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Siân said, ‘The morphing of the ‘pile of debris’ into the turtle was a very amusing idea. This also allowed you to build on your story and to develop the assemblage of the seemingly random shapes in your designs into something that was able to summarise your ideas. Congratulations.

‘My first letter from you in my file dates back to November 1998, when you started the foundation module. It has been a delightful conversation with you throughout the 15 years.’

And I said, ‘Has it really been 15 years?'

Enough said, thanks for everything Siân... I’m off to play in the sand.

Love Nickyx

Chapter 12: Study Three Artists... who use elements of this module in their work

Hi Sian, below is a precis of my artist studies which are in my folder with photos of each artist's work. For the blog, I have linked to their websites instead.

1. Jae Maris 

Jae has a lovely informative website where she generously shares pictures of her work and the inspiration behind them. She trained as a painter, adding stitch to her work later in her career.

Her daily visual diaries are a springboard for the colourful, abstract, painted and stitch panels she creates. She is also an international teacher and member of the 62 group of textile artists.

She has just published a new book, Contrasting Elements, 

2. Barbara Lee Smith

I met Barbara at the Knitting and Stitch show at Ally Pally in 2006. She was my chosen artist for Module Four of this Certificate. I saw her DVD which explained her creative process and had a lovely conversation with her. She talked about letting our mistakes take us somewhere new in our work. That stayed with me and I have tried to apply it to my own work ever since. I applied this wisdom to fruitypops when I realised that my A1 piece of Romeo soluble film proved unworkable. (see my Evaluation... changes to the way I'd make it)

Barbara is fascinated by maps and landscape. She builds rich and peaceful surfaces with her deceptively simple technique. Her base material is Lutrador which she colours with light fast paints; more detail is added with print, then rich texture and detail with collage. Her delicate map-like tracings are made with machine stitch. Finally the edges are fused and each piece suspended from a baton slightly away from the wall so that the cast shadow is part of the finished piece.

Her latest work is inspired by the walls of village homes in Nicaragua which were rebuilt with available materials after mudslides destroyed them during hurricane Mitch.

3. Marian Bijlenga

Marian has definitely been a strong influence on my work for this module. I remember reading a profile about her in Embroidery magazine, and the memory of it lingered. 

Inspired by natural forms, she machine stitches horsehair into long cords and sews it between 2 layers of fabric to create round shapes. She then pins, traces, and sews the small elements to water-soluble fabric which is finally washed away. Each piece is hung a pin's length from the wall so that the cast shadows are integral to the piece.

Some of her pieces are huge and there is a wonderful picture of her on her website, halfway up a ladder, working out the placement of her individual shapes.

Chapter 11: Making the Wall-Hanging

Hi Sian, here is a pictorial narrative of making fruitypops with scans of supporting paperwork at the end. There are 42 in all which sounds a lot but there is not much text, just brief captions. I've expanded a little in the Evaluation of Completed Work (No. 38).

Unfortunately I was unable to recover the first set of pics taken when enlarging the design which was made of 96 numbered pattern pieces and took a couple of weeks to cut out. The pieces were then glued to an A1 piece of cellophane using PVA and a microbrush. As I was doing so, fruitypops emerged from the circle...

Ray kindly took the photos of me at work as part of the authentication process.

FRUITYPOPS

1. The circle design morphed into a turtle shape as I enlarged it to an  A1 pattern.

2. Tracing the shapes onto the Romeo using a black 0.1 Artlline pen

3. The original A1 grid showing the design traced ready for stitching

4. I trimmed the A1 Romeo  to echo the turtle shape.
 The larger piece became brittle and split as I stitched and it was difficult to pass it through the machine

5. Starting to stitch from the centre out.
 You can  see the numbered shapes and grid lines in this photo

6. First layer of stitch complete

7.  Detail of stitching held up to the window to show the translucency (one of my research words)
Stitched using straight stitch and the same colour thread in the spool and bobbin, using a 'colouring-in' technique

