Chapter 2: Coloured Papers

A & B: Coloured and Printed Papers

(1) Cartridge paper was coloured in orange and blue with acrylic paints, either as a single colour or mixtures of the two. Later experiments with cut shapes (Chapter 3) showed that the most effective results were obtained when there were distinct (not too small) areas of each colour rather than a very "busy" pattern with the two colours. However some interesting intermediate hues and tonal effects were also produced in areas where the two colours mixed/overlapped.

(2) After painting a background colour, some paper was over-printed with a segment of a star shape cut into a rubber, using either a darker colour in the same hue or a mixture of colours. Overall I did not find this technique appealing, particularly because of the difficulty in getting an pleasing shape due to the lack of fine control when carving the rubber.

(3) Because of my lack of enthusiasm about the effects obtained with the printed pattern, I also experimented with some other techniques for adding a pattern to the paper. These included over printing with dabbed colour painted on bubble wrap, applying paint through a kitchen strainer and colouring paper with water soluble oil pastels and drawing star shapes in a darker hue over the top.

C: Star Shapes from Coloured Papers

This sheet shows a variety of star shapes cut from the coloured papers, using the sheets from Chapter 1 as inspiration. The starfish shape was still the one which appealed most to me, although some interesting effects were achieved by combining the two colours in some of the others.

Chapter 1: Research on Stars

Chosen Shape: Stars

Definition of a star: a figure having rays (commonly 5 or 6) proceeding from, or angular points disposed in a regular outline about, a central point, and considered as representing a star in the sky (Macquarie Dictionary).

A star does not have to be symmetrical, but must have the key elements of a central point with marks radiating out from it.

The attached sheets show some pictures of stars collected during my research.

Page 1 particularly features pictures of starfish, which is the star shape I am considering using for my embroidered samples. Starfish characteristically have 5 radiating arms, highly textured surfaces, intense, often bright, colours and regular or semi-regular, patterns. These characteristics make them interesting subjects to use as a starting point for embroidery. As well as examples photographed from nature, I have included samples of jewellery, gift cards & wrapping, and mosaics (by Gaudi, seen in Barcelona in May 2007), to show how the basic starfish shape can inspire the creation of other objects.

Page 2 shows some varied star shapes which also interest me, including examples of tiled stars used in Moorish architecture (seen in Granada, Spain in May 2007), the star shape from the John Lennon memorial in Central Park, New York, seen in April 2007, and some textile and embroidered examples collected from various textile magazines durng the year.

Line Drawings of Star Shapes

These sheets show line drawings of some of the star shapes from the collages of inspirational images shown above. The starfish shape offers possibilities for creating interesting curved & twisted shapes (a little like some of the mosaics created by Gaudi).

Colour Circle

Although this colour circle was created with Reeves Watercolour Paints, it was difficult to get an even spread of colour in the painted segments. The full colours were mixed first, and then white added to one aliquot to create a tint and black added to another aliquot to create a shade. If I was doing this again I would add a bit more white to get a greater contrast with the tints, and experiment with adding a little more water. However I decided to move on to the next set of exercises rather than spend more time on this at present.

The six base colours which were used were:

• Brilliant red
• Crimson red
• Medium yellow
• Lemon (Citron) yellow
• Ultramarine
• Phthalo blue
  

Complementary Colour Selection: I have decided to use the complementary coloursof BLUE and ORANGE for my paper and textile exercises in this module because of their relationship to the colours of starfish in nature and because they evoke memories of the sea and the sandy shore.

Getting Started

Well, my first problem was to think of a name for my blog. So after extensive research I decided to create the word 'Jenbroidery', which is obviously a combination of Jenny & Embroidery (given the purpose of the blog!). Now that I have got things working, I need to learn how to insert photos, and then get started with adding my work for the the first seven chapters of Module 1. As a trial, I have inserted here a couple of photos of earlier work I have done with the NSW Embroiderers' Guild. Clockwise from the top they are:

(1) Experiments with texture (various yarns & detached chain, on hessian coloured with pastels), 2006

(2) Starfish for Guild Postcard Challenge, 2007 (Applique, reverse applique, couching & surface stitchery)

(3) Poppy Anemone Close Up (surface stitchery , coarse & fine threads, painted Vlisofix surface ) , 2006

(4) Goldwork (my first-ever piece) from Introductory Course, 2005.