Judy Scott - Machine Embroidery City and Guild Student

my new uni blog

2011-06-20T09:49:00.000+01:00

Last September 2010 I started at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at Dundee University gaining direct entry into 2nd year you can follow my progress at my uni blog which you can access here

judyscottdesigns

Judy x

the next part of the journey - exhibiting

2008-07-05T00:14:00.006+01:00

Our exhibition took place at the end of May and our allocated room was made ready with every wall given a white wash and display boards being put in place, Sheila was to be verified at the same time so it had to look good.

My theatre was given a special eye level plinth and looked wonderful on its own wall, Ed fixed an electric light into the theatre to give a glow onto the path through the trees ~ it made it look really special. Caterpiller sat on the Mushroom perfectly ~ relief!! I made a little cup cake from needlefelt ~ 'eat me' and a tiny bottle filled with irridescent paper for 'drink me' ~ there's also a pink flamingo nesting in the tree!

I took the following photographs tonight at 9pm ~ the late evening sun was streaming through my windows and catching the threatre where it sits in the corner of my room, I love the shadows it created streaming through the honeysuckle in my garden and just had to try and capture the effect.

I love how the light lands here on the rabbit hole and how it makes the tea party looks like it is in the middle of the trees

pink flamingo is nesting in the tree ~ can you see her?

I will give details next time on how I did the side panels and will show a photo of the Australia panel too.

Alice in Wonderland Theatre - the next part of the journey

2008-04-08T21:39:00.006+01:00

Here is my Alice in Wonderland Theatre so far.................

Alice is made using my judrops doll design with her heart shaped head
black and white stockings and red shoes ~ very important
and heart shaped mouth

The mushroom is a mixture of wet felt and needle felt
the underside has some fabric tucks and texture ~ must photograph it to show you

Alice and the Giant Mushroom
standing in the Alice in Wonderland Theatre

Here is the door leading to the corridor which leads to the
Rabbit Hole ~ are you following me!

open the door and see the corridor where Alice found the bottle
labelled drink me and the cake labelled eat me!

To the Rabbit hole

Fabric sculptured trees

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now I just have to make designs to go on the reverse of these side panels then they can be changed when ever I want to play!!

Hope youre enjoying your visit to Wonderland

The Alice in Wonderland Theatre brought to life

2008-04-02T23:50:00.018+01:00

I think Im living my childhood again as Im getting so much pleasure from the project Ive chosen to do.
Exploring the possibilities of making an Alice in Wonderland theatre where enormous fun and have added a little bit of an edge to what Im doing. As I mentioned in my previous post I collected the required elements to make the theatre and with Jims help ~ as I couldnt saw the wood in a straight line ~ we made the theatre from my technical drawing.

And it worked ~ Jim is such a patient and enthusastic husband about anything I do and supports me all the way so it was lovely 'together time' to make the theatre.
If you remember the brainstorming I did at the beginning, the Punch and Judy theatre and black and white checks were two of the links well here I found a way to incorporate them. There was no doubt in my mind the floor of the Theatre would be chequered and as the chess board is refered to in Alice through the Looking Glass I just had to use it here. So I drew out the checks and painstakingly painted the squares by hand ~ brilliant I love the effect.

The front of the theatre was designed around the heart shape and so I cut the design into mat board ~ below is one of the ideas I had but didnt go on to use this heart in red ~ all will be revealed soon. The checks are how I did the floor though.

this is one of my "play pages" which has gone on to become a little Alice in Wonderland book and will give you an idea of the finished colours, the inside is great fun

This was as far as I got for quite a while and I left the theatre and back drop where I could see them to give me ideas of how to finish the front. I pondered over this part more than any other aspect of the theatre I knew I wanted the front to look old and worn but tasteful as this little piece of art is going to be on show in my home so I had to be really pleased with the results. I had been thinking along the lines of using fabric paper and stitching into it or using mixed media with some images digitally enhanced and transfered but this all seemed too much

And then one day it clicked.

I took my mount board and covered it with gesso and crumpled tissue paper ~we've been covering texture in class ~ it needed to be really fine texture so the tissue had to be worked in really well, I incorporated the heart and topiary rose bushes (from my brainstorming exercise) using papiere mache and some other swirls and then sanded it all 'till I was happy. It was then covered in gallons of gesso; really expensive stuff 'cause I wanted it to be the best it could be and then I started painting on layers and layers of 'Golden' acrylic paint mixing the colours as I went along ~ until I stood back and thought ~ 'thats it'. All I have to do now is add a little gold wax here and there.

