10B: Resolved Sample 2

10B A SECOND RESOLVED SAMPLE TO CONVEY THE SAME AREA OF YOUR WOVEN DESIGN TO SHOW WHAT OTHER METHODS YOU MIGHT ALREADY KNOW.

 

Introduction

Many of the comments about 10a Resolved Sample 1 apply equally to this second Resolved Sample, so I won’t say a lot! And, since I'm still having technical problems, and since the pages didn't reproduce very well, I'm cutting and pasting my copy, and using scanned images, rather than trying to scan them on a page.

Image

I flipped the section I used for Resolved Sample 1, which reversed it, and I only did three columns, because I thought it was better to have larger areas to stitch. After I’d started work on it I read Sian’s feed-back (as I explained in the last post, I sent all my work off together, almost at the end of the course, which was silly) I wished I’d been braver and tried to work diagonally, or squeezed or distorted the image in some way. I feel it is too similar to Resolved Sample 1 (and I think I needed to show more variation with my stiches and colours. But I enjoyed working on this, and was quite pleased with the result. Overall I thought this was quite successful.

 

 

Planning

I didn’t really plan the way I did for the first sample. I think that was because it was so similar, and my colour and thread palettes were pretty much the same. I had an idea in my mind of what I wanted, and I just kind of went for it, and came together better than I had hoped! 

Materials 

Canvas:         10HPI 

Threads:        A mixed selection of thin, thick and textured yarns, including many of the dark grey Oliver Twists yarns, the lighter grey threads I dyed, and various others, including some brand makes, like the Anchor variegated yellow stranded embroidery floss. 

Materials:       Used black scrim (bought, not dyed by me) over the canvas, before stitching, and cut it away in some places, for the lighter sections. Green would have worked better I think, and I didn’t make best use of it. I could have bunched it up more at the side of the squares, to give impression of moss and soften the hard edges. And I could have left larger sections bare, with only the scrim showing, and a small amount of stitching for the marks on the paper. I wanted to try and pull some through on the bright green/black sari silk square at the top of the third column, like the slashed clothing of Tudor times, but I made such a mess I ended up trying to using ‘random’ cross stitches to cover up. And I made some felt for the bottom right-hand square, even managing to get a white stripe running through it, like the square in the paper weaving. I stitched it on with little ‘seeding’ stitches, like the ones used in crewel work. I did consider using running stitches, for a quilted effect, or covering the surface with embroidery before I stitched it on, but I was looking for texture to contrast with the rest of the embroidery, and random stitched effect. The edges were roughed up with a toothbrush. And I used some yellow chiffon, frayed at the edges, to soften the brightness of the orange in an Anchor variegated thread (I overstitched with lots of grey first, but that didn’t improve it). 

 

 

 

 

Reflections

I could have used a greater variety of embroidery stitches and, as I said earlier, I should have made much better use of the black scrim. Next time I try this I’ll manipulate the fabric before doing anything else, and use little stitches, with black cotton, to hold it in place, then embroider over the top of it, and around raised bits, leaving open, flatter areas.

Chenille needles might make stitching ‘marks’ over other stitching easier, as long as the thread isn’t too thick – they have large eyes, and sharp points, so I could try stitching through stitching, rather than pushing through to the holes in the canvas. .All my needles were too small for anything other than very fine thread, so I stuck to tapestry needles, which wasn’t ideal.

I’ve not been anywhere near as well organised as I should have been, and throughout the course I’ve not been as bold as I would have liked (I kept saying that). But I’ve had tremendous fun experimenting with paints, paper, fabric and thread, and having got to the end I can see how different shape, colour and texture work together, and how you can use elements from them, together or separately, to create something unique and personal. I’ve got lots of ideas of other things to try, and think I feel confident enough to try some of those ideas on my own – I was too scared to use something like rug canvas, or to try stitching a diagonal design, and I never made full use of those striking black radiating marks on my wall, so I’d like to have a go at combining those three things. And I’ve still got this notion of doing something based on Tamworth Castle, and some of the women who lived there over the centuries.