cut up or edited - and drawings - so that the walls are now an extension of my sketchbook.

All the photos in this post are by Bronwyn Oldham. Bronwyn's own work focuses on flowers - but not as you might normally imagine them. She portrays them as they age and wither, when the petals take on new textures and colours; and flowers and leaves shrink or distort into new forms. She makes you see how they are just as beautiful like this, if not more so. I particularly like the way the petals and leaves seem more cloth-like as they age.

Unfinished work

March 31, 2015

This is my studio wall after a weekend of editing and revising work I thought I had finished.

On Friday I pulled out some unfinished work from last year, intending to finish them. Several pieces - they just needed a final layer of stitch. I pinned them all up on the wall alongside some finished pieces from the same group and stepped back.

There's something about coming back to your work and looking at it afresh after some time has passed. You see it more clearly. I didn't like the proportions of one piece ... but there was a way to fix that. I took it down, unpicked it, removed a border, straightened an edge, restitched. Pinned it back on the wall. There were two other pieces I now thought a little uninspiring. Another where something wasn't quite right. Decision time - leave them ... or ...

I took them down. I dug out the L Shaped pieces of card I use as "windows" and some strips of white cotton and started testing different formats and ways of cropping. I pulled out more cloth to try out different colours and marks. Better. I started cutting, tearing and pinning. I took pictures with my iPhone as I went (out of focus ... sorry). Photos are more objective - I can often see what isn't working in a photograph faster than just looking at the piece itself.

I was inspired to pull out two or three more pieces that I had never resolved - these had never even made it into the "ready for stitching" pile. Each one had a germ of an idea, I just hadn't made it work. In one, it was as though each end belonged to a different piece - and at one end it looked as though I had just kept adding more pieces to try and make it work. I cut it in two. Started removing pieces. Now the two sections didn't have to relate to each other it was much easier to see what needed to be done.

Another piece - a large one. The borders did nothing for the centre section and there was a touch of terracotta that didn't relate to anything. Plus the proportions and size were all wrong. I still liked the bit in the middle though. So I started removing the rest - stripping it back to essentials. I cropped the whole thing down. Paler borders. Plainer. Everything fell into place. Now it worked.

When I got stuck on one piece I switched to another. I kept stepping back and looking until I could see what I needed to do. I worked backwards and forwards like this all weekend. The downside is that I didn't "finish" any pieces of work, although I re-made six or seven. But it was so worthwhile. I am much happier with these.

Procrastinating

August 17, 2014

This week I tidied my desk. Then I tidied my study. Then I tidied my studio. It may not look that tidy but any time the floor and most of the work surfaces are clear counts as tidy enough for me. In general I tend to feel that a spotless studio is one where not a lot of work is happening ... but on the other hand I love it when the studio is clean and I have lots of space again.

I'm not a tidy worker. I like to leave things out when I'm working on something. I like to be able to see everything. After a while, surfaces get taken over by piles of this or piles of that. When I urgently need some space, a pile gets moved to the floor. As long as everything stays in its pile, I know where it is.

But I don't like clutter. Eventually it just frustrates me and I have to clear up. Of course, when I do tidy up, I spend about a third of the time cleaning and putting stuff away and the other two thirds looking at things. The random drawing I had dismissed that now looks rather interesting. Accidental fabric combinations that suggest something new. The book or article I haven't got around to reading. It has always been this way with me.

And all the time I have been clearing up this week, I am perfectly aware that the other thing that is going on here is that I am procrastinating. For a few weeks now I have been finding it really hard to settle. I have worked, but it has been piecemeal. Nibbling at the edges. Better than nothing of course, but I've been frustrated with myself, feeling that I'm not getting on with things; not making best use of my time.

I realised that the problem is that there are too many things I want to do. I listed out in my sketchbook all the ideas and experiments I want to try. It's a long list. I also want to spend some time drawing. Meanwhile, back in the house I have a pile of things to read, watch and write about. And there is work in progress to finish. So when I do have studio time I find myself torn between the playful, experimental things versus the things I feel I "should" be doing. The result is that I haven't made real progress with anything ... and it became easier to tidy my desk, my study and then my studio than to do something more creative.

The clutter in my studio mirrored the clutter in my head. Now the studio is tidy I need another clear out, following much the same principles. I need to take care of the things that really must get done because that nagging "you should be doing x" feeling is what's stopping me from settling down to the more interesting stuff. But perhaps I can operate the same 1:2 rule - a third of the time on the "musts" and the "shoulds"; the rest on the experimental things that may lead nowhere ... or may move my work forward.

Helen Terry

fabric, colour, texture, art, craft, creativity.