Collecting nature

Does this happen to you? You finally admit it’s now autumn, cold enough to warrant a proper coat being worn, and on putting a hand in the pocket you find your fingers caressing one of last year’s conkers. You then also realise it’s time to start lashing on the hand-cream and wearing gloves - looking at my dry hand I realise I should have started that regime a while ago!

This week Debbie Lyddon has been teaching her Exploring Place workshop in the studio and one of the things students have been doing is collecting and recording things found on their local morning walk.

Outside the studio there are huge oak trees so there are plenty of acorns,

down the lane pheasant feathers were found

and, of course, conkers were everywhere!

​But what to do with all these things we collect?

Debbie has made a series of vessels 

and bags to store her collections

While the grasses were twisted and woven into a series of small balls.

Thorns could be  difficult to display, so 
I love what Debbie has done with her collection.  On the right the thorns have pierced the linen scroll as though they were metal tacks.  Above left, the thorns were ripped off the stem and so have a different look, despite being the same type of thorn.

You can find more about Debbie's work over on her website.

Terry walks and collects too, usually by the sea.  

So very often she finds bits of fossils, sea glass or a handful of pebbles in her pockets.

Usually, Terry records what she finds, such as the lovely sea glass above. 

But, sometimes Terry isn't able to actually 'collect' the items she finds, like the beautiful ammonite pavement on Monmouth Beach, Lyme Regis.  That's where carrying a camera and a small sketchbook comes in handy and back in the studio she was able to do a series of studies on paper, from which a thermofax screen was made.  The quilt, above right, shows where this screen was used to discharge a piece of hand dyed fabric.

The line of oyster shells were 'drawn-without-looking' and eventually became a free motion quilting design which Terry has used several times, above is Walking on the beach and below they feature on one of the long Narrative: walking strips.

Look carefully and you will find other images of collected items!

More of Terry's work can be found on her website.

Are you a collector of random 'stuff'? If you are do tell us what you collect and how you use it in your creative practice.

Hazel & Terry