Texture walk

I have been working on my latest assignment for the SWTAFE machine embroidery course this week - after a bit of a slump in the last couple of weeks. We were asked to come up with a 3D object.  We had to do samples using a few different techniques and I found a lot of my work tending towards organic shapes - what a surprise!  Not.
I have plenty of pictures of trees and tree trunks, logs, etc. but just had to take more.  Some of the older ones were lost when I deleted all my photos (I will recover from this eventually) but I still have a rather good collection.
However, I took my camera with me on the last couple of walks with the dog and it was my turn to get distracted and wander off into the bushes.  The walks have been an absolute bonus, given how my back reacts to hours of sitting and sewing.
Here are some of the images that I have been using - my theme has been fallen branches and leaf litter, which might explain some of the otherwise not very interesting photos.

It is funny how having a particular theme makes you look at things differently.  I will have walked past these branches and stumps many times without taking much notice but this time I could see wonderful patterns and designs.

Fabric paint and stencils

As part of my machine embroidery course at SWTAFE, we had to use fabric paint, stamps and stencils to come up with a design.
I took a while to come up with some designs.  As I have already said, I played with fabric paint and stamps.  Then I tried to match the stamping with embroidery.  I found this quite hard.  I had trouble envisaging how embroidery would complement the designs that I had come up with.
I think I was influenced by the screen printing I had done as part of my Diploma of Studio Textiles and Design. We learnt how to design repeat prints, how to screen print. But now I was being asked to combine that with embroidery and I had trouble visualising the two together.
Here is my attempt to come up with a design, inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It has elements of his grids and his floral designs. I was inspired by the gorgeous book, Charles Rennie Mackintosh Textile Designs, by Roger Billcliffe.  It has many images of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's designs as well as those of his wife, Margaret and her sister Frances Macdonald. As the title suggests, the focus is on textile design rather than architecture, for which Mackintosh is also famous.

 The stencil was cut using very old Contact (the stuff we used to use for covering books) left over from my teaching years.  Contact was suggested in our class notes and I found it useful for larger than A4 sized pieces.  (Our works were required to be 30cm x 30cm or more.)

 The ovals were done using a stamp I had cut.  The grids were done using a lino cut I had made, visible in the above image, through the stencil.

 Here you can see a different stencil that was cut out of plastic. I had printed a similar image using the same stamp.  Then I had to use the cut out bits of the stencil and place them over the printed parts.  I masked the ovals with paper.

I then rolled green paint over the image (hoping the masks would work!).

Now I had a printed piece.  It had taken ages, waiting for each part of the printing process to dry before trying the next step.

This is as far as I have got with this one, I don't have a clear idea of how to incorporate machine embroidery yet.

Tapestry group meets again

Our tapestry group met again yesterday at the Handspinners and Weavers Guild rooms.  Only one person brought her loom but we had plenty of show and tell.  Three of us have pieces that have been accepted into the Petite:Miniature Textiles Exhibition at Wangaratta, later in the year. (All feeling chuffed!)

You can see in the background the lovely exhibition of tapestry rugs by Anne Churches.
There will be a new exhibition put up next week. 

We had a new member come. He is also doing the distance education tapestry course through SWTAFE.  He had samples to show us. It was great to be able to discuss what was happening with all our works, problems that had arisen with the weaving and how to get around them.  Many minds working together - well, a few minds. It is definitely good to have the group discussions, exchange ideas and have a social couple of hours as well.

I Should Be Working!!!

It's that time of the year, when all assignments are due in and we are preparing our presentations of our work.  Everyone is tired, distracted and busy.  I should be working right now.

I am in between tasks and need a break to reset the brain - and I am nearly missing my self-imposed task of at least one blog a week.  I think  I have finished all the making, well, for the RMIT course at least, and now have to make sure I have done all the fiddly bits of paper work that have to be handed in.  I need a good rest before I get into that mindset.

