Over the last couple of weeks I've been experimenting with using ink and bleach to draw with. I'm using black ink, and once it touches the bleach it transforms into a glorious golden colour. Using different types of brush, sponging, spraying and drawing with a feather creates amazing effects and I have to confess to being ever so slightly obsessed with this 'new to me' technique! All of the photos below have just happened by chance - nothing was planned.....

All of the above were created on paper, the first three are on plain white cartridge paper. The last ones are on K9 white board and I've combined the bleach and ink technique with drawing with a blade, you can see the score marks which the ink collects and pools into. I've also added some black stitch.  These are based on beach scenes.
Playing with amounts of ink and bleach and the order you put them down changes the way they react with each other - the first ones are very brown and gold, the last few are smoky blue and beigey brown. It's worth experimenting!

Under The Sea - free motion machine embroidery then painted with dyes

Drawing with linseed oil, white acrylic and a graphite stick

In most of the HND Textiles classes we work our designs out in paper using paints, dyes and stitch along with other media to add texture. Progress is made by working through our source subject reseach to create around 10 or more different design ideas. These are initially sketches which we then make up in paper. The 'best' ones are used to inform the final piece of textile work. Today I thought I would share a few of my paper designs:

From graphite to bright colour! I love to use vibrant colours but I'd also like to challenge myself by working in monotones. Ballet Russes as a theme was clearly all about colour and movement, but perhaps next semester will see me toning it down a bit ... depending on the themes of course!!

My inspiration for the Fine Art Textiles project is taken from photos and film of diving Loch Duich kindly sent to me by Perth Dive Club. Loch Duich is in the highlands of Scotlands and enters the sea by Kyle of Lochalsh. Here are some of my sketchbook pages for the project - paintings and drawings from which I hope to pick and convert to textiles. 

These pages are from my markmaking exercises and when I make the textiles the colours will be blues, greens, turquoises and a bit of shimmer. The brief is to make either a wallhanging or a 3D item, but first I have to make lots of samples in fabrics so I think I'll decide later depending on how they inspire me to proceed.

eednuD ni yrellaG sunaMcM eht ta sgniward  s'icniV  aD odranoeL fo noitibihxe eht ees ot tnew I

10 drawings from the Royal Collection are exhibited and it's great to be able to see original drawings from 500 years ago. This picture is 'The Head of Leda' and the detail is amazing. We had to go as part of the coursework related to observational drawing, and I'm so glad I did.

(It was brilliant to see Leonardo's 'special' writing! I enjoyed that as much as the sketches)

 edit 02/10/2012
I'm being told there's something wrong and my blog has turned to gobbledygook. Oops, sorry, I'll explain:
My first sentence is written backwards in the way that Leonardo used to write. Just a bit of fun ~ me being silly!