Sunday, October 28, 2012

Stitching The Heart.

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This technique of stitching the heart onto the wire (which I used on the lungs)  had always been my intention. I was delaying it though because i liked the way it looked on the clamps and I was worried also I'd mess it up or just be disappointed with the outcome and not know where to go next. It took a second go of doing but I'm really happy with it. Like the way the stretched silk and wool has a membraneous living tissue feel. The stitching also emphasises the whole textiles themes, both personal (the desire to live in the physical world and have a useful physicality) and a more generalised fascination that our anatomy IS of such physical matter, maybe as vulnerable and delicate as the silk and wool.

More progress with the felting technique and wire.


Felted shapes pinned to wire. At this point not sure how to attatch.


These white coat hanger/cobwebby felting things are the lungs. I tried first to make the shape of the wire the felting was going to fit in and the stitch it on (left triangular shape). Then I got the idea (remembering last years textiles class - god bless Barb for her thoroughness) I could actually felt the wire into the wool ( thus bypassing the stitching). The little circle cocoon was a practice piece and I thought this was pretty cool. So off I went and did that for both lungs (are they called lobes? Should look that up...)...
Anyway this is how that worked out and at first I was pleased and then on further rumination realised I wasn't really pleased. Which felt crap because I didn't know where to go next...




So onward. I decided to redo them and hope for better. Using sharp scissors I cut the felt shapes off at the boundary. I liked how they held their shape. Then I figured on stitching them back on using the stitching to further the conceptual aspects. It took three goes to get the stitching right but finally I'm happy(ish) enough with them. Next the heart.


Monday, October 22, 2012

Progress with textiles and anatomicals.



Played around with some wire to get these abstracted anatomical shapes. The wire is important because it is very coat hanger like and I hope (I think) to have them hanging like coat hangers of a rail/rod inside the box/wardrobe. I cut some of this divine red silk to fit the heart frame and carefully felted the outsides, not sure in this instance how much shrinkage I wanted or would eventuate from the process. I wanted  a membraneous finish with the wool and the silk and I'm pretty happy with what I got, trading it off for some rippling off the chiffon. The end result was smaller than in the photo shows, but was able to be stretched taut with in the frame with same mini clips (bought from office works on a whim - I knew they'd come in handy!). I intend to stitch the heart/textiles to the wire frame (trampoline-esque) but for the time being I like this clamped effect. What do you think (feedback please)?

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

In Need of Felting Skills Fast.




Having decided on textiles as a significant component of my work, to represent the anaotomical, I've settled on wool and Nuno felting. This is after many various other trials with calico, raw silk, transfers etc etc which seemed to fall short of what i wanted. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of experience with felting though I know that it is incredibly versatile and can create various beautiful textures. So a lot of playing. Or maybe it would feel like playing if it wasn't such a labour intensive process or I wasn't sick. Or didn't feel obsessively aware of the deadline. Or had more experience....
So lots of trials. The most successful for the 'heart' seems to be with some beautiful cherry coloured silk chiffon and Nuno felted around the edges with different shades of red marino tops (the upside of this preocess is the gorgeous materials). Eventually I got what I wanted but now I need to perfect the shape and decide on the wire structure. Progress I think.