Saturday 16 February 2013

Slowly into stitch

I could continue making marks on paper and manipulating surfaces forever but I felt I should bring ideas of fabric and thread into my thinking.

I looked at a sample fragment from a recent piece that suggested a possible connection with the mass of small marks in my drawings, masses of tiny ripped photo fragments that had been stitched together in long ‘strings’ making a lacy structure.  The distance between the photo fragments could be altered to give variety to the density of the mass. Also other fragments could be stitched together in ‘strings’.

fabric6  fabric7 

Another previous method to suggest movement was  made on multiple layers of the same image, cut into narrow bands and fragmented alluding to a refracted image. The silk organza pieces were painted with sweeping lines and when dry layered and threaded together with long stitches that went right through all the layers. I had a bit of fun getting the camera close into dramatic angles of this sample suspended on a window to show the interesting effects photographically which are disappointing in reality.

drying rack  fabric stitch9

Onwards to explore another way of layering these fabric pieces. I undid the stitches and started again. This time I folded each piece in half and threaded the folded pieces together as in a book. The movement was more evident in this formation but perhaps too much!

fabric2

An interlude to look at the delightful ‘avocado rolls’ by Alice Fox  http://www.alicefox.co.uk/ and I thought I would roll a strip and double dip dye in the sunset colours of a drawing. Although I haven’t developed this dyed strip of linen scrim yet, it’s waiting for that special moment of time for me to manipulate it in some way. I like the way this long strip of fabric creates it’s own sweep just by being there. Now this thought offers something!

fabric5 fabric3

14 comments:

  1. It is so interesting to see your thought process.I like your swoops of stitched fragments as this is closest to the bird movements across the sky.

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  2. I'd love to see how your new photos in this slideshow would look as fragmented pieces strung.

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    1. Thanks for the thought Helen. Perhaps just working on a much longer set of strips would do it?

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  3. As Jenn says this is so interesting and such a lovely subject to work on. I'm not sure whether I've already mentioned this link before, but this is an interpretation in wire of a murmuration of starlings. http://celia-smith.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/celia-smith-4-1024x767.jpg. I think it's rather beautiful and I would love to have it suspended from my ceiling!

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    1. Thanks for the link Meg. The wire gives such delicate detail and the compsotion has such movement. I'm going to machine onto fishing line today!

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  4. Interesting to see the contrast between this horizontal series and you earlier vertical flying feathers series.
    Have fun with the dyeing...any item of food now looks to me like a potential dye pot! Trouble is I don't want to unwrap the rolls as they are so sculptural...also thinking of doing a time lapse series as the way the fabric absorbs the dye is a work of art in itself!

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  5. Seeing how this project is developing, in particular with the notes and quick sketches in your notebook is a lesson in design in itself. Fascinating to see how it is evolving from the very first idea.

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  6. Great images - I particularly like the top two where the tiny squares have been parcelled up and suspended like little gifts.

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  7. I love what you are doing, especially the stitched 'strings' and the dyed scrim is yummy! What about some strings made from the organza/scrim?

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  8. I love what you are doing with this and its great to hear your thought processes and see your notebook. I'm hopeless at notebooks everything is always rolling around in my head it would probably be a lot easier if I wrote things down. I must get into the habit again.

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    1. Thank you for leaving your message Debbie. I love the peaceful bands of coloured texture in your own work. Please let me know when SWTG are exhibiting next time.

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  9. I love the progression into stitch particularly when the sample piece is horizontal in the third image at the top of your post, it'll be very interesting to see how it progresses.

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  10. Lovely to see what you're doing Sian and thanks for the link! Alice

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