CHAPTER 8: NOT WHAT IT SEAMS

1. Decorative Seams
In this section various techniques for embellishing seams were explored. Again I elected to use my purchased fabrics for this chapter in order to conserve my dyed samples.


Sheet 1: Sample A- A fringed border inserted between layers of cotton fabric. This fringe was created by cutting and rolling strips of a stretch fabric and knotting the ends; Sample B- A cheesecloth type fabric was machined with a scalloped pattern on a tear away backing. A few black beads were added to the outer edge for emphasis. I decided I preferred the effect on the wrong side of the patterned fabric, so added some machine and hand stitching to create a bit of balance, and a gentle reminder of blackwork; Sample C- A row of chain stitch was worked on a piece of even weave linen, which was then fringed, plaited and tied off. The fringing was then inserted between two pieces of patterned fabric.
Sheet 2: Sample D -Variegated threads were looped around and then the seam was machined. As this looked a bit bland I then looped some pieces of plaited and twisted wool through the thread loops to add further decoration; Sample E - 4 fabric strips were cut and joined with wide seams. The seamed fabric was then cut into 4 and joined again. All the seams were frayed for decoration. This worked quite well with the striped fabric, due to the bands of colour in the frayed ends.

Sheet 3:Sample F- this seam is more complex than it first appears and builds on sample E. An extra wide piece of black fabric was machined into the seam of the striped fabric and then frayed as well as the stripes. Bundles of the longer black threads were knotted at various intervals to break up the grey/white threads of the striped fabric. This added further contrast and drama to the seam compared to sample E; Sample G - A decorative black net fabric with cream contrast threads was sewn into the seam and then cut irregularly into a rough fringe whch was bent at various angles.

2. Ribbons
Sample H- Examples of decorative stitching on narrow strips of fabric. The upper bundle shows experiments with various machine stitches done in multiple rows or overlapped. The lower bundle shows experiments with mixtures of black and white threads, mostly with one colour in the bobbin and the other in the top spool. Sample I- Layered strips of fabric, stitched together with multiple rows of black and white threads in an irregular manner.




3. Cords
Sheet 1 shows simple cords made by twisting and machinging narrow strips of fabric.
Sheet 2 shows more complex samples which could be used as handles or straps. Sample K - plaited wool was twisted around a fabric strip and machined in place. Each end was finished with a knot and simple tassel. Sample L- a fabric strip was twisted and knotted at short intervals, then black wool twisted around it to add more strength and drama. Sample M- wide strips of fabric were twisted and knotted to make a robust handle.















4. Toggles and closures
Various methods for joining two layers of fabric or closing a flap were explored.
Sheet 1: Sample N - a toggle was made by cutting and rolling a narrow strip of fabric. This was bound with wool and joined to one piece of fabric as a toggle. A plaited woollen loop which could be placed over the toggle to join the two pieces of fabric was added to the second piece of spotted fabric. Sample O - shows a wider strip of fabric rolled and bound with a woollen twisted cord. However this did not seem as useful as the narrower, fatter toggle. Sample P - a toggle or button was created by knotting plaited wool into a ball. A black fabric loop was created as a fastener for the second piece of fabric.
Sheet 2: Sample Q- combination of a large fabric toggle with threads and wool wound around it, plus a large knotted fabric loop. This was more decorative than functional. Sample R - This shows a narrow machined fabric strip with variegated tassells added to each end. This could be used as a decorative tie, either around a roll of fabric as shown here or to join two pieces of fabric by cutting the strip in half and joining the ends to two pieces of material.

CHAPTER 7: TRADITIONAL PIECING METHODS

Stage 1: Log Cabin Designs from Paper
For these designs I started using my own decorated papers and later added photocopies of my purchased black and white fabrics. As I had not done any of this log cabin patchwork before, I taught myself how the patterns were constructed by studying some designs from a reference book on log cabin patchwork(Wien, CA: The Log Cabin Quilt Book, Westbridge Books, USA, 1985). I soon discovered that my own papers did not have enough tonal variation, so after that I preferred to mainly use photocopies of actual fabrics. It took me a while to get a good feel for the handling of the tonal effects, but I thought the later samples were better than the first couple.
Sample 1: Basic log cabin
Sample 2: Court house steps
Sample 3: Pineapple pattern without overlapping corners
Sample 4: Pineapple pattern with overlapping corners
Sample 5: Diamond shape
Sample 6: Chevron pattern on the top and then sides added to make a block pattern

