Dialogue: Feedback and Response

The last paragraph of Sian's really useful feedback suggested I refer again to my research and by examining and looking from every angle at the Drawn Thread Work of Chapter 6 notice links.  This, she thought, would also be a way to prepare for the next phase of work where grids and paper come together and, later on to more stitching.  It's such a good idea and so here's that conversation.

First of all I considered the things which drew me to my collection of images: a strong sense of movement and direction was one thing, especially in the calligraphy examples largely taken from "Calligraphy: a book of Contemporary Inspiration" by Denise Lach.  The samples consist of strong repetitive marks with some small variation created by the push and pull of the tool used, brush, ink pen or fibre tip.  Each of these examples consists of many rows, each row being filled by a range of broadly similar marks. 

                                                      

 In image 1 there are bold but fading thicks and thins.

In Image 2 there are densities of marks akin to words but without the spaces.

The work in Image 3 uses a narrower tool and its density is alleviated by loops at intervals enclosing space.

The marks in these three examples are not only dense but complex too. The rhythm is staccato, abruptly disconnected and angular.

 

The maker's hand is evident and insistent in all these three pieces, wanting to communicate even though the language is unknown.

After much twisting, turning and flipping over here is a tiny fragment from a piece of Russian Drawn Threadwork which relates most closely to the examples above.  It's the reverse side of the piece and I think shows the angularity and staccato rhythm I've described.  I'm trying to imagine it stitched en masse.

Alice Fox's piece is also rhythmic, but has a more reflective quality.  To me it's about absence, rather than presence, what remains.  It links in my mind with the band of printed lines on old envelopes which I talked about in Chapter 1 and  resonances of the letter writers.  

There are I think associations between this crop of 4:6:12 and Alice Fox's piece.  There are repetitions, without each mark being identical.  There are also a range of tones, space and lightness which give a sense of the ephemeral.