As I had used grids several times during the course and intended to make one for the resolved sample in this chapter, I decided that I did not need to make a practice piece.
Read through the chapter and using some of the embedding ideas, for mirrors, Paua shell and florists' glass, I decided to incorporate these into one piece.
A square of printed pastel cotton with little circles was backed with Vilene and working from the bottom upwards, several layers of sheers and net were laid and the florists' pebbles in clear, blue and green were embedded below the second layer and stitched around to trap them. Three broken needles later, I stopped trying to get the stitching quite as close to the pebbles; the top of the pebbles kept catching as they are quite high and even without a foot on, interfered with the direction of sticthc.
Another two layers of sheers were added and the paua shell embedded between to the top and second layer and then staying with the base layer and adding some net, the shish mirrors were attached stitching around the edge of each by machine.
The all the covering layers were cut of burnt back and the mirrors hand-shish'd. One of the paua shells wanted to escape so this was held down with a stitch around the body of the shell. The whole piece was stitched won at the time of embedded the inserts and then glass beads were stitched onto then sample each toning with the colour of the area they crossed.
.jpg)
Shells, glass and mirrors embedded as a sample
I searched for mica to embed but couldn't find it. I have used it before in this module and hope that my use of it for that sample suffices. I agree that it splits and splinters when stitched and I doubt that I kept the little pieces that had.
Acetate
I had some acetate for computer printing and decided that I should get the same result from this as from anything specifically for craft.
Interference paints and a couple of metallics were distributed on an A4 piece of acetate. Keeping with the 'Starry Night' theme, I spread the paint to represent swirls as in Van Gogh's skies. A base of random dyed felt was used.
Using cable stitch with a gold cord in the bobbin and a blue in the top, swirls were stitched quickly to get a whip stitch effect. Gold stars were stitched around the pieces and then blue top and bottom free stitching was added to accentuate the swirls.
Painted acetate
Acetate on felt base
The stitched piece
Resolved sample using shadow techniques
I thought about which poem I would use as the inspiration for the sample. I had read 'Starry, starry night' by Don MacLean and also looked for poems about shadows on the internet.
This one speaks of people who live in shadows and it was quite meaningful in today's world.
Shadows by Mr Kreo
The sun retires to its resting place as the moon attends its post
It gazes upon the world below looking down at all the variety of colour
The beauty is astonishing but hidden in plain sight are those that
Cannot be seen - Cannot be heard.
They are like the moon; they view the world and never interact
Their suffering falls on dead ears in which it is ignored and cast aside
These are the ones who laugh but cry, who smile but die.
As the moonlight glistens it illuminates the shadows where the scared flee
They are shadows that are not illuminated but simply forgotten
Shadows that seem to be ignored.
This poem really resonated with me. Having spent a lot of time in developing nations, I thought of the poor, sick and starving. I then thought of our own poor and the dichotomy between rich and poor in London. I use the bus to travel from Waterloo to Chelsea and pass the high office buildings with the shiny expensive shops below and in their entrances in the early mornings, I see the rough sleepers on their cardboard boxes. People walk by and don't even notice then. They are unseen or people don't want to see them as they may feel that they would be morally obliged to offer help.
So with these images in mind, I made a felted base using a computer based drawing that I had made in an App. I had written 'Big Issue' as we are so often asked to buy a copy and many people ignore the sellers. Even if not wanted, a "no, thank you" will always get a pleasant response, such as, "have a nice day". They haven't been ignored. I decided that there would be no text in my stitched sample.
I noticed that the dark area along the middle bottom area looked like a lying figure and decided that I would put a figure in my sample so when making the felt I made an effort to not only work from dark to light but also to try and represent a figure.
My digital sketch
Wools for the felt
The felted wool
My notes on how the piece would be created
A dark grid was made from hemp stitched together on a water-soluble base (washed away) and attached to the main piece over a layer of acetate painted black to describe the depth of poverty.
Brightly coloured thread waste was placed on the base to represent the brightly coloured shop windows.
A layer of white chiffon overlaid the thread waste and was stitched down
Then office windows were made to go above the shop windows. Acetate was painted with interference mediums and when dry laid over the felt and covered with two layers of organzas, one white and one steel grey. Areas of the windows were burnt or cut back to expose layers beneath and give a feeling of shadows in the office windows.
I cut some of the left hand side away as the piece felt too wide. I made the pieces I'd removed into two bookmarks.
The yellow sun was covered with orange and red velvet and the crescent moon with metallic lycra and metallic flakes were scattered on the felt to be the basis of a tree - the right hand 'bright' area of the piece was then covered with net and organza and stitched down with vermicelli in a tonal variegated thread.
In the bottom left hand area, layers of black organza and chiffon were heavily stitched, cut and burnt back to represent the deepest shadows from which a figure is emerging. He was in the felt and I decided to add some stitching to better define the figure
I added some darker shadow vermicelli stitching closer to the figure that emerged from the dark shadows.
I considered added some tiny embedded pieces of dark metal looking plastic and cut pieces up to place along the base of the piece. I sprayed some webbing paint over the little pieces and intended to cover this with some darker organza but a couple of pieces of the plastic fell off and exposed the area that it had masked. I rather liked the effect and removed all the pieces of metal with tweezers.
Under the grid I embedded a small piece of acetate painted with interference medium to represent wet and cold in the dark place and as a final touch, small pieces of black chain were woven into the grid as a homage to Jane Lemon's, 'Chains of slavery'.
The finished sample
An interesting exercise. I got really angry about poverty when I was stitching the lower left black element. Very emotional; my husband called up to ask if I was trying to break my sewing machine with the speed I was stitching.
Literal again I'm afraid, but the poem really spoke to me and pictures formed in my mind that I had to stitch.
My further evaluation would be that perhaps I haven't kept the piece 'light' enough but the tree and windows of the buildings perhaps fulfil the brief.
I look forward to doing the research, already started, for Chapter 10.
No comments:
Post a Comment