In addition to this blog, I also post to my other blog, pickledgizzards.com, writing about foody things including memories of the family from which I came, and my own family’s life, plus for the duration of the pandemic, writings on the StitchClub workshops I’ve been undertaking as my Pandemic Treat. Posts there include two on the Richard McVetis workshop and a more recent one by Shelley Rhodes, UK which I really liked too. I post these jottings in pickled gizzards because they don’t necessarily have anything to do with the textile art I’m developing right at the moment; but of course sooner or later there is an influence on any following works.

My regular readers know I also regularly browse around on Pinterest, as one of the ways to keep up a bit with what people are doing just as in other times I used to send for textile magazines and catalogues. This morning while filling in a little time before we went out, I pinned a few things to different boards.

First to catch my eye was detail of a textile work in white with black thread that had been covered by other white threads and emerging every now and then as a slub. The technique used to achieve this is irrelevant, it is the pattern made with the discontinuous line of blobs that I like, and so I pinned it to my contemporary hand stitch board to think about, or not … if I ever want to do such a thing I can think of several ways to achieve it in stitch. I’ve always been struck by the outline and filling potential of intermittent lines with or without the inclusion of blobs – this being one example. I also have pinned others on my lines and shapes board.

Next, I pinned an image of I don’t know what and followed the link to reveal a bunch of what seemed to be textile art images, as there were a couple of textile artist names there I know, but this image wasn’t part of any of those, which is interesting! What had caught my eye was the ‘grid’ structure, apparently slapped on with wild abandon about which I thought: “hand painted grid, in gold, with metallic stitching – pin it” So I did, feeling I will think more about it, as I love paint on fabric, and love metallic glitter, especially gold.

At this point I came across a work by the artist Alberto Burri, 1915-1995, whose works often come up in my searches I love one of his unmistakable style, saatchi, that began in his time in a WWII Tunisian prisoner of war camp when he made art with whatever materials he could salvage around him, that in his hands became a fusion of painting and low relief sculpture, very often expressed through mended burlap and other non-conventional and industrial or agricultural materials showing signs of staining, wear and tear. When looking at his work I’m unsure what might have already been on the material when he picked it up to work with it, and what he might have added as part of his mark making.