Missing samples and Assessed sample plan

I had forgotten to put two stitched images from Chapter 7 into my blog. 

First was the sample of thick and thin lines using the distorted image of my face. It looks a bit like a seahorse or a flying dragon! 

Th second that I forgot to put on the blog is the image of the deconstructed poppy head and compass points. 

Chapter 8 planning sheet

ITEM	PLANNING	EVALUATION
Design source	I intend to use four British ‘scapes’ to create a four-sided vessel. I will use both imagination and photographic sources for my design
Design elements
Colour	The colours that I use will not compete with each other but will be subtle and reflect the ‘scapes’ that they portray.
Line	The line within the sides of the vessel will reflect the components such as cliffs, buildings etc, so thick and thin, filled and voided as required
Shape and form	The shape will be rectangular and four-sided. Two of the sides will have vertical extensions, one above the main body of the work and one below. The sides will be joined to form a vessel and a base will complete the piece
Texture	The piece will have many textures as I will create buildings, water, fields, rocks, moorland, cliffs, sky, grass, flowers etc., and will create a 3D effect in some of the elements.
Composition	The piece will have four sides and a base. On the first side there will be representation of moorland where are small stream rises through the heath. A standing stone will represent the history of the land. The moorland will be created with couched snippets to represent gorse and bracken and heather and may contain a bird perhaps a pheasant. The second side will depict the essence of the countryside including hills and fields. A stream will run along the bottom of this side through the grass. At the front and in relief, there will be a field mouse, corn and a poppy. The third side there will represent a townscape including a church with a steeple which will extend outside and above the “box’ or the piece. A pigeon will be mid-air above the steeple. A small river will run under a bridge in this side of the work. And finally the fourth side, will create the feeling of limestone cliffs with fallen rocks at the base. A rocky beach with waves and ‘white horses’ will extend from the base of the ‘box’ horizontally to reflect the church steeple elevation on the opposite side of the piece. A seagull will fly above the cliff.
Quality	I intend for it to be very high quality!
Materials
Base/background	As the piece will be heavily stitched and incorporate many textiles and textures, Pelmet Vilene will be used as the main support but metal will be used certainly to support the church steeple
Fabrics	The lining will be silk in a subtle colour to prevent discordance with the work on the outside. I intend to use a large variety of fabrics representing the many elements within the piece
Threads	Threads will be from a broad collection. Thickness, colour, stitches and type, straight, free, pattern etc. will be appropriate to the element of the work being created
Other	Metals will be used in this piece, some heat-treated, some left in their natural state. Sprung wire the thickness of a hair will appear to suspend the birds in flights of fancy!
Construction
Size	No more than 24’ high (excluding steeple and water) x18’ wide (per side)
Edges	The piece will be joined probably by hand with complimentary stitching
Finishing	As above
Time	This complex piece is likely to take all my spare time so hopefully no more that four or five weeks to complete
Cost	I am hoping that all the elements will come from my stock of products
Samples

City and Guilds Level 2 Chapter 7 complete

Design and Composition

I chose a fish as my design source and traced it leaving out the more intricate elements to simplify the image.

Page 36 - fish design

Using the ideas in the course, I used thicker and thinner lines and stitched the fish sample (bottom left), then stitched a second sample using thick, thin and fine parallel lines which entirely changed the look (bottom right) and finally stitched a fine line background and little detail on the fish itself but I added some colour (top right).

Page 36. Fishy samples

Keeping the fish as the source, I took an element - the dorsal fin and tail and made a block using string and card. I made a tracing to make the block.

Page 37. Transfer, stencil and block

I used a piece of Tana lawns a background and yellow transfer paint to get a distinct image on the fabric. I started to block with bleach as well (top left) but it didm't feel that the bleach blocking made a good enough lift to the fabric. I used light and dark free embroidered straight stitch on three of the images (top right and left and bottom right) and satin and straight stitch on the bottom left outline. I don't think that the colours I chose were sufficiently 'different' to have a large impact on the work, but I do quite like the outcome - like angels blowing trumpets!

Page 37 Angels blowing trumpets!

