Monday, February 23, 2009

Stitch Explorer February, Trellis Stitch


The challenge for February's Stitch Explorer is trellis stitch, which can be made 3d. I haven't tried this one before, so here are a few first attempts. It stands up nicely but at the moment the tension is going funny when I decrease so it doesn't look very neat. Must keep trying!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Mini Book and Cover

Here's a picture of my latest project from Maggie Grey's online lesson, just finished today. The little book can hang as a handbag charm or on a pair of jeans and slips inside the sleeve for storage. The sleeve is made from a matchbox. The colours haven't come out very well, the sleeve is dark gold and iridescent green.

Below is the latest page in my altered book made from a leaf stamp and puff paint. Only two more to go and it is complete.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Module 3 Chapter 3 and a Wallhanging

For chapter 3, I have been playing with paper to make braids in different ways. Above, folded strips of paper make patterns seen in old manuscripts. Next, shaped cut strips interlaced.


Finally, ways of linking cut out hollow shapes. The shapes have been chosen to reflect my theme of machinery.

I have also revisited the cogs design (see here and here for earlier thoughts). My earlier post showed a sketchbook page with a black and white design repeated three times and linked by gold lines and I decided to develop this into a hanging. Using a (borrowed) projector, I enlarged the image onto a wall and traced the lines onto paper. I split it into 3 layers and traced each one separately. I thought it would be interesting to get the shades of grey by having three layers on top of each other so I made a paper mock-up in black and white tissue. This is sized about 90x30cm. The picture was taken over a glass door so light came through the layers.

I then carried on to try out some different sheer fabrics to see if I could get the same effect by layering them. You can see the effect on the right of the picture below - there are the same number of layers in each strip but the fabrics are different weights.

And a few samples with machine stitching - first heavy stitching,
and then lighter scribbles, which I prefer as the light comes through more. These samples use shades of black and grey thread rather than just black, and I also tried the layers in different orders.
The idea is to make 3 identical panels, each with three layers, and add gold lines (not decided how as yet) to give the impression of another giant cog in front. The panels would hang staggered as in the sketchbook page. I have sent off all this work for Sian's comments before going any further - could be a lot of work.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Taking a Day Off

At last we get to join in the fun - schools closed after 2 inches of snow overnight, but it was already melting by 11am. Just time to build this...

And these...