Chapter 5 - patterned papers

This chapter was fun and I had trouble stopping once I got started.

 

Fig. 5.1

 Produced with the edge of a piece of card dipped in black ink. Reptilian scales?

 

Fig. 5.2

I used a feather 'brush' dipped in ink. Tiger stripes

 

Fig. 5.3

 The edge of a piece of card dipped in ink to produce this tortoiseshell pattern.

 

Fig. 5.4

 Corrugated card dipped in ink and used as a brush to imitate the direction of feathers.

 

Fig. 5.5 

The edge of a piece of curved card in acrylic paint on my gelli plate.

 

Fig. 5.6

 I stretched a net bag from some fruit across my gelli plate and spread acrylic ink through it with a brayer. Snake skin!

 

Fig. 5.7

My feather 'brush' again this time used on  acrylic paint on my gelli-plate.

 

Fig. 5.8

Again the feather 'brush' on acrylic paint on the gelli plate to produce a tortoiseshell pattern.

 

 

Fig. 5.9

 A larger tortoiseshell pattern this time made in the same way as in Fig. 5.8

 

Fig. 5.10

 A circular textured wooden stamp on acrylic paint spread on the gelli-plate.

 

Fig. 5.11

 I used a small foam decorator's roller with elastic bands wrapped around it at intervals rolled through black acrylic paint then rolled directly onto the paper.

 

Fig. 5.12

Sample 5.12 was produced in exactly the same way as 5.11

 

 

Fig. 5.13

 Circular felt furniture protectors stuck onto a child's rolling pin rolled across my acrylic paint covered gelli-plate then over-printed using the same method directly onto the paper.

 

Fig. 5.14

 Natural sponge dipped into black acrylic paint then dabbed onto the gelli plate. Leopard's spots.

 

Fig. 5.15

As sample 5.14 above but this time printed direct to the paper rather than onto the gelli-plate.

 

Fig. 5.16 

I rolled acrylic paint through a stencil onto the gelli-plate. Snake skin.

 

Fig. 5.17

Soft cotton string was laid on the gelli-plate in a random fashion then acrylic paint spread over the top.

 

Fig. 5.18

 Cotton bud used to produce scale patterns on the gelli plate using acrylic paint.

 

Fig. 5.19

And finally a second pull from the plate after printing 5.18.

Chapter 4 - Drawing patterns

I chose several of my animal patterns from my initial research, trying to choose a range of different types rather than limit myself to just one section of the animal world. I enlarged these on the computer, printed them out in grey-scale and then picked out interesting sections of the images to draw.

 Fig. 4.1

 Fig. 4.2

 Fig. 4.3

 Fig. 4.4

 

Fig. 4.5

 

 Fig. 4.6

 

Fig. 4.7

 

Fig. 4.8

 

Fig. 4.9

I have to say that the lizard in Fig. 4.8 is by far my favourite and I couldn't resist stitching a piece of needle-lace from the drawing I made of his cheek - just a couronne with lots of picots worked in perle 8 thread. Very quick to do but effective and great fun.

 

Chapter 3 - Machine stitches

My first real foray into my machine's embroidery stitches. I treated myself to a Janome TXL607 for my birthday earlier this year so I have plenty to choose from.

 Fig. 3.1

Sample a is a zig-zag stitch using the stitch length control.

Sample b is the same stitch but this time altering the width control.

Sample c is a 3-step wave stitch altering both width and length controls.

 Fig. 3.2

Sample d shows a 3-step battlement stitch altering both width and length controls across the sample.

Sample e is a leaf embroidery stitch again altering both width and length 

Sample f is a honeycomb diamond pattern altering the length and width of the stitch and playing with the spacing between the rows. This looks a bit like reptilian scales.

 Fig. 3.3

Sample g uses a straight stitch in non-parallel lines to produce a shaded sample, which is quite effective.

Sample h is worked as above but this time with a honeycomb pattern which I found a little more tricky to control.

Sample i is a wave pattern using black thread on the spool and white on top - the reverse side is showing in the sample. I like this one a lot!

 Fig. 3.4

Sample j is whip stitch with black thread on the spool and white thread through the needle using a straight stitch.

Sample k is whip stitch again but this time using a zig-zag stitch, again with black thread on the spool and white through the needle. My machine revolted at doing a close zig-zag but it has made for an interesting effect on the reverse of this piece.

Sample l is cable stitch with Perle 16 black thread hand wound onto the spool and white thread through the needle, using a straight stitch.

Fig. 3.5

Sample m is cable stitch as before but this time with Perle 8 hand wound onto the spool.

Sample n is cable stitch again with Perle 8 on the spool but this time using a 3-step curved zig-zag stitch.

 

The whip stitch and cable stitch samples shown in Figs. 3.4 and 3.5 were achieved by completely bypassing the spool mechanism as my machine has a drop-in spool so without dismantling the machine it is impossible to reach the tension screw on the bobbin case. 

