Merry Christmas Everyone

Wishing all my followers, friends and surfers a Very Merry Christmas and creative 2013.

New blog for Embroidery Study

 Hi All, just to let you know i have created a new blog for Module 6, Chapter 1: research into another cultures embroidery. it's called Aleut Embroidery Study, so follow the link.

Collect and Transform (at last!)

at last i have something to show and as i haven't posted chapter 1 yet i will show a few of the surfaces i am using for inspiration; so above is sea mammal gut which is transparent.

the items i am looking at are composed of long gut strips sew together and often with beautiful insertions of feather, wool, hair etc.

they are stitched with sinew and sometimes coloured with minerals.

 

 

So as i said in my previous post i am not buying anything for this. i collected together old wrappings, mainly transparent and/or with a parchment like quality. so #1 shows sandwich wrappers and paper bag,left and middle scrunched around a ruler. right using old iron on transfer and stitch.

detail of sandwich bag with feather

next lot from left, paper serviette rushed with stitching and then waxed and ironed flat, cereal wrapper distressed, old cupcake case distressed and pleated then punctured and finally a piece of waxed tracing paper with horsehair stitching.

#4 shows more cereal wrapper with stitching, a plastic carrier with ruched stitch lines and stitched sausage skins!

#5 is a detail of the cereal wrapper and loosely stitched nylon thread.

detail of the sausage skin. more about this later but basically you wash it, blow it up, tie both ends and let it dry inflated then it goes lovely and crispy. i am a complete convert!!! and no i didn't buy it!

#7 from left shows two pieces of tissue with punched holes from the hole puncher sandwiched with melted wax plus some stitching. next 2 chop stick wrappers (we like chinese food) and then a stitched 'seam' with inserts.

detail of the wax and punched 'holes'.

and finally detail of strips inserted in a seam. it has taken me a long time to get going with these samples mainly because i have got so involved with the original products and finding it all so fascinating, anyway i am off to the Pitt Rivers next week to see what they have.

We are getting there but slowly!

I walk past this item of clothing almost everyday and have always thought it and others like it to be the most beautiful things ever created. Unfortunately the way we have displayed it doesn't do it real justice as you can't really tell that it is totally transparent; being made of sea mammal intestines. My study for chapter 1 seems to be taking on a hole new level as i study these items so for now i am moving on to chapter 2 until i can see more items and file it all together (might end up being a book!)

so for now i am collecting together 'materials' that i have already got in my stash, are recycled, found or have been given to me. i am not going to buy anything for this module (if i can help it). it will be interesting to see how it works.

(i was very proud of my self at The Knitting and Stitching show' to come away with only 2 small reels of thread from the Handweavers studio and Alice Kettle and Jane Mckeating's new book 'Hand stitching'). and then onto the highlight of my day to the V&A to see Arthur Bispo do Rosario's work, a fascinating 'outsider'.

Just a short musical interlude

I am still here!

Module 5 Final paperwork

Module 5 - Health and Safety Observations

Use of Hot Air gun/wood burning tool
· Hold item being worked on carefully and away from direct heat source
· Use in well ventilated area
· Protect work surfaces at all times
Using Wallpaper paste/ Devoré paste
· Ensure work area is clear and protected with a plastic sheet
· Wear a mask when working with the fine powder
· Allow paste enough time to dry thoroughly
· For Devoré paste work in a well ventilated area when using the iron

Use of paints/dyes and spray paint etc:
· Use in well ventilated area/use dust mask when using powders.
· Wear old or protective clothing.
· Store on shelf well sealed.
Use of iron:
· Test the temperature on a sample first.
· Work in a well ventilated area trying not to breath in the fumes.
· Keep the iron lead away from tripping hazard.
· Store with lead away from tripping hazard.
Use of hot plate/liquidiser for paper pulp:
· Care taken to keep area clean and food stuffs away.
· Keep hands away from hot items.
· Switch off hotplate when not in use.
· Do not over fill liquidiser
General health and safety
· Always protect scalpel blades with a cork
· Take care when lifting sewing machines
· Always work in good light
· As always ‘common sense’




Authentication working on windmills

Proposal for ‘Large Scale Assessment Piece’

Since my initial thoughts and discussions with Siân I have changed my mind completely.
The Brief: A large Scale Site Specific item.
Proposed Site: Budleigh Salterton Beach – various possible locations.
Item: ‘How can you make sound visible’? A pop-up installation.
Proposed Materials: Mixed Media: cassette tape, other synthetic materials and metal.
Size: At least 1 fathom long (a play on words).
My initial site visit was unfortunately on a somewhat dull morning.

