This morning I ‘finished off’ this second group of sculpted fabric forms I’ve made in this second week of the Clarissa Callesen workshop. You can keep going until eternity with all this – its very calming and soothing to make unit after unit, and though my composition might actually do with a few more bits, I think I felt I’d reached the point where I had to stop some time. Then I embellished a number some of them with stitch, using french knots, stemmed french knots, running stitch, simple chain stitch and a simple irregular couching. Wandering with a needle is just how I normally stitch whatever I’m doing.

The daily Q&A sessions have been compiled into a video you can replay – which is like another instruction tutorial, so definitely enriching. This morning Clarissa answered a question from a student on what sort of notebooks and workbooks she keeps. This blog being essentially my own artist’s diary or workbook, I was really interested to hear her approach – ie she almost apologetically outlined how she doesn’t keep the classical artist’s notebook (which many artists and aspiring artists have come to believe as being almost as essential as doing the work itself) In her own words she isn’t a particularly good drawer, and rather than draw or sketch, she takes photos of things she likes. She prints photos or parts of them off, and places them around her studio. She has no particular way to organise samples she makes. This has a lot in common with my own system, and was quite interesting to hear.

Another part of the discussion was of armatures, structural supports for creations that are not flat, ranging from low relief up to completely 3D, or in the round as a few students have been doing. Down the years, virtually all my art has been 2D, with a few exceptions such as these works dating back many years: