Ptolemy Mann

Well, on the advice of my tutor (see below) I have had a look at the Ptolemy Mann website.

Now this doesn't look like any other textile art website I've seen so far.
An architectural textile artist whose particular strength is colour.
Strong interesting and certainly unexpected colours and combinations of colours.

There is a reference to her use of Ikat weaving, which I have seen in some rugs. Briefly looking up Ikat technique on wikipaedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikat, I am reminded that I read about it before in a book about ornament - that it is a highly skilled technique where the yarn is dyed with resist patterns from binding the threads, and only then woven.

I see now that her textiles are made by dying the changes in colour on the threads first, and then woven, which gives them an irregular transition of colour which is distinctive.

Looking further on the website, I definitely remember seeing the John Lewis cushion design and noticing it as something new and different and strikingly colourful.

I enjoyed reading some of her journalism - the review of Josef Albers 'Interaction of Colour' in which she says, 'We all see colours differently which is exactly why it's so interesting and impenetrable.' I didn't know before reading this that he was married to 'the unsurpassed weaver' named Anni Albers. Someone else to look up.

Another textile artist whose work she reviewed in Selvage magazine was Sue Lawty, whose focus is on the tiny organic details. I loved the piece at the top of the article, and want to see more of her work. Not much overt colour in it, but lots to look at. In some ways more than in Ptolemy Mann's work.

'Clever and eye-catching textiles depend entirely on how colours work together.' Certainly relates to her own work especially. They really are clever and eye-catching. I read elsewhere that the colours change as you move around them. And the whole buildings she has been a colour consultant for are overtly different, interesting and bright.

These two textile artists are clearly making pieces for very different reasons.

One of the things that struck me looking at this website is how she works in a variety of different ways - textile art, textile design, colour consultancy and architectural pieces, and that this seems natural in someone with a love of and skill in using colour in the way she does. So it's not a question of either/or.

I also found, personally, that this website and the articles in it revealed that there is no 'right' way to do colour, and that experimentation to find my own preferences and tendencies is the way to go. Which is very helpful and for that I thank my tutor.

Tutor feedback for Assignment 2

Overall Comments

You have produced a lot of work for this assignment and worked really hard.  Your labeling of exercises and the additional comments you make are really helpful. 

Assessment potential 

I understand your aim is to go for the Textiles Degree and that you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. From the work you have shown in this assignment, and providing you commit yourself to the course, I suggest that you are likely to be successful in the assessment.

Feedback on assignment Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity

This assignment is split into three projects; colour, developing design ideas and painting and printing.  

In the colour exercises you learn about 

• colour theory 
• how to mix and match and record colour accurately
• how to create moods and themes with colour
• working with coloured stitches
• combining textures and colour effects

Stage 2 Colour Perception

Your colour exercises are great.  The idea of putting a wheel under each square showing where the colours come from is an excellent one.  It clearly shows the relationship between them when thinking about the effect of one colour against another.  

Your question about white with watercolour not having the same impact on the colour as with the gouache is true.  At least with watercolour the colour becomes more opaque than colours without white. With watercolour you can create a paler colour by watering it down more and using the background paper colour to make it less intense, whereas with gouache the tendency is to use it more as an opaque medium of flat colour and therefore white is necessary to make create a paler more pastel tint.  Of course you can water gouache down like watercolour if you wish.

Stage 2 Recording colours accurately 

The idea of this exercise is to help you identify colours and reproduce them therefore understanding how they are made up.  It takes practice and many people find this difficult.  

Well done with your fabric sample colour matching.  The dark brown could be a little more reddish purple and the green a touch of red in it would tone it down just a little. Otherwise you have really made good matches for the colours.  Especially the background which isn’t easy to get right.    Similarly with your postcard image your colours are good.

The colour stitch exercises are well executed.  Your circle of stitched samples shows some lovely textures and different ways of using colour to create depth, shading, contrast and texture.  

From your comments in your blog you had some difficulties with the colour exercise in the early stages.  However looking back the struggles have in fact been beneficial in making you look and think about colour in a way you had not done before.  Your painting of the rhubarb leaves as a result is lovely. 

Project 4: Developing design ideas

In this project you look at the elements of design; colour, shape and texture.  You also need to consider scale and composition in order to decide what to select, and how to develop it.

