Lacy paper frames

This section of work looked at creating contemporary lace effects using stitch with handmade paper and wirework.  Initial frames, approx. 25cm square, were made square using 1.25mm wire, then wrapped and tied with various fibres eg. perle 5 cotton, thicker jute string, thin strips of muslin.
These frames were then dipped in white paper pulp, pressed and left to dry completely.

8.1: Example of

I then stitched back into the frames using hand and machine stitch trying to make connections with the original lace patterns found in Reticella and Punto in Aria.

8.2: grid stitching across voids with couched perle

8.3: further threads wrapped over paper then drawn together using free zig-zag to create 'branches' of varying thicknesses

8.4: detail of 8.3

The additional stitching in 8.5 below was done by hand to simulate the woven bars and grid patterns used in Reticella lace.  The handstitches used were twisted lattice stitch (top left in photo 8.5), knotted buttonhole filling stitch (middle) and cretan open filling stitch (right and bottom)

8.5: handstitched "lace"

Having read Sian's work in"Approaches to Stitch"only recently I decided to make some wire bottles in a similar fashion. My bottles were pharmaceutical based for reasons which will come later in another chapter.  The wire was thinner this time (0.9mm) to bend more easily but still retain a firm shape and  I wrapped the wire with masking tape to enable the paper pulp to better stick to the outline,

8.6: wrapped wire bottles

8.7: after dipping in paper pulp and drying

then painted them with acrylics

8.8: bottle wire frames painted and further stitched into

I turned back to my research theme and created some wire frames in the shape of the floral motif used in earlier chapters of this module.

8.9: floral wireforms (top left one had windings of muslin strips which account for the greater paper pulp trapped

These reminded me of brittle leaves and might be something I'll take forward into designs for the final assessment piece.  But back to my bottles for the next design part..

Twisting and turning

After spending most of a day playing with wire, I felt like this little chap!
I think I need to keep a safe distance between me and a reel of wire for a bit now!
A quick summary of the types of coils or purls I did manage to produce that were presentable.

8.1



8.1 shows at the top of the photo, some purchased tubular cord and some of the metallic wire from gauge 20 up to 28.  I made quite a few lengths of purl as in the centre then had fun recoiling these lengths over purl cores.  "Beads" like those at the bottom were produced.

8.2

8.2 I looked at covering the wire before coiling.  At the top is garden wire bought covered in green plastic coating then coiled.  The second one is gold wire covered in red cotton embroidery floss then coiled.
In the middle I pushed the length of wire inside cotton tubular knitting yarn then coiled.  A length of this coil was then recoiled to produce the shorter fawn coloured purl under that.
The gold coil is the purchased gold cord at the top wired and coiled like the knitting yarn above it.
The bottom one is coiled wire which has been beaded with white seed beads before coiling.