Evaluation

The chance card drawings influenced my practice through the direction it sent me on originally. The cards made me depict the subject as shapes and marks rather than the literal thing it was. I found that this moved my drawings away from realist representations and drove me to explore a range of weights of marks and line also shapes, that translated well into embroidery.

One of my earlier chance card drawings influenced my embroidery samples. I found that my drawing are loose and loopy which translated well on the Cornely machine because of the circular motions that machine achieves. I started to deconstruct the drawing of the whisk into positive and negative shape. This help me to clearly select shape that would make good compositions without the detail of the drawing.

During the 'Origins' project I have found that deconstructing my subject can influence a range of processes and can make interesting shapes and compositions. I have discovered that I create patterns. Though general practice and tasks I have completed I have learnt that readily patterned material doesn't work well with my hand print. My readily patterned samples that I have worked over are battling between the ready pattern and my embroidery patterns.

I have really enjoyed embroidery. I started with a very basic knowledge of skills so I have gained a lot of new ones. I have learned that my stronger samples have an even balance of both hand embroidery and machine. This is because of the different variations that show through in the marks.

I found that I was over ambitious when I started my samples. Some of the techniques need a lot of time spending on them to be intricately done. This meant that I hadn't set my self time that was realistic to get all of the samples done to a similar quality.

Hair pining and Piling

 This weeks samples were based on the piling and hair pining machine techniques. I struggled to like the messy nature of the tailor tacking foot technique  because its less regimented and clear.

I achieved something that i didn't consciously mean to do. the hairy nature of this sample combined with the 'balding' areas makes the piece look as though it is expiring. It gives people the urge to pluck away the built up areas.

I didn't build on my strength in this range of samples which is to combine the machine stitch with hand stitch. I haven't achieved the echo of shapes to the same degree I did in my previous collection of samples.

Machine Couching.

 This week has been my first week of doing machine embroidery. I have really enjoyed the uniform cleanliness the machine give, (when things are going according to plan). I was conscious that my designs would be less thoughtful due to the speed of the machines so I have carried on with my shape deigns.

I feel that I have learnt a lot about sewing machine stitches and the tensions. Machine couching has interested me and helped to move my work forward in a new direction. I focused on one of my later hand stitch compositions and have translated that into a pattern of negative space.

I was given some regular patterned material with the task of creating a new pattern with stitch over the top. I feel that my hand print does not combine well with ready patterned material as becomes to busy. By using a plain piece of material I am able to create my own patterns.

Collages of my shoes.

I chose my least ordinary shaped shoes to collage because I thought that they would work well compositionally.  I collaged paper that I had painted to use. I wanted the paper to relate to the stitch samples I have done.
These images have been arranged, rotated and enlarged on photoshop.

Inspiration

Louise Nevelson

I looked at Louise's work because I am interested in her uses of composition or repeated themed shapes and the mechanical nature of the work. Her work has made me consider narrowing my shapes down to the minimal. Another thing that interests me in her work is her limited colour palette. 
http://www.louisenevelsonfoundation.org/exhibitions.php

My actions after the influence of Louise's work:

I have limited my self to white on white material with dark detail. I started by using felt as I knew it would stand up raised clearly when it was layered. Another positive point about felt is that when its cut into shapes it doesn't fray. Negative points are that it doesn't have any coloured fibres in it. 

I am however pleased with the shape and composition I have used. I decided to combine hand stitch with Cornely. I found that the medium change was a good stitch to make the effect of a zoomed in look of the crinkled ladder stitch. 

My Rules

For this task I drew my favourite chance card drawing from memory. I then made up my own Chance card rule which was to photocopy my drawing and then revert it into positive and negative space. I choose to do this so that I could focus on the shapes with in my drawing. From these images I created ten samples.

With this sample I filled in the negative space with 'Ladder stitch' in a crinkled thread. I like the quality of mark and shape that this thread gives.
I feel that this sample is less narrative of the draw but focuses more on shape and composition.

I found that the positive and negative shape worked well in conjunction with each other. I experimented
with rotating the the positive shapes over the negative composition. I feel that this helps to loose the idea of the drawing and makes it read better as shapes.

I am starting to really like the effects of the french knot especially when its populating an area. I like the knots over the top of light materials.

Cornely Machine stitching.

 I am a new user of the Cornely Machine. I was told it is a machine that would either one day be my best friend or my worst enemy. After having a good practice drive and after a few loops and turns I can feel the start of a beautiful friendship brimming.
I feel my continuous line drawings reflect well on the Cornely machine because they are fluid and loose. I am please with my drawings on this machine. I switched from machine to machine to gain a range of marks to add to my stitch drawing. The medium chain is currently my favourite, it works well in conjunction to the 'fine moss'.

50 different pieces of paper

Key drawing on 50 different pieces of paper.

I arranged the paper in a non uniform way. I think the composition of this gives the illusion of a long drawing. The keys seem as though they falling because of the way I formatted them and zoomed in on them.

'A light drawing on a dark back ground'

'A light drawing on a dark back ground'
I started the drawing with masking tape to divide the space with a clear white mark. I zoomed my focus in on the carvings in the key because of the straight lines and because of the way those areas reflect the light.
I like to use negative and positive when I am focusing on the composition of the drawing. I am pleased with the repeated shape and the way they have filled the space.

Drawing using indian ink and different size brushes.

When i'm using indian ink I don't like to layer my imagery the way I usually do. I link the dark marks against a very white plain background. I enjoyed working with different sized tools because I feel you can portray light and shadow with lines and no shading.

60 minute A1 drawing

I started this drawing with larger close up drawings to fill the bare space. I tried to emphasise the circular structure of the object. I used very dark and broad mediums because of the scale of the paper and to represent the hardness of the metal instrument.

Drawing from sense of touch only.

This style of drawing has never been my strong point but I am intrigued by the way that the most characterful areas of the objected have been emphasised several times.

A range of 5 minute drawings done in different mediums over an hour.

I chose an old motor cycle as my subject so that I could draw different areas of it and the parts that took my interest instead of drawing the whole bike. I had to select areas that I could complete within the five minute time scale. This meant that some of the smaller drawings could have more detail in them. I like to layer my drawings in different mediums because I like the variety of marks and depths of the lines on the paper.