Shape - altered shape; distortion

I was going to use the fish and distort that image and I traced it onto a piece of tights (right hand image p36) but pulling it this way and that didn't result in anything that I was satisfied with. So using my computer software, 'Photo Booth' I took a dreadful picture of myself and distorted it this way and that using four images. I then converted it to black and white to remove the distraction of colour and selected one of the distorted images to stitch. I made a drawing of the main lines in the black and white image

Page 38 - distorted images

Page 38 The top right distorted photo drawn in black and white

I enlarged the image and stitched it on calico backed with pelmet Vilene using thick and thin line and satin stitch, filling space and leaving voids, all free embroidered. A bit like a dragon or a seahorse.

Altering shape - expanding a motif

I used a lotus flower as the inspiration for my motif and drew a simple shape. I faced the image and made a repetitive drawing incorporating overlapping motifs.

Page 39. Lotus flower motif

Page 39. The expanded motif

I didn't necessarily want the stitched sample to look like lots of lotus flowers. So I chose a space dyed felt fabric that wasn't 'lotus flower' colour. Using perspective as a guide, I stitched the borders of the 'flower' shapes and 'leaves' shapes in thicker free embroidered satin stitch at the front and thinner at the back. I also used darker yarns at the front of the sample and lighter at the back. In some shapes I to give them shape and some stitch in the leaves to give them more interest. Some spaces were left empty. Taking the colour and shape they could be hazelnuts or flames. Whatever they might be, I am pleased with the result.

Page 39. Altered shape

Colour

I looked for colours in an image I liked. My daughter recently received a County award for a mixed media piece she had created on positive breastfeeding. I love the image called, 'mother's love' and I love the colours she used. 

I painted the little blocks to try to recreate the colours. I then stitched the blocks with threads that went some way to matching the colours. 

Page 40. Heidi's image

Page 40. The stitched blocks

Texture

I used the 'trumpeting angels' wings (fishes tail) as the motif and drew three identical images on a piece of calico backed with pelmet Vilene. Using the segments of the motif I stitched in different directions  to create texture.

Sample 2. (bottom left) Vertical and some horizontal lines were ditched

Sample 1. Top - diagonal and vertical ones

Sample 3. (bottom right) a variety of directions

Page 40

Free embroidered straight stitch was used for each of the samples

Using the designs together

I was n't sure what image I would use to bring these ideas together. I looked through all of my images ad had a lot of difficulty choosing something that I could distort and create texture using the colours from the little blocks.

So, being Poppy Appeal Organiser for my town, I chose a poppy seed pod. I decided to use the top of the pepper pot element to distort and expand. I left out the little doors that the seeds come through and used the frill of the poppy dividing it into segments. I then separated the segments into distinct elements.

Page 41. The poppy pod and segmented elements

I moved the segments apart and rearranged them. They started to look like continents - Africa and Asia, South America and at a push South America.

Page 40 Colour blocks and test colours

I used my little painted blocks and stitched blocks to use those colours from Heidi's image in my deconstructed poppy - possibly a deconstructed world, and coloured the shoes and decided what direction to use for the stitching. It looked slightly boring so I decided to add a deconstructed compass and have compass points leading into the world and out of it to who knows where!

The pattern was then transferred using a stencil and air-erasable pen. The shapes were then stitched using free embroidery. The outlines of the continents were stitched using satin stitch and then with straight stitch directionally leading from one shoe to another. I was pleased that I had used space dyed felt and had placed my shapes as close to colours that they worked with as possible. On reflection, the brown could have been more yellow to give the piece a bit more zing. But I like the story...

Composition

Using Fibonacci principles, I chose some colours that I liked and thought would work well together and stitched the sequences as described. I have used the Golden Section in art pieces in the past - having an art background!

Page 41. Fibonacci sequence

Golden section

Finding the golden set ion, I folded a piece of paper in thirds in both directions. The points of the conjunction of the lines made finds the Golden section - any one of the four points can be used as the focal point. 

Page 43. Apologies for poor photograph 

Page 43. Potential hangings with golden section marked

On reflection. I think that I should have used the top right are of the top left hanging as the golden section to take the eye up the hanging other wise, the eye would stop in the bottom third.

Chapter completed - I hope that the assessed sample is not as scary as it reads!

C&G Module 3 Chapter 6 completed

Design development

Two images were selected from my photos to give me basic sources of curves and lines. The first was taken in a garden in Ethiopia, so I am not sure what the fruit is...... I had tried two other source images as shown in my sketch book below, but this one enabled me to find a more abstract focus.