Stage 2: Log Cabin Designs in Fabric
These designs were done with my purchased fabrics. I decided not to use my dyed fabrics for this chapter of the work as I wanted to save them for later chapters. Log cabin deisgns are done by starting with a central shape and adding strips one by one, to get the desired effect.
Log Cabin Sheet 1:A-Basic log cabin block; B-Block called White House steps or court house steps
Log Cabin Sheet 2: C-Chevron block; D-Pineapple block with strips of increasing width. The black strips are added on the diagonal to the patterned strips; E-Diamond shape with inner strips very narrow and outer strips much wider.














Stage 3: Seminole Method
In the Seminole method, strips are pieced and then cut, rearranged and joined together again to create the finished effect. The best finished effects were achieved when there was quite a lot of contrast between the adjacent strips.
Seminole Sheet 1:F-2 joined fabric strips cut and rejoined after turning every second strip. Sample on left side used strips of the same width and sample on right side started with two strips of different widths; G-3 joined fabric strips of equal width cut and rejoined after turning every second strip; H- 4 joined fabric strips of equal width were cut, turning every second strip, and rejoined after inserting a strip of one of the end fabrics bewteen the multi-fabric strips; I- 3 patterned fabrics joined, then ends cut at 45 degrees and rejoined to give the slanted look. Panel finished with a border to neaten.
Seminole Sheet 2:In this technique, the starting strips were joined by machine, then Vliesofix applied to the back. They were then cut into the desired shapes and ironed to stick the cut strips to the background fabric. After that the raw edges were neatened with machine satin stitch.Sample J- 3 strips joined and then cut at 45 degrees and rejoined after turning. Sample K- Used rectangular cut and pieced shapes with ends cut at 45 degrees and applied to the background to give fish-like final shapes.















Stage 4: Patterns Based On Folded Strips
In these methods the fabric strips are cut into small rectangles or squares and folded into triangular shapes before joining them together.
Sample L- Prairie points with folded triangles inserted into a seam(could also be used as an edging). Sample M- Folded star: fabric folded into triangles,arranged into a star shape with overlapping layers, and attached to a background fabric (using small stitches at each point). Final square finished with a border. This technique is also known as Somerset patchwork. (Reference: Patchwork stars by Jane Chiodini, http://www.craftcreations.co.uk/pages/magazines/issues/pdf/issue2/patchworkstar.pdf).

CHAPTER 6: PATTERNING FABRICS USING DYES AND FABRIC PAINTS

A: PATTERNED FABRICS
These two photos show a range of patterned fabrics, some especially based on animal patterns, that have been collected for use in later parts of this module.












B: PATTERNS BY DYEING
As I was getting ready to start this section I had the opportunity to attend a Shibori workshop conducted for ATASDA (Australian Textile and Surface Design Association) by Sylvia Riley an Australian textile artist. This workshop covered the basic Shibori styles, mainly using silks. Hence I have expanded the scope of the work for this section because my interest was stimulated by the workshop. Thus some of the samples I have included here are done with silk (which I must say I love). Sylvia also introduced me to Drimarene K fibre reactive dyes for cotton, including 3 different blacks with various bases (to give brown, blue and green undertones), so I also experimented with these as well as the cold water dyes, because I thought they might be interesting for the animal patterns. I also learnt about discharging and liked some of the effects that could be created by doing this.














The first image in this section (blue tab) shows effects achieved by binding portions of cloth with string or some other means to give white squarish resist shapes(ignore the very top left done with pegs, not relevant here). Sometimes a roundish object can be placed inside the cloth before binding to define the area better. From top left, going clockwise, you can see effects produced by:glass pebble with cable ties on silk, marbles with rubber bands on silk, marbles with string on silk, small pinches of fabric bound with cotton on cotton(this is known as ne-maki shibori), soy beans bound with rubber bands on cotton. In several samples I pre-marked the positions for each bundle to try to achieve all over patterns and more even effects.

