Thursday, January 17, 2008

New Year and new project


oh wow where to start, a new year and a new project. What do I make ~ which techniques do I want to create with, which theme, questions questions questions I didnt know where to start. So I decided to do a brainstorm.

I started with a word ~ Vintage


Vintage;
jewellery ~ corsarge, fascinator, cuffs, brooch, choker
wallpaper ~hand printed with roses in old pinks and reds,
large florals or rose buds
flowers ~ roses, cabbage and tea roses
homes ~ doors, peeling paint, keys,
doileys ~ lace and paper
bunting
toys ~ Paper dolls with card tags, dressing up,
tea paries with dolls/teddies
Punch and Judy, theatre, puppets/dolls
colours ~ sorbet, ice cream colours, neopolitan ~ pink cream brown,
black and white checks,
sepia ~ tea stained lace and cotton
games ~jacks, playing shops ~ grocery, sweet shop,
post offices ~ boxed jars and labels
books ~ Enid Blyton ~ secret seven and famous five,
Lewis Carrol ~ alice in wonderland ~
Characters;
Alice ~ dress, stripey stocking, small, large, eat me, drink me
White Rabbit ~ fob watch, time, late, key, heart
Dormouse ~ sleepy
Mad Hatter ~ hat, rich clothes, stays at tea time 6 o'clock
March Hare
Duchess
King and Queen
Pig baby
Roses, pack of cards, Queen of Hearts, tarts, mushrooms, nonsense,
Whimsy
Illustrations

So I looked through my list and got inspired. I started to collect pictures, paper dolls, Alice illustrations by John Tenniel, photos of Punch and Judy, keys, fob watches etc.

Once I got all the goodies together I watched the Alice In Wonderland film ~ just to get the feel for the story again as it would take me an age to read the book.



Then with sketch book to hand I started to make sketches and illustrations of how I would imagine the scenes.



I drew sketches for a possible book and sketches for a possible theatre ~ I remember Punch and Judy as a child and was always fascinated by the little theatres that were used, I suppose my love for doll houses comes from the same place.




So this is a good start I have ideas which Im developing and I think Im going to make 'The Theatre', I know ~ my course is machine embroidery, not carpentry but its still possible (I think). I want it to be quirky and whimsical and fun. We will see, if my developement meets with a brick wall I've got plenty more to go with through my brainstorming.

Since then Ive been playing with my sewing machine and drawing with the needle and thread, the stitch illustration below was inspired by a copywrite free illustrations,





The Australia wall hanging is now finished

the Australia wall hanging is now finished and will be photographed in full in May when it hangs in the exhibition, soooooo exciting. But for now here is some of the work which bought me to the finished piece.
paper collage

paper collage


paper collage


markal paint sticks with a stencil cut from freezer paper


paper collage with words printed onto old brown envelopes

Sample Piece using
strips of fabrics ~ sheers, organza, hand dyed cottons

above is the front cover and below the back cover of the sketch book which goes with the Australia wall hanging and shows some of the techniques I used, painted bondaweb, painted vilene, layers of sheers, Stewart Gill chips, hand printed organdie, free machine embroidery using different threads all worked on hand dyed cotton fabric




close up detail