This project is excellent, you have explored a wealth of images and techniques.  You have pushed yourself to look at different aspects of your images, starting with your own drawings in may cases and developing different aspects of shape, colour and texture using different drawing techniques and media.  

In the series taken from the oxfam postcard you have explored different aspects with different media and techniques and have got a whole range of potential images from the one starting point.  You have found out so much about that image and how it can be used during this process.  Similarly your drawing of the shell. 

The drawing you scanned and manipulated on the computer for size and colour for the repeat exercise has also come out well.  Printing it out in strips and then re-organising them into repeats with mirror images and half drops has worked well creating a fluid rhythm on a background of texture.

Project 5: Painting and printing

In this project you try out different painting and printing techniques using a range of your designs from the previous project, before going on to develop a final sample.

You have tried a good range of printing techniques and materials in the early stages of this project.  The linocut image of the walnut is intricate and detailed and makes a good motif which works well with the background colours in your cream cotton sample.

Of your 2 larger pieces the linocut walnut repeating one that you planned out is the more successful as you rightly say from the point of view of composition.  It is more considered in its arrangement.  The other piece has a quite nice flow in places but the balance of colours is such that some stand out and others almost disappear into the background.  

Sketchbooks Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity

The various drawings and work that has come from your sketchbook shows this is developing well, with many different approaches to drawing different subject matter, which is great.  Your comments suggest your sketchbooks are becoming the practice ground for ideas and techniques which is just as it should be.

Analysing images or objects (as you have done with your pottery piece) for their colour content; the colours themselves and how they are mixed, the proportions of the colours used and their arrangement, is a useful exercise to do in your sketchbook from time to time. Again you don’t have to copy the image but make your own representation of the way the colour is used.  Use paint, collage anything you like to do this and think about what sort of yarns or fabrics you might use. You say in your blog about project 5 that you didn’t feel very confident working with colour.  This exercise will help you to see how other people use colour and the effects they create with it.  

Learning logs or Blogs/Research point Context

Research Point

In this exercise you choose a favourite textile piece that has some value or family association for you.  You are asked to make notes and about this piece about techniques, materials, purpose, history, cultural significance and what it means to you.  The aim of this exercise is to investigate the story behind a textile piece, from how it is made to what it says about it’s period, style and culture and the emotional connections it creates.

You have written in detail about this child’s dress hand made from printed fabric identifying techniques and processes.  Through research you have found out the possible designer of the print.  Your comments on the printing are well thought out.  From the images it seems there are quite a number of colours in the print and this would have made it more expensive to produce.    

Your learning log is continuing well.  It is clear and explains your thoughts and reflections on what you are learning.  You are doing much research into the wider world of textiles and how it fits into the visual arts as a whole.  

Suggested Reading/viewing Context

Have a look at the work of Ptolomy Mann a weave who uses the process of Ikat dyeing to create wall hangings of pure colour. http://www.ptolemymann.com

Jilly Edwards http://bletheringcrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/jilly-edwards.html 

Fiona Hutchinson http://www.fionarhutchison.me.uk/Tapestry_gallery_.html

These two are tapestry weavers who use colour in different ways in their work. 

Pointers for the next assignment

In this next assignment you will produce samples using techniques for manipulating fabric.  You will also start your theme book with a view to looking ahead to part five of the module.  

This is another opportunity to work on developing design ideas, from drawings through to samples.

Tutor name	Charlotte Grierson
Date	3 December 2012
Next assignment due	8 February 2013

Some drawing exercises

After sending off my assignment this week, I have to collect some samples of fashion fabrics for the next part of the course. In my sketchbook I decided to have a go at some of the exercises in The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards (pub. Harper Collins 2008), to get a bit more skilled at drawing what I see.

These exercises were done using a transparent perspex sheet and initially marking some of the edges onto it directly with a felt tip. These are then transferred to the paper so that the shape and size of the drawing is accurate to start with. The idea is to train myself to convert what I see onto a 2D plain, so that eventually I will be able to do this mental trick without needing the perspex.

My left hand - outlines drawn directly onto the perspex.
Yes, my fingers really do taper like that!

Trying out a more difficult arrangement of fingers,
this is what it looks like once the outline has been transferred
to paper, details added, and the inside of the outline shaded.

Using negative spaces to help me to draw a chair.
The only part of this drawn on the perspex
was the rectangle between the front legs. That
was enough to get the sizes and angles of the spaces right. 

