Module 4 chapter 4

Reinventing the Elizabethan slip.

I started this chapter by exploring the shape that I ended up with in chapter 3, plus looking at one or two others.


4/4/1

Having settled on the shape I then produced 4 digitally embroidered slips and started looking at complimentary colours and textural ideas to mount them on.


4/4/2

The fills for the slips are as follows:

1. A simple blackwork fill

2. A lace fill under a wave fill

3. A candlewick fill

4. 2 blackwork fills, one on top of the other


4/4/3

After looking at the above, I then worked my four contemporary slip samples.


4/4/4

This slip is mounted on a piece of felted knitting using French knots to hold it in place.


4/4/5

The above sample is mounted on silk Dupion with a copy of the slip design stitched to the fabric and the slip itself has been stitched in place with machine straight stitch.


4/4/6

I thought the geometric shapes of this slip would work well on a silver net and secured it with gold beads.


4/4/7

This sample was really difficult to photograph as I wanted to show its transparency. It's mounted on metallic organza and secured with running stitch in silk thread.

This was quite a fun chapter to do , especially as I had the chance to work with the digital embroidery again. I think the shape was a little awkward to work with and the results of the samples were quite tight.

Module 3 chapter 4

This chapter is another form of printing, but this time with stencils.

I used a small variety of media that I've been wanting to experiment with for some time and theses three choices had the advantage of being dry media, easy for me to use in my art space.


3/4/1

The ChromaCoal pastels were a delight to use just like normal chalk pastels but they can be fixed with an iron on a wool setting.
The silk pens were also easy to use and again could be fixed with an iron, I used them with cotton in my sample and they worked really well.
Lastly the oil pastels worked well especially once the fabric was hot after the srencil, made from freezer paper had been pressed in place.


3/4/2

It was quite difficult to relate my samples to the shapes I'd used for the printing exercise as there were a lot of entwined shapes so I settled for using mainly curved stencils.


3/4/3

In this first sample I used a hand dyed textured silk. The first 2 rows were done with the ChromaCoal pastels, the next 2 were oil pastels and the last one was ChromaCoal.


3/4/4

In this sample I used the Silk pens on a hand dyed cotton as I thought they would work better on a non textured surface.


3/4/5

Here I started to experiment with the oil pastels, in the top half I was taking prints off the stencil after it had been use and then deliberately colouring the stencil again with oil pastel and ironing it onto the cloth face down. The bottom print is using oil pastel over a stencil.


3/4/6

Next I printed with oil pastel onto cream nylon sheere.


3/4/7

And then printed the residue left on the baking parchment after ironing the previous sample on to this piece of hand dyed cotton.


3/4/8

Then married the 2 together.


3/4/9

In this sample I used 2 colours in the ChromaCoal with the small cutouts of the big stencil at the bottom left.


3/4/10

Finally, as I was clearing up I noticed that the sheer fabric was laying over this sample and I quite liked it.


3/4/11

But I think I liked this one even better.

I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter, maybe that's because it was a form of printing again.

Module 2 Chapter 4

This chapter concentrates on creating relief surfaces worked on paper that reflect the patterns found in the Opus Anglicanum embroidery.

Firstly I went back to my research images and sketched a few patterns in my sketch book.


2/4/1


2/4/2

I then used a basic flour and water mix to create a paste and coloured it using Brusho and powder paints. The mixture spread well on the paper, but took a very long time to dry. I used a mixture of plain and previously coloured papers for the BG's, and tried out a couple that I'd already worked with similar theme.


2/4/3


2/4/4


2/4/5

The papers curled considerably while drying and the only way I found of uncurling them was to apply some heat with the hair dryer and then staple the samples to mount board.

Once dried I applied some metallic rub-ons, Treasure Gold and Cosmic shimmer mist.

As usual my favourite sample was the last one I did in my sketch book with some of the extra paste.


2/4/6

Shape and pattern study

I started this chapter by looking at the images and objects that I'd collected for the seaside theme to see if I could identify outlines and solid shapes that appealed to me and that might translate well into pattern or design.


1/4/14

These shapes of the fish and shells seemed to be a nice group but didn't feel quite right.


1/4/15

The LHS pics are of Brighton pavilion and the Promenade Victorian ironwork, again these shapes didn't seem to work and I realised that they were symmetrical and we were advised to look for asymmetrical.


1/4/16

I finally found something that felt right with the lines in a large stone I'd collected, and started to isolate the shapes.


1/4/17

I made some simple printing blocks with some of the shapes and tried them out with a black printing ink pad.


1/4/18

This was my final choice, but having finished the exercises now, I do wonder if I picked this because it looked like a cross between a bird and a seal, to me of course, you might see something else.

It was now time to play with this shape and see how it would work in lots of different design environments.


1/4/19

I did find this quite difficult to start with as it was quite prescriptive and I found myself becoming too enslaved by the instructions, but I did like the figure, and the initial P.


1/4/20

Next up was the pattern element, again I felt quite challenged by the tight instructions on this one and eventually resorted to the computer to see if I could free myself up.

Finally, having not produced much that I was pleased with I decided to do a couple of pieces without any instructions and then discovered the value of these warming up exercises, especially in the second one where I made use of the very first image of the stripes over the shape. I didn't like this image at all in isolation but loved the way the stripes worked in this sample.


1/4/21


1/4/22

I think this will be a good base to come back to and was an interesting way of looking at design ideas, one I hadn't explored before

Next stop colour.