Angie Hughes sent us some homework about our work and designing and where we see ourselves going a la Claire Benn.I find this type of thing very difficult as I do not have a logical bone in my body and find doing critiques quite toe curling.I did have a go at it and what came out was my embroidery/stitching skills are OK but I fall down in the design compartment.I must admit I usually think up the design as I go along and do the back up work when I have finished a piece.So I have been busy trying out design ideas,using Beverly Ash Gilberts ideas on colour which are on her blog of the same name, and a lot from "finding your own visual language"by Claire Benn & Leslie Morgan a book I have had for a little while looked at but not bothered to put into action, the pictures below are made by cutting shapes out of papers and swapping it all around, I can see that this could work especially for quilts.

I liked the ones below they have an art nouveau feel to them.

Because I am still on the fossil topic I had a session of cutting out ammonites shapes and then splitting them.

I also wrote out how I feel when I go fossilising at Hock cliffs, it is very peaceful the occasional cry of a bird,wide open skies and grey mud and clay and the magic of looking down and finding an ammonite thousand of years old at your feet. This is the first time I have used writing to help design a piece and it was useful.So I painted paper with fabric dyes so that I could get the same effect on fabric and the result is below.If you go to www.artclothstudios.com/Essays Claire and Leslie have several good essays on designing

I saw a great quote in Angie`s studio by Leonid Cohen " There are cracks in everything, that`s how the light gets in" it really appealed to me.