folding. like origami paper folds memory
memory of clothes and sheets and other home linen as you grow up with it
the article about newborn baby cloth wrapping
memories of clothes, the feel of fabric. comfort. protection
expand later. initial notes
created http://www.haptichuman.com to collect info about these ideas
making squares and rectangles using contemporary smocking from square wave patterns. it’s based on the lozenge pattern. getting the hang of it. I drew the square waves by hand so they’re not perfectly even, so the squares sometimes don’t line up perfectly. but I like the 3D shapes they make. I need to iron/press these too to see the effect. I like the puffy (un-ironed) version also
I saw this cool photo of waveforms placed next to nature waveform patterns, so I wonder if an audio waveform pattern could be used as a smocking guide also. worth a try to see what happens
next I might try some shapes like Matija Čop used in these 3D architectural based garments. there’s so many fabric manipulations on pinterest too. I’ve pinned some on my textiles page to remind me to try them also
textiles
– make a mind map & taxonomy of craft vs art (fine art?) & map textiles into this
— applied function, purpose
— containers, coverings, adornment, tools (hand), machines
– plato’s forms
– machines – sadie plant article
– craft objects found all around the world from archaeological digs. in the future will they find all of our landfill, rubbish and think it was our art/ craft? how much will dissolve/break down?
– early. biomimicry by humans let us survive and evolve. look at bee flower petal nest
craft as biomimicry
art as self
http://www.textilecentermn.org/art-speaks-art-vs-craft/
http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/contemporary-te…
I’ve been making dragonscale (reverse smocking) using Michele Carragher’s instructions (she is the game of thrones’ embroiderer). I finally got it to work, after unpicking the first few attempts (& realising I’ve done it on wrong side of the fabric – right side for regular smocking). I’m using this as part of the fabric manipulation topic in assignment 3 work. I’ll use this page to add more details and summarise it (with other samples) on the assignment page later.
notes for the pattern:
first attempt – I had only drawn the dots, not the triangles and became a bit lost, so these two didn’t work out. I unpicked them and started again.
next time, I drew the triangles as a template onto the fabric also. this helped a lot, and I managed to make it correctly this time
the right side of the fabric – this shows the smocking pattern, but the “dragonscale” uses the other side, so I actually made the whole piece on the wrong side of the fabric. oh well. know for next time.
the wrong side of the fabric – showing the dragonscale. I need to iron/press it to flatten it, though I like the puffy pattern also.
some more progress
this weekend in the UK the “Subversive Stitch Revisited: The Politics of Cloth” conference was (is being) held. as it’s a bit far to go from Australia, I missed out on attending the lectures. their twitter feed mentions the sessions will be uploaded as podcasts soon, so I shall try to take a listen to them. I have a copy of the original book, “The Subversive Stitch: embroidery and the making of the feminine (1984)” by Rozsika Parker, though I have only browsed through it. I hope to read more over the Christmas break (along with Colour book).
here’s an image of the flyer:
event details, from the ticket site:
Keynote Speakers include: Professor Griselda Pollock, University of Leeds
The Subversive Stitch Revisited: The Politics of Cloth will explore the legacy of Rozsika Parker’s groundbreaking book, The Subversive Stitch: embroidery and the making of the feminine (1984) and two landmark exhibitions from 1988 that developed Parker’s ideas. It will consist of a two day event held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and an online resource that will include documentation of the event. The Subversive Stitch Revisited will be dedicated to the memory of Rozsika Parker, who died in 2010.
Presentations taking place on Friday (29/11/2013) will reflect on the art and feminist debates of the 1970s and 80s from which the exhibitions emerged. It will feature keynote presentations by Griselda Pollock and American artist Elaine Reichek in conversation with Jenni Sorkin (University of California, Santa Barbara). Saturday (30/11/2013) explores the politics of cloth now, focusing on current activity by both women and men that addresses ethical, social and global issues, and on cloth as a subversive strategy.
Speakers and presenters include:Megha Rajguru + Nicola Ashmore, Đorđe Balmazović, Michael Bath, Claire Barber + Rowan Bailey, Lise Bjørne Linnert, Leah Borromeo, Anthea Black + Nicole Burisch, Christine Checinska, Sarah Corbett, Steffi Duarte, Leora Farber, Elke Gaugele, Betsy Greer, Roisin Inglesby, Alexandra Kokoli, Kimberly Lamm, Anne Moore, Brenda Schmahmann, Rose Sinclair, Jenni Sorkin, Matt Smith, Lisa Vinebaum, Liese Van Der Watt.
tonight I’ve been taking a look at embroidery by Junko Oki – she has some beautiful pieces. I love her use of circles and lines.
I emailed her to order a copy of her new book, “Culte a la Carte” (I think her first book has sold out), and mentioned I was doing a textiles course and had been enjoying embroidery. I asked if hers was all stitched by hand or mixed with machine embroidery too. she responded,
“I’m glad to you interested in my work.
My work is stitched by hand all.
I do not have that you have to study about embroidery .
I have the feeling produced in like writing a picture.”
the circles are intricate rows of fine blanket stitch, with lines in running stitch and some feather stitch. lots of “sun” themes. I’m really loving it. the imperfections and textures created by the stitching mixed with the choice of textures and colours of the fabrics as the backgrounds. I’m looking forward to the book arriving so I can see more of her work.
I love some of the backside stitches, ie via February 2012:
from Dee’s Hall from October 2012 – a lovely portrait of a woman’s profile.
