felt

Involving needle-felting, machine-sewing and poetry, this outcome takes a lot into account, and wraps up my first pathway project perfectly! Inspired by a small scale sketchbook painting. Below is an extract from my project that explains the concept behind it all:
"There’s a certain simplicity in place and time that can not always be forced or planned. Often times, the pursuit of contentment is in vain, with people trying too hard to achieve their next happy memories. I know that for me, personally, some of my happiest memories have been in moments of spontaneity, times where I didn’t expect to enjoy myself as much as I did. And then I look back and realise just how content I was in that exact time and place, and I didn’t even really register it! This directly applies to my trip to Santorini at the end of October; I went there not knowing just how blissful it’d be. A couple of months on, after many cold, dark mornings, I was sat in the classroom looking out onto the field. Everything was covered in a thick layer of frost, which settled on the landscape as a beautiful pearlescent white. Spider webs were encased in the most fascinating way by the frost – this was the closest we got to snow that winter, yet in a way it was more beautiful than snow, as it never got dull or slushy and instead continued to reflect the winter sun. This exact sight I saw out of my window, the pure lack of colour that occurred in the most beautiful way, lead me to directly compare the present to the past. My time in Santorini was so well spent, yet I didn’t realise how content I was then and there. The colours, smells and sights all continue to inspire me, but now all I can do is look back in retrospect."

The needle-felted aspect took me three weeks to complete, and was something I'd never tried before! When it was complete, I stitched it onto some striped fabric I had hand-dyed blue and machine sewn. Poetry is something I've always enjoyed, and it added a whole other element to this project, as well as this final outcome! The poem reads "but now that sea does not compare to the bitter gale I feel on my face", and is painted onto the fabirc with gouache.