Hazel Francis
This is my first focused journaling journey, and it has been an exciting, challenging and an expanding of ideas experience.
Having to work each day on a specific word and thought has been enriching. At first, I was endeavouring to find a way to work with pen and paper, drawing but was becoming very frustrated with myself. I had ideas but they were not bearing fruit. After some discussion, I chose to go back to my roots of stitch and then work on the daily ideas in fabric, threads and words. Once I started just stitching and bringing in other elements such as nature, wool, leather etc with needle and thread ideas changed, became authentic and alive for me.
There are so many wonderful and gifted people in the group I had become suppressed by their wonderful abilities, I had to overcome this and work on my ideas, my skills and know that this journal was the beginning of a process, to use it as an ideas page not complete works, that would come later with the development outside this work process. This released me to work in my skills base and enjoy this journey of journaling. The time has been very helpful for figuring out niche areas, working on small on word ideas, discovering what works, what didn’t, some days great ideas, other days mediocre, other days just rethink it.
This month of Journaling has been a provocation for my work and process thinking. Though I am still only working very part-time on my Craft I have found it very helpful for focusing again to where I am heading. I hope you enjoy the exhibition, and it enables you to be your creative self.
Hazel Francis is a contemporary - traditional embroiderer, stitching since she was a teenager and self-taught, like so many of us. Hazel has been experimenting, exploring, and researching her niche with a growing desire to push the boundaries within and beyond her current techniques within design, skills and field of expertise. Her current work is in the area of Gold or metallic threads, silk painting and fabric manipulation in textiles.
Making art through the embroidery process, slow as it is, enables Hazel to see the beauty in the small things around us that we often miss. It allows the creative spirit inside to have a sense of being, of who I am, in the busy and complex life that we all live. The slow pace takes time, therefore pieces have been smaller in focus, but with the incorporation of textile art, many other possibilities are forming within design and focus.
Hazel is in the process of developing her skills through traditional embroidery training and “apprentice” training for design work and is pushing her boundaries of textile art. She has completed her Certificate of Technical Hand Embroidery through the Royal School of Needlework in the UK and is progressing through her Diploma. She has also completed the City And Guilds Course work – Stage 2 Skills in Stumpwork, and Hand Embroidery and Stage 3 Hand embroidery. Hazel is also a member of the ACT Embroiderers Guild and the Textile Artists (UK) group.