Stretching Yourself!

I've got another student working with me, Darren Kelly from Stoke on Trent.  He's at the University there and is studying Craft.  A few weeks ago he sent me his CV, some images and asked if he could have a summer work placement.  I took one look at his work and rang him immediately, as his work is wonderful, clean and colourful, which is just the style I like.   To cut a long story short he came last Tuesday for his first day.

I had suggested that he worked on a screen to showcase my linen transparent fabric and he arrived with a sketchbook with several ideas and he'd take a lot of time over them, including the detail of how they would be finished.  He is really keen on detail, which elevates a piece of work from the ordinary to the bespoke.

For my part, I want to stretch myself, and as a lot of you know I love colour, so I've chosen cream/beige as my colour scheme and, I don't know why, but the female nude as my inspiration!  Here's one of my initial sketches:

I'm thinking of paring down the design and using Theo Moorman, cream on cream.  But have lots of design work to go before I start on the swatches!

Have you stretched yourself recently?

Alison