Part Three: Project Six – Stage Three.

Applied Fabric Techniques:

 Having chosen the photo resource for the purpose of producing samples I used the ‘Parson Bird’  image which started out as a painting/collage/photo in my sketchbook.

By cutting out template patterns in coloured paper I was able to build up a collage by layering each one upon the other in a predetermined order to create a picture of the native bird. There was a sense of being at the ‘craft’ end off the ‘art/craft’ pendulum, but a greater sense of have achieved something more decorative than some of the abstract work. Each medium has its own ‘for and against’. The fusing  and blending of colours was made difficult because the coloured papers were only one colour when in actual fact the fabrics today especially “batik’ which are multicoloured and merge more successfully than mono tones. Apart from ending up with one colour when dying fabric it is more than possible to have a fusion of colours from which to choose from various dye blends.

The process of interpreting the modules narrative meant that creating samples became an endless and ongoing process which lead to much satisfaction and the sense that what I was achieving was helping me to understand such techniques as ‘Applique’.

Each sample did not have a set plan of action and design as such. The applique technique suggested the manner in which the sample stitching were put together. Coloured paper was a case of cutting out shapes and choosing colours to build up an image in the style of the craft of paper tole.

Stitching was simply a process of selecting the appropriate stitch and fixing an image to a piece of base fabric. Embellishing the image was again a process of looking in the appropriate colour and material plastic envelope and making a considered decision as to what colour, shape, texture, type of fabric and image was in one’s mind. As samples the exercise did not have any specific resolved outcome other than testing ones ability to put various pieces together and record the process and add ones reflections accordingly.

25/01/2012

Moving backwards and forwards, in and out of my sketchbook and blog are still creating some uncertainty in my thinking. I need to meet the requirement of keeping working notebooks to record my progress. The following photos are all about the work I have been undertaking in the past few days.Presenting my work in a logical order backed up by my blog is my goal.

29/01/2012

The first two photos are indicative of the resource image that I have chosen to work with for this exercise and the component parts retrieved by way of observation – hence the charcoal sketch and the block sample, cut up into strips and reformed to illustrate what I was seeing in the rotting boards on the front of the building. By painting a piece of foam in the relevant colours  meant that a very structured outcome was achieved by rearranging the pieces in a vertical formation – with the exception of some smaller strips. So that I was better able to understand the decaying portions of the timber I burnt out crevasses on a piece of foam with a soldering iron and the applied acrylic paint in the darker hues. It is so easy to become consumed with the experiments  – time just flies with the excitement of seeing the fruits of ones work.

The next two photos represent the result of printing out the ink applied to the block in a non descript fashion but with the idea of again representing the up-right stance of the timber except for where some panels had fallen across the vertical lines. This I thought was somewhat more successful than the last time I tried working with a printing block. I have a sense that I am doubling up by working in a sketchbook and also loading the images on to my blog but I am determined to meet my tutors requests for ‘keeping working notebooks’ and to ensure that if the assessors have the time to read my blog they will get a clear sense of my working processes. Having said that I now am having trouble getting the narrative alongside the ‘photo step’ I am talking about. I need to spend some more time improving the layout of my blog so that it makes sense when compared with my working notebooks.

The last twelve photos show the procedure I have used when working with the waste fabric from the cut off hems of denim and worsted jeans. Laying the remnants out on the table I sprayed them with bleach in order to have some of their basic colour removed and/or stained. Rather than paint them I chose to create distressed fibres by running them up against an emery wheel.

There are two A3 sheets of strips of fabric for my sketchbook and also for highlighting the fibres and textures of each different piece of fabric. Whilst able to identify the construction of each sample I was not prepared to include any further techniques of destruction of the fibres in order to limit the number of variables and to move the process of resolution on in the time allotted for this stage of the project.

I purposely separated out the thick hems from the strips of fabric leaving small fragments for later construction and embellishment of the pieced patches. There are photos of the samples pieced, thick hems joined with an heirloom stitch and machine free-motion stitching over water-soluble material. I had in mind the addition of these test pieces to the base layer of the pieced segments of fabric. My initial thoughts were to make a 2D piece to work with and embellish. Shades of piecing patchwork fabric except that when joining the final four strips I used a variation of stitches including zig zag, button and blanket stitch. The long length was cut into four quarters before rejoining in one long strip.

It also occurred to me that if I was to send this work away it would be larger than the red bag and much heavier than the 2KG limit so I decided to reduce the number of samples and experiments on the basis that I have recorded my work in my sketchbook and working notebooks. This way I could be judged on the process from the photos and sketchbook work sheets – hopefully. I was keen to move on to the 3D stage of this project.