Module One – Chapter 12 (3)

RESOLVED SAMPLE

 

I have completed my resolved sample and although it didn’t turn out quite as I had wanted I think it still demonstrates the process of disintegration. I have not embroidered outline stars in the background as we discussed in our emails. Part of my reasoning in relation to that is that my stars ended up larger than I had initially planned and therefore I wasn’t sure that they were necessary. However, I am certainly happy for feedback from you about that. The stars are larger because in my planning and paper design I overlooked the fact that I would be cutting on the outside of the stitching!  A basic error I know!

 

I have scanned the finished piece in 2 parts because of it’s length and also photographed it to show its full length.

 

This was a sample I did for the lines of stitching. It is hard to see in the scan on the dark fabric but not as hard to see on the actual fabric.




This is a scan of the finished sample in 2 pieces because it's too big for the scanner. Overall I think the process of disintegration is demonstrated.






I took this photo of the whole piece but the colour reproduction is not very good. The colours in the scan are correct, but this photo looks a bit washed out and bluish. I will retry a photo tomorrow and post it because I should be able to get it to look better than this.

 

 And here I am working on my resolved sample (with my Japanese embroidery stand behind me although that hasn't had much work done on it since I started this course!).

 

 

Module One – Chapter 13

 

CHAPTER 13

Herta Puls

I had seen a few pictures of this type of applique but hadn’t realised where it originated from or the intricacies of the designs. It was difficult to chose one to illustrate an example of Mola embroidery, but I decided to select two with an animal motif and two with a geometric motif as they are each commonly occurring themes:-

 

Kandinsky

Again I didn’t know much about Kandinsky. I was intrigued to see the variation in his works with some being almost traditional scenery and landscapes and others being quite abstract. There were a number of works which demonstrated the overlaying of shapes to create a sense of movement and depth. The following examples I felt were some examples of this:-

In the Black Square 1923

Composition VIII 1923

Unequal 1932

Several Circles 1926

Artist of my Choice – Jennifer Bowker (1948 – )

Jennifer Bowker is a quilt maker and textile artist who now lives in Canberra, Australia. However, she is married to a diplomat for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the Australian Federal Government and has lived in Syria, New Guinea, Western Samoa, Malaysia, Jordan, Israel, Jerusalem and Egypt. As she says on her website this “has influenced my subject matter and much of my work reflects my love of the Middle East.”

Jennifer’s original background was in science, but in 1997 she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Visual) with First Class Honours from the Australian National University in Canberra. She has had a number of solo exhibitions of her quilts, won a number of awards and enjoys passing on her skills to students.

I do not know Jennifer personally and first became aware of her work recently when a series of pieces she had made for the Centenary celebrations in Canberra were featured in an Australian magazine, Textile Fibre Forum.

Her web site address is www.jennybowker.com.

I think her work is fascinating with such amazing detail and clever use of colour. Some of the quilts feature patchwork but a number are made using applique and other piecing methods.

I looked at the quilts she had featured on her website and thought that some of them appeared to have applique techniques used in them. Because the pictures were not very large and the detail was not clear enough when I enlarged them, I sent her an email and she confirmed that the following quilts feature applique:-

Abu Ali and the Gilded chairs

Ittayer and the Friday market in the City of the Dead

Mohamed Sa’ad Caretaker of the Mosque

Sandstorm over the White Desert

Snapshots in the Palmetum

Hassan and the Glass

Module One – Chapter 12 (2)

 

RESOLVED SAMPLE (Part 2)

I have now done some more work on my thoughts for the resolved sample.

I can see what you meant about starting with a larger star for the first one which I can see makes the contrast greater as they reduce in size.

I also did a second sample as you suggested for Chapter 9 where I cut the fabric on the outside of the sewn line and I have added that to Chapter 9. I think that would make a good star to use for this sample because it would enable me to sew the first two directly on to the background, and then make the others as whole stars on a calico background and cut them up and apply each of the separate pieces to the background.

I have done a paper sample using this idea. It is 46cm long and so I have had to scan it in 2 pieces.

I think I would do the the background rows of stitching by hand in a running stitch with a medium thickness thread. If there is a piece of calico behind the fabric I think there would be an impression of low level quilting.

I would also use a background fabric with a small amount of pattern so it does not detract from the star design. This piece I’ve used is very plain but it was the only green piece I had which was large enough.

I had done a previous paper sample but I wasn’t happy with it, and the background paper was too detailed and the angle of the curve where the stars were added was too shallow. However, I did use it to cut the top and bottom edges to reflect the curved lines, and I would be interested to know if you think that would be ok in my resolved sample.