Going round in circles… circling around… going full circle… etc

I find myself, like so many others, living inside ‘this vast chasm of unstructured free time’, as I heard the virtual vacuum brought on by the Covid19 pandemic described. Time standing still, lack of purpose, a feeling of anxiety for all sorts of reasons… And Facebook regularly reminds me that people haven’t heard from me in a while, and to create a new post on my Soul Seasons Quilts page. And it’s August already!

 The Soul Seasons Facebook page is about my creative ventures, very much dependent on inspiration, not always so readily available, especially lately. My latest venture - mainly to save me going round the twist, is to make ‘flowers’, going around in ever decreasing circles, until I’m satisfied one is finished. I’ve been using vliesoflix to fuse the fabrics together with a hot iron, layer upon layer. Starting with several circles, and then gradually building them up dark upon light and blending each layer tonally to form ‘floral’ patterns. For me, it beats knitting – though I know that so many enjoy doing that, particularly when you do it by feel, as most knitters do.

I felt the need to “do” something while the time passes – or stands still, however it comes into your own consciousness in these strange days of suspended animation.  Days can pass slowly under the current circumstances, without providing much of a sense of achievement. So I started sketching different versions of floral patterns into my little A5 visual diary, using the designs on my little suitcase sitting opposite for inspiration. Ironically, it holds my unfinished red mohair knitted vest!

After almost 12 circles using the same pattern, I have ended up with several ‘template’ outlines made from the paper removed from the vliesofix cut-outs, from which to make up the parts that form the whole. I’ve kept them in case I need to come back to them, though they are all from the one drawing. 

I have done six drawings, so this could go on forever – and, at this rate of dealing with the pandemic, might need to! Here are they designs I came up with.

 The last design here is the first 12 circles, that I have used in different colour ways.

Having no real purpose other than to keep myself feeling useful, creatively so, I started to think of each of the emerging patterns as ‘tiles’, as is the Spanish, Moroccan, or generally Mediterranean tiles. This then led on to thinking of a possible eventual structure, by looking more closely at the designs of Persian carpet patterns evident in a few small rugs scattered on the floor.  

And round and round it goes...