I was amazed and delighted at how well these exercises work. What I have learned from doing them is that my inability to draw things as they look truly is because I wasn't looking at them clearly. I really was doing that thing that they tell you not to ie moving my head to see the bits that weren't visible! And letting my logical (left brain) mind tell me that since it was a finger it had to have joints, with approximately equal lengths of finger between them etc, ie stuff that doesn't apply in 2D. The chair was the biggest revelation as I kept finding myself thinking 'no, it can't be that much wider on one side than the other. As if I wasn't believing my own eyes.

I liked the way the book advises you to tone up the paper beforehand - it makes it look rather artistic whatever you draw on top, and you can add highlights just with a rubber. The only problem is when you want to rub out lines it goes all pale, or sooty if you try to retone it afterwards (see chair drawing).

There's obviously some room for more practice, so I'm looking forward to doing that in the Christmas holidays.

Reflection for Assignment 2

Student Number: christina510830

The coursework for this assignment took me through the basics of colour, composition, developing a design, and printing and painting on fabric. Looking back it seems extraordinary that I have become aware of so much I didn’t see before, in such a short time. 

The colour section revealed how much work I need to do to become competent at seeing and mixing colours accurately.  I have, during this part of the course, found some tricks which make it easier for me, (for example starting with white when it is a pale colour), but essentially it is a question of focus of attention, and of regular practice in my sketchbook. I now notice when there is an interesting colour combination, or the effect of restricted ranges of colours, and make up colourbags for these. 

The pattern section and the work I did on it in my sketchbook have changed for ever the way I see things. Around me I see more and more of the influence of density of pattern, colour, repetition and scale on the movement or power of images. I found the exercise choosing small sections of drawings particularly clarified this, because of taking the distracting ‘meaning’ out of the picture. 

The research point looking at a textile at home helped me to understand that such things intrinsically reflect the cultural mores of the maker, and the owner.  And my reading on art theory confirms that this is as true for fine art as it is for textile crafts. I have started a process of thinking about the relationships between fine art, craft, design and decoration with the help of reading from the booklist, internet, and museum visits. 

The section on developing a design taught me a process for working from drawings towards new ideas, which I found inspiring and rewarding in itself, and produced a wide variety of ideas for me.  And another process to help me think about texture, colour and composition and what is important to me in each image. I have done some of this work since then in my sketchbook, which confirms that this process clarifies the concept for me in a way I did not expect. I have some way to go before these two processes become automatic, (for example I did not think of doing it for my final ‘single image’ sample, to its detriment) but when I do translate these exercises into practice it makes a great difference, so I aim to do it routinely.

The final section on printing and painting involved more design development, and also learning and practicing a variety of techniques. I enjoyed the hands-on creativity of both these aspects, and developed in both during the exercises. One sample worked much better than the other, probably because I applied the processes of the previous exercise before starting it. In all the sections above I have found myself wanting to explore more as I moved on to the next one, but this last was the most inspiring for me. 

During Part 3, I intend to continue to apply these techniques regularly in my sketchbook so that I can make the most of the opportunity this course is giving me to improve what I make. 

Project 5 Stage 4 - A larger sample

Looking at what I have done already:

I put out all the things I had printed during this section of the course, and thought about what I wanted to make the larger sample with.

I like the 'daisy' pattern, with it's background/ flower centres made with bubble wrap. It was freer than some of the others, and could be joyful with the right combinations of colours and fabric. I am also drawn to the slightly twisted formality of the pale green spikes in strict squares, so could do something to enhance that concept in some way. I really enjoyed printing with the relief stamps in various combinations, and feel rather proud of how good the linocut conker cases look when printed, so I could explore those more. I also enjoyed using small stencils to make shapes of uncoloured background. The foam stamps, circular relief stamps, and eyes didn't work so well, possibly because they weren't so interesting or versatile in design terms.

A series of ideas for the larger sample:

A very bad photo of my sketchbook page of ideas for the non-repeating sample

My ideas included a pretty 'wallpaper' of daisies with a large iris looking through a 'tear'; Reptile skin-like overlapping block printed shapes, with an eye coming through; a conker case on a background of spikes, with a pupil peeking out from inside; a formal repeated pattern of irises alternating with a curved diamond shape for the negative space...etc. I was liking my pupil stencils when I drew these!