Whilst this work was progressing along nicely I had an email on my other blog asking me to join in a little challenge ~ you can probably see where the influence came from for the Little Fairy Princess.

I've been making alot of felt flowers for clients and mushrooms for another project I have on going, along side the theatre project, so it seemed only right to include the felted mushroom and the chequered floor in this little piece of mixed media art under glass.

And so now here you can see a little peep of the Alice in Wonderland Theatre and the backdrop but theres is still more to come, quite alot more infact ............................................. curious and curiouser, well there's Alice, and there's flamingos and there's trees and doors .................................... and dont you just love the whole surrealness of Alice I do.

the story so far March 2008

2008-04-02T18:44:00.009+01:00

Time is going so fast but I have been working really hard on my project ~ as I write here it is almost finished I've just been spending more time creating rather than blogging!!

So after my last post I got down to working on the logistics of the theatre and whether it would be possible to make my idea into an actual structure ~ I came up with a plan and measurements and together with Jim worked out the material list ~ so instead of fabric and threads it was wood, screws, wood glue, heavy duty matting board and paint and one or two other secret ingredients!

Finally the structure was finished and this gave me something to work with and take measurements from to make my back drop and so the process began. I looked back through my sketchbook and decided to choose the woodland scene with Alice

and explore the possibility of making the Mushroom and Caterpillar with fabrics stitch or possibly felt.

So the background first ~ I layered strips of my painted papers till I got an idea of where to start ~ brilliant idea these painted papers ~ they are one of my favourite things to do and are a brilliant design tool.

Here I love the idea of the trees and the path meandering through them and disappearing into the distance. I started by using my hand dyed fabrics ~ scrim, lightweight cottons etc and ripping them so I got frayed edges and layering the colours of the fabric till I got the idea of perspective and distance, in the mean time I painted a huge piece of craft vilene (love it) with silk and textile paints. I then started to add the fabric strips to the background and just sew and it was brilliant how it came together. Then I used a technique I learned at a workshop with Margaret Lappin ( a wonderful tutor and member of my branch of the Embroidery Guild) she is amazing and very generous with her knowledge of free machining.

The technique is really quite simple and it involves net, a hoop and thread and lots of free machine embroidery and building up lots of layers of gorgeous texture.

I cut stips of this texture and layered them onto the background and then just worked them into the background with free machine embroidery.

I used some of my favourite painted bondaweb on the path with lots of stitch

and for the stones at the bottom I made chiffon sandwiches cut them into shape and added lots of stitch.

And before I knew it, it was finished. The back had to be shaped to fit in the theatre and once I was happy with this I used mount board as a firm backing and covered the back with a piece of my beautiful hand dyed fabric, hand sewing the edges to finish.

I really loved every minute of making this embroidery. It looks really awesome in the theatre and the idea of the path leading away from you is perfect ~ well I think so! but it doesn't end here........

more to follow.

New Year and new project

2008-01-17T13:36:00.000Z

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

2008-01-17T11:42:00.000Z

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

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

Australia Panel

2007-11-28T16:54:00.001Z

do you remember all those papers I painted? well here is the next process in my developement of my wall panel. I was really happy with the papers and so tore the papers to create different collages until I was happy with the results

notes on the wall panel

possible layout
The more I played with the papers the more the ideas seemed to flow, until I felt I had enough to work with ~ here are the three pieces I have chosen ~ the panels will be separated with cotton organdie or scrim with trapped words; memories etc

Now I had to figure how to get the colours and textures of the papers onto fabric. I started by mixing up dylon dyes and did sample tests on a variety of fabrics

I also tested liquid acrylics on fabric

I painted bondaweb to create texture on the surface of the dyed or painted fabric

and finally some possible quilting and sewing lines

***********************Update***************************

The fabric is dyed and painted and already in three separate quilted pieces~ today I have printed my words and memories onto cotton organdie ~ wow super expensive ~ but necessary as it has good 'body'. And now Im off to work on the panel again.

Say hello

2007-11-03T08:16:00.000Z

To all those mystery visitors ~ go on say hello ~ its good to know youre stopping by and reading ~ let me know what you think. I dont bite! Judy :)

mono printing

2007-11-02T22:36:00.000Z

I now have another technique that I love!!! This week we mono printed ~ never ever done this before but it was brilliant, we used special ink and rollered it onto a smooth surface usually glass, we used laminated sheets which worked just as good as glass. Then we used tissue, newprint and cartridge paper ~ we used lots of texture too ~ from our tutors amazing box of goodies and made lots of papers. I love making papers ~ it must go back to childhood ~ I was always drawing and crayoning! We always had new crayons and paper at Christmas time. Anyway Im going off here ~ here are some collages I made with my papers

I also did some mono printing on fabric using acrylic paint and manutex this takes a little practise!!!

