A snippet of a work in progress. I’m working this piece with split stitches in purple and silver thread.

I’ve had the needle and thread out again; as my first hobby horse approaches completion I have started work on this plush alternative which is more in keeping with hobby horses as children’s toys.

Rather than draw out a lovely pattern to make this head I opted for a patchwork affair which really was a lot more difficult than I had imagined. The intended outcome was to produce something that was more akin to a Frankenstein’s monster type creation with asymmetrical seams and the stitches on display rather than an idealised vision of a unicorn.

There’s a long way to go but I’m quite happy with the progress so far.

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La Isla de Las Munecas (The Island of the Dolls) was brought to my attention yesterday; I can’t believe I’d not come across it before as this doll infested wonderland looks absolutely incredible. It’s already got be thinking about how I could go back to working with dolls and mannequins.

The story of the Island of the Dolls suggests that a young girl actually drowned in the lake on the island following which the islands inhabitant, Don Julian Santana, devoted his life to honoring this lost soul in a unique and fascinating manner. As you can see from the images above he collected and hung up dolls by the hundreds. In 2001 Don Julian Santana was found drowned in the same area in which he believed the little girl had died.

Although the result of this shrine is undeniably creepy, La Isla de Las Munecas is definitely going my long term to do list!

- A. Symons, The Loom of Dreams

This was just a little experiment to try out some freeware camera capture software I got a hold of for my laptop documenting the creation of one of my recent Unicorn-Porn drawings. It’s a little rough and ready but the software works a treat and I’m quite happy with the results.

I created the video using Nikontrol3k/SM Tether software and Windows Live Movie Maker along with my Nikon D40, a 1.0mm ball gel pen and a white bullet tip Posca marker.

The music is the Ed Rush and Optical remix of the house classic French Kiss by Li’l Louis which was edited using Audacity.

I found these wonderful embroideries by Takashi Iwasaki on the Oh, What a World, what a world blog last week. I think my own embroideries are a way off this level at the moment but it’s provided plenty of inspiration.

I hadn’t yet considered working on black fabric though it would seem to be the obvious next step though given the recent white on black drawings I’ve been creating. I’m wary of simply embroidering the drawings as they are to create a piece of textile wall art. This may be a point from which to start as I try to develop my embroidery skills but the process of simply replicating the drawings in stitch feels rather futile as an end in itself.

You can find a lot more wonderful work by Iwasaki on his website: www.takashiiwasaki.info

I’ve long been fascinated with maps, and so it seems are many of many of my fellow artists. I came across this lovely 17th Century map of the island of Tortuga very much by chance. Ye olde maps were very often drawn from a different perspective to the view from directly above that we’re familiar with today as seen in the picture above.

Tortuga is a Caribbean island that forms part of Haiti and was well know as a pirate stronghold during the 17th Century.

• Listlessness and dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest; boredom: “The servants relieved their ennui with gambling and gossip about their masters” (John Barth).

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