Tidying Up

Well, I think I have finished module 2, so I will bring it all to summer school and find out. I enjoyed playing with the faces and figures, which surprised me as I normally avoid them. This week, I have been having a bit of a tidy up/sort of all the loose bits and have also updated my website. It now has all the notes relating to making the assessment piece (previously scattered around this blog) including the sample animations and a link to the complete final version on YouTube - click here to visit my site . I still need to do something to show the complete piece in situ, so I can't wave it goodbye quite yet. I can't believe it is a year since I started on it - even I don't normally take so long to finish things. Must have been all that thinking time!

Module 2 Chapter 12, Even More Faces

I am on a roll this week, so here are some more faces -could have carried on but I ran out of decorated papers. There is a fresh batch drying so fingers crossed for inspiration tomorrow.


This is my basic face shape cut into pieces the shapes of which were inspired by a Naum Gabo sculpture. What follows are some designs using these shapes.


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More Chapter 12 - Faces

Carrying on the same theme but this time I have taken an outline of a face from a photograph and drawn it larger, exaggerating the features. I drew lines across the face following the contours of the nose, mouth and eyebrows and then cut it up, using the pieces as stencils to create more patterns. The colours are clearer and stronger in real life, for some reason these seem not to photograph well.

Module 2 Chapter 12

I'm slow but I get there eventually. Chapter 12 is all about faces and figures - here are some of my paper designs using a silhouette. I drew my daughter's shadow by pinning paper on the wall and then reduced it with a good old fashioned pantograph as the paper was too big for the copier. As with the pin-men, these designs are made by tracing and cutting out in coloured papers.

More Module 2 samples

A short post to show a trial sample. I printed one of the displacement maps shown in my post of January 26th onto prepared cotton and machined over it. I free machined using a darning foot but no hoop and let it distort the fabric. Not entirely sure about the result, it may need something added to make a focal point.

More on Chapter 11

I found myself on the computer this afternoon with an odd half hour free so I had a little play with yesterday's photos on Paint Shop Pro. I had just been reading the article in the March edition of Workshop on the Web about making picture tubes so of course I had to try it out.



Here are two ideas using the same photo as a tube. The tube is created using file-export-picture tube and I used 9 cells so the picture is divided into 9 pieces. Using the picture tube tool and a random setting means that each time you click it produces one of these pieces (Hazel Credland's article explains this much more clearly). In the first one, I used two copies of the whole figure and then filled in with the tubes. For the second, just the tubes.



This final picture was a mistake - I was trying to use the panoramic option in Photo Album to produce a long picture of all the variations of this pin man by joining the photos in a row (it is meant for creating panoramic landscape shots from lots of overlapping photos). I forgot that as the photos are almost identical, it carefully matches them up so they end up on top of one another instead of side by side. But I quite like it.

Chapter 11

Playing with pin men - my figure was originally drawn at my daughter's gym class and was someone in mid jump. It has been scaled up and cut into pieces -the first set of photos show some of my arrangements of the pieces, testing how much can be removed before it no longer looks like a figure.



Below are some variations in coloured papers.

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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.

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.

More Distractions

After posting the pictures of stitching with metal threads I couldn't resist having a little play with Paint Shop Pro. I thought it was time to explore displacement maps after reading Maggie Grey's blog, so here are the results. These have been made by combining two of the photos from the Jan 16th post.

This is the same as the first but using tiling.


This uses the same photos but layered the other way up.

My other distraction today was to go on a workshop with the Embroiderers's Guild run by Orange and Blue, painting sketchbook covers. We built up the surface using cardboard and then many layers of paint. The pictures show the cardboard glued down then with 6 or 7 layers of paint. It isn't finished yet - I want to sleep on it before adding more, then it will need lots of layers of varnish.


I booked it thinking it would be fun day (which it was) and without any clear idea of what design to use. Somehow, those pylon shapes crept in.

Post Christmas Catch Up

I have been beavering away but somehow did not get as far as the computer. I have been researching opus anglicanum and making related samples. The first picture is underside couching worked on canvas. Like so many things it looks more interesting on the back but I forgot to photograph it so I will have to add later.



Here are some of the samples for module 2 chapter 6, playing with metallics inspired by ecclesiastical embroidery. These are done with goldwork threads plus a little bit of painted wire mesh. I am working on more with bits of drinks cans etc. These are all tiny as very slow to make.

Module 2 Chapter 3

Samples for contemporary laidwork - incorporating a shape. Three trials to interpret the design. Clockwise from top left - design on paper; machine stitching and strips of fabric over fabric shape; machine stitched shape overlaid with grid; threads wrapped over a frame held with hand stitches, shape created by stitching another grid on top. The second picture is a close up of this. The colour scheme refers back to work from module 1.

Four little samples loosely based on laidwork. Clockwise from top left 1) scraps of fabric held in place by a grid of long stitches and cross stitches 2) torn fabric strips laid on soluble fabric, threads couched down with lines of machine stitching. Dissolved and applied to background with rows of running stitch 3) dyed pelmet vilene, wireform held down with long stitches, couched stuffed cotton ribbon, on top a grid of long stitches held down with small stitches at the intersections 4) close lines of long stitches, lines of tailor tacking held in place with cross stitch.

Module 2 Chapter 2 Continues

This is the second batch of designs based on laidwork. All of these were made using artist's masking fluid and I wanted to do these to have a more consistent colour scheme from which to work samples. Unfortunately, in some places the masking fluid stuck fast and wouldn't shift without tearing the paper even though I used the same paper as before.

Module 2 Chapter 2

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These are some little designs based on the idea of laidwork as used in the Bayeux Tapestry. Obviously this is a very free interpretation using layers of grids and adding shapes drawn from my pylon studies.

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The designs have been made using layers of Brusho inks with artists' masking fluid, masking tape and candle wax as resists and are each about 10cm square.

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You can see the different effects of the resists in these three orange samples which each use more than one. Masking tape leaves clearly defined straight lines while masking fluid gives a fairly sharp resist that can be painted into shapes (here curved lines). Rubbing a candle is a less efficient at resisting the ink but gives an interesting broken colour look at the large stripes top left).

Starting Module 2

Sometimes I don't know where the time goes; September seems to slipped by unnoticed. I didn't make it to the Knitting and Stitching Show at the NEC as I was taking part in Sing For Water in London, but the good news is I have booked my train ticket for Ally Pally in October.

Work continues on the animation as I am still tidying it. I have tried creating in different formats so I can try different ways of projecting, for example using Powerpoint. It is a bit academic at the moment as I don't have access to a data projector but I have used a stills as slides to get an idea of scale. I think this will be my large-scale piece as it doesn't fit any other category so I need now to plan the background for the projection.

I have also started on module 2, reading up about the Bayeux Tapestry and drawing some of the wonderful trees and animals from it.