Monday 6 July 2015

Module 6 Chapter 6 completed

Making Waves. Moulding materials

Sinamay

I had some natural coloured real Sinamay and some navy hat fabric that I got from deconstructing a fascinator that had started to fall apart anyway. The fascinator fabric was synthetic - a sort of nylon and whilst I had managed to iron it flat under baking sheet, it started to fall apart when I was stitching it. I carried on and persevered.

Using the structure of Lloyd Wright's Falling Water, I made a piece that referenced the dark and light of the building. The natural Sinamay was stitched with zigzagged thread in a similar colour and the darker Sinamay, stitched in straight lines with thick perle cotton in the bobbin to create some texture.The different areas of light and shade were then folded on each other and held with pins, then held over the steam of the kettle and not unpinned until dry and the fabric cooled to set it's new shape.



Sinamay - Lloyd Wright

The Gaudi piece was made to represent one of the chimneys. A fan shape was cut in paper and then transferred to the natural Sinamy. Alternate radial shapes were stitched to represent the shade of the piece and then it was held again with pins and steamed, dried and unpinned when set.


The template

Sinamay - Gaudi

Moulding felt

I had used moulding felt for the McQueen shoes and felt more confident using the product. It is workable and much more mouldable that Sinamy was. 

So using another of the Gaudi chimneys as a source image, I stitched the shadows from the drawing onto the felt and stitched a seam, wetting and turning the felt to the right side. Then bulldog clips were used to create the shapes of the chimney and the fabric was left to dry on the windowsill in sunlight. 



The shapes being held


Mouldable felt - Gaudi

Mouldable felt - Lloyd Wright

The Kraus House windows were used as a source for the Lloyd Wright sample. Shapes were sketched onto the felt and stitched with metallic and standard threads to depict 'window' shapes in reducing satin stitch sizes. 


The sketch

The individual pieces were then cut out and the windows folded back to make box shapes. They were wetted and held in place with pins. 





Mouldable felt - Lloyd Wright

Paverpol

I hope to use Paverpol on organza for the Warminster Jewel rock crystal  and wanted to see how it works, so chose organza to make a piece based on the shapes in the art deco Lloyd Wright windows. 

Three layers of organza were stitched together with satin stitch using the triangular shape of the glass of the windows


Initial shapes stitched

Then secondary triangular shapes were stitched in a different shade of thread


Second layer of triangles

The triangles were then cut from the fabric with a soldering iron to reduce fraying





Then to make something different from a straightforward representation, three triangles were stitched together to form a 3D sample. This was then steeped in Paverpol , the majority of the excess removed and then dried. Some of the residue dried a bit white, but gradually it became clear.





Paverpol - Lloyd Wright

Gaudi

For the Gaudi sample, I used the mosaic image with small elements extending from the main structure. Several layers of fabric were stitched together, some felt, transfer painted satin and scrim. Little circles were stitched to represent the mosaics. 

5p pieces were inserted and tied from the outside into the inside of the fabric to create the little extended elements. The piece was then immersed in Paverpol and the excess removed, then a polystyrene ball was placed on top of an upturned tub and some thread tied around the base of the ball. 

The piece was then dried in sunlight, the 5p pieces removed (not without some difficulty) and the thread removed where possible. 


Paverpol - Gaudi

Heat set fabric

I wasn't sure that I had the correct fabrics, so I tried to heat set using both silk and polyesters that I had already. I used a piece of silk that I had been doing some silk painting and stitching and a piece of transfer painted polyester. Marbles were inserted into each, tied and steamed. When the marbles were cooled and removed, the bumps did not seem as sturdy as those in the chapter. I was quite sure that they would iron flat again.


Polyester


Silk

They both ironed flat again, so these samples were not a great success.

Dissolvable film

I have used water soluble support several times before and used the tiles on the roof of one of Gaudi's Casas to make a representative sample. Variegated thread was used on the top and plain thread on the bottom and tile shapes created. These were then cut away from the main part of the water soluble fabric and most of the fabric washed away. The sample was then dried over pencils and removed. 




Dissolvable film - Gaudi

Lloyd Wright

I used the spiral staircase of the Guggenheim Museum as a source for this sample and decided that it looked like an upside down bowl. 

The water soluble (Romeo) was hooped and the image sketched onto the Romeo. Granite stitch was used to stitch the dark and light elements of the piece. The romeo was then washed away and the piece was dried over an egg cup turned upside down on a small tub



Other mouldable fabrics

Tyvek - Gaudi

I decided to make another of the little mosaic pieces but this time with Tyvek. I used some spray fabric paints and stencils with several colours to colour the Tyvek, then drew little dots to depict the mosaic with Sharpie pens.

Then little areas of stitch were added. This material did not need to be stabilised to stitch. Little diamond shapes were inserted into pockets of Tyvek on the back and the the piece was supported and heated with a heat gun to shrink it. I let the heat do the job keeping control by moving into specific areas.


Painted and stitched Tyvek


Small diamond shapes stitched in


Heated with heat gun and 'diamonds' removed

Tyvek - Lloyd Wright

Using the college atrium as a source I drew chevrons onto Tyvek with Sharpies. The piece was then cut into strips and woven together then stitched with Zigzag, two threads on top and one in the bobbin using the colours of the pen marks. 


The piece was then draped on a little antique funnel and heated with the heat gun to keep the triangular shapes of the interior of the building but in a different way. 


On the hot mat ready to be heated


Tyvek - Lloyd Wright

I had some aqua fleece and water soluble paper but as I had used them in the past I did not make samples with these. I didn't have Texture Plus or Fibretex.