Chapter 11: Further Design Exercises leading to Fabric Samples

The following samples show a number of ways of arranging different paper strips.

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

Sample 4

A selection of the boldest patterns showing gradations of tone.  In Sample 1 the darker tones are interspersed with lighter ones, whilst in Samples 2-4 the tones move from dark to lighter.

Sample 5

Above, in Sample 5, narrow dark strip with deeper bands of pale tones.

Below, in Sample 6, strips of a narrow range of tones

Sample 6

Sample 7

More Design Exercises

Wedge-shaped tonal strips.

Sample A

Sample B

Sample C

Sample D

More complex designs.

Sample E

Sample F

Sample G

Sample H

Sample I

Sample J

Stack and Wack

Sample K

Lines of Machine Stitching on Bleached and Monoprinted Fabrics

It was really pleasurable to return to bleaching and monoprinting, and then use a range of threads with the machine to develop the surface further.  I then went on to embroider some of the bought fabrics and these appear in the stitched fabric samples.

Fabric Sample 1

Fabric Sample 2

Fabric Sample 3

Fabric Sample 4

Fabric Sample 5

Stitched Fabric Samples based on Earlier Designs:Stage A

 Translating some of the paper samples into fabric.  It's interesting to see how the embroidery and monoprinting interplays with the underlying fabric pattern and the design shapes.

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

Sample 4

Samples 3 and 4 show the right and wrong sides of the same sample.
Samples 5 and 6 again use some of the dark bleached and embroidered fabrics.  The effect is rich, almost velvety, but the effect is not overly clear on the scan.

Sample 5

Sample 6

Stage B

I was pleased with the way the tonal fabrics came together.  I tried to use the Fibonacci Series for each cut, though I must confess it became progressively more and more impossible in the third section.  I also seemed to be cutting mostly in one direction resulting in that section becoming more and more distorted.  Looking at that section now I probably need to do more cutting.  However, it is interesting to see the lines of text appearing amongst the assorted patterns.

Waiting for Magic

I had written a longer piece than the one you're reading now.  I felt the need to churn around why I wasn't making faster progress.  Too much introspection is not always a good thing, hence the shorter version.  The upshot of my thinking and some reading too is that I can read and write reasonably well and that it's taken years of practice to achieve that.  Why not apply that thought to Module 2?  It is easy to feel that you're falling behind, or falling short: aren't we always our harshest critic?  To find a way of moving forward is the thing.  And so to my reading .... Bridget Riley talks about encountering her ignorance and feeling that she needs to remove some "obscuring veil".  Her approach is slow and methodical.  There's some comfort in that.  In "The Art of Looking Sideways", a wonderfully quirky book, I came across a quotation about creativity, calling it "a leap across a chasm".  Isn't that just how it seems?  And so wonderful when it happens.  My conclusion then is that while I'm waiting for the next magic moment  I must just keep working away.  Now did it take all that thinking to come to such a lame conclusion?