My quest to explore new approaches to flower patterns is on! Indian textiles have been a passion of mine since I was in my teens in the 1970s, when Cockburn Street market in Edinburgh was full of all things Indian: wood carving, jewellery, Mysore soap, incense, embroidery and beautiful clothing. It opened my heart to an exotic new world. So, tracing this lovely image of a quilt to try and absorb some of the ingenuity was a natural place to begin ... As I was drawing, I was surprised by the close relationship to Jacobean embroidery and textiles from the 17th century in Britain. I found a paper on the subject online from London School of Economics and discovered, in a nutshell, that the Dutch and the English established trading posts in the east in 1606 to import spices, textiles and opium.
History was never my strong point at school, but that is really interesting - I imagine great galleons sailing the seven seas bearing in their timbers such glittering treasures as rubies, spices and rich embroidery. Those wonders from strange lands must have had an amazing effect on the people then, if Cockburn Street market in the 1970s could fire up my young mind so strongly! Incidentally, also in my teens, I fell in love with British folk music of the same era. I think I would have been more interested in history lessons at school if they had been focused on society and the arts rather than the dates of battles. |
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Welcome to my illustration and patterns blog!
I illustrate under the pen-name of Binky McKee, McKee being my mother's maiden name. Binky was the name of every single cat my great-grandmother kept - allegedly about 40 of them during her 94 years of life. I changed the website address a few months ago, so some older links on previous posts are broken. If you click one of those and it takes you to a strange page, simply replace the .co.uk after the binkymckee. with weebly.com and it will work again. I hope you enjoy your visit! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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I keep lots of scrapbooks and sketchbooks where I develop ideas and design little creatures. Here's a peek inside one ...
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As you may know, I am also known as Heather Eliza Walker.
Click the image if you would like to find out more and visit my other website. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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May 2024
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This time, take a peek into my ceramic design sketchbook. I actually made some of the mugs, but I kind of prefer the drawings! The plate designs are painted on paper plates, a most liberating process.
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These watercolours are from my pattern sketchbook. I used coloured wax crayons to resist the washes of watercolour, also home-made rubber stamps dipped in bleach then printed on crêpe paper - the bleach takes out the paper dyes.
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A sketchbook I used for mark-making with unusual objects - corks, seed-heads, feathers, home-made rubber stamps, my fingers and lots of flicky things ...
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