Flower photos as initial inspiration
For this piece I returned to my inspirational artist Eric Carle and to a sample I made using a shape I particularly like from one of my drawings. When I made the sample it was with paper on a white background. However Eric Carle has used coloured backgrounds later in his career so I decided to do this and to use painted fabric to make the shapes.
I have used watercolour paint on collaged fabric and some free machining before cutting out the shapes. I think the technique of painting fabric is something I would like to develop further – I like the randomness of piecing and painting before cutting – never quite sure of what you will get.
The fabric pieces I have made for my capsule collection are in a much brighter colour palette than the watercolour paper and crochet pieces. For my final piece I want to combine paper and fabric to create a 3d explosion of colour and texture.
I wanted to use paper weaving and fabric shapes but also to include a 3d element. I used two shapes from a different drawing to make leaves and a flower shape rolled into a cone. I combined this with paper using a previous sample as a starting point.
The final piece has a lot of texture and movement with variations of scale. Some parts you need to look at closely to appreciate while from further away it is vibrant and exciting.
I am really pleased with the computer altered images and can see that these would provide further inspiration for collaged textile pieces.
For this piece I have continued with the colour scheme from my yarn wraps done in response to my paintings, together with shapes from my drawings, and a weaving sample done with strips of fabric. This time I arranged my shapes among the warp threads and wove from the back of the piece, leaving only the warp threads showing over the shapes.
For this piece I turned to my yarn and linear concepts and a fringe sample. My final piece includes leaf shapes, cords and paper beads to suggest buds.
I am enjoying developing my samples into a collection, using different materials and techniques within each piece. I like the combination of yarn, paper, fabric and painting creating interesting pieces with movement, texture and detail.
While creating my capsule pieces and looking at inspirational artists, I have come across the works of Sheila Hicks, who creates large scale and small textile works including many pieces of weaving.
I have selected a few to include that I absolutely love.
The colours in these pieces are beautiful. Some are harmonious and some are not. I particularly like the technique of wrapped cords within the pieces and the texture created by different weaving methods.
These pieces use different materials, different thicknesses of weft and warp ‘threads’ and more of a natural colour scheme. There is a lot of texture, movement and detail in these pieces which are not as simple as they first appear.
I have decided to build a collection based on samples I have created with a running theme of colour, shape, construction and materials. I want each piece to have inspiration from my floral theme and to combine materials and techniques.
I have used a sample weaving piece made from painted watercolour paper as my inspiration, and developed this with further yarn wrapping to suggest flowers. This weaving is more complicated than the original sample and combines the geometric patterns of the weaving with the painted lines and wrapped thread to retain a light floral feel.
Painted watercolour papers
For the second piece I combined pieces of painted watercolour paper with crochet. I used shapes from my original drawings and sample pieces of paper with crochet as my inspiration.
Paper and stitch 