Pinterest is marvellous to explore for ideas, rather a digital artist’s morgue.  I browse there at length every now and then, it can be very addictive, and while pinning I also sometimes add to a list of things/techniques I’ve seen others do in their work, and making a quick sample of something on that list is a way to have it register with me – to show whether it is worth the trouble, if I have the necessary skills and materials to do it, and is a first step in exploring its potential to fit into my own work sometime.  A sample is a shorthand way of saying a great deal.

I often finish up a morning or afternoon in my work room by making a quick sample or two, and here are a couple from this week:

A scrap of nylon organza with random tucks machine sewn.  I saw something along these lines hand stitched in a strongly contrasting thread, but I think machine sewn could make an interesting surface, perhaps for a collage, but possibly for a sheer ‘quilt’ … just wandering here.  The fact that the thread in the machine happened to be silver is purely circumstantial, but interesting.

Here segments of various ribbons or tapes and some waxed nylon cord are very exciting, I think.  The idea could be exploited as the main surface design, or  could be in the role of embellishment of something beneath.  Again that silver thread … means absolutely nothing except circumstance.  I did say these are quick samples,  ‘notes’ if you like.