Saturday, September 13, 2014

Working on Lesson Two of the design course.

This is the weekend off between classes. They are going to be every fortnight for a few months, until Christmas and summer holidays interfere. That should keep the brain ticking over - I hope.

Our second lesson was about using black paper and simple geometric shapes. I have decided to develop some of my square shapes this time.



The original brief was to keep the square shape of the paper.

 Now I have decided that I much prefer a rectangular shape. So I have used the same size square paper (left over from my teaching days), still black. I have decided to stick with black, in the main, so that I am not being influenced by colour choices, trying to keep it simple.


I have pasted the design, traced it, drawn on it and generally had a quiet time playing.

I even went so far as to trace the overall design and draw lines on the soluble fabric so that I can keep to much the same design as I have put in my visual diary, no improvising as I go along.
I didn't use a hoop, I just held the fabric firmly and sewed the straight lines I had drawn. Then I doodled with the needle.

I used some black fabric that I found in my stash. It doesn't feel like pure cotton, it may have polyester in it. I used pure cotton thread though, just ordinary sewing cotton.
I thought it might not shrink as much as some of my previous works have done, because I used the cotton, but it has!

The fabric hasn't shrunk, the sewing has. Something to keep in mind if I ever decide to develop this sort of work further. I will have to be a bit more organised about what fabrics shrink, if any, to what extent and which of the various threads shrink most - and whether having different sorts and amounts of fabric changes the equation. Hmm, that sounds like a lot of sampling. I'm not sure that I will be that scientific. Something to aim for, I suppose.
However, one of the things I am enjoying about this course is that we are encouraged to come up with samples, no final product mentioned at all. So there should be time for me to do that experimenting. As long as the next lesson doesn't take me in some wonderful new direction.

6 comments:

Michelle said...

Oh wow, loving these black and white shapes!

Mary said...

Thanks Michelle, it is surprising how you see things in them. And the variations are endless. Good fun.

Anonymous said...

Your design course sounds like good fun. Love the way you're exploring negative space with your shapes. Pat

Mary said...

Thanks Pat, I see them as very fluid. I keep seeing dancing figures in them (well, some of them). It is a rather spontaneous process, no premeditated thinking and planning, just cutting.

Anonymous said...

Finishing is always a magic surprise. I have the same wonderful experience every time I finish a piece of weaving and add water! Something happens, the natural fibre relaxes and shifts shape/size. Sometimes it grows sometimes it shrinks..... but I love the frisson of not quite knowing and being that little bit out of control.

Mary said...

Yes, the unpredictability of it is rather interesting, as long as the change is not too extreme. I really should know by now that the work on soluble fabric will shrink, I just need to do it more frequently and then it will not be a surprise.