About once a year I take some time out to be a student rather than a tutor. I select a teacher who's work I admire and is completely different to my own. Often this is exploring a different way of working rather than a new technique. It is scary but exhilarating to be out of your comfort zone.
Surrendering yourself to the process and being pulled along by the tutor can be very freeing. The end result is not the most important thing but the chance to explore new ideas, make mistakes without consequence, and just 'play'.
So the opportunity to attend 'A Sense of Place' three day workshop with artist Debbie Lyddon proved irrestisible.
Working alongside other like-minded students was inspiring too, in a friendly and supportive environment.
Day one was 'Seeing' as we explored the marina and marshes of Tollesbury in the Blackwater Estuary. Such an brilliant place. My focus was the simplest of posts in the water which felt so small and vulnerable to all the elements of wind and water and changed in a second according to the light.
After observation and drawing outside we tried to capture these on paper
Considering words and phrases to describe our obsevations helped deepen the connection to the sense of place
The end result from day one was a folded map book using one of our painted papers
Day two was 'Listening' as we went on a sound walk to try and express what we heard using mark making and drawing - really hard! What does the sound of a car tyre on wet road look like?
Again we tried out our ideas on paper, trying to capture the rhythmn, resonance and colour of what we had heard.
My selected design on paper to be interpreted in stitch. Folds and scores infused with ink.
Very much still a work in progress but this is the beginnings of my stitched interpretation
Day three was 'Touching' when we used our collected found objects from Tollesbury to inspire the making of a coloured and waxed cloth bag to hold the items made on the workshop.
I endeavoured to use the found items of a rusty nail and washer picked up in the marina as a fastening device and stitching to mimic that from the soundscape
A great three days. Debbie Lyddon is an excellent tutor and I would highly recommend the 'A Sense of Place' course which is now available through
Thankyou to Lorraine Traer-Clarke for organising the workshop and to the members of Blackwater Textiles
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