Some of the slate fragments I picked up on the various beaches we visited in North Cornwall had split into sheets as thin as card. Sheets thin enough to easily drill; I hoped. On returning home I pressed my trusty bow drill into action and was impressed with how easily it put holes through the slate. (Not sure what it’s done for the sharpness of the drill bit, mind you…)
I chose scraps of hand dyed sandy brown and green fabric with a coarse weave and used a stranded silk to stitch the slate with simple straight stitches through the pre-drilled holes onto the layered fabric bits beneath.
I wanted this piece to be all about the texture so I added a seeding mixture of french knots and straight seed stitches to the scraps of sandy coloured fabric in the same stranded thread.
Then stuck it into my journal…
…before turning my attention to another piece I’d drilled.
This time I used one of the drilling templates I’d made during my jewellery course for feather stitching through brass. The holes are 1mm across.
I used variegated silk thread for the feather stitching onto a scrap of turquoise habotai silk backed with calico. A hand dyed cotton shading from greens through browns and purples to turquoise couched down the fantastic slubby thread I’d unearthed whose shades echoed the colours of my journal so well.
Then I cut the backing fabric to follow the lines of the couched thread before it too went into the journal.
I love the ease with which these came together. Slate as shishas is another possibility.
Under A Topaz Sky 