8. Detail first layer of stitch

9. Top-stitching the shapes with straight stitch and whip stitch (which I've called mysterious lines)
 inspired by the marks on my design papers

10. Top-stitching of mysterious lines completed

 based on the inked and stamped marks on the design papers

11. Detail of gold top-stitching using straight stitch and gold in the spool and bobbin

12. Another detail of the mysterious lines using whip stitch
 and magenta in the spool and blue and yellow in the bobbins

13. Excess Romeo trimmed away ready for dissolving

14.  fruitypops goes for a swim in a tepid bath

15.  fruitypops sinks and the Romeo starts to dissolve

16. Water drained from bath and fruitypops folded so that I could lift her safely out of the bath

17. Folded and patted between to old tea towels to absorb excess water

18.  fruitypops pinned out on my table and 3 towel layers and left to dry for 24 hours

19. Detail of fruitypops drying, showing top towel and fine dressmaker pins used. After drying, I distressed the shapes gently between my fingers, and stretched some of the stitching to give it a worn look

20. Stitch and applique text finished.
The embroidery is flat on my table before hanging

21. Detail of quirky text, sauce centre

22. Detail of quirky text, best before and 5p

23. fruitypops hanging with sample and tissue paper labels and cast shadows

24. Detail showing pegs and hanging threads with cast shadows

25. Detail of sample with chewy text and tissue paper sample label

26. Detail of stamped nicky hampton tissue label using Xspectrum Fiesta stamp pad and  mini letter stamps

27. Detail of stamped fruitypops tissue labels and stencilled year, 2013 

28. Pegged inked and stencilled tissue labels using original design papers

29. Detail with quirky text, bag plastic not currently recycled

30. Detail with quirky text, fruitypops, the inspiration for the title of the wall-hanging
I collected a lot of fruitypops lolly labels from the beach

31. Rummage shelf below fruitypops with threads, plastic, designs and images

 Presentation of Supporting Work

32. Pin Board Wall of design sources with paper design of fruitypops at the top and  rubbish and plastics used for  homemade stamps on the shelf below

33. Detail of Pin Board Wall showing sample and photo of rubbish collected from the beach

34. Detail of Pin Board Wall showing corner of A3 design work and threads used.
See Order of Work sheet No. 39 for details of threads

35. Detail of Pin Board Wall showing first black and white colour designs and words used as inspiration. Also the green turtle wrapped in plastic that ultimately inspired the turtle shape of  the finished design

36. Detail of Pin Board Wall showing  colour design enlarged to an A3 design using inked and  stamped tissue paper,  words again and green turtle pics that inspired fruitypop's head and flippers. 

37 Order of work

Below are scans of the order of work that I prepared for my folder. Initial pictures of cutting out all the pieces to create the design were lost when my computer crashed.

38. Evaluation of completed work

It was always touch and go whether fruitypops was going to survive being dunked in the bath. I spent quite a long time holding the work up to the light before dissolving it to make sure that all the gridlines crossed each other.

Am I satisfied and what do I especially like?

 Yes, it was a challenge to stay focused and stick to the brief. I like the colours, mysterious lines in whip stitch, the cast shadows and that I found a way to use some of the rubbish I'd collected from the beach. Also she looks a little delicate and that's something I wanted, although the technique is fairly robust. A little breeze and she swings slightly. This picks up the floating and drifting elements of the research. 

And I'm pleased  she looks beautiful and that's good enough. It's only closer inspection that picks up a more sinister theme. Friends who have seen her are fascinated by the quirky bits of text and peer at fruitypops, heads tilted to read what's on her and figure out the story.

I like the fact that although this is a 2-D wall-hanging, the back  looks as good as the front and so would be a  good technique for making a 3-D piece, a mobile for example

Changes to the design if I made it again: If I were to make it again I think I'd make more pieces, fruitypops looks lonely and a narrative would be more playful and interesting. I have already sketched out some long-snouted seahorses to try. 

