Design from ethnic source - Chapter 4 cont.

Following on from this post where I was drawing inspiration from indigenous Australian sources I've been developing some more paper designs.
Using the 'kangaroo / boomerang' motif and variations of it, I prepared, on recycled black paper, some monoprinted backgrounds which were a little more interesting and could be progressed into stitched works.
Sian had advised me to think of the 'characteristics' of the inspirational designs that attracted me and use those in developing my own designs.  So I've employed simple colour scheme, tonal contrasts, outlining, repetition but with torn, uneven sizing.

4.15

4.16

4.17

Added motifs developed them into the following:

4.18

4.19

4.20

4.21

On a recent trip to London particularly to the British Musuem I found some interesting painted barkcloth and fibrous weaving from the Pacific islands and Torres Strait islands north of Australia.  A couple of these were inspiration for the recycled paper samples.

4.22: Painted barkcloth (left) stitched sample (right)

4.23: painted barkcloth (left) and stitched sample (right) using momi'd paper, dyed cleaning rags, dyed cloth and tea bags

Final assessment piece in situ

So finally I have managed to deliver my hanging to the client and photograph it as intended in the company foyer.
This was the wall space as proposed in a previous post:

11.40 site of commission

and here are some photos of the hanging in situ:

11.41 Sterculia 2015

11.42

11.43

11.44 Sterculia detail

Evaluation:  The piece was hung from a clear perspex rod (10mm diam) so as to minimize the visual impact of a pole against the wall and not detract from the work.  The flexibility of the rod successfully enabled the piece to follow the curvature of the wall, and not impede the flow of traffic through that area.
The rod was attached to the wall using 3 clear "command" hooks and strips.

All my previous photography of the work was taken against a white backdrop so I was anxious to see how the piece appeared against this darker wall.  I acknowledge that the brown and green colours merge into the background a little more as I suspected they would, but the 'floral' motifs in yellow are now brighter and focal to the piece.  The fluorescent lighting adds to this.

Design changes?  I would like to pursue my idea to hang several overlapping layers distinctly apart but I think a site with an open void might have been better suited to that.  I could have gone bigger of course, making a feature of the curved wall and creating a hanging twice as wide, but overall I am pleased with the result.

Time taken to produce:  

• to prepare and felt the final 2 layers of lace felt - 13 hours
• to prepare the sheer and felted motifs with shisha mirrors - 9 hours
• to attach and free machine embroider - 5 hours

total time - 27 hours

Cost to produce:

• merino wool roving (approx 500g) - $4
• landscape dyes (approx 10g) - $12
• shisha mirrors - $8
• polyester sheer fabric (approx 1m) - $10
• wool yarns, crochet cottons - $7
• embroidery thread, machine and hand - $12
• perspex rod - $16
• resist foam and plastic sheeting for felting - $3

total cost - $72

Methods and order of work:

• dyeing of wool roving, wool yarns, cotton yarns
• laying out dyed yarns and wool roving in lattice formation for felting
• felting of lattice layers
• felting shisha mirrors into wool, drying, cutting out paisley pattern motifs from felt and free machine embroidering
• drawing out motifs on water soluble fabric, stitching motifs through sheers, dissolving fabric, drying then cutting out motifs using soldering iron.
• attaching motifs to lattice by hand stitching

Particular health and safety issues:

• acid dyes - powdered dye kept in sealed pots within sealed container out of reach of children in dedicated dyeing room.  Mask and gloves worn when measuring out into jar.  Care taken in adding hot water, making solution of dye.  Be aware of steam in urn when adding dye solution or wool roving / yarn.  All utensils used only for dyeing procedure.
• felting - work on raised table to minimize strain on back, mop up any water spills on floor around working area
• shisha mirror motifs - be aware of cut mirror edges within felt when free machining felt motifs, wear glasses for protection against broken needles
• soldering iron - work in well ventilated room, preferably next to open window, leave hot iron held in upturned flower pot when not in use, always remember to pull out plug after use.

A little extra on Sterculia

While I was working on my Sterculia hanging I began to develop an accompanying wearable piece and was fortunate enough to have both works on exhibition in November through the Untethered textile group in Hornsby, NSW.