The second and third images in this section show effects which can be produced by using stitching to create the resist (general term is tritik shibori). There are many traditional stitching patterns used in Japanese shibori. I have tried some of them here and also tried to design some of my own. The image with the green tab shows two traditional styles on habotai silk (left) and raw silk (right). The wood grain pattern is called mokume, and is one of my favourites. The undulating line is called ori-nui. It reminds me of the bands on the necks of budgerigars. The photo with the yellow tab shows samples on cotton; from top left going clockwise: circular traditional pattern(karamatsu, rounded hexagon (my design, based on lizard) with blue-black dye, rounded hexagon worked on black/brown dyed fabric and discharged using domestic bleach, series of arcs (my design, based on budgerigar) worked on black/brown dyed fabric and discharged using domestic bleach, hexagonal design (my design, based on lizard) worked on black/brown dyed fabric and discharged using domestic bleach, and worked on white fabric and then dyed.













The next series of photos shows results with three other techniques. The image with the orange tab shows effects produced by folding and clamping.From top left going anticlockwise: pegging white cotton fabric and dyeing; then below, starting with a black fabric, pegging and then discharging with domestic bleach; folding white fabric in a triangular pattern, clamping with bulldog clips and dyeing; similar folding starting with a black cloth and discharging with domestic bleach; bottom right is discharged black dyed silk after stitching in woodgrain pattern (a thiourea discharge agent not bleach is used for silk); above this is the effect of clamping coins onto black dyed silk before discharging; finally effect of clamping wooden shapes on folded white silk before dyeing. The photo with the red tab shows the effect of folding and tyeing off the fabric with string in bands before dyeing. The bottom left shows a calico which was not pre-washed and was bound quite tightly. It did not take up the dye very well. The blue-black ones show experiments with pre-washed calico bound more (bottom) or less firmly. The picture with the green and yellow tabs shows two experiments where the fabric was wound and rouched on a cylinder (plastic pipe). The left was a pre-washed calico and the right a silk organza. This traditional shibori technique is called arashi.

3. PATTERNS BY MONOPRINTING ONTO FABRIC








Various techniques were tried to find ways to "manage" the shape that would be printed. These included soft plastic templates, adhesive plastic film and lacy fabrics. Although adhesive plastic film was used extensively by Ruth Issett, I found it tended to sag and dislodge after a couple of uses and the soft plastic templates were more durable and easier to work with. I also got some good results using paint applied to various textured and lacy fabrics. It was easier and gave better results if I applied the paint to the fabric and pressed it down, rather than trying to print from the glass plate.

The picture with the orange and yellow tabs shows: top & bottom left, prints using a soft plastic template with cut out hexagonal shapes as a skeleton to mask the area, first print on top and second on the bottom; top right - area masked by cut out plastic hexagons so the skeleton shows up with paint; bottom right- combination of mesh and lace shapes was painted and pressed onto the background fabric.

The picture with the blue and orange tabs shows various effects achieved with the tiger mark template: top- plastic cut out shape used to mask the area and paint printed over the top; bottom left - paint applied to the negative space left by the tiger mark cut out; bottom right - plastic shapes reworked as outline templates, then printed over with paint.


The picture with the blue and green tabs shows effects obtained by soaking various braids, lacy fabrics and the bottom of an egg carton(bottom row,centre) in domestic bleach and then applying them to the fabrics to discharge the black dye. The final photo shows an imprint of a lace curtain painted with black paint and applied to a black (green undertones) dyed fabric. I liked this one so much I am planning to use it as a base for an embroidered piece in the next few months.

CHAPTER 5: MAKING PATTERNED PAPERS
1. INK MARKS
Images 1 to 4, show ink marks representing various aspects of animal patterns (budgie, tiger and frilled neck lizard). The technique used to make each one is noted on the page. The ones I liked best were achieved with corrugated cardboard, dabbing with bubble wrap, a cotton bud, and stamping with a cardboard egg carton.

























2. BLEACH MARKS
Images 5 to 7 show various effects achieved by applying bleach to ink covered paper.
Image 5 shows effects achieved with various mark-making materials. Clockwise from the top: a kitchen sponge cut into hexagonal shapes, a peg, string dipped in bleach and arranged into loops, corrugated cardboard dragged across the page, card cut with a serrated edge dragged across the page.

The top left of image 6 shows the imprint from the base of a cardboard egg carton dipped in bleach (E). After that, I became interested in the idea of soaking braids and laces with bleach because their patterns reminded me of some of the animal patterns. The other two patterns in this image were produced using two different braids (F & G).


