Monday 26 March 2012

taking down and folding up

Well it seems hardly any time at all since it went up but today it came down. So here are a few internal shots of the exhibition in all its glory, everyone different but all starting from one point - maps/mapping.
my piece very much a part of history now thanks to First Bus but what the heck life moves on!!! for better or worse.
thanks so much to all the TFSW committee and members for making this happen and we will see what the future brings!

Saturday 17 March 2012

Lace is holey

Chapter 4, cutting,punching,slashing and melting, sounds violent! but i realise that what i have done is very controlled and ordered! one day I'll go wild. anyway the plan with this chapter is to create various forms of hole either positive or negative. i am still sticking with my cloud shape which i lifted directly from a gros point design.
#1 i used scrim with a layer of tissue on top, stitched around the edge and across the shape, then cut between stitch lines, i then used a mask and sprayed the surrounding area black
#2 a similar idea to #1 but this time i removed most of the internal threads but left some vertical ones and some of the tissue.
#3 silk organza sprayed with stencil shapes and stitch lines sewn to connect them. i then cut the background
#4 and 5 using basic stitch and cutting the cloud shape after

#6 here i layered silk organza, scrim, tissue and paper stitched around the shapes and cut back various layers/holes
#7 shape cut and then stitched very loosely and randomly within
#8 is the remaining piece from the sandwiched shapes in my last post
#9 i used a hole punch to create the shapes on the top strip of black waxed paper and to create what should be the voids in the gros point lace photocopy. if you look at the bottom of this you can see the inspiration for my 'cloud' shape
#10 a punched shape on an old flocked table mat i found in a charity shop. i masked the shape and sprayed the outer edge with black paint after cutting
#11 i have discovered my husbands black garden fleece! it is perfect for melting. here i used a background of automatic machine stitched letters and then zapped it with my wood burning tool trying to keep the background word 'lace' intact.
#12 using the fleece again and a left over piece of silk organza which i hand darned in place and then zapped the background with a fine point on my wood burning tool
#13 layers of tracing paper and nylon mesh stitched with the word 'lace' and then cut
#14 using various layers of silk organza, scrim, paper and tissue stitched with an outline and lines inside, the layers are then slashed and brushed up to make them fuzzy. i then trimmed the layers to the outline shape leaving the top layer of silk.
#15 i decided to work some more layer shapes stitching to hold them and then cutting the shape. the 'square' ones reminded me of little books!
#16 and 17 i made a shape from copper wire, heated it with a flame and melted various plastic bags and more garden fleece i layered them onto a piece of clear acetate using the wood burning tool to attache them. i didn't do any more as although i did this in a well ventilated room i found it far too smelly, although i was quite pleased with the technique.
having read this month's 'Embroidery' magazine i am very keen to try laser cutting!

Tuesday 6 March 2012

oh this is much better than a Mars Bar!

When I was six I won a competition to make shortbread, and the prize was a Mars Bar! i can't remember ever having won anything since that, so a Big Thank you Sian, Jan and Viv for awarding me First Prize in the 'Looking Into' sketchbook competition. Congrats also to Helen and Jenn. i will uses my winnings wisely (and there won't be calories involved!)

Friday 2 March 2012

'Hey you get of my cloud' or Chapter 3 suspended shapes

Chapter 3 using suspended shapes to give the appearance of floating! i chose to use shapes taken from my gros point study which either look like clouds or oak leaves so i have Mick Jagger singing in my head at the moment.
#1 above using stencil shape and spray paint with stitch elements similar to historic links. each cloud is 6cm long and uses silk organza for the background.
#2 using machine stitch and layers of applique shapes from photocopies of gros point
#3 more applique shapes
#4 a more fluid spontaneous cloud painted and with many threads couched as one, again using ideas from my gros point lace techniques
#5 using melted bubble wrap for the base fabric with black waxed paper shapes applied and running stitch shapes
#6 going slightly 3d here with cut bubble wrap shapes and black shiny sequin shape.
#7 for this one i cut out some paper cloud shapes from left over paper that had been used to spray other cloud shapes on, juxtaposing slightly the cut shapes. they were then heat set in between 2 layers of silk organza with bonda web and more juxtaposed shapes were cut and then reapplied to organza. i have kept the background they were cut out from to use later.
#8 using an idea from gros point lace where small shapes are laid on top of each other i cut various shapes from organza with a soldering iron and applied them with large tacking crosses.
#9 i have just discovered apple (vegetable?) bags that are made from a criss cross of plastic fibres they make a great 'fabric' to work with fro transparency. i wanted to felt something without distorting the background so this was ideal, it is essentially sandwiched between two layers of felt that are needle felted together. the right hand one has a layer of paper in the sandwich, below shows it on white background.

#10 two layers of organza stitched together and then sprayed to give a dark outline, then cut to shape and distorted to make it stand proud and stitched in place.
#11 stitching around a shape and then pulling the threads very slightly to manipulate but still trying to keep the original shape
#12 using the cut out shapes left over from #10 and voiding the gaps with some old lacis
#13 finally playing around with more shapes as #10 but placing them within a clear piece of plastic i found in s skip (not sure what from) but i liked it!