I abandoned them all when I did a small version of the pupil on a silver background reflecting the texture of the fabric it was on. The pupil turned out quite deep adn glowing, as I had hoped, but it didn't really look right without the rest of the eye, and I decided to go with a more abstract image.

An only slightly better photo of some ideas for the repeating pattern.
The top left is the static repeat of the conker case, The middle one is a series of daisies using bubble wrap for the centres, and relief print for the petals, on a swirly background of bright Markal paint sticks. The next one is the relief 'leaf' shape, using stencils to highlight some of them in an abstract pattern, but generally making the most of the interesting wormcast look of them when they are close together in strings. The last was a general idea of using the same relief stamps but in two directions and metallic paints.
The magazine cutting was to show the pale yellow, blue and rust colours I wanted for the background of the conker case idea. Attached is the fabric I tried out different colours of the linocut on.

Repeating Sample:
I chose to go with the larger version of my conker case print for the larger repeating sample.

I wanted it to look autumnal, and to make you wonder what was inside. I thought that making an interesting texture in the background while leaving the centres of the prints untouched would do this best.

The fabric needed to be quite fine to allow the delicate lines of the linocut to come across clearly.

And I needed to pay attention to making the stencils out of robust material and to getting them the right way round.

Once I had chosen the dark green fine cotton for the fabric, I found a magazine advertisement with lovely rust colours on it to copy for the background texture and the outer background of the case.

First I taped it down to my printing pad.
Then I cut out 12 circles of sticky backed plastic so that the background texture
would not get onto the 'negative' space in the centre of the conkers.
Then I mixed up a lot of the pale yellow in the rust, to roller onto the background.

Once I had finished the three colours on the background, I removed the circles
of sticky-backed plastic and waited for it to dry.
I made a stencil out of thin but strong card, and drew a line to ensure that the inner
and outer parts of the stencil would correspond in the same way each time.

I used a stiff square-ended brush to stipple the paint onto the area revealed by the stencil.
I repeated this with a different colour for the inner circle of the case.

The final layer was the addition of the linocut print in a paler colour.
I had initially thought I would do it in dark brown, but did
a test on a scrap piece of the same fabric and found that it did not
show up well, so decided on pale green in the end.

What I learned from doing this sample:
1. Doing a couple of pages of ideas in my sketchbook meant that I quickly worked out what would work, and also what I liked enough to think in more detail about even at that stage. Obviously there are some things that work in pencil and paper that may not work so well in the end, so some try outs are needed before moving on to the big sample.
2. Doing some colour tries on the fabric I'm going to use is important to make sure the combinations really act the way I expect them to. As it was I discovered that the colours look much clearer and brighter on the back of the sample, presumably because they were not subdued by the relative lack of contrast with the background treatment.
3. I like the way the stripes of different colours look on the masking tape. A bit like the colours on the selvage of industrially printed fabric. It makes me want to use that in a piece of fabric that i have painted - a bit like tartan with the contributing colours coming out in various different stripes.
4. Because of the detailed linocut print going on top, I didn't need to be so careful about the stencilling. I could probably have done it all much more quickly with a block print (if only I knew where to find the right stuff to make it out of). I will ask my tutor about this today.
5.  I love these colours. I have made a colour bag with them. The rust, dark blue, forest green and mauve go remarkably well together.
6. In this sample the horizontal stripes made by the roller on the background contrasts with the circular shapes. The insubstantial pattern of the background contrasts with the delicate tracery of the linocut pattern, and I think this produces an interesting tension. The colour of the linocut contrasts with the darker richer colour of the rest of it. Those richer colours harmonise with each other. I don't think that the contrast between inside and outside the conker cases is as obvious as I had hoped.

A Single Unit Piece
For this sample I chose to go with the relief 'leaf' print idea, but to use colour as well as the stencils and proximity effects for areas of interest and movement.  I realised that it was going to be a dance of leaves, so I went with the seasonal autumn colours again, this time less subdued and more joyful. There is a brittleness to leaves in the autumn, and I wanted to reflect that in the fabric, so I chose a rather stiff but translucent organdie in pale yellow.

Once it was fixed to the printing pad I drew a dancing pattern, influenced by a Japanese painting of a dancing woman with a fan. Then I cut stencils of masking tape in the shape of combs/ half leaves and placed them at the key edges of the shape I had drawn.

