Category Archives: ATV PART 2. SURFACE AND STITCH

Part 2 Surface and stitch Assignment 2 and written reflection

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Paper manipulation library

Drawing with stitch onto paper

Developed and composed samples

Stitching placed and spaced

Written reflection

My approach to the first two projects was to draw on the skills  I already had and to try out new ideas. I found it hard to be loose and free in my mark making and I plan to keep working on this.

 I was apprehensive about the paper manipulation but found this part really exciting. Parts of the  drawings I had done could be isolated and these proved to be very inspiring when creating surfaces and stitching. I found it easier to work with paper than fabric as it retains its form and shape, and I particularly loved the delicacy of the fine papers when crumpled and softened to achieve drape and movement. There was a lot of satisfaction in stitching heavily into the fine papers without tearing them.

I feel my strengths are in composition, particularly in the two paper pieces which resulted in two very different exciting developed and composed samples.

 I spent so much time on the paper studies and composed paper pieces that I did not leave enough time to sample my fabric pieces in the same way. I chose different drawings to work from for the three stitched textile pieces as I liked the composition of the drawings and felt there was an opportunity to create different surfaces with fabrics and stitch, however in hindsight it would have been better to work from the body of paper samples and pieces that I already had from exercise 2.4 rather than starting again from new drawings. I also think this would have enabled me to move away from the original composition and to concentrate on shapes, surface,  marks and lines. I did however find that the drawings I chose for the textile pieces allowed me to demonstrate repetition, scale and a placement design successfully.

My study of the work of Cas Holmes inspired me to cut up the third piece and stitch it back together before adding further embellishment.

I now know that I need to allow more time to plan and try things out before jumping straight in. 

Research point 1 Cas Holmes

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Cas Holmes

Throughout my work on assignment 2 I have been looking at the work and ideas of textile artist Cas Holmes. Cas works with found and reclaimed items and also uses a process of destroying and remaking. She collects all types of paper such as envelopes, brown paper, magazines, tissues etc together with textiles and found objects, and creates new pieces.

Cas uses processes to change her found papers and other materials such as crumpling and tearing, and then layers and organises the pieces to create a new piece. Having worked on these pieces with dyes and printing she often then ‘destroys and remakes., cutting away to reveal what is underneath, tearing, patching, cutting up and rearranging, and scraping amongst other things. (The found object in textile art. Cas Holmes 2010)

Work by Cas Holmes (Textileartist.org)

In an interview with Cas Holmes on ‘textileartist.org’ she was asked what initially attracted her to textiles as a medium and replied –

‘I hit on a method of destroying and reconstruction when painting over a previously painted canvas as part of an art project at college. The original image kept coming through, and in frustration, I ripped up the canvas.

I looked at it and said, ‘Oh, this is more exciting.’ I thought the substance of the canvas was more important than what was on it. As resources and finances grew tight I started to experiment with waste paper and fabric for surfaces to work on, the next logical stage to make larger works was to piece them together somehow and stitch seemed the most obvious way.’

Cas likes the human connection in the things she reuses and in her interview on textileartist.org she says that ‘Many of the textiles and papers I use are written accounts of family memories and everyday waste paper, and cast-off clothing and household fabrics, things gathered in my travels. I’m interested in the history of these fabrics, what we do with them. Sheets, clothing; the familiarity we have in our own life.’

I am very interested in using things that have a history of some sort to them and also to keep working on pieces by reworking and revising until I am happy with them – cutting and repiecing is a favourite way of working and I want to explore this further.

Assignment 2 Stitching placed and spaced

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Stitched piece number 3

I wanted to move out of my comfort zone with this piece and although I found it hard I feel I have tried different techniques and achieved a different look to pieces 1 and 2.

Ideas

I started with a similar approach to the first two pieces but then cut the piece up, reassembled, and then added a bowl as a placement piece. To attach the bowl and add detail I added machine stitch.

Finished piece again with inspiration from the drawings of ‘Balance and harmony’. The original stitched piece having been cut up and reassembled.
I stuffed the edge of the bowl with wadding to create a 3d shape, emphasised by the flat stitched centre.
Hand and machine stitching work well together to give a mended, well used, mended feel to the piece. The bowl retains its shape while the rest of the piece has a soft handle.

Assignment 2 : Stitching placed and spaced.

