Module 6 - collecting inspiration

I was lucky to go on a short holiday to Normandy in September and had the opportunity to take pictures of atmospheric skies and water (mainly sea). Unfortunately I don't live near a sea or a river, so this was a welcome opportunity.

Taking pictures of the sea, the waves, the water receding in the sand caused particularly interesting patterns. We also went to a nature reserve and due to the windy wheather the water was in movement

Some of these pictures will have to be turned into black and white and enlarged to reveal their pattern.

Of course with the change of the seasons the sky will also change more pictures will be added to the list.

I also have a fantastic book, which certainly contains more inspiration

Having been in London for the Knitting and Stitching, I also went to the V&A and found some inspiring paintings by Constable and Turner

Having a closer look at the paintings also revealed the brushstrokes and the the clouds in movement.

And of course there are the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh with his special way of painting skies

An of course there's Monet and his use of beautiful colours

Some more Turners

Module 5 - Evaluation of completed work, Authentification, Costing Material and Recording Time

Module 5-Chapter 13 - Study three artists- Part 1

Module 5 - Textile samples for resolved sample

Here are the textile samples based on the paper samples where I mainly used the same colours thant for the finished piece.

 I must not have been very inspired for this first sample, probably because it relates to the last sample 

 This sample with the crocheted background is one of my favourite, however I found that it didn't fit into the piece

Module 5 - Resolved sample

I finally finished my piece for this module. As Siân suggested I made it longer by adding a piece of scrim I had hand pleated. It was just what it needed. In those pleats I inserted the same silk ribbon strips I had used before, leaving the ends lose. It was in fact difficult to decide how to make the end. I also added a little piece with a flat texture that would wrap around the spool.

I wanted to make a long piece that should reproduce some kind of bandage on a spool with reference to the idea of nature mending/healing itself. The fabric used is rusted scrim. I deliberately chose only one kind of fabric as I didn’t want the piece to be too busy. The strip is composed of different patches all sewn separately on a piece of lightweight cotton that was dyed in black tea with rusty objects. Those pieces were then sewn together with a stitch that tried to reproduce a mending stitch. I also added more stitches in the background to add more texture but also to link the pieces together. The threads used here were a fine Japanese knitting cotton/linen thread that split when stitched thus adding to the “rustic” feel of the piece, as well as a simple DMC embroidery floss in a rusty colour.

I decided to concentrate on pattern using circles (spirals) and strips, varying them in texture and size. To reproduce the strips for instance I applied wrapped pipe cleaners or the silk yarn bits. The pleats were made with the same idea in mind. The different patches are based on the paper samples and the according textile samples. However, I also went with the flow and was open to adapt the patches so that they would fit and add to the movement in pattern of the piece.

The whole piece has a very soft touch and it was a pleasure to handle it.

The spool was made out of 2 layers of Polymer clay that had been painted and rusted. In fact I couldn’t find a rusty spool here so I had to make one myself.

I put my heart and my soul in this piece and I really love the result. I think there’s nothing I would have done differently. Although I had spent many hours hand stitching, I never got bored (and I get bored very easily one I know the outcome of piece). I can truly say that I grew with this piece and that I can identify myself with it.