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Stage 5

I finally managed to get organised and get my notes together so that I can match them to the images to blog this exercise instead of just dumping them, so here it is: Stitches which create texture (this time with explanation):

Here are some of the stitches I made for this exercise. Initially I did some to see the interplay between the distances, the effect of the empty spaces, by using the same stitches and colours just spacing them differently (bottom of picture - full work on page 49a of the sketchbook).

Then I introduced different tones/shades of the same hue and combined them with different types of stitch to see the effects they produced.

Finally I looked into the feeling of the different stitches by adding a pattern - I found this will have more uses from a decorative point of view. It will be interesting and fun to experiment with different colours but for this section I stayed with blues.

For this one I varied the direction and size of the stitches. I love the movement it creates. This movement becomes emphasised by the colour change of the thread. I'm pleased with this little rectangle of stitches.

Here I looked for inspiration to the marks from the beginning of this section and reinterpreted them in embroidery. The concepts represented here were (top to bottom and left to right): slow, sharp, delicate, and sensual.

I found on the previous group that I had been quite close to the original marks so I decided to re-invent a little more, this time using a coloured background. I painted a plain bit of cotton and went to work.

For bumpy/lumpy I used a strong contrast thread to the blue backround and a smooth matching one. The feeling here was a soft smooth line that flowed until it finds the 'lumps' in the way of orange woven circles and then the red knots standing out from the fabric for extra 'lumpness'.

For sad I used dark, low saturation colours, as in the original marks. This time I added a variety of stitches, but all in the vertical, straight line that for me 'reads' sobriety and sadness.
And finally happy. As in the marks exercise happy has circles, bright colours and little happy patterns with dots and stars. The flowing line reminds me of party decorations, paper chains and fun times.