Module 2 Chapter 9

Finally reached a point where I can send off a batch of coursework - only a few months late. Chapter 8 was decorating/texturing papers using flour paste, keeping loosely to the theme of opus anglicanum. For chapter 9 I have translated some of these into stitch. Here is a selection.

Above - Coils of metal shim coloured with heat, loose threads held down with long stitches.
Below - couched coils of wire and metal threads over free machining.


Below - transfoiled fabric covered with chiffon, free machining.

If you Can't Beat Them...

The children seem to spend a lot of time on YouTube and have been having fun making animations of their Harry Potter lego, so I decided it was time to have a go. I have uploaded a short clip of the pylons animation which can be found here (I hope).

Weekend in London and More Animation

Last weekend was a bit of a treat - there were two exhibitions in London I really wanted to see so I stayed over and overdosed on art on Saturday. I needed a long walk on Wimbledon Common on Sunday to recover before coming home. The first was Prism at the Mall Galleries, a wonderfully varied collection. Some of my personal favourites were Joan Baillie's Mysterious Stones in atmospheric rusty oranges and browns and Rachel Gornall's calm and restrained Cenote series. I was intrigued by Lois Woodyer's hangings with photo transfers of Canary Wharf combined with stitch and Catherine Dormor's hangings with photographic images of the process of sewing. The gallery was crowded with groups of mainly women happily discussing the pieces and taking tea.

Next stop was the V&A where I went to see Out of the Ordinary:Spectacular Craft. Sian had already pointed me in the direction of Anne Wilson's work that includes animation so it was exciting to see Errant Behaviour running. Over two screens, threads, pins and lace fragments wind, form into heaps and move. Sometimes they seem like animals or undersea creatures, sometimes they form tableaux like jungle vegetation stirring. Interesting to think about how much the effect is suggested/affected by the sound track.

When I got home, I did some surfing, idly wondering if I could do stop motion animation with equipment I already have (last time I did some was probably 35 years ago when my big brother borrowed Dad's cine camera and we filmed toys moving across the floor). I came across a useful little utility for turning a folder of jpg files into an avi - i.e. stills into a movie - really easily. Eureka! This has overcome the problem of the files being too big too save - I have been able to save the frames individually and join up afterwards. Playing last night, I was able to increase the number of frames and adjust the number shown per second to make a much smoother film.

Module 2 Chapter 7

Some of the samples using metal and metallic threads. Above is black felt sponged with paint overlaid with chiffon stencilled with gold mica flakes in a celtic pattern. Freely stitched with automatic patterns and spirals to echo the stencil.

Free machining densely in shades of gold with added wireform and shim.

These two are an exercise in showing how the effect of metal threads are affected by changing the bobbin colour. The top uses pink in the bobbin while the bottom picture uses the same metallics but this time with blue. Sorry this is a bit blurred - they are terrible to photograph and scan.