Chiffon

Here the edges are singed. The pyrography tip makes different size marks when turned on its side.

Fabric investigation 1

Here you can see the wild frayed edges of cotton bump (centre).

Fabric Investigation is 'written' with a pyrography tip on kunin felt.

Felt fun

Kunin (synthetic felt) melts easily.

Wool felt is softer. Dry needle felting makes a fluffy edge. Tiny snips make a curvy edge.

Delicate shapes

Delicate shapes were melted with the pyropgraphy machine.

See the positive and negative image.

Bubbles and holes

Nylon voile bubbles when held over a candle flame.

A pyrography tip made the holes.

Health and Safety: I wore a mask and worked on a glass sheet. A damp cloth and bowl of water was near. The window was open.

Fabric investigation 2

Synthetics melt, bubble and burn. Natural fibres singe and some fray beautifully.

A light goes out

Deeply saddened to hear the news that Julia Caprara, who founded the Opus School of Textile Arts with her husband Alex, died from cancer on 24 October.

I met her a couple of years ago at the Prism exhibition in London. She bubbled with passion and enthusiasm. She was working on her book, Exploring Colour.

A light has gone out. Condolences to her husband Alex and all her family and friends.

Molly Chicken

Now for something completely different. Lynn Robert's Molly Chicken blog is a delight.

Jeanette Appleton

OK, I'm getting clever now, that was my first link. Here is another one to Jeanette Appleton who makes beautiful felt hangings inspired by landscape.

Francis Pickering

Inspired by Francis Pickering at our Guild meeting.

She makes beautiful books using the simplest of materials. Lining paper, calico, found objects, hand and machine stitch.

Chapter three: paper relief surfaces

Below are my paper relief surfaces.

I found the tissue, glassine and card to be the most versatile.

Feather

Tissue flutes mimic a feather and ruched glassine mimics sand.

Stone sea

Tissue and crepe twists mimic a stone sea of pebbles.

Jellyfish one

Ruched glassine and stuffed tissue balls mimic jellyfish on sand.

Jellyfish two

Split paper balls mimic jellyfish.

Driftwood rubbings

Rippled card mimics driftwood rubbings.

Stone rubbings

Gathered tissue mimics stone rubbings.

Seaweed

Scrunched and snipped tissue mimics seaweed.

Dried grasses

Scrunched and pressed tissue mimics dried grasses.

Cigarette butts

Rolled card mimics cigarette butts.

Chapter Two: Experimental textures with paper

Below are my experimental paper textures. Apologies but they published slightly out of order. I'm still wearing my blogger 'L' plates.

I used PVA glue and mounted the papers on black card which I attached to mount board with double-sided stitcky tape.

Detail: scrunched and pressed tracing paper

Tracing paper is hard and unforgiving. It cracks when scrunched and forms delicate tracks in the paper.

Detail: gathered and stuffed tissue balls

I used a very fine needle and thread. This helped stop the tissue from tearing.

Texture with tissue

Machine gathering is very effective. I set straight stitch to its longest setting and gently stitched rows about 1cm apart along a long length of tissue. I pulled the threads gently and knotted the thread to secure the ends.

The 'balls' are squares of tissue, gathered and stuffed with tissue offcuts.

Detail: glassine beads

I crimped the edges of the fat beads with craft scissors. I used spots of PVA glue to stop the beads unrolling.

Crumple, ripple and roll

I used a paper rippler. Very effective on the card and cartridge paper. It did not 'take' on the thinner glassine, crepe and tracing papers.

Glassine was good for rolled beads and the crepe crumpled into lovely balls of texture.

Detail: ripped and folded card

Card makes lovely crisp folds.

Rip, fold and twist

Left column: glassine, crepe and kitchen paper.

Right column: tissue, handmade paper and card.

Detail: ruched kitchen paper

Ruching transforms this ordinary paper into something extraordinary.

Rip, ruche and pierce

The photocopy strips on the left were ripped along children's novelty rulers.

Middle column: greaseproof, japanese mulberry paper, tissue, cartridge (pierced with a hole punch).

Right column: glassine, kitchen roll,waxed food wrap crepe and tracing. The latter two were pierced with an awl.

How to ruche paper: fold then twist a wide strip of paper. Spray with water. Roll in a towel to reduce excess moisture then leave to dry about 24 hours.

Scrunched and pressed

I pressed these papers with a rolling pin.

Left to right: tracing, japanese mulberry paper, crepe, greaseproof, glassine, tissue, cartridge and waxed food wrap.

Detail: japanese mulberry paper

This paper was soft, velvety and pliable.

Scrunched paper samples

I scrunched the following papers - tracing, kitchen, photocopy, greaseproof, waxed food wrap, glassine, tissue, japanese mulberry and crepe.

The waxed food wrap was stiff and shiny.

Chapter One: Texture in Landscape

Below are my sand and debris pics. I've used google Picasa, a free download which Ray showed me.

I've zoomed, cropped and used black and white to show tones. I made driftwood and stone rubbings and collected crab shell and feathers.

Location: North and South Beach, Lowestoft...here's North Beach.

Seaweed spikes

The landscape goes lunar with this seaweed as it pokes above the sand.

Caterpillar

Not really, but this feathery seaweed looks like a furry caterpillar.

Plastic

Folds and troughs in the plastic create new hiding places for the sand.

Stones and trails

Sand and sea give each flint stone and pebble a unique shape and colour. I've printed these in black and white to see the tones.

See the spidery trail in the sand at the bottom.

Crab

This crab shell has a wonderful fluted edge.

Stone sea

A stone sea makes a wonderful scrunchy texture.

Dried grass

I like the spiky lines and criss-cross patterns this dried grass makes.

Feather

This feather left a delicate print in the sand.

Butts

OK, I know this isn't strictly speaking sand, but it is debris. It's the car park at North Beach... and the sand is under the stones.

It's the butts I like - great possibilities for rolled fabric beads.

Crab, net and shells

I've zoomed in on this pile of crab, net and shells to abstract the shapes and textures.

Sian gives the go ahead

'Your theme of sand and debris is a great one. Take a look at Gwen Hedley's work. '

Thank you Sian. I've reserved Gwen's book from the library.

Jellyfish

At first I thought sand prints, but I like the new textures debris makes as it is washes up on the shoreline or lies half buried in the sand.

My neighbour, Micky, who was a deep sea trawlerman, says these translucent pebbles are jellyfish with a sting! They were soft and wobbly to touch.