Also been doing more ink to stitch designs

Line

2007-11-02T20:53:00.001Z

The next part of our course is Line, we had (I had) a brilliant time drawing with charcoal, ink and kebab skewers (Im now hooked on ink and skewer drawing!!!!!!) charcoal on a very long bamboo stick, all kinds of pens and pencils and drawing without looking at the page!!!! BRILLIANT

charcoal and ink

ink using pen and kebab stick!

Ive also turned my designs into stitch which is just like doodling with the machine ~ love it too.

design in stitch

Ive far too many to show you but these are afew of what I've been doing!

small designs in ink

ink pen and kebab stick!!

strips and strata cut into three and moved!

working at home

2007-11-02T18:03:00.000Z

Ive really enjoyed the colour study we've been doing and decided to do a little more work with colour using photographs I found; one of my own and one from a photosharing site. The rainbow lorikeet is so bright and beautiful and like its name has all the colours of the rainbow in its feathers.

two of many painted pages!

I painted some papers in beautiful rainbow colours and using these I did some little design exercises.

I played around with the painted papers and made collages and painted the pages in my sketchbook to match ~ I cut some designs from my pages ~ Sandra Meech style, I love her books and she has some brilliant ideas in both to make your sketch books sing!! and worked away with the bird and feather shape

design with wing and feather shapes

wax crayon resist

strips and strata

front of book
wax crayon play, photo, paper weave, square in a square, strips and strata

back of book
wax crayon play, design, design, embellished wool tops, painte papers
back of book

I will definitely use these design pages in the future to make something bright and beautiful

week 5 - time to focus

2007-10-09T18:15:00.000+01:00

Already its week five!! We had a break and returned yesterday, my brain is too full ~ nobodys fault but my own ~ it goes over and over and over even when I should be asleep ~ I know its good to have lots of ideas but sometimes its too much.

I need to focus and so its with a smile on my face that I can say I am focusing!! Hahahahaha I can hear my friends say yehhhh right ~ I am going to try really really hard. My brain does play tricks with me though. So I had to pick a photograph, picture or something that appealed colour wise ~ how hard can that be ~ but for me it was too hard to pick just one. My pictures are from Australia ~ from visiting my son and his wife last year. I had photos of rainbow lorakeets to beautiful seascapes very different but my choice was easy in the end because before we finished last term my tutor suggested we write down words which represented the photo, my words were all about the sea and the sand and the glistening waters and dustiness and muted tones and the heat and so my picture is chosen!!!

this is one of my own photographs, I remember the heat, the glistening water as if a million diamonds were sprinkled on the surface. Empty beaches and a horizon that never ends.
The sun and its warmth and the sound of the waves hitting the shore,
Peaceful calmness happiness.

I have another photograph to show but it belongs to an awesome award winning photographer ~ I have emailed him to ask permission to show it here so keep your fingers crossed that he says yes. His photograph really represents the colours I remember, where mine is too subtle.

Painted papers are the first thing for me to do now ~ I've got to try really hard not to think ahead to how the finished piece will look ~ I must let it evolve through the design process and NOT work backwards. Here are some papers I've made today working with wax crayons, oil pastels, candles, acrylic paint, brusho, inks, brown paper, tracing paper, baking paper, watercolour paper etc etc

