Studio practice embroidery

 

Got a bit stuck, didn't really know where i wanted to take my work, I knew whatever I did I wasn't going to paint as I didn't like my earlier drawings\ paintings, so far what had been the most fun was using the actual plants themselves. I found some plastic packaging in a drawer- also I knew at this point I needed to bring in more lace like qualities into what ever did. I liked when light shone on and through lace so I thought the transparent plastic would be good to experiment with. My vague plan was to make some sort of transparent plant tapestry-- but when I made the samples I thought they were just fun as individuals 






Making embroidery hoops 

With the deadline  for the exhibition getting closer I didn't want to hand embroider anything as it would be too time consuming. So instead I was just playing around with my sewing machine- I'd photo copied a scanned image of some of the plants I'd collected onto a section of calico, and then free embroidered over it - tracing the outline of the leaves. I thought this was really successful, it had a nice tactile quality.  





I really enjoyed how printing the plants onto the calico made them look unreal - like they were fabric collaged. I used some of the plants I had saved from the embossing and kept to the original composition I photocopied them onto calico sheets.  I had some scraps of velvet and put them behind when I was scanning - inspired by William Morris' wallpaper designs - I used the velvet's rich jewel tones to make the lighter tones of the plants pop.
I then sewed onto the calico with gold thread - like the embroidery hoop I mainly outlined individual plants. Then I photo copied the stitched calico sheets onto paper and stitched those with gold thread- which at certain angles caught the light beautifully.  

 

  


paper after being stitched








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