I have included the original sample as part of the piece with a little tissue paper label that says 'sample'. I've also used some of the inked and stamped design papers which I stamped with the title, my name and stencilled the year, 2013.

fruitypops wasn't made with a specific space in mind and I've learned that it's important to know the space you're designing for right from the outset. I would also be more aware of the surface against which the piece would hang. My wall is plain magnolia. A slightly distressed surface perhaps with a hint of green or blue might be more effective.

Changes to the way I made it: I'm happy with the technique used to make her. I think it's simple but effective. Having said that, I would rethink my use of nylon invisible thread. This is, on reflection, as unfriendly as the plastics I collected from the beach and in direct conflict with my overall theme.

I did change and adapted the original concept at the outset of making. The A1 Romeo was too large and unwieldy to stitch and became brittle and split. I trimmed a lot away leaving me with a smaller embroidery. I harnessed Barbara Lee Smith's wisdom, that sometimes mistakes or unexpected outcomes can take us somewhere new. (See my artist's study on Barbara) 

Dissolving the stitch distressed the finish slightly and reflects the conservation theme. I wasn't able to hang as planned with invisible thread. It was so invisible that I had trouble manipulating it and it wasn't strong enough. I tried fishing line but found it too stiff for the effect I wanted. However,  the pegs allow me to manipulate the legs, scrunch up the body or tilt the head. 

39. Health and safety rules observed

40. Costing materials and recording times

 I tend to work in the 'cracks of time'. Sometimes only 20 minutes a day, with slightly longer periods at the weekends.This is because I work and I'm tired and a bit sore come the evenings which are lingering symptoms of the RSI (repetitive strain injury) or perhaps it's my age!. Surprisingly these cracks added up to approximately 70 hours in total.

41. Storage of work, materials, tools and equipment

 I am fortunate to have 'a room of my own' in which to work.

42. Authenticity

 My friend Kerry kindly authenticated my work. She and her husband live close by and often pop-in. She is a keen crafter and saw fruitypops evolve. We had a delightful evening when I introduced her to dissolvable fabrics  showed her how to use Romeo.

That's it Sian... finis.

Blog reopened 9 February 2013

Chapter 10: Design into Embroidery / Samples

Hi Sian, here is a record of my sampling... but first here is a photo of  Beachwatch, the Marine Conservation Society's annual beach clean up which I  helped with on a blazing September morning...

Collecting and recording marine litter, North Beach, Lowestoft. I'm in the blue baseball cap

We collected so many tiny bits of paper and lots and lots of sweet wrappings that I began to wonder if there was a way to use some of the rubbish in my samples but first it needed a wash...

A bag of marine rubbish ready for washing

and then a sterilize. I put some Milton tablets in the water...

Rubbish soaking in Milton after a thorough hosing

A reminder of my design

Dyed tissue paper on cellophane

The papers were first rubbed with oil pastel and gold markel over nylon twine collected from the beach. Some were stamped with bits of plastic as in my research drawings. It was these marks and rubbings I wanted to translate.

Sample A uses a V stamp and silver acrylic paint. I used the V stamp in my research drawings. It was inspired by 'V for vegetarian' on some waste packaging collected from the beach during my initial research..

Sample A1: Mousseline bonded to stamped muslin with bonded snippets of rubbish

Sample A2: Detail with added whip and zig-zag stitching

I had thought to cut this into smaller pieces but the end result was too floppy so I didn't take this any further. I realised that rather than translating the papers individually, I would need to sample constructing the shapes on a grid so that I could work out which water soluble fabric to use.

Sample B was an attempt to work directly with the rubbish. I sandwiched pieces between Aquabond and Avalon and then added free machine stitching in straight stitch. I tried to match up the thread to the colour of the rubbings.

Sample B1: Stitched rubbish sandwiched between Aquabond and Avalon

After I had soaked the Aquabond and Avalon away, I dried the pieces then cut some shapes from the rubbish using the tracing paper templates I had made for my paper design. 

