..on a roll....

..despite visits to doctors and dentists.....

..pages have been filled....

...one after another...


..Henna stars...


....Feija henna designs mixed in....




...rug elements....



..... more henna designs (mostly from The Henna Page)...




...and had another session on the sewing machine...





Then....began to mix things up a bit....




..weird or what?!!

It's beginning to look Aboriginal now! :-o

..and so to continue...

..with another couple of sketchbook pages...

More designs from Berber rugs...

...together with some henna ones...






I decided to use the bottom one to try some machine embroidery....




..and was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

This means that I can now begin to translate pages into textiles...

...using both machine and hand embroidery....

..paint, print and beading.

I'm even thinking of including some of the techniques used in the pieces that were done a few months back... (like these...and these).....really mixing things together.....

...not quite Moroccan?!!....

Well...

...things have been moving along, albeit slowly, this last week.

In between doctor things and sorting things, sketchbook pages have happened.





...but don't look particularly "Moroccan"!

They seem to me to be more "South American" :-o

...but I don't really mind....

I like the colours and the patterns, and I can see some nice bag fronts appearing within the pages.

I brightened up the colours....

...and took some inspiration from some Moroccan/Berber rugs...







..mixed with some henna patterns....



..and got what I got! :-)

I will be continuing in this vein as I'm really enjoying the experience...

..needing a change...

All the pieces I've been working on lately seem to be dominated by various shades of brown....

...and personal circumstances dictate that a "happier palette" is required.


Maybe I've been a bit too caught-up in the "henna" stuff...

..but I've now realised that I can still use the designs/symbols without having to stick rigidly to the colour-scheme.

Berber textiles are beautiful....













and colourful!....

So I'm starting a new sketchbook to shake the brown out of my hair as-it-were.

Pages of a square format Khadi book have been lightly washed with some Doc Martins Concentrated Liquid Watercolour..



...simply because I find it daunting to start working into a "virgin white" sketchbook!

Now, the flower palette has been charged with some brighter colours....



..including a vibrant turquoise which hasn't shown up too well in the photo.

Pieces of the Pot-permang dyed cloth will still appear here and there...

...but for quite some time I will be needing all the brightness I can get....

..dye pot.......print block.....

I thought I'd have a go at some slightly larger pieces of fabric dyeing.....

...(I tend to do small normally..)

So, grabbing a bobbin of garden twine that was sitting on the kitchen windowsill...

..I tied up a dampened piece of plain cream cotton to dunk in the bubbling pot of purple Potassium Permangonate......



..which, of course, turns everything a lovely shade of tan/brown!

The next piece was tied with some thin cotton warp thread..



..that produced a slightly different pattern.

A plain piece of fabric that had some unwanted splodges on it got used to try out the new Tifinagh script print blocks that I made a couple of days ago....



..so I now have plenty to play with over the next week! :-)))

...bah!....HUMBUG!........

Just a little diversion....

....with some carded fleece....

......an hour or two on the embellisher.....

...a bit more on the sewing machine....

...and then some time with a beading needle!







A Humbug!

...got THAT one out of my system now!...

...it's been "bugging" me for quite some time... :-)

#1 finished!

The final couple of sections have now been finished....

...and as you'll see...


....the blue was replaced by a lovely deep red!


A piece of geuine Amazigh (Berber) weaving - part of a cushion that I bought in the Atlas.....

...and yes, I know.....I cut it..... :-o

...but I did buy it with that purpose in mind.





..and this is the whole of the finished piece...



I'm REALLY pleased with it...


...and enjoyed doing it SO much....

..that I've already started the next one :-)