  

Page 30 Curved source

Page 30. Linear source

The linear image is part of a wood and string sculpture by Barbara Hepworth taken during a visit to her sculpture garden in St. Ives this year. 

I found section in both images using an L shaped frame - the curved image took a couple of false starts ...

First look for suitable images

Second look; I liked the lines but wasn't happy with the curves

Third look and I found the Ethiopian fruit abstracted well

I made notes as to how I might develop the ideas into stitch, thinking about colour, texture, fabric etc. 

Page 30. Line

 Page 30. Curve

Counterchange

I cheated and used felt tip to develop my counterchanged images - I was as neat as possible! I created the voided elements for each design

Page 30. Curve

Page 31. Line

Stitched counterchange

I made a list in my notebook a list of ways that I could use to interpret counterchange for design and decided to use metal with felt, so shiny and matt.

Heat changed Copper 

Using my blowtorch, I developed an interesting pattern on a sheet of soft copper. A 10x10cm piece (slightly larger to be cut back later) was cut with a scalpel to create the lined design using a cutting mat to protect surfaces. Supported on heavy Vilene and above a similar coloured felt, was stitched together, using a suitable needle and strong glove thread. 

Page 31. Shiny and matt linear piece

For my second sample, I used a previously made base fabric which had been created using Gelli Plates and fabric paints. To this I added some cotton fabric in a matching colour and using a variegated thread granite stitched the cut cotton pieces. So both pieces were matt, the contrasts being pattern and plain. 

Page 32. Sample 2

I wanted to try another texture for my third sample, so I chose to use contrasting colours and fabrics. I used some glove leather in yellow stitching on the 'suede' side. Under the leather and again supported by Vilene, I used some wool from a purple wool top, chopped up pieces of Cadbury's chocolate foil wrapper for some sparkle and covered these with purple net. The pattern was reversed for this piece. When I stitched, some of the sparkle found it's way throughout the honeycombs of the net, so there was rather less at the end than I started with. An interesting piece to stitch.. the soft leather stretched as I stitched, so I stitched more to hold it more firmly and resulted in a more solid piece than I first anticipated. I enjoyed the linear stitching around the piece, quite absorbing. As the leather had stretched, the piece was a bit larger than the 10cm square, so I satin stitched the edge and cut the edges down to size. 

Page 32. Leather and net sample

Developing Counterchange

I used all the suggested ideas with tracing paper and created a range of ideas with both the linear and curved ideas. 

Page 33. Rotated curved

Page 33. Rotated linear

Page 33. Linear design development 1

Page 33. Linear design development 2

Page 33. Linear design development 3

Page 33. Linear design development 4 

Curved design development 2

Page 34. Curved design development 2 with voided elements 

Page 34. Curved design development 4

Stitched Counterchange

Using the rotated curved design with a base layer of Vilene and mustard coloured felt, the rotated counterchange curved design was granite stitched to the fabric using a green contrasting thread. In order to transfer the design, I stitched through Stitch'n'tear on which I had drawn the design. Big mistake! I spent all evening picking out little bits of white from my sample and still some of the design (black) shows through the stitching. In a further piece in this chapter I stitched the the back to prevent this happening again. Lesson learnt.... 

Page 34. Curved rotated stitched sample

The linear design was rotated using my fourth development design, a bit like windmill sails, and I used a piece of orange felt supported on Vilene. Strips of yellow silk sari waste were stitched down with a jagged free embroidered yellow thread and the design sketched in the same yellow thread. The top thread was then changed to a stronger brown glove thread and stitched with lines of free straight stitches. The pattern was transferred this time with a transfer screen which worked reasonably well but I had to make sure that I overstitched all the marks on the fabric. 

Page 35. Linear rotated stitched sample

I traced the curved shaped design and deconstructed the image into shapes. 

Page 34. Deconstructed curved design to simple shapes

This square was then cut into pieces and put back together into a different design and simple shapes found 

Page 35. Further simplification of design

A piece of blue/green felt was used as a base; the design was drawn onto a piece of tracing paper and the thread that would show on the front of the piece were used in the bobbin. The sample was stitched from the back using a variety of variegated threads and using granite stitch and some circular straight stitch in one small area. On reflection, I should probably not have used the top left metallic darker thread as it stands out too much 

Stitched design. 

What a journey! I am amazed at how an idea can be transformed from such different beginnings - I particularly like the straight line development and how mesmerising the designs can become as they change. 

An interesting chapter.