Then I dampened the fabric and sponged it with paint in pale shades of yellow and orange.

Once that had dried I began relief printing with various leaf colours. I made the prints close together and therefore highly textured at the edges, and brighter and further apart in the inner part.

Compared to the planning I had done for the repeat sample, I was making most of the decisions about placement and colour as I went along.

Dancing leaves sample.

What I learned from doing this sample:
1. I found that the acrylic paint stuck rather thickly to this fabric, so it is palpable, took a long time to dry, and stuck to the iron a little.
2. This sample shows me that I need to think more about colour when I am planning to make things. I still don't have a lot of confidence in using colour, and this is generally the last thing I think about when I'm doing a drawing in my sketchbook. The first sample worked better because I had found something to copy the colours from. Which makes the colour bags a very good idea! And next time I need to remember to do the 3 part study bit of the designing consciously so that I don't miss colour out.
3. In general, I didn't know if I'd have time to do any more than the first larger sample, so I didn't plan this one so thoroughly. And this is what the result is...that it just isn't so effective. I believe that this is at least in part because while there is contrast there is no harmony bringing it all together.
4. Although the yellow fabric is lovely to touch, and makes me think of delicate fragile things, it doesn't go with the heavy printing and wide range of intenisites and tones of colours. It would have been better to try out several different kinds of fabric before starting.
5. I still think this is a good selection of source material for a design. But I think I have yet to use it in a way which makes the most of what i think of as the wormcast texture. Perhaps I should have used a heavier weave and strong colours.
6. In addition, perhaps with this fine fabric a smaller pattern would have been more appropriate.

Project 5 again - trying out more techniques and ideas

I have done some more experimentation with printing today.

Conker case

Drawings of conker cases from my sketchbook

I did these sketches some time ago, of the cases of unripe horse chestnuts that I found in the road. I liked the way the case was so spikey and thick and there was an intriguing inside which you couldn't quite see.

Since my first attempt to linocut the sharp bits, which didn't work so well, I have tried out other linocuts, and discovered some of the trick to it. 

I decided to have another go, but this time using the outside of the bottom drawing, combined with the inside of the middle right one, as I thought that would better give the idea of the hidden inside.

Linocut of conker case
I thought this was a bit ambitious and would be rather tedious to do the cutting, but in fact, I loved it. I had been missing doing the craft part of textiles during these exercises in drawing and printing, and I think the physicality and precision of making the linocut appealed to the same senses.

Linocut on sketchbook paper

I delighted at the way it looked when I printed it. - a bit like one of those toile de jouy prints in the delicate and detailed monochrome lines. And the differences between each impression were charming. 

When I printed a few together on organza, it looked soft, bulging and mysterious, slightly uncomfortable.

This does appeal to me, but I need to think a bit more about materials and colours to bring out these aspects of it.

Linocut on organza

I wanted to try out some background colours to see how they worked with this linocut on top.

My first thought was that I hadn't tried on damp fabric yet, so that was my next attempt.

 This turned out to be interesting but blurry.

Background colours on damp fabric

I then tried going the background with Markal paint sticks, which worked a bit better with the rather rococo look of the print.

I did a series of these next to each other. The image is essentially static, and the arrangement static.

For both of these I was using stencils made out of sticky backed plastic, but this was not robust enough to use with these materials and the detail was lost.

Conker case markal paint sticks and linocut prints on calico.
Once I was most of the way through I realised that the strange appearance of the central lines was not due to poor accuracy with the lino, but to my having used the stencils upside down.

Background texture

Silver Pebeo textile paint directly from
the roller onto black cotton

The course instructions suggested reflecting the texture of the fabric.

While using the roller with the lino, I saw that the paint was drawn into unexpectedly delicate lines under the roller. I tried monoprinting with it, but it didn't really come out. So I tried rolling directly onto the fabric when there was very little paint left on the roller. This led to a lovely texture.

As above, only in 2 directions

Rolling in two directions gave an even more woven look. It was interesting that in this case it also made squares like this.

More experiments with a roller

This was what happened when I did the same on Indian shiny fabric, using a layer of toned down ultramarine, and then gold.

I like the depth of this combination.

I think I want to try out more ways to add layers to a piece of fabric, and how it changes the look.

