Month: August 2015

Voyeur

/ iowgreta / Leave a comment

window side windowThis piece followed on from the block of flats weave.  The idea was that you could look through one of the windows into the life inside of the flat.  I started by hand stitching the wallpaper. My intention was to cover the whole canvas in stitch, in my usual style.  On reflection, I thought, why not celebrate the weave of the canvas?  I like it because it reveals my technique, showing, the hours of stitching it would take to cover the whole square.  The 1970’s wallpaper inspiration had a black background, so instead of stitching the black, I painted some pelmet Vilene behind so you can just see the black beyond.  The net curtains were created by using the pin loom to loosely weave some crochet thread.  I then attached it to sticky backed dissolvable fabric to machine stitch the flowers on to it.  the front panel – the window, was woven as one complete unit, which I was pleased with – I had to think about the construction before working it.  Mark constructed the frame for me.  I may consider adding a doll’s house light to illuminate it.  In fact I’ve bought one, but the battery is the wrong size.  We’ll have to see how it goes.  Will illuminating the inside add anything to the design or will it be a fire hazard?

Pavilion

/ iowgreta / 3 Comments

So I continued to weave…  This time, although I used a linen warp, I decided to use perle thread to reduce the amount of fluff and to try out a different texture.  I love the geometric shapes of the buildings on Clarence Pier, Portsmouth, and decided it would work well as a weave.  I used the split weave technique and worked the image sideways on the frame.  I had in mind that I would keep some loose threads on the side (top) to bead at the end. However, when I took the piece from the frame, it seemed kind of lost on its own.  What was I going to do with it?  I wanted to frame it for the exhibition, but it didn’t seem ‘finished’.  I was reluctant to turn it in to a building, but as you can see, that’s kind of how its ended up.  My line of flight has been taken a step further as I’ve used printing techniques too.  Well, a bit of funky foam, carefully cut out, painted and applied. The stitches help to unify the piece, even though it wasn’t my intention to use stitch, it was required! Framed in a simple white box, I’m pleased with the result.  Weaving is certainly a learning process in composition.  Looking at the work of other weavers, such as Sheila Hicks, it doesn’t seem a problem for them; their work just stands alone.  However, the scale and texture of their work is quite different and it doesn’t matter how simple it looks, it really isn’t!