Sample B2: Cut shape with free straight stitching

I was intrigued by the light shining through the stitch holes. This piece was quite fragile so I did a few experiments with Acrylic Wax and Bronze Powders to see if I could add strength and muted colour to the shapes.

Sample B3: Experiments with Acrylic Wax and Bronze Powders

The Acrylic Wax made the orange really bright and the bronze powders were muddy so I wasn't enthusiastic about this effect. The plasticized bits of rubbish didn't need any strengthening.

I then sandwiched the individual pieces between Aquabond and Avalon again. I stitched an invisible grid to secure them before dissolving the water soluble fabric.

Sample B4: Marine waste on an invisible grid

To be honest, I thought this looked like exactly what it is, bits of rubbish, and did not go anywhere near translating my initial design or having enough stitch in it. What I did like though were the quirky bits of text, eg the caption on the bear piece says, 'biscuits for out and about'.

So, back to basics and a more literal translation of my design. Here it is again...

Sample C. I traced the centre of the design onto Romeo and stitched a circle round it with an invisible thread grid of 1cm squares inside. I secured the Romeo in a hoop and stitched the grid in stages.

Sample C1: Invisible thread grid on Romeo with design ready for stitching

Next, I gathered a palette of machine embroidery threads to match the colours of the papers and stitched round each shape before filling them with straight stitch, just like colouring-in. 

Sample C2: Coloured-in shapes using free machine straight stitch

The shapes look quite dense in this photo, but actually light filters through the stitching as I was trying to capture some of the delicacy of the tissue paper.

Next I added the marks from the rubbings and the stamps. After a few trials, I discovered that whip stitch worked well when using coloured thread, and straight stitch was better with the silver and gold. Here is my trial sample for working out how to do the lines...I rather like it.

Sample C3: Working out how to stitch the lines and marks with whip stitch and straight stitch

I top-stitched the lines and marks onto the coloured-in shapes using my initial design as a guide. This was pinned to the wall in front of my machine as I stitched.

Sample C4: With added whip and straight stitch

I cut away the surplus Romeo and dissolved the sample in warm water...

Sample C5: Dissolving in warm water

So far so good, a larger piece would need a bath or a paddling pool! 

Next I pinned the sample to dry over layers of blanket protected by plastic and covered with a towel. This made a nice easy surface to pin into and should be easy enough to replicate with a larger piece.

Sample C6: Pinned to dry for 24 hours

The lilac shape to the centre left of the photo, disintegrated a little in the process and some of the stitching lost it's clarity. I liked this effect and rubbed the shapes to purposely distress them as a lot of the bits of rubbish I collected were very worn and faded.

I attached some invisible thread  to the top of the circle and suspended it from my pegs...(not shown)

Sample C7: Suspended sample with cast shadows

Sample C8: Detail showing whip stitch and straight stitch lines and marks and distressed stitching

I was happy with the overall effect but thought the blue and green too dark and overall the sample a little bland... and there was no actual rubbish in the piece. I went back to my quirky bits of text and appliquéd words and phrases on to some of the shapes with gold and silver thread...eg chewy, fruity pops, double lollie, plastic bottle widely recyled etc

Sample C9: Quirky text appliqued to shapes and also showing strong cast shadows

The shapes are a little stiff making it possible to manipulate them...

Sample C10: Detail with 'chewy' and 'double lollie' text and showing manipulated shapes and cast shadows

Ages ago I bought some little turtle beads and couldn't resist! Turtles often get tangled up in all the plastic floating about in the oceans...

Sample C11: With tangled turtle and 'fruity pops' text

So there you have it Sian, my thought at the moment is to go with the above but adjust the green and blue colours to something a little brighter.

I'm mindful of your comment on my original design, '...the bright childlike colours belie the ugly effect they have on the seas'.

I'll wait to hear from you before pressing on...

Thank you as always.

Nicky