Fascinating Fungi in textiles

This week I start a series of workshops at the Boundary Way Allotments and Community Gardens.  I got to know Moya Lloyd who runs the project there through my work on The Beyondness of Bees project (with Wildside Activity Centre and Creative Black Country)

Moya has worked hard to secure funding for the Grow Wild project with Kew Gardens and she asked me if I would like to take part in the project. We set a date to have coffee and talk over some ideas and I went home to panic.   My business head told me that I shouldn't have just one idea - what she thought it was rubbish? What if I was completely on the wrong track? So I spent a whole day in my studio drawing and brain storming and generally trying to generate a decent idea.

By the time Moya came for coffee I had the germ of an idea for 3 different workshops and I was confident that she would like maybe one enough to at least give it a go. I was bowled over when she liked all three and asked if I would be willing to teach all of them.  Of course I said yes (my motto in life is say yes first and worry about how to do it after) and we set dates in June and July for them to run.

So how do you represent the magical world of fungi in textiles? In a way that is accessible to people who might not even have stitched before? In an exciting and modern way that expresses more of a depth about the range and fascinating world of fungi?

   

Well you start with mycelium

 



and coffee dyed fabric and waste bandage to make this....

 or this.....

 I  have also found the gill patterns on the fungi fascinating.



They were just crying out to be referenced in some way.  So I started with making some ruffles

 And then some suffolk puffs

 and putting ruffles into circular holes

 and making some pleats.

There are all sorts of off shoots from this currently in progress and I will be posting more about them.
Details of all three workshops can be found on my workshop page here on my Blog or on the events page of the Boundary Way Project website

thanks for reading