labyrinth

Time and Tide labyrinth

I cut out the pieces for this labyrinth sometime before lockdown, using the fabrics I had in my stash. I got some of the patchwork done, and then it got put to one side while life continued. When lockdown started, I thought I would use the time as good motivation to finish the projects I had started and then tired of.
This labyrinth design uses the same medieval-based layout as the one I have on my greetings cards, with the entry path going first into the centre ring, to make it more symmetrical.
I hadn’t planned the corner decoration when I first began the labyrinth, just the colours, but when I had finished it, we had moved into the second lockdown, and I decided to decorate the corners with beaded waves as if it was an island.

For Carlisle Cathedral’s 900th anniversary, it was decided that as many people, and especially schools, had not visited the cathedral, it would go to them in the form of a tent, specifically a 6m wide bell tent. I was asked to design and make a labyrinth that would fit in the tent, that could pack down into a bag and be transported and set up with it.

I used heavy-duty fire-retardant canvas, sewing together pieces to make two semi-circles, then made templates from glued-together sheets of newspaper to draw the circles for the path. Each side was so large, I had to work on one half at a time on the floor of our single garage, rolling, moving and unrolling so I could work on a section at a time. I used acrylic paint for flexibility, in a blue with gold stars to match the ceiling of the cathedral.

This is the labyrinth spread out on our driveway. You can see from the damp patches on the tarmac why I had to do the painting of it in the garage – we had so much rain that month.

And this is it in use inside the tent. It is a uni-directional labyrinth, because there would not be enough room for people to walk to the centre then back. The two halves lace up on the line that runs horizontally from the base of the central pole

Labyrinth

Quilted patchwork made from silk

49 x 49 cm

I love the patterns of labyrinths, particularly the medieval circular ones, and decided to make one using squares of silk to form the path.

This design is available as a greetings card from the Northumbria Community online shop:

http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/product/labyrinth-greetings-card/

I dyed the silk to get the deep brown and copper colours for the first labyrinth, and decided to tie-die some other pieces of silk at the same time. I used them to make the same pattern, but with the path a solid colour, and the surround like ripples in a puddle. I then added glass beads, small shells and chips of tigers eye to give variety to the path.