I haven’t done any geometric design for a while and it really pains me. I’ve often started a weekend with plans to get all my stuff out and life always seems to get in the way. Life has been stressful over the past 6 months or so. Work has been a mess…I’m guessing that’s a reality for lots of people, particularly those who, like me, work in higher education. Life outside of work, while not exactly a mess, has been demanding and it has often just not been possible to get my gear out and focus my attention on something else.
Well, I finally did manage to carve out some time, pull up the Samira Mian patterns and have another go. I chose a “curvilinear” pattern, one that seems to have involved nearly every different compass I own and an insane number of circles to complete the underlying grid. It did, however, remind me of just how satisfying doing this is. It takes my mind off everything else for a while.
For anyone interested, it’s from her August 2023 tutorial. I had a few false starts, I have to admit. I also had to learn how to use the extension bar on one of my compasses. But I finally got the underlying grid done and started colouring the simpler pattern.
I treated this as a bit of a practice and had another go at doing the grid. Having got the hang of my compasses again, I got the underlying grid done and tried a more complex pattern.
I had a go at colouring with watercolour but to be honest I was so rusty I gave up after a very small amount. I’m going to call this a practice at getting my hand and eye back in and I’m not going to finish it.
Hopefully, I can get motivated to have another go sometime soon.
Tartantastic 
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