Summer Project Investigations

Having dived into working with fabric, embellishing and embroidery, I have been continuing to work with these materials to explore temporary patterns. Simply experimenting and following my intuition has been a rewarding process, and not one that I often give into, so I hope to embrace this more as I progress with this project. Rather than thinking about what I ‘ought’ to do to respond to my photos and research I have been trying to think less and make more, and at the moment that involves using lots of fabric and layering to incorporate texture.

More embellished samples.

This playful phase has allowed me to think freely about my theme. Although I am really enjoying my responses at the moment, I feel that the idea of ‘temporary’ has not manifested in my work thus far. I’m not sure how I will approach this element, but my initial thoughts are of using dissolvable fabric more to create delicate embroideries, which might fall apart and disintegrate. I have been using dissolvable fabric for free machine embroidery pieces, although I think I could develop these to be even more delicate and ‘temporary’. However, I am still enjoying experimenting and making I don’t want to interrupt this too much at this stage.

Dissolvable fabric samples, which are begining to become more delicate.

So far I haven’t considered colour too much. I don’t like to hinder my early drawing and experimenting stages by sticking rigidly to a colour scheme, and as such, I have gravitated to my usual quite colourful materials. I would like to now guide my work towards more monochrome samples, focusing on subtler seaside shades. I will do this by creating colour stripes from my photos from the Northumberland Coast and selecting the more monochrome colours.

As well as this, I have been attempting to introduce a more graphic, print style back into my work. One of my aims for this project is to create a collection of samples which sit both in the embroidery and print specialisms – definitely a mixed media approach. To re-introduce print, I have been doing more collage and paper cutting, along with some simple painting and drawing. I have also done some lino cutting which I always enjoy, as a way of returning to print techniques.

Lino cutting.

Re-introducing painting and paper cutting.

                                       

The work which has excited me most has been collaging and stitching onto my sketchbook pages. I think this is where my print and embroidery skills combine most successfully. I plan to continue with these multi-media collages over the coming weeks, to work on a layered style with strong elements of line and shape.

Working in a friend's studio, I spent a morning collaging, stitching and painting.

I have also continued with my fabric dyeing, trying to achieve a bluer shade to my fabrics by using red cabbage. Although I didn’t quite get the blue colour I had hoped for, the fabric turning a dark purple, I am finding the process of naturally dyeing fabric really interesting. I like the uncertainty of what the final colour will be, and it makes me feel like I have more of a connection to my samples as I have been involved in more stages of the process.

Boiling more veg for fabric dyeing!

One of my next aims is to move back into my A3 sketchbook, having been really inspired working at a smaller scale, and use the larger pages to think more about composition. I feel that starting work in a small sketchbook helped me generate ideas and kick start the project, and now that I have more ideas, I feel confident in taking them up in scale, considering them more in a print context, rather than embroidery, whilst still retaining a mixed-media approach.