For centuries women have used cloth as a tool of comfort and as an expression of beauty within their homes. Creating cloth for warmth, cloth for shelter, our female predecessors embellished these linens with hand stitch using laborious and time consuming techniques thereby enhancing the functional beauty of objects which enveloped and protected their families. Inspired by these women I hope my creations pay tribute to and recognise the devotion expressed in cloth by our female ancestors .







''the use of traditional often time consuming process alludes to the devotion of a mother''. c K. A. Ruane 2007







Monday, April 23, 2012

sketchbook pages




I'm spring cleaning.....allegedly. I keep getting distracted by things I find, some of them I haven't see for ages...Painting...me painting...yes I really did. There's no embroidery at all in this post and it feels wrong somehow. Please accept my profuse apologies for getting you here under false pretences. Everything will revert to normal tomorrow....providing I actually get some cleaning done....

9 comments:

deanna7trees said...

i love going through old things and finding things i completely forgot about. no apologies necessary. nice to have other parts of you revealed.

Suztats said...

I thought these were product tags and such you'd pasted into your workbook! Nicely painted, then!

henrietta (aka ani aka zani) said...

you and your journals are inspiring - to add to deanna - do not apologize. lovely work

Joanna said...

Not just me that gets distracted when spring cleaning and finding all sorts of interesting bits and pieces. Enjoying seeing the sketchbooks too though

Elizabeth said...

Don't apologize for pretty pictures. Like many girls I love to let my eye wander through your sketchbooks.

Happy cleaning, :)))

Elizabethanne said...

WOW! Karen, Your paintings are amazing. You are a very talented lady. I too thought they where lables you had stuck in your sketchbook, til I realised they had been painted. Beautiful & very inspiring. Thanks for sharing them with us.
Your Friend Elizabeth xx

Janice / Dancing with Sunflowers said...

No apology necessary. They are wonderful to see, and I wish I could spend an afternnon at your house just flipping through them!

Peggy Holt said...

Karen, I love seeing your previous work. It is so interesting to me to see how that work has informed your current work.

We are all on a creative journey, and it is good to look back once in a while to see where we were and how we have grown and changed.

I, too, would love to just sit down and peruse your journals....I love doing the same with my own. I am often surprised by some little sketch that will trigger a new idea.

Thank you for sharing a part of you with the world.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Spring cleaning? You mean a person is supposed to spring clean?? Who knew!!