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Stitched piece number 1

I’ve decided to base this assignment on the drawings I made for the introductory project, with inspiration also from my study of the whitework collar in Project 1.

Drawings from Introductory project ‘Balance and Harmony’.
Initial thoughts
Piece so far using applique, cut away, and embroidery, with some repetition. The fabric handle made it lovely to work on.

The embroidered piece drapes and handles beautifully and I tried screwing it up as if it had been used and left on a table.

Piece rolled up in the style of a napkin

Although I haven’t fully completed the first piece I want to move onto the second piece now and will experiment more with scale and some 3D elements.

Stitched piece number 2

Here I have experimented with scale, starting again with a pieced background and stitching large stylised flowers over the whole piece. I have also experimented with cut out shapes and with applique to create a statement piece.

This needs more work to draw some of the elements together but for now I am going to move onto piece number 3.

Developed and composed samples

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I have chosen two drawings to develop into two larger stitched pieces.

Having laid out my earlier samples and drawings I have used two ideas – strong lines and delicate whitework.

The first drawing I have chosen for its bold shapes, clear definition and geometric feel, inspired by stitches and fabric.

The second I have chosen for its feeling of lightness and delicacy with a strong stitched image of stylised flowers.

Starting with the first image I began by sketching a design

I then made pieces with papers to stitch together and checked that the proportions looked right.

This is the piece so far – not finished.

More work to do on this and the second sample to compose…

Second piece drawings

Drawing with stitch onto paper

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So I now have my small pieces of manipulated paper – this was a challenge in itself to cut out a piece without ruining the original!

I have started stitching using simple stitches and have found that some pieces have been easier than others to interpret. I have tried to do something different with each piece. I isolated parts of my drawings from earlier exercises to use as inspiration..

Tassels of different threads through the twirls of paper. I didn’t want to do too many as I wanted to be able to see the original twirls and swirls.
I used a fine thread on this delicate paper to create spidery circles while still seeing the holes.
This piece was inspired by the piece of whitework that I originally drew and I think it is very successful. It retains its fragility whilst having heavy stitching all over it. I also like the way that the stitching shows through from the back of the work.
I have added thread wraps to this fringed paper to enhance the twisted fringing. I also stitched and gathered the top piece to strengthen it and add movement and interest. The threads were left hanging after knotting. There is lots to look at in this piece and it is also very tactile.
The weaving gave me a structure to work in a geometric way with bold lines and stitches.
Again this piece has a strong geometric appearance but this time I used white cotton thread on the white background (as in whitework). The holes where the thread enters the paper are very visible, because I used a larger needle, and a mistake is visible in the lower left corner!
I have crocheted with black thread into the crocheted paper strips to create a messy piece full of movement. This could be explored further with more crochet and extra paper.
I have used straight stitches built up with chain stitch over the top to emphasise the cut lines. The scrunched up leaf shape contrasts nicely with the clean lines of the stitching.
This delicate paper which had been scrunched around buttons to create circular shapes presented a challenge to stitch and I decided to sew lightly to enhance the circular shapes.
This waxy tracing paper is see through and stitches show through from the back. I like this shadowy effect. The strong tassels along the lower edge have torn the holes through which they were threaded. Some tassels face one way and some the opposite.

Embroidered book course with Frances Pickering

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This week I went to Knuston for a two day course entitled ‘Hard but easy’ – making books with paper, pelmet vilene, mount board, and stitch.

I used the drawings I have selected for this project (in my last blog post) to inspire both my covers which were decorated with glue and dyes, and the stitched pieces on the covers and pages. I used a limited colour range of oranges, reds and yellows with a bit of green.

The front and back covers

The spine was decorated with a dyed and stitched piece of cotton

The pages were made from torn wallpaper lining paper and dyed with diluted Koh-i-noor inks

I have used abaca tissue bonded to cotton sheeting for each of the embroideries. I traced the images from my drawings and then painted them with dyes. I have stitched on each of them, trying to capture the stitches and feel of the original pieces in some cases.

I have lots of pages still to fill!

Drawing with stitch

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Now I’m getting excited about using my papers to stitch on.

I’ve selected some pieces from my six selected drawings using my iPad as I haven’t got the original drawings back yet. This proved a successful way of isolating marks and shapes for interpreting with stitch.

I have also cut some small samples from my paper samples to stitch on

Assembled threads ready to start stitching