My first project is going to be an expandable book I want it to be alive and a real piece of three dimentional art both on the outside and on the inside where it will be filled with treasure from my trip and will grow with each journey I make to Australia in the future.

~~~~~~~~~~~

My tutor also talked about the history of colour showing us four of her favourite books. One of her favourites, The Craftsmans Handbook Il Libro dell'Arte Cennino D' Andrea Cenninia, a 15th-century handbook, written by a working artist of the day, it reveals the secrets and techniques of the masters in drawing, oil painting, frescos, panel painting, gilding and casting. Things that so many of us take for granted or dont even know about ~ all we have to do is go to the art store to buy our supplies; our tubes of ready made paint in every conceivable colour and medium, canvas already stretched, pads of papers in any weight required, some even available in supermarkets, or we buy numerous books and magazines on techniques or go to weekend workshops where we learn new ideas with soldering irons, tyvek or heatguns. Of course Im at the work shops and I buy the books (too many) and even use the internet but listening to her talk makes me realise how little I really know about Art and the amazing artists that went before us, she is passionate about her subject and a real pleasure to listen to and I think its about time I started reading. My shopping list has started!

Next week we study LINE ~ we are going to draw.

24 September

2007-10-09T16:32:00.000+01:00

I'm still studying colour with painted pages, magazine pages and threads, images are from my sketch book. I've spent more time on these at home too as I really want to get to grips with colour theory, I've played around with paint and how it mixes when really wet and then painting different types of papers and weaving them.

photograph from my garden and painted pages

zig zag sampler using a triad of colours.

What an amazing and busy day we had, last day of term and we did shaving foam marbling

and transfer dyed papers.

transfered design onto fabric

I used ready made fabric dyes which are beautiful for colouring paper and give really jewel like colours.

design exercise using dyed paper and painted paper and wallpaper

And finally I've to choose a photograph, picture or postcard with colours I love for the start of our first project we we return after the hols.

Oh yes I've done it!!!

2007-09-18T20:00:00.000+01:00

A fabby day all round at college, we dyed in cat litter trays and plastic bags it was awesome, I dont know what I've been scared of all these years. I've had procian dyes at home for probably 5 -6 years so I mixed up some more dye and this morning I dyed a heap more fabric and tomorrow will rinse them out. I love how yesterdays colours have come out and its a brilliant way to help you understand colour theory. I also painted my sketchbooks pages with brusho as they were way too white!!

Yesterday afternoon I did some more stitch samples on the sewing machine and great news for afew weeks time ~ we're going to do some drawing workshops!!!!!

Im also starting to think of inspiration and design now for my first project, Im thinking along the lines of my garden and whats found there, perhaps my little birds will feature, I've some photos of montbrecia; gorgeous bright orange with flashes of yellow and lime and also the ceanothus with its amazing blue blooms that look like lilac flowers and on the ground theres the beautiful purple/grey slate and the old chimney pots Jim collected for me, so many ideas ~ might work on some tomorrow!!

Straight stitch sampler

2007-09-17T00:28:00.001+01:00

I'm exploring my machine with this course and going back to basics, its good to do that ~ I do so much free machining these days, its funny going back to the beginning. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this simple sample of straight stitches!

I'm not used to sewing straight as you can probably tell, the fabric I painted myself. The threads are a mix of embroidery threads and the thicker ones I put in the bobbin and sewed from the back. There are snippets of sheers too.
Dyeing at class tomorrow!!!!!!!!
Can't wait.

week two

2007-09-12T21:01:00.000+01:00

Hues tones and achromatic

This week we did more colour study ~ really great exercises where a picture is used (one with quite a few different colours) and you take the colours and build up a strip picture of torn magazine pages in the quantities they appear in the photo. Then we created the oppositeOf course you are limited by the colours you find in the magazines but it makes you think about colour (the whole purpose),

Another colour study

Here we looked at how colour changes when white, grey, black and an opposite colour is added.

I also saw the computerised sewing machine which has a scanner so cant wait to draw out one of my own designs and scan it and then watch the machine create it, very excited about this!
I also used the collage Bernina a lovely machine to sew with (very solid) to do my stitch samples with.

First day of college - New Student

2007-09-05T09:15:00.001+01:00

First day is always a bit nerve racking but we made the journey with plenty of time to spare. Dundee college is an old school and still has the old bike sheds!! On arriving it looks a bit daunting but by the end of the day Id pretty much found my way around and the atmosphere is good. All the subjects taught there are art based and the corridors have the occasional piece of art hanging on the walls. We met the tutor when we arrived and got a cuppa from the canteen!!!!! Then we spent the morning enrolling ~ filling in forms and registering with the library. The class rooms are large high ceilings, huge windows and abit chilly so Im going to have to wrap up for my classes!! there are alot of students in the class all studying at different levels and courses although all are textile based from the beginners embroidery to felt making, levels one to three of patchwork and quilting, levels one to three of embroidery and those doing research and myself doing machine embroidery.

We didnt have alot of time for pratical but managed to fit a little colour excercise in, looking at hues, tones and achromatic, having worked with colour and fabric automatically over many years its funny to start thinking purposefully about it!!

Next week were doing more colour study and then in two weeks were DYEING I have wanted to dye for so long but have never made the step to actually do it for one reason and another. The fabric we dye will be the base for our experimental stitches, so I have a list of things to collect now ~ jars (lots), strong plastic bags, cat litter trays and much more. I cant wait.

I have new sketch books too ~ I love paper and sketch books and the college offers us the chance to buy these and paper at a reduced cost. Next week Im going to but some sheets of watercolour paper ~ yummy!!

So till next week ~ Judy