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.