final project complete

It has been a most busy year for me in Falmouth. Sunday dinners, long walks, kayaking, sea shanty-ing, new friends, sea food and more than my fair share of pub visits are just a few things that have been keeping me busy. In the midst of it all I have also managed to complete my first year of Textile Design! 

For my final project, I chose to work in weave. I based my project on moss and it's fluffy, curly, tangled textures. Here's a look at some of my final samples and a few sketchbook pages as well...

 

 I made two different warps, both focusing on the same moss theme. This sample is from the second warp. I splatter painted a fine worsted wool with black ink to achieve the mottled and patchy effect. I also chose to use a high twist crepe yarn in the weft of this sample to cause puckering and distortion in the fabric. I wove this, and a couple other samples in plain weave, in order to allow the warp to stand out.

This sample is also from the second warp. Here, I used a very fine silk in the weft and a twill throughout with inlay of linen snippets.

This sample is from my first warp. I used a a block threading, which allowed me to create those large floats across the sample.

More twill with a silk crepe weft.

One of the most simple samples, but also one of my favourties; this sample is from the first, linen warp. I used white, linen weft and inserted knots of wool which I later felted to create bobbles!

Here, I wove double cloth on a point threading. The bottom layer is linen, and lays very flat after finishing. The top layer is the same high twist crepe wool that I used earler, and has twisted and pulled the fabric in some interesting ways. I also joined the two layers every so often with the coloured bits of inlay

 Simple stripes, subtly combining plain weave and a twill variation using my block threading.

 Double cloth woven on my first warp. The bottom layer is a very thick wool and the top a much thinner one. I chose this so that the top layer would not be able to beat down as much as the back. It has caused more puckering and uneven weft picks.

 

 

 

 

 I think that these waffle weave samples are my very favourite from the entire project. I just loved weaving this structure and LOVE the way that both of these came out. The top sample uses the wool crepe again. I pulled extra yarn out to the front in loops as I was weaving. In finishing, these loops have twisted up on themselves and pulled the entire sample in (which is actually what I wanted it to do!) The sample in the back uses a very fine silk in the weft, and sits perfectly flat after finishing. It drapes so beautifully as well!

...a closer look at the bottom, silk weft sample (with some inlay)

I chose to weave my third waffle sample using my warp yarn in the weft as well. This all wool sample is light, soft and bouncy. I also replaced a few warp threads with different colours, giving me vertical stripes as well as horizontal. 

Just a bit of plain weave with a stripe.

Towards the end, I got really into this 2/2 twill. It's so exciting to weave on a point draft because you can make diamonds!! This stripey sample was my favourite of the twills.

And here are just a few sketchbook pages...

 

my favourite waffles...again...

 

I had the best time working on this project and found myself becoming completely obsessed with weaving. I finished my samples so quickly that I had time to make myself this scarf as well...

...for some reason, this image is all distorted and I don't have a clue why or how on earth to fix it. Imagine something that looks like this, but is scarf shaped. There you go.

printmaking

I am more shocked than you are that I've managed to post again so soon. Having made it through my first term, there is suddenly time to take photos and look at blogs and do all those long forgotten, fun and time wasting things that I used to enjoy so much. I am taking advantage of the time to share some of my print work with you (especially the Canadians who can't see it otherwise!)

Going into print, I thought that i was not going to enjoy it all. I thought that it was going to be too technical and precise...perhaps I should have been more precise, but my favourite results came from the smudges and mistakes.

I exposed 3 different screen designs in the end, and layerd print over print until I was happy with a sample. It was lovely to be able to work by eye and not have to plan everything in advance...I never do well with planning.

Above and below are devore samples. I really enjoyed devore and loved the effect that it created (although the pastes I mixed were always a bit grainy and lumpy). Devore works by burning away part of a fabric. It must be used on a fabric that is a blend of fibres so that when the cellulose is burnt away something structural remains. May not be explaining that perfectly, but hopefully you get the gist. There are see-through bits in the end and that is super exciting!

I also became massively carried away using little circular stencils, overlapping different colours of circles...well, the possibilities are just endless!

The very white bits (and light colours) are made with discharge paste. Sounds a bit icky, but it was very fun. It bleached the fabric and made delicate, soft colours (which I obviously love!) These were great to print on top of too. I did have a couple of disasters, however, where the paste was left on too long and the bleach burnt huge holes in samples, eeek!

Just a couple of my favourite sketchbook pages. 

 

I've decided that I'll leave you with some of my favourite Falmouth shots at the end of each post. The scary woman bust above is outside of a lovely sea food restaurant that I can't wait to visit (bibs provided!) and below, the lovely harbour. I could stare at this scene all day; it's always different and always interesting!

 

stitching

Phew, I've made it through my first term - the final hand in was this afternoon. Although I've been working incredibly hard and failing to blog, bake, walk, travel and knit as much as I would like, I have enjoyed myself so much! It's a huge treat to play around with textiles all day long!

So today I handed in my finished samples for Mixed Media (hand and machine stitching). Here are a few of the things that I've made...

A bit of machine embroidery with hand stitching detail.

This sample is completely hand stitched. I cut out certain sections of the top layer of fabric to reveal a plastic sleeve that is sandwiched in there. It's difficult to see in the photo, but it gives the cut out sections a fantastic glow.

Just a little bit of hand stitching - I could have carried on adding colours and textures to this piece forever.

Hand stitching with machine applique and cutwork over the top. A bit of velvet ribbon never goes amiss either!

I think this is my favourite sample. I dyed this muslin, then cut out threads to make runs and holes. I sewed on a backing fabric and attached bits of alpaca fleece to it (fleece courtesy of John Arbon Textiles, of course) I hand stitched silver thread in the holes and crisscrossing across the entire piece and then picked bits of fleece out through the holes. Don't know if a photo can do it justice, but I love it!

Some sketchbook snippets.

I've taken more project photos to share, but shall save the print samples for another post (soon, I promise!)