A busy few days!
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| 58 |
Painted background fabric with 'accès permit sur l'enrochement' written freehand. Not very clear or effective.
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| 59 |
Writing printed using a stencil and acrylic paint. Definitely legible.
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| 60 |
Tyvek applied to the back of the fabric and heated with a heat gun. Shrinkage of fabric noted.
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| 61 |
I will not use the freehand writing in the finished piece because it adds nothing to the overall effect. The fabric has become 'craggy' and 'undulating'.
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| 62 |
The ridges were skimmed with a brown paintstik.
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| 63 |
Red seaweed created on water soluble fabric.
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| 64 |
Another type of red seaweed, not so effective.
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| 65 |
Two stitched fish/feet.
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| 66 |
The fish/feet removed from their background with a soldering iron and placed on the rocky background.
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| 67 |
The fish on the left has a more elaborate tail/toes. The appliqué is stitched down and I added the 'toes' directly onto the background. The appliqué pieces need to be handled very carefully as I have cut very close to the stitching. The pieces also needed to be stretched to put tension back into the stitching as initially the stitching appeared very 'loopy'.
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| 68 |
The red seaweed is laid over the fish, although the fish could also swim over it. The seaweed shapes complement the rocky, craggy appearance of the background surface.
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| 69 |
Close up.
The fish have become the focal point of the embroidery. Originally I thought it would be the seaweed. The writing is not very clear at the moment but on the fullscale piece, with more fish carefully arranged, there will be strings of text that can be read if the viewer looks closely!
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| 70 |
I have applied the first layer of paint to the background fabric. The fabric is 1 metre square. There will be some shrinkage when the tyvek is heated so I have not put the paper shapes near the edges. I have laid the red seaweed on the surface to see how much space it takes up. I will need to make a lot more to create the desired effect.
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| 71 |
I attached the 1 metre square faux silk to a frame and painted it in the garden. The background colours have changed slightly as I found the sample piece too dark.
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| 72 |
I have printed the text in brown/black acrylic paint.
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| 73 |
Close up.
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| 74 |
After heating the tyvek/faux silk with a heat gun. I avoided crinkling the writing, where possible. The piece now measures 90 x 90 cms.
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| 75 |
Close up.
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| 76 |
I have folded the background fabric to measure 70 x 70 cms and pinned the feet and fish in position. I haven't skimmed the surface with paintstiks yet. The writing is quite clear. I'm still working on some effective red 'seaweed'.
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| 77 |
A selection of embroidery threads that harmonise with the background fabric.
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| 78 |
Another seaweed design.
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| 79 |
I keep coming back to this one as looking the most effective.
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| 80 |
I've decided that the red seaweed would look most effective if it was in one large piece rather than lots of smaller parts. I drew a template on acetate to work out the size and placement on the design, then transferred it onto soluble fabric. I stitched the skeleton shape of the branches using straight and zigzag stitch as one piece, so had to keep moving it around in the embroidery hoop.
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| 81 |
Here is a sample of the fronds that will grow along the branches. The light brown thread is acting as an additional stabiliser.
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| 82 |
Fronds removed from the soluble fabric and trimmed.
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| 83 |
