Inspiration comes from unexpected places: the lovely curves pictured above are pieces of vinyl fabric left over after cutting out panels to recover a set of chairs at work. They were tossed to one side to be discarded, but not before I spotted the potential for an ogee style pattern! I quickly laid them out and snapped a quick pic for reference before they were swept away. A few days later I started playing about with a few ideas for making patterns. I cut one curved motif in Procreate based on the vinyl scraps; above is an initial blocking together to see how it flows. I began assembling elements for a repeat tile, and as always I was fascinated by the forms produced at each step of the process. They make a srtiking collage when collected together. There are a few different ideas here for a variety of elongated ogee-style patterns. I also began working on a true ogee pattern of flowing identical elements, as yet unfinished.
This all started me wondering where the word ogee comes from; an exquisite old Persian term, perhaps? Or is it a spelling of the initials 'OG', standing for something? Maybe a French Moroccan word? and so my musings went on. After a little research I found this completely unexpected answer, which could even be Scottish, and local to me! "While the origins of the word ogee are uncertain, it was first used in the whisky distilling industry. It refers to a bulbous chamber which makes up part of a traditional pot still. The ogee sits on top of the distilling pot and, as the liquid heats up, it creates a larger surface area for the vapours to land on." - www.handmadekitchens.co.uk Well I never! Maybe 'OG' really does stands for something like 'Old Gertie' and just became a word after all. I know the vats are often given affectionate names in the distilleries ... Thanks for visiting, see you next week! Comments are closed.
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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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