CHAPTER 6: SIMPLE TASSELS

a. Simple Tassels by Hand


The first picture shows some of the simplest tassels I tried. The ones on the left and right were done by wrapping the selected yarn over cardboard, tying off the top, then wrapping either the same yarn or another cord around the bunch of threads about one third of the way down. A twisted cord or wrapped cord was used at the top as a hanger for the tassel and the lower ends were cut to form the skirt. The one on the left, which was the first I tried, was too small and out of proportion, so after that I worked with longer lengths of thread. The second one, on the right, has better proportions. The tassel in the centre, which I thought gave a more interesting and pleasing result, was started the same way, but after tying off the neck, the head at the top was divided in two and button hole stitch worked selectively in bands around the loop. The bottom end of the skirt was left looped as well, which looked good with the textured yarn.


The second picture shows some more experiments in forming the head of the tassel. The one on the left was formed from a multicoloured twisted yarn. The threads were divided into three bunches and then the centre third of each bunch was joined by plaiting to form the head. The plaited ends were bound separately and then bound together, to form the neck of the tassel. The loose ends of the yarn were knotted to finish off the skirt. The tassel on the right was made from strips of sari offcuts. The fraying edges of the fabric added to the effect. Three bundles of strips were bound randomly in the middle with yellow-gold thread, then the three banded pieces were twisted around each other before the neck was bound. The binding was not bold enough for the intensity of the fabrics, so I finished off the neck with a fatter gold cord. Looking at the photo, I think the skirt could have been a little longer and the cord bound a bit tighter, but it actually look all right "in the flesh".




This photo shows more experiments with different materials and ways of forming the tassel. The left one used a mixture of silk ribbons and gold cord to form the skirt, which was tightly bound at the top and pulled through a gold mesh ball to cover the neck, finishing with a gold curtain ring at the top. In the centre tassel I experimented with beads to form the skirt and neck, then finishes with a rind at the top which was covered with thread using buttonholes stitch and then small beads added as decoration. Detached buttonhole stitch was worked on the neck of the tassel on the right and a beaded lop was added to form the head. I was pleased with these tassels overall, as I think all were interesting designs and the proportions seemed fairly good.


This photo shows two attempts to produce decorative necks, which proved to be trickier than I had anticipated. For the one on the left I used an old cotton reel, padded it with wadding, covered this with a stretched piece of old stocking to give a smooth surface and then wound a cord made from twisted gimp around it. This proved to be easier said than done and I ended up having to use a few stitches to help hold the cord in place. I think the end result looks quite good, but I would probably use a softer, more firmly twisted cord next time round. In the second one on the right I wanted to get a double bulge effect on the neck. The top part was worked with detached chain and some wadding stiffed inside and then a second binding added further down. On reflection I think the skirt should have been longer and not so fat, and the top part of the neck should have had extra padding so it bulged out more.

b. Tassels by Machine


These three tassels were quite easy to make. I only made one size as I didn't have good equipment on hand to make larger wire frames. I thought the head of the purple one in the centre was a bit boring with only machine stitching. The blue one on the right is better because the variegated threads and the knot add interest. I added a few beads to the head of the one on the left to complement the gold and purple braid I had used to bind and decorate the neck and was pleased with the result.

CHAPTER 5: CORD MAKING

A. MACHINE STITCHED CORDS
On the whole I found this technique easy to do and was able to produce some pleasing results very quickly. The main drawback was the limited thickness of the cords that can be produced due to the need to be able to feed them under the foot of the sewing machine.




Sample Group 1: This group shows samples made from combinations of commercial threads and knitting yarns. Some pleasing effects were created using bobbly yarns.The cord on the right had yellow embroidery thread wrapped loosely around it to give an extra highlight after the sewing.
Sample Group 2: These cords were produced from combinations of fabric strips, ribbons, yarns and braids. I found that if one of the strips was much wider than the others, it tended to dominate the finished effect. This could be good or bad, depending on the effect that one was trying to achieve.
Sample Group 3: In this group, strips of more experimental materials such as raffia, Lutradur strips, plastic strips and netting were included in combination with the yarns or braids. I thought some of these were quite interesting, but again, one needs to think about the relative widths of the different materials and the final effect desired.























B: TWISTED CORDS

Sample Group 4: These twisted cords were easy to produce and gave some good effects. The tip of hooking the threads over the spool spindle on the sewing machine worked well. With this method it was possible to make thin cords by using fine cottons or wool and thick textured cords by including strips of fabric and chunky knitting yarn in the combinations. Materials used in these samples included sewing threads, textured and smooth knitting yarns, fabric strips, braids and raffia.





C: KNOTTED, PLAITED AND WRAPPED METHODS


Sample Group 5: Knotted Cords. The first two samples in this group show a simple knotted cord and a second produced by alternating which component is used to make the half hitch. The third is a looped braid edge or Pawnee braid, the fourth a continuous twist chain and finally a cord produced by double ridge hitching or alternate chaining.






Sample Group 6: Examples of Various Knots - Josephine knot and looped Josephine Knot (Reference: Effie Mitrofanis, Tassels and Trimmings, Simon and Schuster, 1992), monkey's fist knot (Reference: Cyrus L Day, Knots and Splices, Adlard Coles Nautical, 1953) and flat Turk's head knot. The Turk's head was diabolical although I liked the final effect. I finally mastered it after finding a demonstration on UTube (http://www.videojug.com/webvideo/how-to-tie-a-turks-head-knot-2).


