Wednesday 22 April 2015

Module 5 Chapter 8 completed

Chapter 8 - Ripples

Images - If only you knew what was coming up later, right at the beginning of the course, you could take the correct photos. I had a couple (the last two) but mainly got them from the Internet

 




                

              



 












Transfoils

I used the reflective bottom element of the boat in the bottom image and using vilene and sheers, using PVA allowed to go tacky, put the transfoils on the third layer and having stitched some shapes of ripples over the top burnt back through the sheers to reveal the transfoils. Not convinced that I did this properly as they didn't transfer very well.


Cello foils

I had more success with Cellofoils and using felt as a base, I used parchment and ironed them but didn't get a lot of crinkle, nice effect though. I layered a couple of sheers and then created ripples with a 'ripply' automatic stitch in three colours; a metallic, blue and white floss type threads. This was based on the final photo which I took in the Seychelles by the jetty at the harbour.


Fusible film

I loved this. Using the same photo as a source, I cut fishy/ripply shapes as with the cello foil and fused them onto a navy blue satin base supported with Stitch'n'tear, then covered with a layer of dark blue net and used a variegated thread and automatic vermicelli, stitched the piece down. No bring through on this one, as I liked the effect I had achieved.



Metal leaf

I used little flakes of different coloured metal leaf and PVA to hold it, I used tree refections from a photo source. Covered with a metallic sheer and stitched with metallic and non-metallic threads.





Shims

I embossed some copper shim and aluminium shim and then used paint and nail varnish on the aluminium as I couldn't get it to discolour with the heat gun. 



Aluminium shim


Copper shim

This shim had been heated then painted with a black acrylic and wiped to reveal the high spots, then a little gilding added and in a couple of spots that aren't really visible on the photo, some alcohol based ink was added. 


Copper shim

This shim was put through it's paces. I could not get vinegar to have any effect at all even after three days in a bag. It had been heated and embossed before put in a bag with vinegar. Then I put it in salty water to see what happened - nothing! So that got washed off and I had another go with the blowtorch to get the colour variance. It's really lovely, but took several days to get this way... 

I used a variety of tools to emboss the shims

Stitching shim and wire mesh

I read through the last instructions for the chapter and decided to combine a range of products in one image, so using reeds reflected in water as the source, I used Bondaweb to attach a piece of royal blue satin to black felt. 

I trapped strips of yellow satin, copper shim and fusible foils between two layers of Angelina by fusing with the iron on parchment. Then heat-changed copper mesh was stitched as the reflection in water between two layers of metallic organza. Threads were left to hand from the tops of the reeds and finally the metallic sheer (water) was burnt through in small places to create ripples and shadows.





Photo of me during module

An enjoyable chapter.











Friday 17 April 2015

Module 5 Chapter 7 completed

Starry night

I had already downloaded the two Van Gogh paintings 'Starry night' and 'Starry night over the Rhone' and read the text that Van Gogh had written about the paintings to his friend Boch. He was an ill man and both of these were made whilst in two mental institutions.



I made some small sketchy images of stars and swirls in my notebook, one pen on paper and one metallic pencils on black cartridge paper



Page 36.
Metallic powders

Print

Using an embossing stamp pad and three different colours of powder, I printed onto a piece of cotton and then stitched them with a result that I was not really impressed with.


Page 37. Stamp pad and embossing powder

Fusible webbing
I then did another piece with embossing powder glued to a piece of felt and stitched that covering it with a sheer and stitching down with an automatic pattern and some free swirls


Page 37. Embossing powder with fusible webbing under sheer

Experiment

Using swirls from Starry Night and to create light and dark, I used layered metallic sheers with embossing powders beneath and stitched swirls then burnt back with the heat gun


Page 37. Light and dark with layers and swirls

Melt pot

I have a melt pot but confess to never having used it. So I had a bit of a play with that.


Page 37. Brown crinkled paper with two colours of embossing powders melted with a heat gun


Page 38. Embossing powder melted and formed over a stamp pad then gilded with Treasure Gold


Page38. Dyed felt stitched with automatic pattern, cords and melted embossing powder dipped stars

I'm not to sure about the fragility of the melted powder, found it really difficult to dip the felt stars and then found that it had a tendency to crack, so had to be very careful when stitching over.

