The Sow-Sew Flax Project

I have had a great opportunity to exhibit some work as part of Merci Mill's sow-sew project. It has involved using a flax yarn which has been grown on wasteland just outside manchester and dyed using natural dyes. The experimental project has been about producing a sustainable, local material with a potential to develop it further in the future.

I was keen to try knitting with the flax yarn as this is what I intend to specialise in next year;  I had to ply it with another yarn for strength but I think this has provided a lovely mottled colour.  I decided to be quite free with my samples and mostly play around with textures.

http://www.merci.org.uk/sow-sew

The final week- Design development

During this last week i have been bringing together my ideas and working on a collection of harmonious samples, drawing on all i have learnt to produce a range of sophisticated, refined ideas.

I have been using my weaves to develop designs for embroidery as they have some really good qualities in them but i have found the embroidery techniques more engaging and appropriate to my project.

(sketchbook collage)

I used shorter bits of fabric to create stripes in this pleated sample. It has a lovely fluid feeling to it that reflects my ideas and sketches.

I picked out the most intriguing bits from my weaves and did quite a bit of "drawing" with the pfaff machine to try out different patterns. I really like the sequencing tool to make my own designs and found i could achieve similar details to my weaves. 

(sketchbook page: deconstructing photos)

I feel these are good examples of the aesthetic of my project, combining structure and pattern. I assembled the different fabrics and stitch to try and reflect the complex layers and conflicting elements i had observed in my research.

To make an interesting collection i played with geometric pleat shapes as well as the more flowing and loose. Having quite small, targeted detail that is perhaps a bit hidden, draws you in even more i think. A reoccurring theme throughout has been contrast, between the light and dark aspects of a fairground and structurally in the architecture. I think i have managed to convey this (somewhat subtly) in my samples through combining heavy and light fabrics, textures and detail. I have also been thinking about how my samples might be displayed to show their sculptural qualities, the piece on the left for example could be suspended.   

I feel have progressed well over this unit, i have enjoyed the freedom that embroidery gives to be quite experimental and use different materials. I think my work has a much more confident style which has been helped by looking at other designers/ artists work and taking on board advice from tutors to select an idea and run with it. One thing that would have been good to pursue if i had time is combining the weave and embroidery as it could produce exciting results. I am pleased with my outcomes and would be interested to see how they could be used collaboratively with others work as trims and details as i think this would really bring them to life.

VV Rouleaux- Ribbons and Trims

Towards the beginning of the project Annabel Lewis, founder of V.V Roulaeux came for a "show and tell." Annabel talked really passionately about her business and brought some wonderful examples of what she sells and also her design inspiration. It was really interesting to hear of the many uses for the ribbons and trims that VV Roulaeux sell; from hats and flower arrangements to fireplace decorations and even hip ornaments for horses! A lot of Annabel’s designs come from vintage patterns and passimenterie and it was inspiring to see how she had taken the very traditional and made it more contemporary. 

http://www.vvrouleaux.com/productcart/pc/web_index4.asp

Throughout this project i have been trying to think of what my samples could be. I have been working on narrow, quite detailed and delicate pieces and i quite like them as they are, as ribbons and trims for adorning anything and everything. I was reminded of the fairground/ folk art i had been looking at and the often ornate detailing on everyday items. I like this idea of decoration in surprise places and on utility items. 

(source- pinterest)

I found the pfaff embroidery has quite different effects on different surfaces, (above: satin ribbon and felt.)

(blackpool pleasure beach archive museum)

Pfaff embroidery on wide ribbon, it also adds texture to a surface.

Less is More

Following advice from my tutor and the group feedback session I have reviewed my work so far and worked on selecting the best bits to develop. I went back to my research for fresh ideas and to remind myself of the direction i wanted to take.

(ink, fine liner and pastel)

This is one of the drawings that i have been working from, i feel it was one of my stronger starting points and has interesting qualities to develop.

(pfaff embroidery layered over pleated and dyed silk) 

I wanted to capture the different heaviness of line and pick out the patterns from the structure of my drawing. The embroidery sits really well on the pleated silk, I think layering different textures would give a greater richness to my work as it feels a little flat still. 

I have found some of the most successful samples are where I have used a more limited selection of colour and techniques, this has allowed me to be more creative. I refined my colour palette as well working mostly with blues and red, adding touches of arsenical green and fawn here and there. I think this has let the structure and pattern come through better and just feels cleaner and more confident.

Working from earlier sketches i have been considering compositions, cutting and collaging to generate ideas. Continuing this process in my sampling, I was surprised how sensitive placement of stitch and layering fabrics could be so effective; less is definatley more.

(left- satin stitch with wire and appliqué, right- pleated with pfaff and appliqué)

I have had many complements on this 'teddy bear' yarn, it is very tactile and peculiar; i think it adds the right amount of oddness to my work.

I am much clearer about what i want to achieve now and am heading in the right direction. I feel the two techniques with the most scope are pleating and pfaff embroidery so i will concentrate on exploiting these in the final week to really push what i can achieve.

Refined pinterest board: http://www.pinterest.com/bphippswardle/unit-x-fairground-frippery/

Artist Focus- Rowland Ricketts

After seeing the lovely effects of dying my pleated samples i started looking at other Shibori and indigo dyeing techniques. Rowland Rickets and his partner Chinami grow their own indigo for dyeing, utilising traditional methods to create contemporary works. The subtlety of the marks is what makes it so special i think and the tonal variations that can be achieved.

http://www.rickettsindigo.com

I have begun to experiment with different ways of folding and pleating fabric to dye. The marks made are really interesting and it is something i would like to explore further at a later date. Re-pleating and manipulating the fabric once it's dyed is also effective.

