Assessed sample cont'd

On my church steeple I decided to fly the Union flag and had a scarf which had discoloured in the wash so cut the flag from the scarf and using an embroidery frame to stitch the edges and satin stitch down one side with support from water-soluble Romeo. 

The once lovely Alexander McQueen scarf pieces

The flag

I mostly dissolved the water-soluble but left some to support the flag and threaded a piece of sprung wire which was scored at the top. This would hold the flag upright to 'fly' at the top of the church steeple.

I then selected all the fabrics and threads that I was using for the sample

Organzas for sky and sea.

Silk and organzas for fields 

Silk for rape field and hill

Silk for water

Silk for cotswold village buildings

Fabrics for Lulworth crumble cliffs

Left to right; Walnut ink dyed, red onion dyed, tea dyed, yellow onion dyed and plain muslin 

Scraps of silk to be used in cliffs

Threads for sea

Fabric and threads for sky

Fabrics and some threads for files - more threads were used

Fabric and threads for cliffs

Free embroidered poppy for corn field

The fields

I appliqued silk to the top two fields using a small zigzag stitch, the yellow silk to depict an oil-seed rape field again stitched with with small zigzag. The the ploughed field was stitched using two tones of brown to give depth and height of the furrows, larger at the front and smaller at the back to give a feeling of distance. 

The pale green field is stitched in straight lines on the calico to give an impression of a small growing crop on a limestone base. The hills are made of limestone in reality. To the left, silk is embedded with random stitching to suggest limestone under grass. The field to the top appearing pale is in reality a limestone quarry on Cley Hill and this area represents that element. Trees and a small hedge line we free-embroidered. 

At the bottom of this section, a small river is stitched with blue variegated thread and continues into the sea and across to the third village section. I had thought about using silk fabric for all the water but the thread seems to work well and I have used the silk for the sea in the central section and tried to get some continuity by bringing the thread into the sea element.

River and sea

Blue silk from a sari length which also contained the greens, yellows and beige in this piece was used for the sea. It looked to overpowering after it was stitched won so I overlaid a piece of paler organza and attached that to the sea apart from the edges where I had stitched. I had applied the sea to the calico using a zigzag stitched which will in the log term be covered as the piece is developed. 

At the edge of the water near the beach, I have used a granite stitch in a very pale blue, white/silver and white threads to create a feeling of the tide coming in. This will be developed as I create the sea. The river from the small streams on the left side of the piece and the right side merge into the sea. I will continue using the variegated thread as I create the sea. 

My next blog will show the further development of this piece.

Revised sample fabric base

Following comment from Janet about the risk of the fairytale castle looking naff and the cliffs looking too small, I have revised the base fabric for the sample.

The revised base fabric

This is a piece of calico 30" x 15" Bondawebbed to Pelmet Vilene to give me a firm stitching base. Whist the sky has a pale sketched outline, I intend to stitch the main piece and then cut away the 'sky' element adding sky as a separate 'filmy' piece on a lightweight fabric - possibly organza supported with wire and attached to the stitched central area. The sea, river and stream will all be stitched separately and added.

The tree on the right of the piece will sit forward on the left of the piece as the cylindrical shape is created and will give continuity. It will be free-embroidered on a water-soluble support using an embroidery frame.

I have ideas for the sea, that extends in front and will be at right angles to the main sample; that is flat when placed on a surface. I want to form waves in the sea by making the waves separately and adding them to a basic blue sea creating a 3D effect. 

The corn and poppy in the right forefront of the left hand piece will create continuity between the left and central elements of the sample. 

I have considered the fore, middle and back of the sample. So, the waves, will be at the front. The corn in the middle and the tree at the back. I think that at the moment the curve from the front of the right hand element moving towards the bay at the bottom of the cliffs created a nice shape. It will be interesting as I intend to reverse this curve as it will face outwards when the sample forms a cylinder.  

I have been making some natural dyed fabrics using onions skins, both red and natural, tea and walnut ink and have some other natural dyes that I would like to incorporate into the sample as apart from the village, the central and left hand scenes are wholly natural. 

The castle in the previous sample is now a church but retains some of the detail from the castle that I likes as they involved the pathways and curves which I thought would be good to stitch. 

I have drawn the shapes of the cliffs in the central piece and will use the natural dyed fabrics to creat depth and light along with stitch. 

I am going to start stitching it in the next few days.

Assessed sample update

Having thought about my plan, I changed my ideas for the sample and decided that rather than four or three sides, I would make it cylindrical and morph each 'scape' into each other by ensuring that the edge of each piece was similar in colour and merge well as the scene changes.

I also decided that rather than a church, I'd use a fairytale-like castle within a village scene. I found a castle to use and a Cotswold village - the photos are as follows;

Fairytale castle

Cotswold village

I then found a different image of Lulworth cove and found the Lulworth Crumble which is one of the top gusset in the UK. It is a fascinating shape and we are visiting it tomorrow so that I can get my own photos and a better feel for the landscape. 

Lulworth Crumble

Lulworth Crumble

I think that the strata of the cliff which aren't high as they are falling and collapsing due to the understructure of the limestone and clay, are amazing and lend themselves to stitching. I hope to walk the path at the top of the cliffs tomorrow although the winds are expected to be quite high. I hope that I don't get blown off the top!

My third 'scape' is of local bronze age hills 'Cley Hill' and 'Little Cley Hill' which I walk/climb regularly and are very personal as I used them for my fitness training for Machu Picchu in Peru. I drew the scene from memory.

So I drew the scenes onto card 

and then cut around the outline and transferred this to canvas to see if the cylinder would work. It did.

The cylindrical paper mock-up

I then transferred the image outline to Pelmet Vilene  

and I used Bondaweb to secure this to the back of a large piece of calico. 

The image was then drawn onto the front of the calico and the whole piece is now firm. 

The base for stitching

There will be a flag and weather vane at the tops of the towers and rooks in flight attached by sprung wire. The roofs of the towers will be metal. Gulls will fly above the cliffs again on wire.

I have dyed some scrim with tea and onion skins to use in the piece. My next task is to select the fabrics and threads to make the piece and decisions as to how it will all be stitched. The cliffs really lend them selves to directional stitching in varying shades of light and darker stones. 

I have been thinking that as the towers of the castle stand proud of the piece, I may reverse the image for the back of the two. I have also considered that it could be made as one piece and then curved into a cylinder along with the small towers. 

I intend to make the three 'scapes' on the continuous piece of fabric some directly and some as appliqué. That is yet to be planned.

I have some photos for the birds and the little field mouse for the Cley Hill element

I will add more to the blog as decisions are made.

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!