I liked this silver on black so much I made it into a clutch bag.

Block and relief prints

Collage of arches

Before moving onto the sampler section, I thought I should have another go at block printing, because I hadn't really found a material that had worked well for me in the previous section. I bought some foam from an art shop which I was told would be suitable, and made a block from one of my experiments in the design exercise.

I cut out the foam and stuck it onto a piece of stiff card, and used that to print.

Red acrylic arch stamps on cotton voile

Unfortunately the next time I printed with this block, the top layer of the block came off onto the paper.
The marks in the middle are made with Markal paintsticks with the colours smudged with water.

So, it turns out that this foam is not useful for block printing after all. I have looked on other blogs and found that other students have used large rubbers, but again I have not managed to find any large enough. I will have to ask my tutor what to use, but will not have time to try out something new before my assignment is due in.

This is what the roller does after having gone over the arch block.
This could give an interesting background to something.

The Textile Book - art, craft, or design?

The Textile Book by Colin Gale and Jasbir Kaur pub 2002 Berg


Reading further on in this very ambitious book, I have reached a series of chapters about the different types of textile worker. Well, some of them anyway. The chapters are entitled The textile designer, The Designer-Maker, and The Textile Artist. I found this slightly annoying as the repeated thesis of this book is that such distinctions are more about the market than the practice of textiles.

Having said this, it was useful to have some distinctions drawn, if only to contradict them. So it seems that a professional textile designer, has most of their work being driven by a fairly strict brief, and while they can be freelance, they are often employed by an organisation to do this job. And that some organisations train their textile designers in the house style. I was interested to find out that Liberty designers are trained in botanical drawing. It sounds as though there is limited scope for individuality here.

The book goes on to say, and give some interesting examples, that someone starting as a textile designer can go on to apply their design skills to other areas, and that this can lead to the separation of the design process from the making process, for profit reasons.

Designer- Makers appear to be largely from the affluent West, are more often motivated by the physical sensations of making, and the mastery of their craft. They tend to sell their produce to specialist markets or as luxury goods. This description did make me wonder about the skilled craftsmen and women of non-Western cultures. Presumably they are driven by similar satisfactions and their produce is appreciated by people with disposible income in their own countries. I do not really understand why there is a difference between this and US/ European craftspeople.

Finally, the textile artists. What this book says about this agrees with my impression that there is not yet a clear idea of what this actually means. There was some discussion as to whether it 'should' mean the equivalent of fine artist, or whether, since textiles have something particular about them, the wish to be accepted as a fine art is in fact a wish to limit ones practice to someone else's rules. Perhaps for culturally elitist reasons. I suppose that since anyone can call themselves a textile artist, it will eventually mean the group of people who wish to do so. The book rather reassuringly went on to say that since most fine art, and most textile art, is in the 'low to middle' art section of the market, such distinctions are somewhat moot.

I don't know quite where I stand on this. I deliberately chose to do this particular textile course because it resembled a fine art foundation course, rather than the craft-based courses which predominate. I wanted (and definitely still want) to find out what twisted path my creativity will take me on, rather than learning to more accurately produce a particular style or technique. Believing that what I make expresses something about me that may not be expressible in any other way. Or may be most effecively communicated in this way. Even that I may learn something about the inner me by seeing what 'comes out'. The emphasis, therefore is much more on ideas (concepts I suppose) and following subjectivity than on technique or even the finished product. This is not something that can be coded for and done by someone else. And while I am in awe of master craftsmen of many kinds, and I am attracted to the physical qualities of textures, fabrics and yarns, I do not see myself dedicating myself to mastering a craft. Unless, of course, that turns out to be a necessary step in my journey to express my inner truth!

So, it looks as though I fit best in the textile artist definition, at least at this early stage in my creative development. Although of course I have a great deal of learning to do before I can really call myself that! But having said that, I do feel uncomfortable with the Cinderella Art model of textile art. That if only the fine art establishment looked this way without prejudice they would see how fine we are. I am guessing that if we are really 'fine artists' then we will not restrict ourselves to textiles only. Because what we are doing is not 'Textiles', it is 'Ideas'.

After getting this far in The Textile Book, I thought for a while in my sketchbook about how the use of textiles as a medium can carry a message in itself. And I suspect that this is a much bigger subject than I have understood yet. More surfing for textile artists required I think...