Module 4 Chapter 9 Section A - part 2

I was going to put this section all in one post but last night I was having trouble uploading and arranging photos so I have split it up.  So carrying on from the last post -

These are the two arrangments on backgrounds that I decided to keep.  Image 6 slightly art deco/skyscraper shapes against swirling colour and image 7 which is a much brighter green than it looks here.

Image 6

Image 7

Exercise 3

Image 8

  Using the green in the centre I gradually added white at one end and black at the other, then cut a couple of thin strips from the edges and played with rearranging them and adding scraps from the earlier exercises (I have left this photo full size so you can enlarge by clicking on it).

Image 9

Just reversing the strip (bottom left corner) was too harsh so I experimented with using parts and  moving them part way along.  I found the dark end was too dominant and heavy, and the arrangements that work best are ones where it is lightened, especially when some of the scraps of violet shapes are included.  Image 10 is my favourite, it has drama with the upward movement and colours but a satisfying symmetry.  I could see this as a very large, lightweight hanging.

Image 10

Module 4 chapter 9 Section A - part 1

Image 1

Section A Exercise 1
For these exercises, I worked with two colours of acrylic paint - quincridone violet and pthalo green. Image 1 shows the range of colours from mixing the two and image 2 is a combination of photos showing various ways I tried of combining colours.

Image 2

Image 3 below shows the final choices pinned on a board.

Image 3

I particularly like the stormy blue/greens in this colour scheme, although they haven't photographed well, and the calmness of the composition top left in image 3.   I think the pair in the centre of the top row of image 3 could be the start point for a hanging  (it isn't very clear but the top and bottom sections are different colours) and I like the  "cityscape" on the bottom left.  I cheated a bit with these last two and added some silver lines to give them a bit more definition.
Exercise 2

I used the same paints to make some backgrounds on A4 sheets, using sponges to mix the colours freely on the paper in contrast to the rectilinear blocks of colour from exercise 1.  I played with lots of combinations of the torn papers on backgrounds, shown in image 4, and then selected two to keep.

Image 4

Chelsea Flower Show

My DH had a big birthday this year, and one of his presents was a trip to Chelsea Flower Show and since it's no fun on your own, I got to go too.

Some of the inspiring gardens..

These boxes provide habitats for insects etc

I took this photo to get the name of the flowers but I love the display too

I've never had much interest in floristry but these displays were stunning. 

This tree was built from sections of driftwood and filled with cut flowers and recyled items.

Can you see the teabags in this picture?

And the bottles in this one?

Fabric Samples

Quick update - I now have samples of the fabric designs I uploaded to Spoonflower.  The massed flower heads have come out a little more orange than I anticipated and looking closely, I can see where the repeat could do with finetuning but is is rather fun.

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.

Module 4 Chapters 4 to 6 Part 2

For the next stage, I made two pieces of fabric from which to cut slips.  These are both made from layers of assorted sheers backed on felt.  I free-machined in looping petal shapes to reflect the shapes printed on my decorated papers from the previous chapter (images 13 and 14 in the Dec 5th post), and  used the same two colour schemes.

The next two pictures show how I applied the slips cut from these surfaces to new backgrounds and also added some of the earlier ones.  10p coins are included to give the scale.

Photo 1

Photo 1

The background is a piece of dyed silk backed with felt stitiched with a digitised knotwork motif designed as a sample in module 2.  I repeated the motif many times, letting it overlap and changing colours randomly, giving an overall trellis effect to complement the flowers.  The slips have been attached as follows (numbers on the photo)

1. Added another layer of sorbello stitches which carry on into the background.
2. Placed the slip on the background and repeated the knotwork motif over and around it.
3. These are two slips made on the embellisher using little snippets of thread on felt to reflect the softness of the pastels (image 12 in the Dec 5th post).  These are dangling freely from loops of thread.
4. A couched thread makes a more definite edge.
5. Rows of herringbone stitches encroaching on the slip.

Photo 2

Photo 2

Background is dyed silk backed with felt and painted with Markal sticks, again using shapes from strapwork studies in module 2.  In this case, the angles contrast with the rounded slips.

1. Slip attached by couching another colour around the outline of the flower head.
2. Slits cut in the silk and the slips attached at one end to the felt underneath.
3. Attached using beads at the centre.
4. Handstitched lines added to the design and carried over into the background.
5. Held down by two large pearl-headed pins (like a butterfly).
6. Not sure the photo shows this very well - I have used a stiff thread to attach groups of beads to points around the edge.  The thread stands up in loops above the slip to echo the petal shapes stitched on it

Whoops!

Bit of an error in the last post - I am at the exhibition on Saturday, not Sunday - 10 to 12 if you still want the cuppa!

Embroiderers' Guild Exhibition

Embroidery Exhibition 25^th – 27^th February 2011, Stoke Lodge Adult Education Centre, Shirehampton Road, Bristol, BS9 1BN

I have entered  Glimpsing the Storm and some of my collages for this exhibition which should be well worth a visit - there is always a wide variety of work from branch members.  As it is our 30th anniversary (which is the pearl one), the branch is holding a competition for members on the theme of 30 something.  We were given a few pearls and a piece of silk, and had to make a piece no larger than 30 x 30cm which used them.  I racked my brains for ages trying to think of something - 30 stitches, 30 colours, 30 days hath September, 30 pieces of silver...  While I was on a biblical theme I decided to look up psalm 30 and found this lovely line "weeping may tarry for the night , but joy comes with the morning".   So here is my entry, a bright orange, joyful sunrise.

