How can I give more depth and more layers to a textile portrait? That question has been on my mind for months.
I have therefore been conducting intensive research into materials and techniques for months. Looking for contrast. A material or technique that dares to push boundaries. A structure that evokes tension alongside the soft yarn.
That research became a series of experiments with felt, cork, wood, knitted thread, rope and buttons. Always with one goal in mind: to find a texture that not only supports a portrait but also provides contrast and gives the work a whole new layer.
The knots kept coming back.
And I was going to enlarge that.
Hundreds of hand-knotted knots. Knotted one by one, secured one by one by hand. Not woven. Deliberately not. Because I tested that too, but then I have less control over the tension, the shape and the layer I want to build up.
The strange thing is... I've been a bit tangled up myself over the past few weeks. And while I was stuck, I kept tying knots. And without even looking for it, the technique became a direction. Getting tangled up, untangling myself and reshaping.
The result is not a side track. It is a new layer that presents itself within my portraits and in my work.
More to follow shortly.