Budleigh is a small town on the East Devon coast , it is South facing and is renowned for its amazing pebbles. It is a fishing village and is also home to a naturist beach!





There are also some beautifully coloured beach huts
   I spent quite a while taking photographs to get ideas and locate areas where a pop-up could go.



So my initial ideas are to make a textile piece that could be placed almost anywhere on the beach using ‘sound graffiti’ so the breeze would ‘take’ the words out to sea. Using my theme of graffiti I have been exploring the idea of taking sound out of context and placing it somewhere else. Like Tibetan prayer flags.
I then thought further and what better way to let the ‘words’ flow than on a seaside windmill, and echoing the images seen on the beach produce something that has many repetitions and has a long linear form.
I bought a windmill and went home
My plan is to take random recordings on cassette tape and use this tape to make windmills, each one with a different sound but all connected.




I  made some samples by taking tape and laying it out on a piece of Lutrador.






then laying garden fleece over and tissue under. the whole was the stitched together to create a ‘piece’. a wire structure the shape of a windmill template was then stitched over and a heat spatula used to cut it out and apply a few holes through the base where there was no tape.
The piece was then formed into a windmill. I am still at the stage of suggesting how to form them into a whole. the suggestion i have come up with at the moment is to make Perspex pebbles linked together to which the windmills will be attached. possibly using photographs of pebbles and or found items from the beach.


   Or to place them on a ‘beach blanket’ of seaweed like the sample (left). this was made from garden fleece and lutrador with repetitive words stitched through the layers and holes made with a heated spatula. spray paint was used to give a swirling stripe to the piece.





The finished piece would be placed in various locations throughout one day. Draped on the beach, bunting for a beach hut etc.

I have not worked out a cost for the piece yet as this will depend on my final materials.

Technorati Tags: Sound graffiti,cassette tape sound,Budleigh Salterton

As you can see someone got there before me!

Janice Myers

Janice Myers
I first encountered Janice Myers work at a ‘Stitching’ show in Exeter where the group ‘South West Textiles’ was showing. Her cushion, below right, was on show and I thought it was the most wonderful thing I had seen in a long time. I have since gone on to see a few more things by her; I love the way she uses materials such as plastics, metal and found objects to produce quirky mainly three dimensional items and installations; recycled materials are very dominant in her work.

She uses both hand stitching with fishing line, wire or strips of polythene as well as computerised machine work.

She says she likes to combine an element of the abstract along with the recognisable, so that a hint of the story behind the piece is there to see.

www.janicemyers.co.uk

Chapter 9 and 10!

For Chapter 9 i chose section C, drawing with wire for laminated layers. the idea was to set out a group of anything semi-transparent, firstly drawing them as above, trying to work with a continuous line. i chose initially a perfume bottle and some plastic packaging.

i also included some clear green bottles. here i worked with colour and reflections.

more of the same

then i included some packaging with text

these are all pages from my sketchbook. those of you who were at Summer School might have seen these so sorry for being too boring.

i then made wire shapes from my drawings and cut out tissue and organdie shapes. i used the wire to rub over to give the shapes. then i laminated both the negative and positive shapes, above, onto scrim with wallpaper paste, adding paint and appliqued wire and stitch.

the second one i worked with more colour and waxed the final piece. i didn't work into these any further.

CHAPTER 10

3 Resolved pieces using silk paper, soluble methods and handmade paper.

for these samples i went totally 3D.

for sample 1 here in #2 i continued with the theme from Chapter 9. i made a wire spiral with linking threads and then dipped it in paper pulp and then sprayed the whole black and varnished it.

the 'ears' which are the stopper on my perfume bottle were made using a wire form with tissue and water soluble fabric. both layers were stitched through and then water on a paint brush used to remove excess soluble fabric. the whole was then painted with ink. holes cut and stitched and then waxed to give it transparency.

Piece #2 here above was made totally with 'soluble' fabric. again i made a long ribbon of white Lutrador covered with black garden fleece. this was machine stitched to wire along the edges. the words 'perfume bottle stopper' were machine stitched along the length. it was then spiralled and the fabric between the letters removed with a wood burning tool.

the ears were worked similarly and coloured afterwards.

different angle

for the third piece i went back to the image i had used at summer school

a 3D 'u'

i made a sheet of silk paper and stitched over it with transparent threads to echo the white wash lines. i used tissue for the pattern tearing it off after but leaving some on to add texture. the 'u' is glassine paper. i applied a coating of resin to the piece before cutting out and holes within.

i attached a wire ribbon made from Lutrador and garden fleece which had been melted between stitch lines, over sewing with nylon thread, then repeating with side 2.

i like the view through the sides