Sample Group 7: Plaited Cords - I experimented with a range of material types and thicknesses to produce these plaited cords. These included smooth cords of the same thickness pulled up tightly after plaiting, 2 smooth cords (same or different colours) and a bobbly knitting yarn, string of fine beads and 2 fine yarns, 2 fine yards and a string of chunky beads in 2 sizes, a textured yarn with a smooth yarn and a strip of netting. I thought that most of these results were pleasing and had possibilities for the future. Again, I found I could manipulate the three strands fairly well if I hooked them over the spool spindle on the sewing machine and pulled moderately firmly to maintain the tension.

WRAPPED CORDS
Sample Group 8: Simple Wrapped cords. I really enjoy wrapping cords and like the effects that I can produce. These simple cords were produced by experimenting with components of different types, thicknesses and textures, varying which cords formed the core and which were being wrapped, varying the tightness and spacing of the wrapping and adding knots at irregular intervals.
Sample Group 9: More Complex Wrapped Cords. One of the tutors at the NSW Embroiderers' Guild, Effie Mitrofanis, recently published a book which features the use of wrapped cords in embroidery (Reference: Effie Mitrofanis, Threadwork - silks, stitches, beads and cords, Milner Craft Series, 2009). In fact it would make a great reference for this course. I did a workshop on wrapped cords with Effie last year. Her technique mostly uses a wrapped core as the foundation and then adds extra wrapped threads and beads as highlights on the outside. The cords in this picture demonstrate the techniques. Starting from the left, the first 3 samples were done last year and second 3 made for this module. They can be used in jewellery or wearable items or added to embroidered works as embellishments.

CHAPTER 4: DECORATE WITH STITCHERY

A. HAND STITCHERY
Sample 1 - this shows various spiral shapes based on my wrought iron theme worked by hand using a range of stitches and threads. Far left- a combination of stem stitch and spiral stitch (Enthoven, page 103), top centre - very dense back stitch, bottom centre - stem stitch, running stitch and detached chain, far right - chain stitch with a close row of stem stitch either side.



Sample 2 - experiments with a helix shape using back stitch, buttonhole, and straight stitches
.











Sample 3 - uses chain stitch, stem stitch and running stitch to form a random network of spirals which touch and overlap, again with a variety of threads and colours.







Sample 4 - several different spirals worked with a range of metallic gold threads couched with various types of cottons. I was particularly pleased with this sample as I had not done some of these techniques before (e.g. the Or Nué and the S-ing). The combination of metallic gold and purple is very pleasing and some great textures can be achieved by varying the type of gold, the couching threads and the chosen technique.




Sample 5- in this sample, a design reminiscent of wrought iron had been imprinted with paint onto the purple fabric. The main shape was then outlined with couched metallic gold thread, and then enhanced with further stem and running stitch to highlight the shape. Again, I liked this sample and could see possible avenues to explore further in the future.





B: MACHINE STITCHERY
These three samples (samples 6 to 8) were my first attempts at free machine embroidery. My main conclusion was that I needed a lot more practice to make my movements smooth and the stitching more even! Nevertheless, some interesting effects were achieved by trialling different colours and threads. I generally ended up using combinations of different thread types in all of them, as I found that the effects were a bit boring with just normal machine threads, even if I used variegated threads or different colours in the top spool and bobbin. I preferred the more textured effects I could create using thicker threads in the bobbin.

















C. COMBINING HAND AND MACHINE STITCHING
Sample 9 - I did this sample largely to practise my free machine stitching. I outlined the shape and then filled each segment with different types of filling stitches (reference: Pam Watts, Beginner's Guide to Machine Embroidery, Search Press,2003, page 36). At the end I whipped the outlines by hand to give them greater weight. Doing this sample gave me a lot more confidence in handling the free machine stitching, but I still have a way to go to consider myself proficient!















Sample 10 - In this sample I tried to emphasise the shapes created by the Shibori dyeing (discharge technique) that I had done on the base fabric. The centres of each shape and the unfilled areas were machine stitched, and then I added hand stitched spirals in slightly gathered running stitch to the dyed areas. I tried to make the stitching complement the marks made by the dyeing process. Overall I was pleased with the result.



Sample 11 - this sample had one of my monoprinted fabrics as its base. I then added the purple and jade green bars by machine, as well as the jade and yellow spirals around the edge. All of these roughly echoed and amplified the impression made by the monoprint. Finally I couched the large spiral over the top using a rough cross stitch. This was made from a lacy knitting yarn that I had bought a few years ago and had in my stash. This sample is quite a different style from many of the others, but I think it works well with the bold monoprint.

Sample 12- This was also worked on a monoprinted fabric, but this time the base was not so bold, so the cable-stitched spiral shapes were very dominant. Some of the spirals were also filled in with stitching using 2 threads at once. The background was delicately filled with gold machine stitching which worked well and then some hand stitching (French knots or detached chain) was added to some of the spirals for emphasis. I thought the overall spiral design was less cohesive than some of my other samples, but the colour and texture effects were very pleasing. I think some of these ideas could be developed further.

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.