Large scale assessment piece PAP4

I've begun to consider ideas for my final embroidered large scale assessment piece.  This is required to be site specific and designed in negotiation with a 'client', while fitting in with my personal diploma design theme (trees, vegetation).

A local pharmaceutical company was receptive to working with me, to create an embroidered wall hanging for their small foyer area, so I visited their Sydney offices last week to discuss further.  The company is a global operation but their Australian side is office based in a quiet leafy suburb of Sydney.  They have a largely open plan set up on the first floor, with entrance and integral stairwell up from the ground floor.

11.1 site drawing of offices

I drew a quick sketch of the layout which shows the stairs up to the main office, a left turn through the small foyer, opening out into the open plan office space with cubicles.  As you walk through the foyer area, you pass a large curved blue/grey wall which at present is blank.  I am proposing to site my hanging here to create interest in a rather 'blank' area, particularly for any visitors waiting there.

11.2 entry door and stairwell

11.3 seating area in foyer

11.4 proposed wall for hanging

Looking at these photos the perspective makes it look rather narrow but the blank wall is not quite so imposing and the area not so small.  There is a curve to the wall so for a landscape oriented hanging it will need to be soft to follow the contour of the wall.
The only natural light enters the office space from the front so I must assume that the hanging would be viewed in artificial light, specifically fluorescent strip lighting.
The client was not restrictive concerning the design of the hanging but requested that the piece should reflect the business of the company in some way and be artistically pleasing and calming to the eye in that site.

One of the company's biggest products treats the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) using the natural insoluble fibre of the stericulia urens tree.  I felt that a design based on this subject could link with both the company and with my personal theme.  Indeed the leaf of the tree features on promotional material for this product.

On researching the tree, I realised that inspiration could come from not only the leaf (which in itself is rather uninteresting) but also from the textural bark of the tree, the branch arrangements, the tiny star shaped flowers and the follicular fruit.

11.5: Leaves of aterculia urens
(phtoto: www.dehlitree.blogspot.com)

11.6 sterculia urens tree
(photo: www.commons.wikimedia.org)

11.7: Bark of sterculia urens tree
(photo: www.discoverlife.org)

11.8: flowers of sterculia urens
(photo: www.flowersofindia.net)

11.9: fruit of sterculia urens
(photo: www.indianaturewatch.net)

Since these photos were not my own, and I didn't have access to the actual tree itself, I decided to use these images and make my own sketches creating my own shapes inspired by the plant.

11.10: study of sterculia urens tree and bark

11.11: study of sterculia urens leaves and foliage shapes

11.12: study of sterculia urens flowers and seeds

Where all this is leading in terms of design, I'm not sure.  A little more creativity is required....

Paper and silk resolved samples

Chapter 10 called for resolved samples of some of my designs using each (or a combination) of the following techniques: silk paper, soluble methods, handmade paper and pulp.
One design I picked from this module as this would extend the use of pulp around wire bottle shapes which I enjoyed.

10.1

I made a wire frame and inserted shaped wires to convey some of the bottle outlines found in the design. The wire was wrapped in masking tape as before to aid sticking of the pulp. Then I wrapped and knotted thin strips of dark green patterned sheer and perle in sections where I wanted the pulp to stick and to give a texture to the otherwise 'flat' paper (10.2). It also implied the patterns created in the original monoprinted tissue.

10.2 frame ready for pulp

The frame was dipped into paper pulp dyed green, pressed slightly and left to dry.

10.3

I went on to prepare 2 bottles stitched on water soluble fabric which would be an additional layer to the pulp frame.
This is the finished sample below:

10.4

The motifs were attached using loose insertion stitches through the wire in yellow and white perle cotton.  The knotted lattice in yellow is a nod to the strip of yellow scrim in the original design.

For my second sample I went back to a decorated design paper I had from module 2 featuring a vague gridwork effect.

10.5

I forgot to take "in process" photos so here is the finished sample:

10.6

Again there are a number of layers to this: first used water soluble fabric to prepare grids using perle cotton.  Once dried, green paper pulp was distributed over and under the grids in places to hold together.  The green of the pulp has not come out in the photo unfortunately.  Dried once more, this was sandwiched between a few layers of green chiffon and green, bronze translucent sheers.  A grid pattern was stitched through everything in gold and then heat gunned to leave only a rough grid pattern in sheers and expose the pulped grid.

My third sample derived from a design in module 4:

10.7

This time I started by making a very thin and holey piece of silk paper using silk tussah trapping scraps of dyed scrim.

10.8

Several individual lace motifs of leaves were prepared on water soluble fabric as in 10.3, and sandwiched along with thin mohair yarn between the silk paper and a layer of white synthetic organza.

10.9

These layers were free machined together using a similar leaf pattern, then heat gunned to partially remove the organza layer. Finally some very loose cabling of perle in the bobbin was stitched on top.

10.10

All are not literal translations of the designs but I'm happy that the original design features have been represented in these mediums.