Week 8

In the last stretch of the project I feel I am truly experimenting and taking risks within my materials. Following the exploration of ethos on water soluble last week I pushed to produce a larger scale version; unfortunately I lost the original water soluble face sample as it has gone missing from my pin up wall, and to add insult to injury I have misplaced my memory stick holding the ethos design. As annoying as this may be I can only look at it as a slight bump in the road and a learning experience to ensure my work is backed up, and that any important samples are not left alone over night. The larger version of the face has a lot of impact and my improved Ethos design gives additional sturdiness to the stitch, whilst keeping the ghostly feel of the previous sample.

Ethos design on water soluble, larger scale

Ethos on water soluble; I am very much interested in exploring the stitch as an entity/object in its own right

My examination of structure properties using fabric lead me to creating more faggoting pieces in hessian but also combining embellishment details previously explored to add colour and texture and feed back to the festa vibe I was hoping to achieve. The boring brown tubes are adorned with copper foiling, hair pin fringing of various yarns and threads, and some thick tufting. They took quite a while to complete due to the variety of techniques involved, and I was not entirely happy with the outcome as I believe them to be hideous pieces, I’m just unsure if they are ‘hideous good’, or ‘hideous bad’. I feel it is important to appreciate the ‘ugly’ in my work, and although they are not pretty I feel they raise questions about form and texture that can further inform future projects. The tuft elements I was not happy with as it became quite a dominant line, but I no to attempt a smaller stitch in the future.

tube-like forms, although unpolished have a lot of character 

Returning to play with the idea of hairpin stitch and tubular structure, I went back to the early drawing of the parallel lines as my ground. Using pin tuck and wire I have created an interesting texture and movement, and although it was near impossible to stitch across parallel to the horizontal lines on the slippery scuba, the messy, non-uniformed style of the lines created a whole other wave like quality which I feel is ultimately more interesting. Applique of the laser cut pieces added another layer to the print, but in future I would cut smaller pieces, yet this is all informative for future explorations in the material.

playing with elements of print, laser cut shards, and structure using wire and stitch

and wire I have created an interesting texture and movement, and although it was near impossible to stitch across parallel to the horizontal lines on the slippery scuba, the messy, ununiformed style of the lines created a whole other wave like quality which I feel is ultimately more interesting. Applique of the laser cut pieces added another layer to the print, but in future I would cut smaller pieces, yet this is all informative for future explorations in the material.