& a closeup of the spheres from April 2013
I love this one, with the stripey, business shirt or crisp new bed linen / sheets type pleats, darts, gathers & smocking to create movement and shape in 3D, and how the stitched parts of the fabric are chaotic and textured with layers of white and black threads, and complemented with the reddish-brown layer – they draw the eye in and let you explore the stitches as well as the joins of the different fabrics, and edges of the fabric. I love the ripped / torn edges on the lower part of the piece. there’s a range of sewing techniques shown around the edges of the stitching, and decorated & highlighted by the stitches. the top of the photo shows order and crispness with a starch ironed feel which reminds me of work / business shirts, whilst the bottom of the photo shows more flowing, free & lighter fabrics for holidays and home wear. to me it feels like it’s a mix of the fabrics of a life, and the phases of our lives.
rainy today from october 2012 also.
I’ve started reading a book by Victoria Finlay called “Colour: A Natural History of the Palette” where she travels and describes how some colours in art have been lost, beginning with a memory of her father telling her how the blue used in the stained glass windows in Chartres is no longer available. (some other sites now say it hasn’t been lost). I found an audio interview with Finlay on the ABC website.
yesterday I saw an article called “The Colorful Stories of 5 Obsolete Art Pigments” which describes five pigments which have disappeared from art: Maya Blue, Tyrian Purple, White Lead, Lapis Lazuli, Dragon’s Blood with an update of another three: Mummy Brown, Indian Yellow, Scheele’s Green. the article is continued in another article, “More Vibrant Tales of Obsolete Pigments”.
I’ve only done a short class on colour theory for knitting and yarn/fibres a few years ago (end of 2010) with Shannon Oakey / knitgrrl, but as I am a slow knitter, I didn’t get it finished within the timeframe of the class – I shall have to dig up the notes and take another look. it’s been interesting and fun to explore colours. as part of the surface embroidery class exercises, I even tried painting my own colour wheel of primary and secondary colours to experiment with mixing colours and to make it easier to remember which colours are used. I am used to television (analog and digital) signals and colours which are different – we use RGB (red-green-blue) as the “primary” colours for pixels and screen colours, rather than red-yellow-blue as is used in art / paint mixing, so I keep having to remind myself of this “new” (different) colour scheme.
for one of the knitgrrl exercises we had to look at our yarn stash, select images of those colours from the Multicolr site and then arrange the yarn skeins into colour tone. then select a colour I like (I chose red for this exercise) + a colour I didn’t like (I chose green for this exercise) from my yarn stash and put them together, then knit a small colour swatch of the two. at that time I had mostly red and pink yarns as I was making some toys for friends’ children. my stash has since expanded in colour range. as Shannon said, “isn’t it amazing to see how even a color you don’t like can suddenly become interesting when it’s combined with one you DO like?”
>> multicolr : 1 colour – dark red
>> multicolr : 2 colours – dark red & lime green
>> 1. Arrange balls of your favorite color from left to right value-wise (light to dark) and snap a photo.
>> 2. Arrange balls of your favorite color from left to right tone-wise (based on saturation of color) and snap a photo.
>> 3. Find something (could be yarn, could be something else if you don’t have any yarn in this color) that’s the color you DON’T like very much and pick one ball of your favorite color yarn. Take a picture of them together.
> knit the yarns intothis pattern (I didn’t knit the swatch pattern correctly though – one day I will try this again)
References:
Finlay, Victoria. 2002. Colour: A Natural History of the Palette. Random House.
this morning I read the articles that had arrived in my inbox and webpages overnight and discovered a talented Sydney based textiles designer called Joanna Fowles via this article in TDF (the design files). Joanna is originally from the UK, though has lived in Australia previously – when she did a year-long TAFE screenprinting course. she then returned to England where she studied textile design at Chelsea College of Art. I love her geometric designs – featuring many large and overlapping dots. she specializes in Shibori dyeing and printing, using the Shibori indigo as well as other colours to create her scarves and fabrics. I notice Fowles also has a design featured in the wonderful “Digital Textile Design” book by Melanie Bowles and Ceri Isaac, which “covers everything students and practitioners of textile design will need to learn about designing and printing digitally”.
I made a few nice discoveries from this article too – The School is a studio and education space in Rosebery, Sydney where Fowles runs some workshops. I’ve signed up for one of her classes to make a Shibori scarf. it’s a little expensive but from all reports is worth the money, so I’m looking forward to trying this at the end of April.
also, Fowles mentions a couple of stores in Surry Hills – I went to these today, as it’s been years since I went shopping in Surry Hills – though there’s a fabric store nearby that I’ve been meaning to visit for a while – and found a lovely handwoven beach / bath towel at Collector Store. I had a look in The Standard Store located on the other corner of the block but the garments, whilst lovely, were out of my price range. I particularly liked the colourful hand-knits from Erotokritos and if I’d had a spare $250+ and were a couple of sizes smaller I might have bought one. in the meantime, I joined their Facebook page so I can see if there’s other fabrics I like.
other discoveries include Kinfolk magazine – I tried the ipad versions of the first three issues – unfortunately subsequent issues aren’t available for the ipad. I might try find a printed copy of it, as those first three issues were great – it’s just the amount of time it takes to arrive from the USA that puts me off often. also, Patternity has some great patterned images, and Synaptic Stimuli is aptly named for the visual feast that it is.
