CHAPTER THREE: FABRICS AND THREADS

1. Colour Scheme

The contrasting colour scheme will be purple and gold (yellow) as discussed in Chapter 2. I have tried to collect examples of threads and fabrics with variations of colour strength within these ( i.e. darker and lighter tones).

2. Fabrics

At the moment I have experimented mainly with dyeing and printing on cotton fabrics, including fine cottons and cheesecloth. I also have collected some coloured silks and some synthetics. I plan to dye some plain silks later as the need arises. I wanted to get some idea of how the dyes behaved and my preferred patterning techniques before using my good silk. The picture below shows some of the commercial fabrics I have collected.

3. Dyed Fabrics

I have experimented with various dyeing techniques to produce some samples to start working with. I tried dip dyeing and random dyeing and also I did some more experiments with Shibori techniques , as I particularly enjoyed these in Module 2. I was also very fortunate to be able to attend a 3 day master class in Melbourne at the end of August with the internationally renowned Shibori expert, Yoshiko Wada. I found this very inspiring.

3a) Plain Dyed Fabrics

I tried Rit Liquid Dyes this time, so see how they went (colours Purple and Lemon Yellow). They are supposed to be suitable for cotton, linen, rayon & polyester blends. As one would expect, the fabrics containing polyester come out a lighter shade than all cotton ones. I experimented with a few strengths of each dye, to try to obtain a range of tones. This picture shows examples of the variations in colour I was able to achieve. Note the fabric at top left is unevenly dyed because I did not stir the scrunched up fabric while it was in the dye bath. This effect is actually quite interesting. These dyes were fairly easy to work with and could be kept in diluted form for several days.

3b) Dip Dyed and Randomly Dyed Fabrics

The image below shows some samples achieved by using these techniques. For some of these I added a blue/turquoise dye as well, as this is the third colour I want to experiment with in my samples. I found that it took practice to get the dyes to merge a little without everything turning brown. I also found that sometimes it was worth going back and adding a bit more of one colour after taking the fabric out of the initial dye mixture.

3c) Monoprinted Fabrics

The first image below shoes 6 monoprinted fabrics produced predominantly with tones of purple and yellow as the main colours, with their analagous colours as extra highlights (e.g. red-purple, purple-blue, yellow-green). Some of the printed were done on plain coloured cotton and two were done on a fine mauve dyed cotton. I also experimented with putting a black pattern underneath in one, and by adding turquoise blue to a couple.

The second image shows some prints made with a section of a felt placemat which I found in a Two Dollar Shop. The pattern reminded me of some of the wrought iron work, so I experimented by painting it and then applying it to the fabric (this worked best) , and also trying to dab paint around the felt. The piece of felt mat is shown in the photograph in the clamping section below.

3d) Shibori Technique - Clamping

The sample at the top left was formed by clamping pieces of petal shaped balsa wood on both sides of a folded piece of yellow dyed fabric, then placing it in a dilute bath of purple dye (hence the light brown colour of the background). Whilst I did not achieve an ideal spiral shape with this particular pattern, it shows the possibilities for further experimentation in future, and I will still be able to stitch over it as I go forward. The other three samples were various attempts to imprint the pattern from the felt placemat onto the fabric by clamping segments between boards before dipping the fabric into the dye. The felt segment is shown in the middle of the picture.

The top right sample is probably the most successful. With this, I soaked the clamped fabric in water for about 15 minutes before placing it in the purple dye. The bottom left sample was not soaked very well before placing it in the dye, so I got a lot of white and an indistinct image. I then painted the felt with the dye and tried to print the purple image over the top, which gave an interesting result. The bottom right sample was an attempt to dye yellow over the purple, but I did not get a very distinct imprint with this.

3e) Shibori Technique - Bound

This photograph shows three examples of dyeing the fabric after binding it with thick thread or plastic string in a spiral pattern. This has good possibilities for future work and is quick and easy to do.

3f) Shibori Technique - Stitched

This photograph shows 3 examples of patterns produced by different types of stitching to act as a resist before dyeing. I have to admit that this is my favourite Shibori technique and has boundless possibilities, although it is quite time consuming. Top left sample was a lacy pattern reminiscent of wrought iron done with overstitching, sample on right was a semi-circular stitched and gathered pattern on folded fabric, and the sample at bottom left was series of spirals created with overstitching.

4. Threads

I have a good collection of wools, embroidery and machine threads and silk ribbon on hand, so plan to start with these and add others as needed as I work through the module. Several examples are shown in the photograph below.

5. Other items

The photo on the right below shows various commercial beads that I have on hand which will go with my samples and colour scheme, and the the photo on the left shows a range of wooden beads, shells and plastic buttons which I have attempted to colour with gold and purple paints. The plastic buttons were not very successful, as the paint did not stick very well. (It was still possible to wipe it off some buttons after a few weeks). I think that this technique would work better on buttons with a rough surface.

CHAPTER TWO: SPIRAL "WARM-UP" EXERCISES

Colour Selection
I have decided to use the colours purple and gold as a starting point for the work in this module. Reasons for this include: - The final piece will be an accessory, and gold is often found in this context e.g. in jewellery, buckles, purses etc. It also goes well with beading. - I am interested to incorporate some goldwork in the hand embroidery samples for this module, as I think it will lend itself very well to some of the wrought iron designs and combinations with beading.
If I want to add more highlights, I will explore ideas from the Turkish textile I photographed in chapter 1, for example adding some blue/turquoise.

Papers
These two photographs show examples of decorated tissue (top) and cartridge papers (bottom) in the selected colour scheme. I experimented with different dilutions of ink and colour combinations to try to vary the tints and shades produced. I also added small quantities of paint to a few of the cartridge paper examples, to achieve a better contrast and experimented with different ways of making marks, including sponging, paint brush streaks, bubble wrap, the end of a chopstick and a rubber drawing tool.