The background is painted silk with kantha style stitching to suggest the heat haze and text printed directly onto silk.  The sun is lots of handstitiching piled up on soluble fabric, it is all sorbello stitch.

I am on tea duty on the Sunday morning, so if you are in the area pop in and say hello, and I'll make you an extra nice cuppa.

Module 4 Chapters 4 to 6 Part 1

For chapter 4, here is my worksheet of ideas for making slips based on the decorated papers and flower shape from chapter 3.  I realised afterwards that as I have written in pencil, it is very hard to read, so below I have clarified the notes starting from the top and working clockwise around the paper flowers:

• Build up colour using optical mixing. Try some of the trellis stitches or battlement couching.
• Experiment with digitising - surface patterns (add hand stitch), colour changes,light stitching repeated and offset, try woolly thread and brushing afterwards.
• Bold handstitches - threads or string loosely strung over solid edge (wire?)
• Soft fluffy stitching - velvet stitch, victorian tufting, tailor tack on machine.
• Carrier bags - collect colours; fuse and cut with soldering iron.
• Layers of sheers plus soldering iron - solid colour layers or scraps; stitch on each layer to give colour changes.
• Lace effects - lutradur or felt burnt through, solubles.
• Metal backed with pelmet vilene, paint and stitch.
• Couched thread on fabric, cut from fabric made from scattered threads on soluble, satin stitch lines.
• Transfer image from decorated papers to fabric - TAP, other methods, direct printing - stitch on top.
• Solubles - create slip from stitch alone machine or lots of handstitch.

Notes by the drawings:

•  imitate the rose petal effect - could be lines of stitch
• raised padded areas
• layers of light fabric secured in centre so edges flap freely
• scrumpled fabric (or paper) built up in layers.

Thoughts on textures

• momigami
• scrumple paper on pelmet vilene and cut out
• shrinking thread
• shrinking fabric

Thoughts on edges

• turned
• burnt
• frayed
• hanging threads
• continue stitch into background
• corded
• satin stitch
• stitch around and nibble into slip.

Here are the sample slips so far, the 10p coin in the picture gives scale and the slips are described by number underneath.  Click on the photo to enlarge.

1. Bayeux stitch on cotton
2. Digitised stitch - drawn directly into the software
3. As 2 using fast pen strokes
4. Digitised stitch - open filling repeated three times in different colours and slightly offset.
5. Digitised stitch - solid filling with contrasting top layer
6. Digitised stitch - solid spiralling filling (will do something else with this)
7. As 4 making each layer smaller than the last
8. Threads captured in layers of soluble fabric, digitised openwork pattern.
9. As 8 but just stitching outline which was then whipped by hand.
10. As 8 but just stitching outline then filling with layers of sorbello stitch.

As Christmas intervened, I packed away the sewing machine but I jumped ahead and tried one of the exercises from chapter 6.

 This is made from layers of crystal organza and chiffon in honey, gold, pink and blue (the photo looks a bit washed out).  I used a stencil cutter to cut out the flower shapes.  At the bottom, one has been left attached by one edge, cut into layers and folded back.  The flowers were then distressed with a heat gun.  The fabrics reacted by shrinking different amounts, sticking together and curling up.  I really like these, they look and feel like dried up petals.  I have mounted the fabric with the negative shapes onto a piece from the 'failed samples' pile which has similar blue/green colours and some stitching of a pylon drawing.  I thought this would stop the pastel colours from being too pretty and add to the grungy worn-out look.  I have flipped over the petals and attached them with just one or two stitches as if they had been blown by the wind (around a desolate industrial site perhaps).

Odds and Ends

Well, can't believe I haven't posted here since October.  I seem to have been busy doing odds and ends and most of my stitching has been for christmas presents.  Always a problem for a blogger as you can't say too much about it.  I saw a picture of some candles decorated with machine embroidered motifs so I made loads using commercial patterns on the computerised machine - here is just one. 

 I also made this little cushion as a last-minute gift for someone who has a westie - again a commercial embroidery design and some very simple patchwork as a border.

And here are my ATCs for the January swop on Facebook on the theme of musical.
As usual, I have been getting distracted - this time by my brother's present to me...

...an electronics kit (and my sister gave me the book to go with it).  It is a great kit, designed for people with no experience to learn to programme a microcontroller.   It connects to a computer via USB to download your program and then runs from the mains or a battery.  You can use inputs such as buttons, tilt switches or pressure pads and control output to eg LEDs or motors, making interactive objects. I have spent a few happy evenings working through the sample programs and then writing my own to understand how it works.  So, where is all this leading?  Answer  - to incorporating electronics into textiles using a LilyPad  - a microcontroller designed to be sewn into wearables.  No particular project in mind at the moment, but I am sure something will happen.  For more info see the Arduino website  and Leah Buechley's LilyPad pages and to see what people have made with a LilyPad, have a look at this video on YouTube.

And finally while I'm in a high-tech mood, check out this site and meet the RepRap - a self-replicating desktop sized 3d printer you can build at home and then use to produce the parts to make another one (you may have seen an article in the Sunday Times a couple of weeks ago).  I feel sure there will be ways of using this with textiles...