I'll be honest: it's been SO hard to keep these a secret. If you're on my Patreon, you'll have seen me develop them as part of our monthly Process and Development videos, and each time a new sample arrived, it was always more beautiful than the last and that always made it even HARDER not just to share them, but here they are in all their beauty!!
Everyone who has seen them has commented on how special they are. Phil's dad even likened them to something stocked in Liberty, and I think my mum and dad plan on having one on every bed in their house - very cosy!
I have been fortunate enough to share early sample previews with my friends and family, and I feel so lucky to have received photos of them wrapped up in the throws, draped over the sofa or with a cute dog curled on top.
If you'd like to check them out or add one to your Christmas / birthday wish list, you can find them here
It's the first time I've spent so long developing something, but it's made me value and enjoy seeing my work on fabric. As a lecturer, I often encouraged students to push their work through some sort of process - which normally meant going into the printmaking rooms and trying screenprint or linocut, but even using the photocopier to enlarge or shrink their work to help them see their drawings in a different light.
Taking my sketchbook drawings and pushing them through the digital weaving process with Fiberart has been so much fun this year, not just for all the gorgeous throws I've been able to design but also because it has helped me work outside of my sketchbook and see my work bigger.
Part of that is because of the way the throws are printed; there is a minimal colour palette available, so it flattens a lot of the colours and textures which I put into my work. It has made me consider using more limited colour palettes, especially in life drawing on a Sunday morning.
Seeing my sketchbook drawings at a different scale has also helped me understand that the marks I was making in my sketchbook couldn't just be mimicked twice as big. If I wanted to start working larger again on canvas, I needed to find different materials and ways of drawing bigger. After almost a full year of not painting, it's something I've been enjoying since returning from France, but more on that next year.
It is hard now not to send every drawing I do to the team I work with at Fiberart and have them help me make it into a throw. But the possibilities do feel endless, and that's why I've enjoyed pushing my work through different craft processes this year; there's so much I can explore and create. Me and my mum have been thinking we might turn some of the many samples we've got into tapestry jackets; I love the idea of wearing one of my drawings - how cool would that be!
But for now, please do check out the four beautiful throws which I've designed this year and let me know what you think; they mean so much to me. I hope you'll agree they're so special. I am looking forward to more textile exploration in 2024.
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Photography
Tessa Bricknell
@headcakephoto
headcake.co.uk
Clothing
Kaely Russell
@kaelyrussell_studio
www.kaelyrussell.com
Models
Esmae Jenkinson
@esmaejenkinson
Florence Seck
@florence.seck
They are so gorgeous!
These are stunning....and beautiful....and exciting! Thankyou for sharing such beautiful work!xxx