Mixed Media and Stitch

My job had changed direction over the past two years, even more so since last September and the need to complete my A level Fine Art textiles was linked to that.

So today I thought I would show you a piece that I made as part of a project I was introducing at work.  I think we have seen enough cushions for a while!

This is a silk painted background using just blue, yellow and a little bit of green silk paint.

The theme I was putting across was abstract and a limited number of materials and technqiues.

So think water, sea, shells etc.

The centre has a piece of scrunched up paper with painted Tyvek and tissuer paper.  I did not want a perfect straight edge anywhere so at times this did mean ripping edges to gain that.

I then added free machine embroidery is certain areas and tried to centralise the whole design in the middle.

The photograph has come out a little paler than the real item as the colours are much richer than this, but the texture is very detailed and the papers contrast well with the fibres and fabric.

Some of the project and exam titles for Art textiles can be very lose and vague which can be really difficult for teenagers, so creating a piece like this just helps to visually clarify how they might generate their own ideas and outcomes.  Plus I really like doing it!

I am going to put this on Facebook as I have joined an Art textiles group on there and a picture I posted last week suddenly got 68 likes which is a much bigger response than I get on my blog.

Sadly I can see why blogging is falling out of favour.

I am in the process of working on a couple of projects but nothing is ready to post here at the moment but I shall be looking more to how my garden is progressing as it  to wake up and meet summer as it slowly starts to arrive here in Cornwall.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

xx

PS:  Lots of interest in my first Sewing Class so I shall bring news on that over the coming weeks and hopefully some photos too.  Really excited with how it might develope.

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Mixed Media Relief Block with Textile details.

I am doing some clay lessons at work, I am no expert in this area at all but I did a training session where I made the following.  However, what shall I do with it as I really like how it turned out.

Firstly we made a clay tray and created marks using a variety of different objects.  My favourite was carefully pushing string into the surface and then pulling it back out again.  The next stage was to fill the tray with about 3cm of pottery plaster and let it fully set.

Once fully set the clay is carefully peeled away and you are left with a block with which you can use to create further patterns in clay objects.

Now due to one thing and another I never got to use this but I really like how it looks so I decided to get my little round paints out and add some colour.

There little paints really are very versatile and I was not really sure how they would work on the plaster surface.  They did not soak in as much as I thought it would.  I decided to go for a blended range of sea colours with a little sand thrown in

The paint is now fully dry and I think it has about three really good coats which just enhanced the blending of the colours more.

The paint also highlights the decorative relief of the block.

I am not stopping here as an idea began to surface as I painted the plaster.

I found some handmade paper and tissue paper with which to add some background.
On to this I added some further textures.

It does look a little plain so I want to add a textiles element to the overall effect.  I hope that this may be an idea that I can take further with other materials.

These are silk cords which have been hand painted using silk paints in a range of colours.
I want to extend the curves left in the plaster by the string on to the hand made paper and tissue paper.

this adds to the background.

Shall I trim the ends a little?

Attaching it all together was really tricky in terms of the method to use but I think it is secure.  It has not moved all afternoon!

This has been hung up all afternoon and nothing has fallen off and it seems to be really secure and I am quite pleased with.  Must think about doing some more ideas along this theme.  I really like the tones of the colours that have appeared by mixing water and allowing the colours to merge which I did not think would happen as I wondered if the paint would sink in to the surface.

I did promise something that was not blue as well!
xx