Texture time

I've been working on a module of lessons on texture in my City and Guilds course (in which I make sporadic bursts of progress).  On a City and Guilds board on which I lurk, there has been a discussion about the value of pursuing these C&G courses, which has led to all sorts of people chiming in with the reasons they're doing it.  Me, I find that having assignments to focus on a specific aspect of art composition or fiber art technique does make me pay a bit more attention.  So, while I've been working away on these tasks that involve noticing and creating texture, I'm seeing texture ideas all around me. 

So, one task required me to collect images of interesting textures.  That's been very fun.  I've wandered around with my camera, taking pictures of things just for the texture. I've hunted through texture photos on flickr.com.  So many great textures, which leads to thinking about how to create them on fabric.

Another task involved making rubbings -- and isn't that always fun?  This was the bottom of a plastic strawberry basket.  I see good possibilities for that.

I have this very cool plastic sink protector with a pebble texture, and I used it for a rubbing with paintstiks and then a wash of dilute acrylic paint.  Fun!

But A+ for texture work goes to my friend Terry, who is making her own texture bases for rubbing.  Check out what she's done with lentils and hemp to create gorgeous patterns on fabric!  Makes me want to go dig around my cupboards to see what food I can glue to cardboard to make rubbing plates!