9b: The worked sample
Here is the worked sample based on the design outlined in Section 9a. I followed the basic plan but made a few modifications along the way, taking into account Sian's comments and also some refinements that seemed appropriate as I progressed.The main changes were:
- I added another thin strip of monoprinted fabric in the top left corner as the printed areas seemed a bit sparse when they were applied to the machine-embroidered background.
- I used more machine stitching than originally envisaged and varied the thread colour and thickness, to build up the background and integrate the printed strips with the background fabric.
-I also incorporated some colour change in the background, from predominantly yellows in the top left corner to more blues, greens and purples towards the right. However I did not overdo this as I did not want it to dominate the piece. On reflection, I think I could have added a bit more colour to the bottom right corner.
- I started off making Dorset buttons to insert into the circular area at the top of each spiral cord, but in the end I cut away the worked centres and just left the rings, as I thought the effect was too heavy when the rings were filled in. I then decided to work a small coiled bit by hand inside each circle to compete the spiral effect.
9a: Developing the Design
The starting point for the design was this wrought iron banister photographed at a hotel in Italy. The spiral form used here is the clothoide or cornu spiral.
I had produced a monoprinted fabric featuring these shapes earlier in the module and thought this would be a good place to start.
However I thought using this fabric "as is" gave a background that was a bit too busy, so I came up with the idea of cutting it into strips, which would be placed diagonally across the background of hand dyed lemon cotton fabric. This gave a hint of the banister which was the origin of the design but also suggested movement, as the spirals moved in a line across the page. I did a mock up of the background with paper, using the Fibonacci sequence as a guide for the width and spacing of the printed strips. I envisage that interest and texture would be added to the plain yellow parts of the background by machine stitching more of the chosen spiral shapes in a matching or variegated lemon thread, but taking care to place them in diagonal lines which followed the printed strips.
I then considered what to add on top of the background. After trying various ideas, I decided that I would apply approximately 3 cords which partially repeated the basic spiral shape from the printed fabric. To give a sense of movement, these would be larger, displaced from the diagonal lines of the background and the tails would represent unravelled spirals with trailing ends. However I thought it was important that the basic linear form was retained and not overcrowded or muddied too much - hence the restriction on the number of spiral cords to be applied. The mock up below gives the general idea using cords that I had on hand, but the final ones may be a bit different. The head of the spiral with be embellished by adding Dorset buttons - again the ones shown here were what I had on hand and have been used are to illustrate the concept and are not the final ones for the piece. I looked at other button options, but felt that the open nature of the Dorset buttons fitted with the decision to retain an open feel to the piece and not swamp the basic linear aspects of the design. I will also add further rows of hand stitching to emphasise the spiral outlines formed by the cords.
