Postscript to drawing of a textile

I can’t resist showing you a few more ideas so here are some ways of developing your drawings based on your textile study which I’m sure you’ve been busy with over the last couple of weeks!

The first two ideas are only for the brave!

First idea – Take a rubbing or an area of your textile. Arrange a single layer (if possible) of the textile onto a hard surface. This not quite such a risky operation if you choose a strong paper such as tissuetex which is a reinforced tissue paper used in brass rubbings (available for Art Van Go). The rubbing below was made over the border area of my child’s dress, using a candle and then inking over with black ink – after the dress had been moved far away!

Second idea – take a print of a relief surface of your textile. This needs a lot of care and perhaps shouldn’t be attempted if the textile is precious. My print below was done by holding my breath and I’m pleased to say that I didn’t get any marks on the dress, only on the paper.

To see how this printing process was done, please continue over onto the Distant Stitch website.

This print was used on the inside cover of an exhibition brochure by the Textile Study Group called ‘Not What it Seams’. You can see this brochure on the TSG website.

Judith Aylett sent me this link of the work by Mandy Pattullo. She presses textiles into thick, damp paper – and this looks such an interesting idea, I must try it, but, oh for a proper printing press.

http://mandypattullo.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-07-10T04%3A09%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7

Another brilliant idea from Judith is the work of Ruth Lee. Take a look at the incredible knitted structures on this link. - http://www.webs-of-intrigue.co.uk/gallery.htm. You can see Ruth, some of her work and buy her super book at her stand at the Knitting and Stitching Shows. If you are reading this Ruth – “looking forward to seeing you soon at Ally Pally”.

I also remembered the work of Susie Needham, a Somerset artist whose work I admire and thought you might like to take a look at some examples here. She calls her process ‘photograms’. She doesn’t seem to have a website but is included in many other website so you should be able to find more of her work.

Just for fun, inspired by Susie’s images, I decided to change my dress print into a negative and created even more ideas for drawing from this!

See you in October with a brand new drawing theme. In the meantime, continue enjoying your textile and be encouraged to try some of this less conventional drawing ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing exciting stuff on your blogs – please leave me a message there to let me know. www.stitchloop.blogspot.com