CHAPTERS 3 AND 4

  Chapter 3 - Fabrics and Threads

The first two images below show a selection of the fabrics, threads, beads, ribbons and buttons I have collected in each of my chosen colours.  Most of the fabrics are ones I have dyed and/or printed. Some are from my fabric stash. 
To colour my fabrics I used the Shibori techniques of dip dying and tie dying as well as 'random splash' dying. I subsequently decorated some of these fabrics with mono printing or blocks that I made in the previous chapter.

3a

3b

3c - a selection of dip dyed fabrics some with over printing 

3d - dip dyed fabric with some overprinting

3e - a tie dyed fabric

3f - large paper clip print and some fabric paint doodles

Chapter 4 - Decoration with Stitchery

Hand Stitching
I enjoy hand stitching and below are some of the samples I stitched inspired by my spiral images from the previous chapters.

4a - a sampler of hand stitched spirals using tapestry wool on a remnant of furnishing fabric

4b - a hand dyed fabric printed with a block I made from twisted garden string. The spiral is embellished with chain stitch and a machine made cord couched to follow the spiral.

4c - this sample was inspired by a photograph of the bark on an umbrella pine. I altered the colours using a photo enhancement programme and then printed the image on fabric using 't-shirt' transfer paper. I subsequently hand stitched spirals following the bark patterns.

4d - a fabric remnant embellished with two hand stitched spirals, the couched thread is one I dyed, the second spiral is chain stitch.

4e - a herringbone stitch spiral  on to a hand dyed fabric with space dyed thread.

4f - Beads on fine wire couched in a continuous spiral

4g - A twisted cord couched into a spiral. I made the cord from two knitting yarns. The centre is an old cloth covered button dyed purple.

4h- at tie dyed fabric, with a twisted cord spiral couched in the centre of the pattern. (This reminds me of a nautilus swimming under the water!) The colour resulted from a mix of some left over purple and yellow dye.

4i - another tie dyed fabric sample this time embellished with a fly stitch spiral

çl....

4i - a fabric dyed with random splashes of analogous colours,

some of the spots have been emphasized with stitched spirals.

4j - hand stitched spirals embellished with couching, chain stitch and beads

4k -  tie dyed fabric with a stitched spider web spiral. The central button is fabric dyed 

4l - A plastic bag dyed background fabric printed with spirals. I subsequently used safety pins stitched into chains to form a another spiral

MACHINE STITCHING

4n - three samples of free machine stitched spirals

4m - The front and back of a quilt sandwich embellished with machine stitched spirals. This is a dip dyed fabric (it reminds me of the Rennie Mackintosh rose designs!)

4p - a random dyed fabric printed with a spiral. The print block was made in the previous chapter using corrugated card. A machine made cord was zig-zagged onto the spiral and random free machine stitched spirals added.

4q - a spiral printed on a hand dyed fabric using the same block as above. A machine made cord was couched onto the spiral using a machine zig-zag.

4r - in this sample the printed spiral was made using my string block. The background has random machine stitching and a machine made cord was hand couched into another spiral.

4s - silk cacoon rods separated, dyed and machine stitched 

onto a dip dyed fabric. A crochet cord with small sequins was couched in random spirals.

I felt that I wanted to do something with all my stitched interpretations of spirals. I decided to combine them into large 'crazy patchwork' style samplers with additional stitching to tie the overall designs together. Below are images  of two of the samplers I have started so far. I dyed the backing fabrics and then stabilised the samplers with a heavier second backing fabric so they could eventually be used as wall hangings
4t 

4u

My thoughts on this chapter:
I think these have been the favourite chapters of my Distant Stitch journey so far. When I have a moment I stitch more interpretations of spirals. I have also been dipping in and out of other chapters making cords, braids, tassels and beads. But I decided it was time to tie some of the work together and show you what I have done so far for Chapters 3 and 4.

MODULE THREE - CHAPTERS 1 AND 2

RESEARCH FOR SPIRALS - MAN-MADE AND NATURAL

I have always been fascinated by shells and fossils. I have quite a large collection of my own so I decided to concentrate my research in this area. The images below are of my own shell and fossil collection along with more from an  internet search.

1a

1b

1c

1d

1e

1f

1g

1h

1i

1j

1k

1L

Sketch book drawings and doodles inspired by my research images.

1m

1o

1p

1q

1r

1s

1t

1u

1v

 I think this is the first time I have felt confident about using my sketch book. I enjoyed drawing making these sketches and doodles. They have given me lots of ideas for further development. I have also started an A3 work folder to keep my work and show the progression from the research images and drawings to my two and three dimensional pieces of work.
Below are some sample pages from my workbook.

Chapter Two

Colour choice:-
I have chosen the golden yellow of the spiral shell (1b) from the  photo image in Chapter 1 along with its complimentary colour violet. Whilst I was working on making my papers and before I made my final choice, I  expanded this colour scheme to include shades, tints and tones for both colours, analogous colours and some of their split complimentary colours. A small selection of my papers is shown below. (The purples in the photos look more blue in these images than they are.)

My two dimensional shapes showing the progress from an initial image:-

2a -  a spiral made from corrugated card



2b - a spiral shell image (1e) painted on fabric and its 'ghost image' on paper from under the fabric

2c - two conical shell spiral images (1g and 1i), mounted on a painted paper background; then traced on Lutrador, coloured and cut out, finally the negative images in Lutrador mounted on a painted paper 

2d - a spiral doodle from my sketch book with a simplified image made from coloured and twisted paper napkins

2e - as above but from doodle (1r)

2f - my spiral tree sketch (1q) with the 2d image made from corrugated card and spiral cords of parcel string.

This shell and two of my ammonite fossils were the inspiration for most of the work below, images 2g - 2q

2g -  a spiral made from paperclips 

2h - spirals made from folded cartridge paper


















2i - a double spiral made from parcel string 

2j - a large spiral from parcel string and some coloured papers printed with this design

2k - a large spiral made from plastic curtain hooks, I love this, a spiral made from smaller spirals!!

2l - another smaller curtain hook spiral

2m - A large paper clip spiral

2n and 2o - two images 0f spirals made from the trimmed paper edges of pages torn from a spiral bound sketch pad.

2p and 2q - twisted lengths of dyed scrim made into spirals

Simple three dimensional shapes

2r and 2s - corrugated card spirals, on a background made by tearing strips from the top layer of three ply cardboard

2t and 2u - a large destructed tube from a kitchen paper roll. I love this spiral sculpture, I sure I could use this idea later!

2v - small tube with a spiral design made from corrugated card strips then used to print a design

2w - a spiral made from a waste strip of folded cartridge paper

2x -  a corrugated card spiral

My spiral designs using mono printing

Spiral design printed from a crochet spiral

I have enjoyed working through this chapter, I discovered that there were many ways to develop and expand my initial images and drawings. These ideas are just a few that came to mind. Now I am eager to start some fabric dying for the next Chapter. I tried but did not enjoy using the drawing programme on my computer so decided to leave that section.