Pleating and Pfaffing

Fabric manipulation using the read pleater is a technique that caught my interest and I thought would work well for my project. It is quite a simple process but by feeding through different fabrics and layering them, you can get some really interesting effects.

I like the density that can be created from quite a thin fabric, it gives a lovely sumptuous quality. I used copper wire in the sample on the right, it means the piece can hold a shape but also adds a soft, warm colour.

(run down beach huts with lovely worn paintwork)

What I found particularly affective was dying the pleated fabric (simply with some silk paints) and then flattening it out again. The marks made were lovely and gave an interesting surface to work on with a real depth. The random nature of the marks left also gives the impression of a worn surface reflecting some of the deterioration in my research. 

We were also introduced to the Pfaff embroidery machine this week.  I like the detail and precision of it and experimented with layering different stitch designs. I think it works well combined with the read pleating as the more traditional and heavy embroidery technique juxtaposes the contemporary, structural pleats.

I have loved using these ombre threads as they add really nice subtle detail, the blue particularly fits my colour palette.

This is the back of a sample, i think it has a really interesting quality; perhaps my samples could be double sided? Next I would like to explore creating my own sequences with the pfaff machine to achieve designs more unique to my project.

Weaving with Wire

One thing i wanted to explore was incorporating wire into the weaves to give them structure and enable me to manipulate them once they were off the loom. A lot of my research imagery has movement and shape so i felt making my weaves more 3D would express this well.

 (Sketch book page, pen)

(yarn wrap- colour ideas)

(blackpool pleasure beach)

I tried different ways of adding wire to the weft; these two outcomes are the most successful i think. Handling and manipulating the weaves has also helped me to think about what they might become and their context.

Below is a loom-woven basket with wire warp by Jeanette Ahlgren. I am inspired by what Jeanette has done with sculptural weaving here and the way the colour and pattern has remained strong and complentary to the form. My work is on a much smaller scale than this but has similar qualities, i would like to take these into my final outcome(s).

(Artist webpage- http://mobilia-gallery.com/artists/jahlgren/)

I have also been experimenting on a homemade basic loom with a wire warp.

                                    

                        

It has quite a rough finish as the copper wire is difficult to handle but creates a more flexible weave. I used strips of plastic bag as the colours fit well with my theme and i like the self-made pattern that the stripes create. I think this technique needs a bit more refinement but would intergrate well into my project, perhaps combined with embroidery. 

Feedback and move forward

To mark the half way point of the project we had a group feedback session where we viewed each others work collectively with the tutors. It was a really good opportunity to share our experiences and ideas with one another and gain some advice from the tutors.

One of the things i was advised was to really scrutinise my visual research in order to extract the qualities that i liked in them and communicate the mood. My tutors picked up on my eclectic mix of colours and yarns in the weaves as something to develop, as well as concentrating on the composition of my work.

During the session, we also had a chance to look at one anothers work in a bit more detail and give some of our own feedback through the medium of post-it notes. I teamed up with a student who had been doing embroidery for the first few weeks so we could discuss our experiences and share different techniques with each other, i think this was beneficial for both of us as i hadn't done embroidery before and she hadn't woven. It was really inspiring to see the range of work by my peers and helped me to reflect on my own progress. I got some positive feedback from the group which is encouraging as i move on with the project.

                                   

I have now moved into working in embroidery and have been introduced to lots of new techniques. Below are some experimental samples. Some of the techniques suit my theme more than others and i will concentrate on and push these further to see what i can achieve.

 ( cornely- chain stitch)

 ( princess pleated then painted with silk dyes)

 (machine embroidery)

(ruffler foot)

Our group feedback session- unit x blog

Weaving

The first two weeks of this project i have spent weaving. It has been quite an intensive period in which to generate and resolve my ideas. Initaially i experimented with different patterns and yarns to try and figure out the direction i wanted to go in. At this stage though my weaves felt a bit muddled, there was too much going on in them and i needed to work on the composition.

I discovered designer Malhia Kent, following a talk from weave design studio Dash and Miller. I really like her eclectic mix of pattern and colour, it made me think of my own research of the different and unusual shapes in fairgrounds and i was inspired to take this approach in my work.

(Work by Mahlia Kent)

http://www.malhia.fr/html/fr/

(sketchbook page, coloured pencil)

I worked from my drawings to capture the qualities in them. I decided to weave the two sides of my warp separatly to achieve a nice contrast of design. It took a while to find a technique that worked for this. The above weave is still a bit rough, but i like the texture that the floats create and the spaces within it.

                                         

I think this weave is more successful, i built up a repeating pattern so that the piece is more composed yet still has a random feel to it. I also added sections of wire which create an open structure and will mean i can manipulate the shape of the weave. I intend to explore the possibilities of what the weaves can become once they are off the loom and ways i can develop them.

                           

For this piece i worked in a much more refined manner, changing the lifting pattern but not the colour and adding smaller floats of unusual yarns for a bit of texture. I like the subtle detail here and the way the warp comes through more. However because the design is so small it risks being unnoticed, i think it might work better on a larger scale, which i would be interested to explore through embroidery.