Amanda Warren: What I Did During Lockdown
Lockdown was a strange thing; all that time was available, yet I seemed unable to settle to anything that required much thought and planning. Luckily, during our March TAGS meeting, we had participated in an activity led by Glen Gerrard that captured my interest. We each selected another artist’s image to translate into a textile piece. I enjoyed this enormously, and when I had finished it, went on to find another image by my chosen artist, Clive Hicks Jenkins, to develop. I emailed him to seek his approval, and sent him photos of my finished work. He posted my work on his FaceBook page and wrote about it at some length in his blog. Please use the link below to see more pictures, and to read his response. I was delighted!
Beth Hendley
Lockdown was such a strange time. Sometimes I felt all I could do with stitch was what I called plod, plod, plod. I have always loved pattern, indeed I spent all day from 9 till 6 painting them when I was doing it for a living. Strangely I had never done a piece which just put patterns together. I am not a patchwork and quilter. So I got all my patterned bits together, and constructed 2 pieces. I really enjoyed doing them.
After that, I finished preparing for the exhibition at The Long Shop Museum in Leiston. Weirdly, the main pieces I had made for our annual exhibition at Snape were a series of 3 masks. But I’m keeping those for the next exhibition whenever it happens.
During lockdown, I concentrated on doing 4 things: my yoga practice, learning Italian, my textiles work and walking in Holywells Park which is 4 minutes away. The variety of butterflies was stunning, the birdsong beautiful, the flowers and water and wildness uplifting. I did this piece during lockdown, which describes the colours and textures in the park.
Alison Couchman
I looked at lockdown as an opportunity to really get deep into creativity but found, like many others, that instead of freeing me up it did the opposite. I managed to come up with ideas, painted a few base layers for new pieces and there it stopped. My creative ‘oomph’ deserted me. Instead I spent lockdown elbows deep in the dye bath. I dyed fabrics, experimented with shibori dyeing (with varying levels of success), and dyed endless amounts of embroidery threads to launch a new range into my online shop. 25 – 30 colours later I have a ton of thread and am still going. I think falling back on processes I knew really well was my comfort zone where doing new work was a bit too unsettling.
Glen Gerrard
I started lockdown very down and unable to focus on making anything except sighs. This was very disturbing as making is a necessary part of maintaining my grip.
Fortunately I joined some online weekly workshops run by textile.org and was delighted to find that having a target settled me down.
As we are fortunate enough to live in the country I also found the extra time available encouraged me to walk the dog more, in an effort to fill the time available.
So, Lockdown has been positive in that way, if it wasn’t for the continuing undercurrent of concern about the reality of the wider situation.
Jane Haylock
Shortly after Lockdown I abandoned one piece which I was hoping to put in our annual exhibition. I couldn’t concentrate on any new large piece of work. I like colour and having a large stash of wool and silk fibres I got out my embellisher which I hadn’t used for some time. I started playing with colours and eventually found myself blending them into miniature land and seascapes. I found the sky an endless source of inspiration especially early and late in the day. There was a whole range of colours in grey, blue, orange and pink which I hadn’t worked with before.
My miniature landscapes have grown slightly larger and are big enough now for needle felted or stitched detail and they have become addictive.
Margaret Williamson
At first I spent far too much time searching for good news, trying to find out what might be going to happen next. But of course nobody really knew and the future remains uncertain. I found myself in limbo with a lot of time, but no desire to do anything purposeful.
I pottered around, gardened, did some yoga, tidied a few things. Eventually I started to tackle projects started, but not completed. I finished a blanket, well a knee warmer, and then moved on to using up some of the materials I have accumulated over the years.
I began making small silk paper vessels, something I have done before. My aim was to use up my silk fibres, I have a long way to go. I made a rule that each one should be a development from the one before.
Judy Chestnutt
Before lock down , I took part in an international paper exchange project.
Paper makers from around the world, were asked to contribute and to send to the organisers 105 swatches of hand made papers, with their story / recipe of why/ how they were made.
They were collated into a ‘treasure trove of 100 a hand made books’
One copy, containing 100 samples of handmade paper with their printed recipe and/or story , was shipped to me by Yamandu Ploskonka who had the pleasurable / daunting task of making the books.
As you can imagine I am delighted with it.
My entry was based on a a piece of work made after moving from our home of 40 years.
The full text can be found on Judith’s web page.