Kit: Wattle & Loop - Cosmos
Working with my first textile art kit
As I am not able to go on many courses I am buying kits. I love a good kit. It provides everything I need in one place, all the materials and (hopefully) detailed instructions too.
This one appeared in my Instagram feed, after I started following the sort of artists I like. I could not figure out how to start doing this sort of work, especially getting all the fabric together without spending a fortune.
The Cosmos from Wattle and Loop looked perfect. (Wattle & Loop kits page (Not an affiliate) )
All the materials came in lovely little envelopes - I'm not sure what the material is- sort of a thick tracing paper, slightly translucent, sealed with lovely stickers. I do wish when people use stickers like this they would include a couple of unused ones, I do love a sticker and put them all over my notebooks.
It was such a gorgeous array of fabrics and excellent instructions. I decided that I wanted to focus on doing it my way, rather than exactly as the pattern was, so I didn't trace the pattern at all, and very much read instructions and then did what I wanted.
Key learnings from my Sketchbook
I need to slow down and think (this is a very common refrain in my life). I ended up with the wrong size petal, which I think made it all seem mean as the flowers are quite small. The petals are all the wrong shape, if I had slowed down and noticed - maybe even sketched it all out first - that would have helped
So much of the fabric is strongly patterned, and I do not like it. I think it makes it all quite busy and hectic - I do not like this much pattern in my work, especially as many of them were quite strong
Want to learn more embroider so I can add depth and richness that way, it was definitely embroidery I enjoyed the most and this highlighted my lack of knowledge of stitches
Much prefer working on the buds than the main flowers - working in miniature is more satisfying?
Enjoying working with fragile and fine materials - so that the embroidery is holding it together more, I enjoy the layering of fabric and stitches, using the two to shape an image
Reflections
Ah yes, the reason that I leave projects for a period of time before I evaluate them, it looks good and I am pleased with the overall effect. I enjoyed it and I think the kit itself is excellent, the materials are high quality, the accompanying booklet is very detailed and easy to follow. It's also freeing in that it encourages you to do what you want and not follow the instructions slavishly.
I have saved all the scraps of material and have incorporated them into the 100 days stitch project (details coming soon), and enjoy using small amount of patterned fabric.
I am so pleased that I did this kit, it helped me realise what I do and don't like, it confirmed I want to do this sort of art and that I needed to improve my embroidery skills, which I probably haven't used in over ten years.