Sterculia II

Since the Sterculia plant was pharmaceutically related to the human body I felt a wearable piece was in order.  The constriction and discomfort often felt by IBS sufferers can be symptomatically relieved by this product.  This is depicted here through the use of tendrils winding around the human form, from the rigid thorn-like fronds around the neck to gradual relaxation until the tendrils open out into a lacy array of colour at the base.

Some more detailed photos:

Bodice top featuring wired tendrils

The barl-like bodice was made using hand dyed merino with tissue silk nunofelted underneath with numerous resists incorporating yarn and pencil roving.  A concealed zip is sewn in the side seam for wearablility.

Back of bodice

Sections of the bodice do not have silk structure on reverse which enables the felt lattice to fold over loosely at the top edge like peeling bark.

lower lace dress

The lattice tendrils were prepared separately and stitched on to the long bodice using seed beeds and motifs only as far as the hip area.  The rest of the tendrils (in one length 6m in total) are wound by hand once on the model using internally wired tendrils to create the neck feature.

detail of wrapping tendrils

The organza motifs found in the hanging are repeated on this garment.

Juggling the hanging

Spent this week pinning motifs, hanging up, re-pinning, rehanging, stitching, rehanging etc etc......
You can tell where the juggling reference came from, but at last I'm at about 80% completion and the stage where I'm leaving it on the wall in view while I "consider" it.

 I like the layering effect achieved as I wanted to give an impression of looking through vegetative growth and have (at present) hung the 2 mesh layers on the same perspex pole. But I'm feeling that the layers might be better separated slightly and hung on 2 poles eg 4cm apart, which would require fixing the poles in parallel like this bracketed to the wall or hung from the ceiling.  This would be achievable in a gallery on a flat wall, but the curving wall in the office might be too challenging and the hanging slightly proud of the wall present an impedance to passing foot traffic in the corridor.

Here are a few photos of the work to date:

11.32 Complete hanging

Details of the 'bark' area with additional whip stitching to give mottled texture as on the real tree

11.33

11.34

11.35

11.36

11.37

As I've said, the depth of the layers appeals to me and I've tried to photograph the effect you get looking along the length, almost between the layers.  What you don't get from the photos is the glinting from the shisha mirrors at different times of the day.

11.38

11.39

My next task will be to see how the piece looks against the blue wall of the company foyer....

Sterculia motifs

I've made a start on the final hanging itself by felting a loose mesh of yarn, threads and wool roving strands.  Laid out like this it covered an area of 2.5 m by about 1.8m as I knew it would shrink considerably once felted, probably to about 60%.

11.23

 I used bark colours on the left gradually moving to greens then to yellow and reds of the flowers.

11.24

Once felted it had shrunk to about 1.3m by 1m.  I then made a second mesh to layer in front of the first to give it more depth, and added further wool with resists on the left to give the patchy appearance of the Sterculia tree bark (see photos 11.13 and 11.14 in previous post)

11.25

At the moment (photo 11.25) the 2 layers are hanging on a metal rod simply woven through the top but I'm thinking of removing the rather solid top edge and forming thinner loops out of the felt mesh itself which will attach on to a clear perspex rod.  The rod is sufficiently flexible that it could bend with the curvature of the office wall.

11.26 detail of mesh background

The bark felt looks a little flat compared to the rest of the mesh and so I will be free machining on the 'panels' to create some surface texture before I add motifs.
I've now made a variety of motifs to attach to the mesh - paisley pattern and stylised boat (company logo) in various colours of sheer fabrics (11.27)

11.27 sheer motifs

paisley pattern felt motifs, embroidered and encapsulating shisha mirrors (11.28)

11.28 shisha felted motifs

and the same motif shapes in thin translucent polymer featuring Hindi script (11.29).  These can all be stitched on the mesh

11.29  polymer clay motifs

The polymer clay sheet was created by spreading liquid polymer clay extremely thinly on to the printed newspaper, baked in an oven at 150 degrees C for about 15 minutes (slightly higher temp than normal to give the translucency). Once cooled the paper was removed from the back of the clay by soaking in water then rubbing vigorously to take the paper off.

11.30 soaking the sheet in water

11.31 Cutting out motifs

   The process is a little like paper lamination in which paper printed images are transferred on to sheer fabric.

I anticipate the challenge will be balancing the additional weight of these motifs on the mesh without too much distortion of the hanging occurring.  I don't necessarily want to add them evenly over the mesh as there will be a design focal point which might skew the hanging physically.  Stay tuned....