Posca pen drawings of viburnum flowerheads

A pair of scarlet tiger moths in the garden

I finally finished my embroidery based on the collage I made earlier in the year from a sheet of natural ink samples. I like the translation from the random nature of both the original ink splodges and cut up collage pieces into a more permanent, structured form of an embroidery. The colours of the naturally dyed embroidery thread – which I must admit to feeling a little underwhelmed about at times – really comes alive on the dark background of the linen dyed with acorn galls + iron oxide. I’m fascinated by the mark making potential of stitches, and this is something I would like to explore further.

With the move between paper and fabric in mind, I did some drawings of viburnum flowerheads with a white posca pen. They make me think of an embroidery on linen with french knots… a new project to have in the pipeline.

A couple of rather exotic visitors to the garden last week… a mating pair of scarlet tiger moths on some red valerian. Not much scarlet on show, but their markings were beautiful, and I really enjoyed drawing them with watercolour and pencil crayons.