Module 5 Chapter 6

Reflections

I collected together a range of images about reflections. I loved the colours and looked forward to stitching them.

Fabrics with reflective surfaces. They are rather unlovely, some of them! So I collected a few together and placed them in a fairly symmetric design.

I decided that I need to kill the shinyness back a bit, so chose some contrasting colours to stitch on top of them and dull them down

The first sample 

The pink and green fabrics were two-way stretch lycra and a bit tricky to stitch but the vermicelli held them down and ended up with a piece that was not too loud.

Satin

I have a good selection of satins and chopped up some little snippets to sandwich between chiffon. I was a bit disappointed to find that they were dulled a bit by the chiffon. I did try to burn back with a heat gun, but it didn't seem to have an effect on the chiffon, so I guess that these could be used as a muted background to a piece where soft colour is needed. 

Sample 2 Snippets of sandwiched satin in chiffon

Using one of my design sources, I stitched reflections in water. A piece of black felt was used as a base and metallic chiffon as a second layer. Then pieces of satin were cut and attached with spray glue to hold in place, then stitched down to represent the image.

Sample 3. Satin for reflection

Metallic fabrics

I chose a selection of metallic fabrics and stitched them in a fairly abstract, haphazard way. This was interesting. Perhaps if I had overlaid with organza, the fabrics might have been easier to hold down. I didn't burn them back as I quite liked them as they were and thought that this might spoil the piece. 

Sample 4. Reflective fabrics

Metallic organza

Metallic organza was lightly stitched over on a black felt base and then the organza burnt back. It was interesting to note the outcome of the burning back.

Sample 5. Organza burnt back

Then snippets of satin were laid on black felt under metallic fabrics, stitched and burnt back. I really like this piece.

Sample 6. Snippets of satin were overlaid with strips of metallic fabrics, stitched and burnt back

Metallic nets

Lots of metallic pieces were laid on a black felt background. They included tops from lemonade cans and the foil cover of a margarine tub, sequinned fabrics and shiny lycra. Fine and course gold metallic nets were laid over the fabrics and stitched down with a range of automatic patterns.

Sample 7. Metallic nets over reflective fabrics

Papers with a shine

This was fun. I first took some shiny papers, based them on black felt and overlaid them with a spidery net, then stitched them down with free vermicelli stitch

Sample 8.  The 'Fly' and red and blue stripes are from a foil meal cover on a BA flight!

I then used a piece of soft metal, covered it with satin and organza and stitched a reflective image from my design source. Then the organs was burnt back and the stain trimmed back to the stitching lines. I rather like this piece as the bumps in the metal provide some of the water refections. 

 Sample 9. Refections with metallics

I then used metallic papers in a random pattern and stitched them down with metallic threads and automatic patterns, leaving little spaces exposed.

Sample 10. Metallic papers and metallic stitching

Using the lily pond source image, I loosely interpreted it with metallic papers, covered with sheers and stitched with metallic threads. The sheers were then cut back rather than burnt.

Sample 11. Metallic papers, overlaid with sheers and stitched with metallic threads

Metallic paints

A piece of black felt was stitched with a design from a printing block which had been traced onto stitch 'n' tear. The piece was then stitched in cable stitch from the back, using thick black cotton in the bobbin and pink thread on top. Then the right side was painted over with black acrylic paint. When the paint was dry, silver acrylic paint was loosely brushed over the front of the piece to highlight the cable stitch.

Sample 12

I then took a piece of brown paper which I had previously painted and overpainted it with interference and silver acrylic paints. It was then torn into strips and woven, stitching the weave to hold the sample together. Then it was crumpled and stitched around to hold the shape.

Sample 13. Crumpled and stitched reflective paper

I used trees reflected in water to make a sample with metallic threads, some cable stitching and acrylic gold paint to highlight the surface. I'm not thrilled with the result but understand the technique being taught.

Sample 14. Metallic stitched reflection

Metallic crayons

Having eventually succeeded in finding coloured metallic crayons on the internet from the US, I had more that just the gold and silver that I could find in the UK. I used a piece of previously made fabric (gelli plates) and grated metallic crayons onto the surface and using parchment paper, ironed the surface to get the wax to melt. Rather lovely.

Sample 15. Metallic wax crayon ironed to fabric

I made a rubbing of a print block with wax crayons and using parchment paper, transferred it to a piece of fabric. The fabric was then stitched with a metallic thread. I am pleased with this little piece.

Sample 16. Print block transferred to fabric with wax crayon. 

I made a rubbing using a wax crayon over course net and then transferred the rubbing using a hot iron and parchment paper onto cotton. Not a very stunning result.

Sample 17.  Rubbing with metallic wax crayon

And finally, I selected an image of a sunset from my photo sources and used Vilene as a base. 

The Vilene was sprayed with orange, yellow and red paint and left to dry. A small piece of shiny satin was cut into a circle and using spray adhesive attached into the Vilene. Over the sun shape, little pieces of metallic flakes were attached with spray adhesive. These were then overlaid with a layer of yellow organza. The sun's reflection in the sea at the horizon was a piece cut from shiny gold fabric.

Dark brown satin was cut to represent the dark refections on the sea and attached with spray. Then the bottom element of the piece was overlaid with a piece of brown organza. The central bottom piece was overlaid with orange organza. 

Small layers of chiffon and organza were cut and laid across the sun and in the sky and the whole top of the piece overlaid with orange organza. 

The black reflections in the sea were created by using cable stitched thick cotton thread and a gold metallic thread was also used in amongst the reflections. 

The high and lowlights in the sky were stitched with metallic threads both to secure the sample and highlight the areas of the sky. 

Using a soldering iron, the layers were cut back to expose areas of sun. A heat gun was used to reveal the darker layers beneath the top layer and treasure gold was sparingly rubbed over the cable stitching. On reflection (smile) I decided to add some acrylic paint to this area to further enhance the cable stitching .

Sample 18 before gold paint added to lower half.

after gold acrylic paint added to lower half. 

A most enjoyable chapter!