Stitched Textile Artists zoom weekend March 2021

The group was led by Textile Artist Sian Martin and our inspiration was to be taken from colour and shape especially those seen in the later works of the artist Henri Matisse.

Sian asked us to send an image from which we would take our own personal inspiration.

I had recently received 3 beautiful bouquets of flowers from my sons and it occurred to me how well the blooms would lend themselves to a study of shape and colour.

A bird's eye view of the first bouquet:

Rose blooms laid on a contrasting tonal paper with added scattered petals from a previous bouquet:
 

Session One:

We started working with layers or stacks of coloured or printed papers, cutting in a relaxed fashion making simple and not realistic shapes whilst paying attention to colour variants and tone.

I decided upon pink and green variants and contrasts and added a print off of my original image as the top layer: 

We tried different arrangements , sliding the shapes around until we were satisfied whilst paying attention to the importance of negative shapes, interaction of colourways, folded or rolled up edges. These were stuck down when we were happy. I loved the results:

Session two

During the afternoon session we started to work into our collages adding lines to emphasise shapes and flow, reacting to and echoing rather than following. Shadows became important. We echoed our shapes and shadows with lines and added extra contrasting coloured / tonal shapes in different places within the tonal ground. 

I played around with the addition of darker tones, text and stitching:

Follow on zoom session 30.04.21

I had made several samples during the March master class weekend above using stacks of paper of contrasting colours and tonal values. My inspiration came from bouquets of flowers, mainly pink roses sent to me by my two sons. Their gesture was very tender, meaningful and touching.

I wanted now to take my work to a further stage by making some samples using fabric.

I limited my colour scheme to pinks and greens incorporating contrasting hues and tonal shades, choosing to random and dip dye some of my own fabrics and threads to achieve the harmonious and contrasting effects I was after. I used mainly silks.

I used cold water dyes in forest green, peony pink and burlesque red; I used some colours on their own and others combined remembering to add some linen / stranded cotton threads to the mix. In addition I printed my original photograph onto silk using the freezer paper method. I applied Bondaweb to the wrong side of all these to enable me to secure the shapes later. I also added snippets of shocking pink silk plus slithers of text from the boys’ message which I’d typed and then printed onto fine cotton using the freezer paper method.

I cut five A4 pieces of fabric incorporating each colourway and layered them. Out of these I cut 4 rectangles before cutting further to make several arched shapes as before [without being too precious!]

 I arranged these shapes and rearranged until I was happy. I used a brief tap with an iron to fix the shapes.

From top left clockwise:

1. Layers of soft muted tonal shapes applied to a dark pink silk velvet background with the addition of running stitch using the random dyed threads which I feel define the ‘petal’ shapes and give a lovely impression of movement.

2. Layers of shapes with the addition of shocking pink silk which have been bonded to a background of forest green random dyed background. I free machined these into place in a spiral fashion before cutting the piece into a ‘geometric’ spiral and stitched again. Once it was cut I needed a base fabric [tonal contrasting dark green]. I love the liveliness and the 3D effect in this created by the shocking pink and the cutting / re-stitching.

3. Lovely muted layers and threads give a sense of soft depth with the addition of shocking pink which makes it dance and sing! Running stitch adds definition and movement.

4. Muted layers cut spirally and stitched to a dark pink and tonally contrasting pink background.

Snippets of text in all these add an emotional element.

I love all of these from the softness of samples of 1 and 3 but feel drawn to no 2 with it's contrasting colourways and sense of movement.

I’d love to develop this into a larger piece with a pale pink / green random dyed and lightly wadded silk background supporting ‘blooms’ of various sizes and techniques perhaps with continued stitching between each to link shapes somehow.

At this stage I turned to an original drawing by Charles Rennie Mackintosh [source on-line Pinterest] for inspiration:

I played around with cutting into the shapes and love the 3D effect which seems to lift the image from the page:

I therefore set about trying to achieve a connection with flow and movement within the lines and shapes of my work.

To achieve this I experimented with paper first. I made a new stack of papers cutting them as before but with 2 of the rectangles cut at half the size to give smaller blooms. I then arranged and re-arranged the shapes to create a pleasing interaction. The samples were arranged and stuck down as before:

I free machine stitched into the shapes in a spiral fashion:

Now for the moment of truth! Time to cut into the shapes. I decided to print the above 3 times to allow for 3 experiments.

This one is my favourite, I cut sensitively and intuitively into the 'roses' and rearranged the cut shapes to achieve the connection and interaction of shapes I was looking for. Very pleased with this and the sense of movement and depth of the layers.

Another experiment with a different direction of flow but this doesn't create the connection and flow I desire

Third experiment with a geometric spiral arrangement which although fun to do doesn't create the effect I want!

This is my progress so far and the next step will be to recreate the first sample using fabrics.

Translation into fabric:

I used some space dyed silks in shades of pink and green to represent my beautiful roses.

Using the same techniques as above my aim was to incorporate the spiral patterns inspired by the Charles Renee Mackintosh drawing and to capture the delicacy of the petals. I also included snippets of text which I'd printed onto a fine white fabric.

Three completed fabric (silk) collages with free machine embroidery  represent the three beautiful bouquets received recently from my sons.

For me fabric and stitch offer the perfect qualities to express an emotional reaction to the world around me and this piece demonstrates that perfectly.