Simple Two Dimensional Shapes
I this section I focussed on trying to create samples which were reminiscent of the wrought iron and other building patterns shown in the research in Chapter 1. Most of the shapes based on wrought iron were made with rolled tissue paper fixed with PVA glue which could be readily coiled around wires, pencils etc to form curved shapes(e.g. shapes 3, 4 & 5). In some, I also used some pleated cartridge paper to give the effect of a serrated edge (e.g. designs 2, 8 & 9). Other shapes were achieved by cutting the shape from flat paper (e.g. 10,11, 13 to 15). The root spiral ( example 12), formed with alternating triangles of purple and yellow of increasing size, was particularly effective.










Simple Three Dimensional Shapes
Again, I decided to focus on the shapes I had highlighted in my research, and so rather than make simple spirals I tried to make them in a couple of the shapes found in the ancient buildings and wrought iron. I used some green corrugated cardboard which I had around the house, as it seemed to suit the subject. The first image shows the basic chlotoide shape with a single layer, and a repeating pattern, as seen in the Italian banister. This was fairly easy to accomplish, and gave a pleasing effect. Images 2 and 3 show a more complex version of the chlotoide shape often used in carved stone. To get the 3-D effect, this construction required two pieces of corrugated cardboard to twist back on themselves in opposite directions with a space in between. I found that this was difficult to achieve with the cardboard alone, so added a layer of folded paper to keep the two cardboard segments apart. Placing the whole shape in a boxed frame also helped to anchor it. Image 4 shows another wrought iron variation based on a section of a piece in the V & A collection. Again, this gives an interesting pattern with possibilities for use in a decorated textile.









Image 5 shows an attempt to create something like the Richard Serra sculptures, with the planes slanting in and out as you move around the spiral. Although it looks simple, it was actually very difficult to achieve because it cannot be constructed from a continuous flat ribbon of cardboard. The cardboard needs to be pleated to achieve narrowing at the top or bottom as required, and cut in a curve to enable the contours to flow smoothly. Serra constructs his works from welded sheets of steel which, presumably, are cut in precise, varied shapes and then joined to achieve the effect he wants. I held my folds and segments together with sticky tape for now. I had two attempts and then stopped so I could move on to the next section, but learnt a lot from the experiments. It would take a great deal of experimentation to arrive at a final effective piece, but could be interesting to come back to later.



Designs Using MonoPrinting Method
Since the workshop with Ruth Issett at the 2010 Summer School I have become very excited about monoprinting and am now much more comfortable with this technique. The two photos below show some designs based on spirals and my chosen colour scheme printed onto cartridge paper.





Spiral Drawing Using a Computer Paint Program
After a bit of research on the internet, I decided to try the program PaintNet, which was highly rated as free computer paint software. This program gave me a variety of techniques for varying colour, line type and thickness and working in layers, as well as distorting and blurring the images. I had a lot of fun with this and spent the best part of one wet weekend "playing" with the program. The pictures below show my efforts. I can certainly see the possibilities this could have for designing and also for printing a final design onto a fabric.

MODULE 3, CHAPTER ONE: RESEARCH

SPIRALS AS A DESIGN INSPIRATION
The first sheet shows photographs taken during my trip to Europe in June/July 2010. The first three images show various spiral designs used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to decorate buildings and everyday objects such as pottery. These themes were echoed more than a thousand years later in the decoration of churches and mosques by the Turks (row 3).The pictures in the lower part of the sheet (rows 4 and 5) show how the same types of designs have reappeared in other materials such as wrought iron which became popular in the 19th century. Most of these examples are from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum London, except for one on the right side, row 4, which was the railing of a 1900's staircase in an Italian hotel.

The second sheet shows three sculptures based on spirals. The top left installation is a series of torqued elipses by Richard Serra, seen at the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao. This is my favourite because of the fascinating way the ellipses have been constructed, with the angles of the sides varied to give different sensations as you walk through the "maze", with the walls leaning in, then out. I have also shown another interesting variation formed by the shadow cast by a sun umbrella, and finally (bottom row) an ammonite fossil and an example of a spiral staircase which is based on a similar shape.


Textile Sources
Spirals are often used as a design feature in fabrics and garments. The first picture here is of a spiral motif created with a cord and used as a decorative element on a lady's jacket (garment owned by a friend of mine). The second picture shows a shawl I purchased on the island of Patmos in Greece and the third a very old piece of embroidery from Turkey (75 years or so) which has a gold oval with various stylized "sprigs" radiationg from it.
































































Drawings
I experimented by drawing examples of some different types of spirals related to my research, starting with 4 basic shapes.

Drawing 1: Basic spiral, also known as the Archimedian spiral. I found that the best way to develop an even progression with the lines staying the same distance apart was to increase the radius by about one-eighth every one-eighth of a turn.



Drawing 2: Clothoide or Cornu spiral - two joined Archimedian spirals, with the second rotating the opposite direction to the first. This was common in Greek and Roman architecture.



Drawing 3: Spiral from line segments,in this case joined like the Clothoide. This pattern and variations, also known as meander style patterns, were common in ancient Greek, Roman and Turkish buildings and floor mosaics.



Drawing 4: Root spiral or root snail (also known as the wheel of Theodorus). This is reminscent of the shape of the ammonite fossil shown earlier, and also the nautilus and other shells.



Drawing 5: Chlotoides arranged in a row to form a pleasing pattern. This array was observed in the bannister of a hotel staircase in Italy.



Drawing 6: Drawings of segments of wrought iron seen in the V & A Museum, as well as a few basic spirals. Bottom right shows the effect of distorting the basic spiral.