Last Bit of Chapter 5

Finally finished playing with these braids, rearranging and layering them to make an acceptable presentation. I wasn't happy with the backgrounds I had done so I tried again and came up with this by stencilling using folded strips of freezer paper and Markel sticks on a previously dyed piece of cotton.

And then added the braids...

From left to right we have
1) Scraps of dyed scrim decorated with built-in machine patterns using soluble fabric as a base, stitched onto a braid made by wrapping a long thin wire frame made from a coat hanger with lots of yarns and strips of fabric (actually more like a fringe because I had to cut it off - looks quite cute as a bracelet, perhaps I should make some more).

2) Free machining on felt to make spiky cog shapes cut out with soldering iron, threaded through with a short piece of free machining on soluble and longer strip of built-in pattern stitched onto fabric and paper.

3)Free machining on felt triangles (relate to pylon shapes from earlier work) threaded through with another piece of braid from 1).

4) Free machining on felt circles threaded with short piece of braid from 2) and longer piece made with threads/yarns laid out on soluble fabric and secured with built-in patterns.

5) 2 wide braids made by combining lots of thinner ones using all the techniques above. The orange piece also has a sheer fabric decorated with French knitting made with a very fine metallic thread that is very loose and loopy held down with a machined pattern, and the blue has a twisted centre strip of fabric-wrapped wireform.

Finally, I cut up the two wide braids and rearranged them to create a new textile piece.

And while I had the paints out, I decorated the cover of my knotwork/braids sketchbook using the same stencil and Markel sticks over acrylic paint. Here it is drying before varnishing.

Module 3 Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 Continued

Chapter 4 is making backgrounds by using paper braids as stencils to decorate fabric for backgounds - above are two I made but not looking very interesting at the moment so I will probably add to them. I have carried on making braids for chapter 5 by machining soluble fabric, wrapping wireform, and stitching down groups of threads and am starting to weave and join them to make wider braids and new textiles.

Finally, I have carried on thinking about the cogs piece and been playing with having bits move. I have made a mock-up to try various arrangements of cogs running on the minute hands of the clock movements. As they are mounted off-centre, I needed to check that they would not crash into each other. I didn't fancy staring at it for an hour while they completed a revolution, so I set it running and used a webcam to make this little time lapse film - it is only 13 seconds long and not good quality, but you get the idea of how it might look.

Module 3, Chapter 5

Thank you Margaret and Helen for your comments on the cogs. I am looking forward to developing this idea, and Sian suggested making the whole thing in metal and wire for my 'piece using metallic techniques'. Foolishly, I agreed to work overtime until Easter (and the extra cash is already spoken for - sigh) so time is a bit limited - lots of little bits but no nice free days to really get stuck in. I have ordered some clock movements to play with - as often happens, it costs as much to buy 1 in a shop as it does to get 5 online so I will have plenty. If this doesn't pan out it is clocks all round for Christmas!

Meanwhile, here are some pictures of machine braids for chapter 5 - I will come back to chapter 4, which is stencilling, but I am in sewing mode at the moment (see my post on Quodlibet).

The first picture is, from top, combining built-in patterns on felt, then on strips of fabric and paper. The colour scheme is from a colour study back in module 1, using up bits of dyed fabric samples. Below, a selection of built-in patterns overlapping, stitched on soluble fabric. Finally, I digitised one of my knotwork drawings and made this sample by stitching it out several times - to add to the sketchbook.