CHAPTER 5 and 6 - CORD MAKING and TASSELS

Cord Making

I have been dipping into Chapters 5 and 6 and have made a variety of cords, braids and tassels, I did not make them in any particular order so some the images are of random groups of cords and tassels.

5a - Twisted cords made from a fancy yarn, torn strips of dyed scrim and knitting yarns

5b - machine stitched cords made from ripped fabric strips that were left over from my dyed fabrics

5c- a selection of twisted, plaited, knotted and machine stitched cords with a tassel

5d- another selection of cords, braids and tassels

5e- four crochet cords, from the left - a space dyed fringed yarn, then three yarns that I threaded with either sequins, purple beads or small lilac beads before crocheting the cord  

5f- two plaited cords

5f - knotted and plaited cords

5g- 'french knitting' cords made on a wooden reel with pins

5h- a Japanese kumihimo disk and a braid made with this disk

5h- more  Japanese braids made on my Kumihimo braiding disc

5i-  rayon tube yarns that I random dyed and 'stuffed' with knitting wool

Chapter 6 - Tassels

6a  - traditional tassels made from knitting yarns. 

6b - a crochet cotton tassel with beads added to the skirt and neck

6c - a cotton yarn tassel, the head and neck are embellished with mica sequins and beads

6d - a selection of my tassels

6e - a knotted tassel

6f - an 'experimental' tassel made on an old belt buckle

6g - a kumihimo braid with a tassel

6h - a tassel made with scraps of yarn and a ring with a charm

6i -  a sisal string tassel

Making the samples for these two chapters has taken me in an unexpected direction. I often look on 'Pinterest' for inspiration and I saw some unusual but simple woven wall hangings. This inspired me to use my cords, braids and tassels to make my own woven hangings. (Please see images below). My woven samples have a beautiful textural feel and now I have ideas about weaving some backgrounds for my own work/embroidery. 

6f - a mat woven from dyed 'j-cloths' that were cut into strips/braids. This was made on a square cardboard loom. (some up cycling ??)

 6g - a round cardboard loom used to make woven spirals. I used strips of fabric, lace and dyed 'j-cloths' .

6h - another weaving this time using my machine made cords and braids. The weaving is secured on a cotton dishcloth.

6i - I purchased an inexpensive peg loom and made more woven hangings from my cords and braids

6j and 6k - two woven hangings with drift wood bars

6k

I enjoyed making these hangings and I have several lovely textural samples instead of a box/bag of cords braids and tassels!!  I think that I may have digressed from the core skills taught in these Chapters but whenever I have explored a new technique my next thoughts are always, 'how can I use this?'.   This section has given me a host of new ideas and skills to use in my future work.

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.