Happy Houses

Have been having a play around with the techniques described by Karen Eckmeier during her recent New Zealand lecture tour. I found initially to be excited by her Accidental landscapes, but after making two, Flax and Nikau, they are not as challenging to me as her “Happy Villages”.

Flax and Nikau are created from the same fabrics, I have changed the order or the hills, and the angle of the shapes to add interest and variety. A simple technique but limits the amount of embellishment for me. Simple lines but I am not sure if I would use this technique again

Happy Villages is fabric collage, and the process is a familiar one for me. I used fusible stabiliser instead of glue, and cut away the netting in some places. The children enjoyed making museums, and shops, and galleries. I intend to bead some of the roofs. Found it difficult to cut the ladder, but I believe the small rectangles give the steps definition.

Connections

I have been wondering lately about the connections between nature and humankind, the spirits and humankind. There is an inter-relationship between the forces that connect us, and if you hear your name on the wind, do you act on it? Fascinating book "When the wind calls your name" and this has lead me to consider, how could I on fabric, convey the wind calling your name.