When in doubt, use the scissors.

I committed myself back in May to entering two pieces plus some cards into the Embroiderers' Guild SW region exhibition "Waterways" in Gloucester, confident I would have them finished well before the children broke up from school so I could do some more coursework. I hasn't quite worked out as I expected. First, I lost the little bag that I had managed to finish (and found it several days later in the place I had first looked), then I decided I didn't like the second piece once it was finished. What to do? Fortune favours the brave so I grabbed the scissors, cut it into three pieces and remounted onto 3 small square artists' canvases. Much improved. All the bits are now safely packed up and ready to be delivered.

School broke up on Friday so I don't expect to get much done in the next 6 weeks.

A Lucky Find

At summer school, I was puzzling over how to display the transparent 'slides' I had made of layers of pylon prints. They are about 20cm square and need to stand in something that allows you to look through them and also rearrange the order. Sara came up with the idea of making them smaller and using a CD rack - one of the wire ones that is a bit like a toast rack, but the only ones I have spotted so far are designed to stand upright and don't balance if they are lying flat. My other idea was something on the lines of the cardboard toy theatre we had as children where you slotted in the scenery.

While I was doing the supermarket shop this morning I wandered into the stationery section and suddenly realised I was looking at rows of open-fronted cardboard display boxes with slotted sides. And they come in lots of different shapes and sizes. After inspecting them all closely, I found one that is just the right size for the slides and luckily it only had one item left in it (which I left neatly on the shelf). With a bit of paint and some trimming, I am hoping it will be just the job.

Summer School 2007

I really am going to try and get in the habit of updating this blog weekly (even if it is to confess no work done) so here goes. Came back yesterday from the Distant Stitch summer school at Urchfont Manor - what a wonderful experience. Once again working from dawn to dusk apart from regular breaks for huge amounts of food and fresh air when the rain stopped. This year we worked with metal with Maggie Grey and Kantha with Sian.


Maggie (centre) with Kaye and Avis.












Margaret hard at work.

Layers upon Layers

The latest pylon image. This is made from the layered image shown on the entry for October 13th. I started with this as the background layer in PSP then pasted as new layer and flipped, then pasted as new layer and mirrored. I used the selection tool set as a triangle to cut holes in layers 2 and 3 which sometimes overlap giving a complex arrangement of geometric shapes. This reminded me of seeing quilts where the colour combinations of triangles create the illusion of larger triangles overlapping.

More Playing with Pylons

I hadn't mentioned it on this blog but a couple of months ago, I experimented with making the pylon images into .gif animations. I layered two images of paper rubbings in Paint Shop Pro and then saved copies with the visibility of the layers adjusted so that the underneath layer gradually becomes visible. I then used this series as frames in Animation Shop and added smoothing transitions. A second animation was created by taking the black outline of part of a pylon as the staring image. Using PSP I made four images with the pylon repeated 1,2,3 and 4 times in layers. The second layer was a mirror image, the third flipped and the fourth mirrored and flipped. These were used again as animation frames with transitions added to take the image from white to the four layers. The results can be seen on my website.

When I showed these to Sian, she suggested I slowed them down and increased the size. I have done this today but as the files are very large, I have not uploaded them. I also changed animation 2 so that it goes from white to the complex image and then breaks down again returning to white.

Back to Work

After a bit of a break, I am back to work. This picture shows the stitch samples for module 1 chapter 7 mounted.

Module 1 Continues

Have spent a bit of time working on the pages of my research project and they look much more interesting. This week I finished a cover for them, made with string and crumpled tissue paper using the pylon design. I have given it a concertina spine so it can expand if more pages are added. It lacks a fastening at present - I think it needs some kind of tie.

I have also started work on the chapter on fabric construction - shown are pictures of some weaving samples in paper.

Coursework- playing with pylons

I have spent the last few days playing around again with the pylon theme. This time, I folded parchment paper to create strong lines and then took rubbings with soft pastels. The rubbings were scanned into the computer. I went back to the original photos of electricity pylons and played with Paint Shop Pro, firstly to remove the background and then to save the shape as a selection. I then applied this selection to the scanned rubbings and used some special effects to change their appearance. The pictures show a few of the results. My next move was to print the layers separately on OHP transparencies and try putting them over paper prints and each other in different combinations. I think I shall have to make a looseleaf book with these pieces in mounts (like slides but much bigger - maybe 12/12" scrapbook pages) so you can change them around.

Coursework

I have just realised that I have been posting to this blog for over a month without mentioning my coursework at all - whoops!

So here goes - I am on module 1 of the Diploma and my theme is Machinery and Industrial Landscape. Within this, I am focussing on layers of linear patterns and am currently a bit obsessed with electricity pylons. I have taken and collected a number of images and am playing with them in various ways.

I handed in a portfolio to Sian at the end of May and am working through her suggestions for extra design ideas. I have done some work since Summer School (honest) but it has tailed off due to school holidays. I am also trying to stick to Sian's suggestion of daily drawings made in different ways of the same subject.

The photo shows how I have been exploring layers of lines on transparent surfaces - these have been made by wrapping laminating pouches with black threads of diferent thicknesses. I have hinged the layers so that they can be folded like a book or viewed as a 3d model. A variation has been to laminate cut up video tapes in credit card size pouches and make patterns by combining these with small copies of the photos. I am looking for a way of making a 3d structure to allow one to look through lots of layers of these fragments - perhaps there is some way of standing them up in a slotted stand so they could be rearranged at will?

I have also been using cut-outs to explore the spaces between the lines by building up layers of different heights and photographing them at different angles to show the shadows. In addition I have photographed the effect of holding the stencil I used to create the shapes over the top to cast further shadows. I continue to fold paper to give lovely patterns of creases and have taken rubbings of some of these. The rubbings have then made a background for photos that have been manipulated on the computer. Finally, I printed some of my pylon photos onto transparencies and projected them onto the wall, then traced onto paper with black marker. This is a great way to understand how the lines link and overlap. At this scale they are very like an angular version of celtic knotwork (we are back to the Irish dancing dresses again). These will be used to make further drawings/collages.

I am planning to upload more photographs to my personal website so watch this space.

Summer School Pictures - Work

Some pictures of the silk papers drying outside and finished pieces.

Summer School Pictures - People

As promised, pictures from the Distant Stitch summer school.

Distant Stitch Summer School

Back last night from the Distant Stitch summer school at Urchfont Manor, which ran from Sunday evening to Tuesday lunchtime.

As well as tutorials with Sian Martin, we spent a morning making silk paper and dyeing silk. For the afternoon and following morning, we were fortunate to have Mary Youles teaching us bookmaking, and we were able to use the papers we made to decorate the covers.

Everyone made something to be proud of and most went home with a completed book. We were so inspired that quite a few students worked until 11pm and were back at the studio at 7am for an hour's work before breakfast.

Next posting will be more pictures.

First Thoughts

The idea of setting up a blog is so that I can share ideas about the course I am doing in stitched textiles with my tutor and friends, and put pictures on the site rather sending everything through the post.

Being easily distracted, I will probably do everything but.

Today I should have been working on some designs. Instead I have cleaned the sitting room, washed the kitchen floor and bought no 1 daughter a new bike. And set up a blog. It's amazing what you can get done when you are supposed to be doing something else.

Here's to tomorrow!