The end of Module One

Although I have already done my submission post for the final chapter of module one, just in the interests in rounding things off.  This was the final sample that I stitched up based on my design inspired by the Japanese ceramic.  And this is the one that I chose to submit as my resolved piece.

I've really enjoyed the first module of the course, with a house move and a broken sewing machine, it took me longer to get through than I imagined but hopefully things will speed up a bit from here on in.

I'm looking forward to starting module two in a while but for now there will be a short break in transmission.  Hope to be back soon.  X

Number Two

 Experiment number two started with some transfer printed satin.

 To keep the fabric from moving around too much I stitched this sample in a hoop.  I'm not a big fan of stitching in the hoop.  I know it serves a purpose, I just find it a bit cumbersome.

The finished piece looks like this .......

Again I like how it turned out.  I do like how the colours sing out against the white background, they look really fresh and vibrant.  The one thing that I don't like so much is the effect of the stitching gets lost a bit on top of some of the printed sections.  I stuck with the same threads that I picked out when working the first piece on the black, and this might have been a mistake, particularly in the orange and yellow sections.  The thread is such a close match to the paint colour that the pattern of the stitching really doesn't stand out .... and that was one of the things that I loved about the first sample.

Here are the two samples laid out side by side.  I have one more idea to play with, I hope that by stitching again on a white felt background I'll be able to combine the things that I love about these two samples and combat the things that I'm not so keen on.

Number One

The first attempt at translating my design is done. 

I'm actually pretty pleased with the way that it turned out.  I think the different stitch patterns have created the look of different textures in each of the sections, but keeping the same stitch patterns for each colour has provided some cohesion to the piece as a whole.

The only thing that I'm not sure about is the purple, I don't if it stands out from the background enough .... but it is growing on me.  I think the piece needs a darker colour for a bit of balance.  I'll live with it for a while and see.

I started with the black felt background as I thought that of my three ideas for working the design this was going to be my least favourite but now ...... well I'm thinking that this could end up being the one I submit as my resolved piece.  I'm still going to try the other ideas though so time will tell.

Finding the way forward

So after coming up with my design the next thing to think about is the execution.

I like the white background of my sketch, am thinking white felt would be good as there will be lots of stitching in the individual sections and I know that felt tends to hold it's shape well ....... but will white really make the colours sing?

I like the depth of colour in the individual spaces in the sketch ........ but will I be able to achieve this with stitch alone.  Maybe some transfer painted fabric could give the extra depth of colour?

I've also enjoyed working on black felt throughout this module ...... but working on a black background might change how the design feels.

I think the only way to decide how the final piece will work out best is to try all of the above.

Yesterday saw me ......

 .... painting my design with transfer paints .........

 ........ tracing my design on to stitch and tear ..........

 ........... picking out threads ......................

 .................. and most importantly of all starting to stitch ..........................

And just had to show you this last shot.  I was too lazy to peel off the bits of stitch and tear that didn't want to come without a fight.  I love how it all cracked, like the surface of an old painting, when I stitched the long curvy grid.

I think it will be a while before all of my ideas for the appraoching the sample are worked up in stitch, but of course I'll keep you updated along the way.  Please let me know what you think as I go along and whether you have any favourites as they emerge.

The next step

This is the design I came up with inspired by that piece of Japanese artwork that I showed you yesterday.  I really like how it turned out, now to try and translate it in to stitch.......watch this space as they say.

Getting Inspired

My doodles are all stitched up and have been added to the sketchbook. Time to move on to the second resolved sample, and last piece of work for module one.

First to look to this fabulous painting - 'Pottery' by Patrick Caulfield for inspiration.

I ended up with this sketch ........

..... which I was pretty pleased with as far as it goes.  But something is still missing for me.  The original painting is so bright and vibrant and my resulting sketch just didn't seem to capture that somehow - even though I drew the shapes and colours from the source painting it somehow misses the mark.

Time to look elsewhere for inspiration ......... I looked through a tonne of art books (I liked the idea of taking inspiration from a piece of art) and was just about to give up and go back to the Caulfield painting when I came across this image in a book on Asian art.

I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to most kind of art and this is no exception.  Apparently it's a ceramic Fukagawa dish, from Japan dating from somewhere between 1875-1912.  It just really jumped out of the page at me.  I mean wow, look at all those beautiful curving lines and blocks of beautiful colour.  I'm off to do some sketching, I hope I can come up with something I like from this.

Doodles almost done

This week I have been busy stitching up the rest of my doodles from the last post.  I'm almost done, one more to stitch and then I'll be moving on to starting to think about my second resolved piece for this chapter.

Online again

I'm back online again :)  So now all I have to do is make sure I get some regular stitching time and that in turn will hopefully lead to some regular blogging.

For the moment I'm still working on the initial exercises in Chapter Ten.  I've been doing some more doodles

 ...which it goes without saying get turned into stitch.

Naughty but hopefully nice

I've been working on the second exercise of chapter ten, some more work translating doodle to stitch.  The suggestion in the course notes was to use red and gold thread on black.  But I've been a bit naughty.  Red and Gold are a bit christmassy and I wasn't really feeling that for the new year.  I've had this lovely orange and black variegated thread that I've been itching to try out so I went for that instead....

I've chosen to go with a white background so the colours really stand out......

....  looking good so far (well I think so anyway!!)

Sketch to Stitch

The rayon threads that you saw a peek of in the last post, were used to stitch up this.  The first sample of chapter 10.

I had plenty of fun with this one.  Some of the lines were easier to stitch than others, even the ones that I found tricky at the start got easier as I tried to convince my poor brain to move the machine needle in the same way as I did the pencil when sketching out the lines ...... a skill that I certainly need to keep practising!!

Weekend Snapshot

Still no photo of the missing page ... during the week I'm rarely at home in daylight which is what I need to get a decent picture of the page.  So instead in the meantime I thought I might stick up a couple of pictures that I've taken as I've been working on the beginnings of chapter 10.

This is my weekend snapshot.   Stitching and Slash :)

Where I was living before I had the luxury of a whole room that I could devote to all my stitching supplies, my new flat is tiny so my sewing machine lives in the lounge now. I like to have music going while I'm sewing, the upside of everything being in one room is I can have DVD's playing rather than just the Ipod.

The blue and pink threads are ones that I used for the first sample of chapter 10.  I'm really enjoying the exercises in the chapter so far.

And for any rock fans out there I can highly recommend the DVD   'Made in Stoke'  ;-)