Drawing v Photography

I love the internet! I accidentally hit the Stumble! button on my browser when I was trying to go back one page, and it took me to this wonderful blog post about an artist called Ben Heine who combines drawings with photographs in a creative and amusing way.

Origami

A little diversion - relax and enjoy this delightful video of origami unfolding in water.

Flottille (detail) from Etienne Cliquet on Vimeo.

Module 4 Chapter 8

For this chapter, I have made a few samples of slips created from digital images.  I decided to use two methods - printing onto printer-ready fabrics and using Ario transfer paper.
I started with one of my flower drawings from an earlier chapter and tried combining lots of copies, coming up with the image in photo 1.

Photo 1

 I printed this onto cotton  - it came out in lovely clear colours but didn't seem to lend itself to being cut up for slips.  I liked it so much as a piece of fabric that I reworked the image into a pattern repeat, uploaded it to Spoonflower for printing and ordered a sample.  It will be a couple of weeks before it arrives but I am hoping it will be a cheerful summer print.

 

Photo 2

Photo 2 Here I used single copies of the flower printed onto silk which gives much more faded colours.  I found that the act of cutting them out gave a hard edge that I thought spoilt the drawing so  I tried to overcome this. On the left, I have free machined  over the slip colouring in the flower and going over the edge.  On the right, I used an embellisher to attach and distress the flowers.  The background for both samples are some embellisher samples from my collection.  I chose these to suggest flowers on a trellis or stake, continuing the theme from some of the chapter 5 samples.

Photo 3 For the next two samples, I used as backgrounds some monoprints I made last summer  (featured in this blog post).  2p coin in the corner for scale.

Photo 3

 Some of the flower head images from earlier work printed onto transfer paper and ironed onto scraps of printed fabric which were then stitched onto a printed silk background - I thought the pattern reminiscent of a winding path and trellis.  I added a few painted details to the flowers after transferring.

Photo 4

Photo 4

 For this one, I thought it would be fun to combine the 'flowers on a trellis' theme with my course theme of 'machinery and industrial landscape.'  I printed small copies of one of my pylon photos from module 1 and transferred them onto more monoprinted scraps.  The stitching they are trapped in is layers of a digitised version of the same photo - something I had played with a while ago but not used.  Photo 5 is a close up to show the stitching more clearly.

Photo 5

Photo 6 Back to flowers - this time using unaltered photos.  The flower head is double-sided - on the outside rose petals and inside the unidentified flower I used in chapter 3.  I transferred the images onto some stiff fabric that can be manipulated when wet and retains it shape, then bonded them together and moulded the shape over a fingertip.  Underneath is the same image transferred onto a drinks can - it came out indistinctly but I liked the grungy effect enough to keep it.  I mounted the two pieces onto some mulberry bark and a dressmaking remnant backed with pelmet vilene, and stitched them down with french knots.

 

Photo 6

  Photo 7 is a sideways on shot to show the outside of the flower.

Did you miss me?

Isn't it always the way - when you have something to blog about, you are too busy to sit at the computer.  Sorry to be silent for so long but it's been a bit hectic making costumes for the dance school my daughters go to (never turn down paid work I always say, especially if it involves sewing).  Since I last posted, I have made three of these...

And five of these (ignore the bits of paper)...

 Designed and made this ...

 

Then piled into a car to compete in the All Irelands and International in Ennis (the girls, not me) and take a holiday while we were there.  Saw lots of these...

 And walked on this...

 And just had to take a photo of this house (and if you recognise it, you are as sad bad as me!)

And what with Easter, the Royal Wedding (lovely - I must be going soft in my old age, I never watched any of the other ones) and DH turning 60, it has been non-stop celebrating since we came home. Normal service will be resumed shortly!

Finishing Chapter 6

Finally, the rest of chapter 6, samples mounted on paper with a 2p coin for scale.

Top left - 3d slip cut from drinks cans that have been heated and coloured, stitched down with french knots.  Top right - fine metal mesh free machined between 2 layers of fabric and manipulated into shape.  Bottom left - these samples show distortion using heat and seemed to naturally fall into a posy.  All six shapes were cut from the same piece of silk using the template on the right, so you can see how much they have changed shape.  The 'petals' are silk backed with painted Tyvek (from a used envelope), free machined  and zapped with a heat gun.  The 'leaves' are silk backed with TextureMagic and stitched in curved lines then heated with a steam iron to shrink.  While the Tyvek bubbles and curls, the TextureMagic shrinks but stays flat, causing the top layer to wrinkle.  The close up below shows this a bit more clearly.