I'm not too sure how successful some of these samples have been and feel that I need to practice and experiment a bit more with them before I feel totally comfortable. I suspect that it's never going to overtake my love of hand stitching though.

Chapter 2 - Stitched columns

Always much happier with a needle in my hand and I love blackwork so this chapter was right up my street!

 Fig. 2:1

I began with a short paragraph about blackwork embroidery which dates back to at least the 15th century and originated in Spain. The repeat patterns found their way onto the cuffs, bodices and sleeves of the British nobility, as can be seen in many portraits of the time (including the one of Queen Elizabeth on this page). Stitched using a double running stitch (Holbein stitch) or backstitch, purists insist that the design should be identical on both back and front of the work. There is sense in this as the black thread can show through fine white fabric if there are large spaces between stitches. Although traditionally worked in black thread with either silver or gold highlights, today coloured thread is often used and beautiful effects can be achieved by using space-dyed or hand-dyed stranded cottons.

I've included a card showing a horse's head stitched by Cluny Chapman, who is one of the York Broderers and who has been to give talks at our branch of the Embroiderers' Guild on a couple of occasions. 

 

Fig. 2.2

Fig. 2.2 has the horse's head image flipped back to reveal my own blackwork design which I've used parts of in the following exercises.

 Fig. 2.3

Column a in Fig.2.3 shows the design being reduced by one element at each stage. It was stitched with a single strand of Anchor stranded cotton on a fine Aida fabric. I worked 2 rows at each stage in order to show the full effect of the 'disappearing' pattern. This works very well as a tonal column.

Column b is again stitched with a single strand of Anchor stranded cotton but this time the design has been spaced apart by one extra 'thread' of the fabric at each stage. This again works well at lightening the tone as the design becomes more widely spaced.

Column c is stitched initially with the full 6 strands of Anchor thread, reducing the number of strands used by one at each stage and again this is very effective at representing tone but in a much more subtle way.

Column d is not really a column at all - this is the one that didn't work. The design was increased in size by one stitch in each direction and immediately became too large to continue. A simpler design would probably have worked better in this instance.

Fig. 2.4

Column e at the top of Fig. 2.4 is worked in cross stitch worked over two threads of the Aida fabric. I worked with a skein of black Anchor stranded cotton and a skein of white and altered the mix of strands at each stage... i.e.

6 strands black; 5 black + 1 white; 4 black + 2 white; 3 black + 3 white; 2 black + 4 white; 1 black + 5 white and finally 6 strands of white.

This produced a very smooth change in tone though would have been easier to work on a smaller count fabric!

Column f is worked in much more random cross stitches using a wide variety of threads including tapestry wool; chenille; perle 8; perle 16; coton a broder 16; coton a broder 25; stranded cotton (various numbers of strands) and Gutermann sewing thread.

I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter and feel that all the methods used (with the one exception) were very effective in producing different tonal values.

Module 2 - Animal Magic

Module 2 is all about animal patterns and I was excited to find a sketchbook which was appropriate for the topic!

Fig. 1: Sketchbook cover

The first task was to find visual information - an overwhelming choice of material is available on the internet and I also had pages from an old part-work that my children had when they were young, from which images were cut out.

 Fig. 2

 Fig. 3

Fig. 4

I selected images from all branches of the animal kingdom - mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, birds, butterflies...

Fig. 5

and  brainstormed my thoughts for just three of them:
1. Tiger - strong; powerful; fierce; brave; deadly; claws; scratch; cat; prowling; stealthy; pounces; concealed; hidden; camouflage; golden; stripes; sleek
2. Snake - sinuous; writhe; flexible; twist; twine; coil; glide; slither; scaley; stripes; diamonds; forked tongue; fangs; venomous; squeeze; crush; cylindrical; long; narrow; slender
3. Butterfly - fluttering; fly; gentle; fragile; multicoloured; spots; stripes; patches; caterpillar; transform; mutate; slender; delicate; ethereal; short-lived

I realise I could have gone on and on with this exercise but felt I'd probably got enough initial ideas.

THE STUDY OF TONE
I made a series of tonal columns using different media:

 Fig. 6

The left hand column in Fig. 6 is made using ink. The first bottle I opened was actually grey rather than black but I left it in place as it helps the tonal quality of the column, then went over the upper half with black ink.

The right hand column is charcoal.

 Fig. 7

The left hand column in Fig. 7 is made using a Sharpie pen and the right hand column is a collage of newsprint. The collage works very well as I managed to find sections of adverts with different tones of grey in the image.

Fig. 8

The left hand column in Fig. 8 is made with sequins and the lower section is made up of silver and white sequins. Unfortunately the silver is appearing much darker in the image than it is in reality. It actually works rather well in real life. The right hand column is white chalk on black paper.

Fig. 9

This last column is mixed media - including acrylic paint, torn papers, watercolour, black pastel and white chalk and again I'm happy with this one, especially the collage part at the top.