Layers and text homework

As I have previously said, we have been asked to work with layers and text for our design class.

Finally (!!) I have come up with some text that didn't have too much personal meaning. One part of the assignment was to do a layered piece, preferably using collage, that would uncover some text.  After much thought, and some inspiration from a friend who is into paper and artist books, I came up with an idea.

I used words related to being hidden, buried, etc, leading to discovery and clarity.

First, I played around with the idea using an A4 piece of paper. Then I wrote the words onto a piece of soluble fabric, laid it over some hand dyed silk (that I did quite a long time ago) and sewed the words onto various parts of the fabric. As usual, I forgot to leave enough fabric around the piece I was working on to allow it to sit comfortably in the hoop. Fortunately, this didn't matter as much as it could have as I was working on fabric and I could hold the edges relatively firmly without using the hoop on the outside sections.

I sewed the words, then covered or surrounded them with some free motion machine embroidery, using various shades of grey.

The use of fabric meant that the machine embroidery didn't shrink when I rinsed out the soluble fabric, a definite plus.

When I came to put the 'artist's book' together, I found that I had written some of the words the wrong way around! Not to worry, I just cut that section off and sewed it back on. Thank goodness it is only a homework piece, something to be playing around with and learning from.

I am not sure I will do much more with this technique, I will have to see what develops. But the homework is done - after many hours of thinking, planning and doing.