The next photo shows patterns created with bleach soaked lacy fabrics (H). The two clearest images top and bottom left were obtained with cottons (broderie anglaise types of fabric). The one on the bottom right was a semi-synthetic meshier fabric. I found the effects of imprinting these fabrics were quite intriguing and I explored them further in later exercises with paint.












3. GLASS PRINTS
Images 8, 9 and 10 show experiments with paint on glass and then printing onto paper. I tried various ways of masking the plate to reproduce some of the animal shapes I was interested in. Image 8, which was the least successful, shows effects with a cardboard cut out (W & X). I also tried cardboard hexagons for image 9 (T,U,V), and these were easier to control because they were smaller.







Eventually, after some reading (Colour on Paper and Fabric by Ruth Issett, Batsford, 1998) I came up with the idea of using flexible plastic sheets (made from document holders from a stationery shop) cut into various shapes. This was quite successful and image 10 (on left) shows some examples of the tiger head mark created with positive and negative shapes cut from the plastic.

I also tried some more effects by pressing painted laces and braids onto the paper. Images 11 to 14 show some examples of this with black paint on white paper and white paint on black.





Image 12 (L) was made with the same lacy mesh as I used in one of the bleached samples. Image 13 was a composite of cut out lace circles laid over a plain mesh (I & J). Image 14, which I particularly liked as it was reminscent of the tiger head mark, was an impression made from a piece of lace curtain (M). I think this technique could be explored even further in the future and could form a good base for a background suitable for embellishment with embroidery.













4. RUBBINGS
Images 15 to 17 show some examples of rubbings using crayon on tissue paper.The items used for the rubbings included cut glass bowls, a woven basket and a metal peacock ornament, as shown in Image 18.





Image 15 shows rubbings from a glass bowl (R & S), Image 16(P & Q)shows a rubbing from the peacock's tail at the top and another glass surface at the bottom. Image 17 shows rubbings from a woven cane bowl (N & O). The criss-cross pattern in 15 and the semicircular pattern in 17 are my favourites.
The final image shows the items used for the rubbings.

CHAPTER 4: DRAWING PATTERNS FROM ANIMAL MARKINGS

In this section I have selected a few photographs from those collected for each animal I mentioned in the introduction and then copied them in black and white to study further. Selected parts of the photos have been drawn, some after enlargement on the photocopier.

1. Budgerigar: A clear photograph of the bird is shown at the centre bottom of the page. Another view of the back is shown at the top right. The top of the back and the back of the neck have been enlarged and rephotocopied. The drawings show different aspects of these areas. These effects really remind me of pieces of shibori dyed fabric and I am keen to explore this further in Chapter 6.

2. Tiger: I decided to focus mainly on the heads of the tigers as I was intrigued by how the stripes merged into interesting shapes. Three selected photographs (column in the centre of the page) show enlargements of tiger heads from photographs from the Introduction.
The photograph at the bottom is an enlargement of one patterned area in the centre of the head. The drawings show these striped patterns as well as sections around the nose and upper jaw. I also drew the underside of one paw, simplifying the rounded blobs in the picture. Some of these shapes could be interesting to consider for dyeing or embroidery, especially if you wanted to create a bold effect.

3. Ulysses butterfly: Although these butterflies look beautiful in colour, I found them far less appealing as a subject in black and white. The shapes of the wing segments were interesting, but there was too great a contrast between the outer parts of the wings (black/brown) and the inner blue panels (very even, little shade variation) to create much interest in the drawings. In view of these observations I do not plan to take this subject further in the later design exercises because I think it is more suited to a colour project.


Frilled neck lizard: The photo at the top right of the first page shows the lizard in all its glory with its frill raised. This reveals a lot of interesting flecked contrast as well as the different texture on the head and legs of the animal. There were many intriguing sections to draw and lots of possibilities for translating these patterns into embroidery, such as the scales, the frill itself or the texture due to the arrangement of the scales on the head and legs. The second page shows an enlarged side view of the lizard's head, and above it, a further enlargement of the scales on the skin to the left of the jaw, showing their hexagonal shape. The scales around the mouth are distorted and become more like irregular rectangles so that they can pack into the area. The drawings attempt to show some of the different shapes. All of these have possibilities for further work.