Early September

Update

Lots of stress at work at the moment. More sun...?

Swift

The fourth and final design from the Nest collection is named after the African Palm Swift, who's nest is constructed by gluing a cushion of feathers, and its egg to keep them secure on the underside of a palm leaf.

Fantail

The third design for my Nest collection is named after the perfectly simple but dense nest of the Fantail family, of which there are many species but all have in common this richly constructed tiny cup nest in common, the bird uses small strands of grass and other delicate debris, bound together with spider silk.

Bower

The second design from 'Nest' is based on the Bower Bird, my favourite bird due to its astonishing technique of attracting a mate, by collecting materials, sometimes moss, flowers, leaves, twigs, bottle tops etc and arranging them in fantastic displays to be judged by the female of the species.

I think they are amazing.

Osmia Avosetta

Some of the reasoning behind my final major project and my first collection of designs for MSKJ: I have named one of my embroidery designs Osmia Avosetta after this very special solitary bee, one of few whom create these nests with flower petals, the actual layout of the nest being a layer of petals, a thin layer of mud and a final layer of petals which can be seen above. This was first discovered in 2009 in studies in Turkey and Iran.

Old Dairy Farm

This evening I went for a walk in the fields, I decided to wander around the derelict dairy barns. Has quite an eery feel to it as it is so quiet although I remember visiting it as a child and there being cows there.

I have been photographing my cushions should be up and ready on here soon!