NWSAD - DEGREE SHOW!

Come and have a look! The event runs over a couple of weeks, not to be missed!

Water Soluble Stitching

Stitching onto water soluble... this is part of my current project, I am creating a garment/costume using this material. I am doing it section by section and then the white bit which is being stitched onto, dissolves when it comes into contact with water. At first I used straight stitch, but this doesn't work on a bigger scale and is far too time consuming, so I opted for a zig-zag stitch instead. Once dried the structure is also strengthened and can be formed into whatever shape you need. I will post the final piece when it is complete. 

Braiding

This was the very first piece I created in the 2nd year. It's made by stitching long individual strands of wool together (using a zig-zag stitch on the machine) then folding over and repeating, stitching the two halves together. I repeated this hundreds of times to create this piece, which is based on bones and the body.

After finishing, I went in with hand-stitches to hold the shape in place and tidy up any rough edges.

The natural curve of the material. The more you add to it, the more it curves.

These little loops, shown above and below, make it so easy to use another piece of wool to thread them together, almost in a corset type way.

Finished piece! Although I could add more to it at any time, however it was only a two week project so time was very limited. 

The Wellcome Trust - Inspiration

As a follow up from my first post, these are the Wellcome Trust images that I based my last piece upon. These are mix of images taken from the bones, muscles, cartilage, and the respiratory system.

I think they will make fabulous prints, I cant wait to do some more machine embroidery over the summer using some of these.

Experimenting

Earlier this year I did a project based on materials and processes. I spent my time wanting to move away from fabric and stitch. I still found myself using the sewing machine however I used tin foil, and brown paper. 

Unfortunately it started peeling because tin foil tears so easily, and the stitch makes it so delicate.

 

I had the idea of removing the thread from the machine just to create the holes, as this is was what was letting the light through, much more effective I think! I photographed it over a lightbox to really let the light shine through the holes. There are some little tears where the teeth on the sewing machine pulled at the edges of the paper but it was only supposed to be me messing about so all in all it turned out surprisingly well.

The print/pattern was based on some images I found on the Wellcome Trust website, they were super close up and they provide great inspiration for prints and fabrics (I'll post these in a separate post)

  

I love this view, it reminds me of when your on a plane going over a city at night and all the lights are glowing!

To be honest I didn't really think about it much when I was doing it, I just grabbed some brown paper and my sewing machine and got on with it. Sometimes I think this is when my most successful work happens!