Chapter 4 Shape & Pattern Study (part 3)

Exploration using solid shape

Stilling wondering which one of my shapes I am going to use with this section.  I tried three ideas for exercises 3 & 4.  All are interesting so will try to make progress with the next exercise.

Ex. 4 Composite 1, counterpoint colouring	Ex. 4 Composite 2, counterpoint colouring	Ex.03 Rotated shapes traced

I thought my first attempt for rotating the four shapes was not very good as I had not understood how to prepare the pieces before tracing. I had glued each one to the page before adding the next rotated shape… I thought the composite was too spikey so  I used the simplified  set of four shapes for a second composite and just laid them on the page.  This had the disadvantage of moving while I did the tracing.  I am not sure how this should really have been done..  I still wasn't sure about the resulting shape, did it have too many gaps? too many straight edges? that, so tried with a different shape, which when traced just looked like a set of fan blades.  I felt so bad about that one it actually reached the bin… Continuing to struggle with thinking outside the box, I thought I have to just get on with the design exercises and colour the two composites with counterpoint.  At first I was very unsure about the results, but as I worked on I came to like them a bit more and could see how the idea was beginning to develop. 

The actual size of the new composite shapes are quite large; to make them more manageable, I scanned them for printing to use in exploring the different techniques.

For Exercise 5 I used one of the cut out shapes from above as a mask to paint four overlapping rectangles using the Koh I Noor colours.  The painted shape was then overlain on a second set of rectangles.  This is quite an interesting exercise, and could produce some lovely results with fabrics (especially sheers).  I could play with different colour ways with the paints when working to enhance this.

Ex. 5 Overlapping rectangles with mask	Ex. 5b Overlapping rectangles and shape

Exercises 6, 7, 8 and 9

More exploration of the shape.  For 6, I used a printed version of the composite shape to save a little bit of time – printing directly onto fabric from a computer is an easy way to transfer the image for more sewing.  For exercises 7 & 8, my background paper is painted with three shades red-orange from the Koh I Noor pallet. With more time I could explore the different shapes and perhaps making an interesting edge to the whole of the page; it could have a contrasting colour beneath it to enhance the shape.  The photo does not do justice to my contrasting piece of coloured paper, this is several shades of turquoise with lovely markings.  It is a layer of paper towel that had been used to mop up some inks when doing another project.  The colours were so lovely I just had to iron it and keep it.  Now I have used it.   I was a bit ordinary for exercise 9,  the P for poppy (or Penelope??) could have been much more elaborate.  Using letters and text in my work is not something I have practised very much, again something I could explore further.

Ex. 6 Cut a window and move selection	Ex.7 & 8 Cut from edge with contrasting colour	Ex. 9 Draw & colour a large letter

I struggle using words in my work, but did write the first few lines of John MacRae's "In Flanders Field".  I haven't included it here as it feels a bit cliched and something I am not comfortable with.

My results for Exercise 14 were variable, I put too many folds in the paper, but with a little more care and precision of folding the pleats evenly this could be a fun technique on fabric.

I really had fun with exercises 15 and 16.  For exercise 15, I started with a colour washed page and my composite shape drawn with a watercolour pencil in turquoise. I added further solid and dashed lines with the  water colour pencils and the flat side of oil pastels in magenta and turquoise.  For 16, I used the template as a mask to highlight the outline and filled it with diagonal lines (not sure if this was what was required).  Although I used watercolour pencils on paper, this could be repeated using Markal Oil sticks on fabric with lines of machine stitching, or couching textured fibres, or layers of fabric cut to shape and cut away to reveal those below.  I think both these designs would make a really interesting blocks for the centre of a cushion or as motifs on a bag, book cover etc..  I can't believe how far this is from my original poppy shape. At last I feel I have made a design that is not recognisable as its original object, is unique to me, and something that I could take further.  

Ex 15. Outline shape with lines to enhance pattern	Ex 16 Drawn stripes within the shape outline

Exercise 17 went a bit awry…  I covered a sheet of paper with a colour mix of two blue and an orange oil pastel, marked the shape with a blunt point and tore it out.  It lost some of the detail.  The vertical lines didn't seem to work so I made a woven grid pattern with some  red–orange painted papers.  As an extension to exercise 7, I cut the edge of several textured/decorated papers with part of the template to add to the book .  They have been offset so each different paper can be seen at the edge.

Ex 17 Torn shape with overlaid grid	Offset edges cut with the template design

I really enjoyed my version of exercise 20.  Here I used small versions of my cut-away composite shape on a background coloured paper,  then added a running stitch outline of my original simplified shape.  It is a very basic sample, but I can see there is so much potential in using this idea to form bocks in my further studies.

Ex 20.  Coloured papers, with cut-out composite shape	Ex 20 with added stitching of original shape

I was daunted by the content of the chapter at the beginning and worried all my samples would be rubbish.  Those that I thought were terrible at the beginning such as exercise 2, I can now see are a very useful  addition to my 'toolkit' of design layout ideas. There are so many ideas that can be developed by using different fabrics and texture together, and by adding different simple stitches such as seeding and French knots, Bullion Knots etc.   I could have done much more in this chapter, but time is not on my side if I want to have more examples of work from the rest of the module to take to summer school. For example, I haven't yet used the blocks I made from string, nor have I made blocks using 'easy carve' foam, these are techniques I have used previously and will pursue them in the future on fabric as I progress in the next sections.

I am looking forward to find out where to go next in this textile adventure….

Time log, Cost, Health and Safety for Chapter 4

In all I spent about four full days (32 hours) on this section.  I didn't have any direct costs as all the materials were already in my work room.  The only H&S consideration was to use the scalpel carefully and on a cutting mat when cutting the stencils – I broke two of the blades so have acquired a 'sharps' box for safe disposal of the broken blades.