This is one of my favourite beach photos. I edited out the footprint, doing which made the scale quite ambiguous, emphasising that erosion patterns are erosion patterns, whether in a vast desert or along the margin of your local beach. For this slide I drew basic lines and collaged that beside part of the pic as an example of how I see natural patterns, and how this one could be used in a textile artwork. This one has always fascinated me, and now it’s pinned up behind my ironing board ,where I see it daily. It’s calling to me and though I have other things to do today, I really do need to get cutting and sewing to see if I can put this into some fabric form. Yes, today, right after I finish this post.

In my advanced improvisational patchwork construction workshops, a power point presentation includes some other examples of how we can use using patterns observed in nature:

Highlighted on a computer, an interesting section of the lines on this shell could be a starting point for a patchwork unit (whatever scale you like, but in this case, the smaller the scale, the more difficult, finicky, this type of pattern becomes) It could be wonderful on a large scale… mmm. Freehand rotary cut through two contrasting fabrics, use one line to start from, and add more. A good rule here is “Less is more” (of both cuts and degree of curve) One cut=one seam, so two cuts close together when sewn up form a strong line against the contrasting background.