Last week I spent a couple of days on the rugged but beautiful Lleyn Peninsula. My original plan had been to find out more about the Mabinogion – a collection of Welsh folk tales – in the hope of inspiring some Textile Art.
In the event, it wasn’t the Mabinogion which inspired me, it was the landscape in which the stories are set. As someone who lives inland, I found the textures of the beach, the flotsam and jetsam of the seashore, really interesting. This collection of seaweed, for example, is destined to be the starting point of a wallhanging. I wouldn’t change the colours but see it with a variety of textures appliqués onto a coarse backing fabric. Creative Embroidery, beads and found objects would provide a depth of texture.
Creu ‘bwrdd stori’ yw cam cyntaf yn defnyddio llun megis hun fel man cychwyn ar gyfer Celf Tecstilau. Casglwch deunydd, edau a phethau eraill. This storyboard will act as a reminder to you as you start thinking about your Textile Art. For people like me, who find traditional media a bit of a challenge, storyboards are a great way to make connections between developing one stage of a piece of art and the next.There are times when my storyboards are just a jumble of threads and bits of fabric in a basket or, sometimes (I’m ashamed to admit), in a pile on my workroom floor. I caused despair to many of my erstwhile tutors by being unable to organise a conventional sketchbook for assessments. If you are a textiles student, consider having a 3 dimensiol storyboard