In the meantime, I have started to work on the final project for my SWTAFE course, Machine Embroidery as an Art Form. I have been playing around with making bowls.  I think my final work is going to be in machine lace but need to do a bit more experimenting.  I especially need to work on how to stiffen the lace but not lose the lustre.  So far I have stiffened my work but it is a bit dull.

I made a bowl that I thought would be easy and fairly quick - is anything quick with machine lace?
Anyway, I decided to be a good girl and recycle my cut off bits of thread from my other machine sewing.  They were all sitting in a container, looking lovely.

I drew a circle on a piece of MacRinse (water soluble vilene) and laid the threads out in the circle.  Then I pinned another layer of MacRinse over the top and put it into a hoop.  I couldn't see the threads as I wanted to use a thick soluble fabric and thought it wouldn't matter.  I used free motion sewing to keep it all together.  This was a good chance to use up all those bits left on spools.  I just put the spools on the top and bottom and didn't worry about having slightly different colours in them.

The pink spiral is photographed from the top and all seemed to be going well.  Then there were some strange noises and bumpy sewing.  When I checked the bottom it looked like I had bad tension or had tangled the threads.  But, upon closer inspection, it turned out that the loose threads were being pushed out the back by the sewing.  I have turned the solvy over to try to redistribute this effect, in case it was obvious (it wasn't in the end).

I was worried that I had gone a bit overboard with the free motion sewing and that it wouldn't be transparent enough but when I held it up to the window it seemed ok.

I am a bit disappointed with the way the colours have come out and think it would have been better to have used transparent soluble so that I could work with the colours a bit better.  It also still has a fair bit of the soluble not rinsed out, to give it body, and I think that is dulling the colours.
So now I think I had better do what I should have done in the first place, and make some smaller samples that I can try various stiffeners on - but that would be too organised and orderly.  It will all have to wait till later now, I have to get all my other work done first, then move on to this.

Machine Embroidery Lace

Just for something extra to do, in all that spare time I have (not!), I enrolled in the distance education course of Machine Embroidery as an Art Form at SWTAFE.  This may have been a good idea, I'm not sure yet - I'll have a better idea when all the work is due, for both my courses.

However, I am currently enjoying playing around with the making 'lace' aspect of machine embroidery.  I have used a product called Mac-rinse that is good for sewing on and will dissolve when I put it in warm water.  I think I prefer it to water soluble film as it seems firmer, doesn't stretch as much.  But you can't see through it, so the transparent film has some advantages.

I am working on a design that is derived from the bark tapestry I did last year, so still on the same theme - not that it looks much like it.
I haven't washed it out yet (as I haven't finished it) and I hope I am getting all the connecting pieces done properly or I'll be very disappointed when it all falls apart. I have included some sari silk pieces for extra texture and colour.

New Tapestry Group

We are going to have our first tapestry weaving group meeting next Saturday.  It is being held at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild, 655 Nicholson St, Carlton North, between 1.00 and 3.00pm.  We are going to meet every 4th Saturday of the month.

As it is our first meeting, we do not have much planned.  We are hoping that members will come with ideas for us to work out an agenda for our meetings, something to focus our weaving.

It is a group that has started up because we met in tapestry class in our Studio Textiles and Design course at RMIT and we want to keep up the skill.  Unfortunately, tapestry will not be taught at RMIT anymore, so we are especially keen to keep in touch and maybe find another outlet for inspiration and skill development.

I haven't done much tapestry weaving this year although I did design two in my Design Concepts course in first semester.  Hopefully this will give me the impetus to actually start.  I did get as far as warping the loom but no further, other subjects have taken priority.  This is my big chance - if I don't get bogged down in doing my graduation piece - and my work for the Machine Embroidery as Art course that I am doing through SWTAFE.  Hmm, maybe I should just make sure I am in touch with the group and let ideas mull around in my head till I have the mental space for them.

Anyway, if you live in the area and have the time to come, please do so.