Bronze powders

I used bronze powders onto brown paper and used them in a starry piece. with a stabiliser, midnight blue satin, torn up gilded papers, die cut stars, strips of yellow satin, swirls of trilobal nylon and covered with layers to represent hills all stitched down under a piece of dark blue net embellished with some free embroidered stars.


Page 39. Very starry night!

Gilding waxes

These do create lovely effects. I glued two pieces of Indian paper together and when dry, crumpled them up then flicked paint onto the top surface (and the floor and the table even though covered in newspaper) and when dry, gilded with Treasure Gold and other gilding waxes 


Page 39. Indian papers, glued, crumpled and gilded

Then I used some photocopy paper that had previously been wet and crumpled and dried and using some pastel shades of gilding wax, created a soft effect on paper


Page 40. Pastel gilding waxes on photocopy paper

Brown paper was brushed with red and green inks then gilded with gold gilding wax


Page 40. Brown painted paper with gold gilding wax

Space dyed felt was then stitched with free 'starry' lines and swirls the cable stitched with gold cord and then rubbed over with a gold gilding wax


Page 41. 

And finally in my little set of gilding wax samples, hot glue gun was swirled over a previously transfer painted source paper and rubbed with pastel shades of wax. 


P 41. Hot glue gun swirls with gilding wax.

Resolved Sample - shadow work

I wonder if people would 'enjoy' the paintings so much if they realised what mental turmoil and impoverishment that Van Gogh suffered? 

The image holds lots of interest for the viewer. The dark left hand bottom area where he has placed the cypress tree leads the eye in three directions - along to the village with the lights and the church spire; then to the hills and possibly snowy hills above them and finally up to the swirling sky, the stars and the moon which is bright and surrounded by bright yellow, a strong contrast to the darks in the tree. So the lines are directional, lower left to upper right but with lots to look at as the eye is drawn upwards.

I made some drawings and wanted to incorporate both 'Starry Night' and 'Starry Night over the Rhone' into my resolved sample. 








P 42. My series of sketches and pastel development

I had thoughts on making a collaged piece using the two images mixed together in sections and printed off both the images, cut them into squares and re-assembled them taking a photograph, printed the image and then photocopied it onto printable metal as I wanted to see whether the metal would stitch and whether I could make it provide a reflective surface if placed behind the stitched piece which would be burnt through to reveal the metal. 


P 43. Collage of both printed images


P 43. Stitched onto a metal backing as a test

I decided that this was too messy and the machine wasn't too happy stitching heavyish metal, so I decided to use the metal after I had made the fabric and stitched piece using a simple edging stitch to hold the two together. 

I used two layers of water soluble and between them sandwiched little snippets of sheers representing the colours from my final drawing, so lights and darks, the moon a piece of metallic fabric, the reflected light on water strips of yellow satin, the stars of the Plough gilded brown paper and the smaller stars gilded flakes. 

As the brown paper gilded stars were covered in a metallic substance, I knew that the water dissolving the water soluble layers wouldn't affect them. Then a grid was stitched to trap all the pieces and the water soluble was washed out.

When dry, the piece was stitched heavily in the lower left with metallic threads to represent the dark shadow of the cypress tree from Starry night and layers of sheers were added, brighter blue where the clouds are swirled and darker to represent the shaded areas of the water where there was no light reflection in 'Starry night over the Rhone'. Swirls in a blue variegated thread were heavily free embroidered under the final layer of sheer. 

The sheers were stitched down to hold the layers using the variegated blue thread in swirly free stitching and then the piece was burnt through to partially reveal the cypress tree representation, the lights from the town and the swirls in the sky. Embossing powder was melted and added to the stars of the Plough and the moon. 

Finally, The printed metal collage of the two paintings was placed behind the stitched piece and attached to the main piece around the edge. The bright reflection of the metal can be seen through the burnt areas of the sheers. 


P 44. The finished resolved sample.

Evaluation

On reflection, I am pleased with this piece, as at last I seem to be a bit better at taking an idea and thinking/creating it more abstractly. The thinking, drawing and re-thinking of the sample helped me to arrive at a decision as to which tonal values, contrasts and techniques I should choose to get the result I have planned. 

An enjoyable chapter, trying new techniques and products.











Saturday 4 April 2015

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!