Textile Starting Points: Sketching in Italy

Potential Freestyle Machine embroidery and needle-felting figure ideas arrive through recording whatever sights or events interest me. Here are four rough sketches I made using Faber-Castell brush and 0.5 drawing pens recently on holiday in Venice and Rome.

Freestyle Machine Embroidery Ideas

I was drawn to the strong dark layers of the iron railings, the repetition of the figure of eight and the echo of it in the window arches above. Although this sketch can’t show the combination of ochres, creams and greens, these appeal to my love of bright colours and my thread collection could recreate these, especially playing around with different top and bobbin threads combinations. It would also help to create different textures of this Venetian bridge over the canal.

As an embroidered piece, I would focus on the contrast between the solid, vertical columns and the diamond angles of the awning and it’s supports. I also like the bold shadow underneath it against the ancient, pale stone. The modern neon lettering of the sign seems so delicate like the scrolls supporting the traditional lighting on the side of the building. The contrasts seem heightened by the diagonal composition putting the restaurant in front of the portico of the Pantheon, Rome.

Ideas for Needle-Felting Figures

This would make a strong, powerful needle-felted pair of figures. The lion attacking a horse is seen frequently in the galleries of Rome. Sometimes there is a bull instead of a horse. Originally the lion was a symbol of Rome, displaying it’s strength and resistance but later it was replaced by Romulus, Remus and the She-Wolf. My main concern would be to not cross that fine line between tragedy and comedy with a piece like this. Care would also be needed to make the animals separately and then joint them together so that the lion’s grip and bite looked convincing.

This chap would make a great needle-felted companion for a story character. Yes, I know, it was night time outside a bar along the canal in romantic Venice and I’m sketching a dog! In my defence, he did cause a stir with the locals as he was huge and completely white except for his black eye patch. A venetian based story from Shakespeare seems obvious to me but in Rome there are two legends that caught my attention. One is of Bernice Cenci, who plotted the murder of her abusive father. The people of Rome were appalled when she and her family were sentenced to death. The other is of a bandit called Antonio Gasbarrone who was written about in a similar way to Nottingham’s Robin Hood; robbing the rich and giving to the poor.

Thank you for reading my blog. My holiday is over and it’s time to start a new project.