Chapter 7 : Tactile Contrasts

 So here's an opportunity to take another look at my photographs and develop and extend ideas the from the previous few chapters.  It will be interesting to see how multiples of an idea might look, in some cases as a network, in others how they might appear layered.  This is just what I've already noticed countless times in my field.

So, my plan is to show all sixteen samples on my Sampler and then in pairs briefly describe what I was trying to do and how successfully the idea worked.  I have included quite a number of techniques from Caroline Bartlett's Workshop.  Individual samples are shown from left to right, top to bottom.

7:1

Row One:

7:2

7:3

 Here are spirals in different sizes to create an undulating surface.  As the threads are pulled up creases appear within and between the circles.  The threads are left to lie over them.  Below that sample is a narrower and more tightly spiralled version of an edge idea and unlike the version above the elements are detatched.

7:4

The first example using ideas from Caroline Bartlett's Workshop.  Beads have been wrapped with thread in silk organza, then steamed.  After the beads were removed each bubble was stitched on top with  running stitches between the bubbles. Further stitching would have created a more interesting as well as a greater contrast between bubbles and the background surface.

7:5

Here is an illusion of extreme flatness, the thread and fabric being stretched diagonally.

Row Two:

7:6

Another CB experiment and one I felt was a great success.  Triangles of silk organdie are wrapped round plastic tubing threaded with wire and curved into shape.  Steaming again fixes them and delightful translucent pods are the result.

7:8

A further CB idea: organdie tucked and stitched at varying intervals

 and gather to create a different undulating surface. The separate pods contrast with the integrated surface.

7:9

Still a surface, but this time opaque, pleated and densely stitched, the holes possibly imitating the light through the hedge bottom.

7:10

Here is "cracked ice": stiff, transparent, plastic the seams arranging themselves in mountain folds.

Row Three:

7:11a

7:11 b

 This sample is the one that has caused me the most trouble.  I became fixated on trying to create my hedgerow by folding the fabric, drawing from my sketches and then cutting round them.  Whether in Vilene (b) or, organdie and organza (a), it still looks as if I'm in a fairytale wood with the proportions all wrong.

This, though pleated as in 7:11, is dense with no apertures.

7:12

Here are flakes of chiffon cut using a soldering iron, light, translucent with irregular frayed edges -- a barely there feel to the surface.

7:13

Here in contrast is the ground, dense, nearly opaque, patterned: undulating scrim looped through with silk.

7:14
   

Row Four:

Long stretched out, soft fabric rolled,wrapped in thread and knotted.  Here are a cluster of individual shapes.  They stretch between and beyond each other

7:15

Muslin randomly stitched and drawn into a soft puff -- more CB.  Another version of soft, cloud-like rather than insidious.

7:16


Strips of organza wrapped round cocktail sticks ( CB again) cut to length like blackthorn stems and spikes: hard, unrelenting in their threat and reaching out.

7:17


And finally, a translucent tucked and seamed landscape.  Instead of stretching upwards. like the black thorn it lies along the ground.

*     *     *

Scanning my samples I can see a good range of tactile qualities: the soft and the crisp , the hard and the cushiony, the smooth and the rough, the delicate and the strong, the concentrated and the thinned.  I think a tactile quality is the result of what the fingers feel and the eyes see, not feel alone.  Furthermore, it is how light inter-plays with any material used: its transparency, translucency and opaqueness, and how the light is reflected, or not, by that material.

These tactile samples try to evoke the qualities of landscape, understood in terms of a sense of dimension:how the samples appear to lie along, be vertical, have depth.  They have life and movement, seeming to twine round, enclose, open up, push through. A sense of place is challenging to create, close looking  and careful attention to materials are necessary to do just that.

Chapter 6: Tucks, Pleats and Gathers

 Tucks: I've chosen cotton organdie for this first series of technical samples.  The fabric is crisp with body helping it keep a fold well.  It's also transparent which shows the layers really well.

In Sample 6:1 I've been experimenting with the width of tucks and their spacing.  Pressing these to one side creates some nice sculptural effects, b) looks almost like a clump of blades of grass.

Sample b) in 6:2 really sits best with the 6:1 samples.  It's a double tuck, a narrow one centred on top of a wider one.  There is a formality about it and it gives a really nice raised surface.  Later, I randomly cross-stitched over them to disturb the formality but I wasn't really very happy with the result.

6:1
a) Edge Stitched   b) 1cm wide   c) 1cm wide, but at greater intervals
d) 1cm wide grouped

Below in 6:2 Sample a) shows off set darts and this makes for an irregular surface.  Sample c) is even more irregular.  This is made up of short lengths of tuck at random angles which also causes the fabric in between to crumple.  These could be stuffed.

6:2

Below in 6:3 are three further samples: far left random edge-stitched fine tucks, in the middle tucks made with a zigzag stitch where the width has been varied throughout its length. In the next variant this idea has been extended by using thick embroidery thread in the bobbin.  In both the second and the third samples the needle holes have really contributed to the tucks' appearance.

6:3

Finally in 6:4 are two samples, where the tucks have been repeatedly over-stitched using a zig zag -- the predominance of needle holes is again a feature.  On the right are very simple tucks which have been threaded with raffia and snipped along their length to expose the stuffing material.

6:4

Combination Tucks:  I found using non-fabrics for these samples really interesting, and was surprised how well they stitched.

First is 6:5 bubble pack, where tucks have been machined the full length of the material, then cut through diagonally, re-positioned and re-machined.  Jagged edges are produces and the off-set pieces catch the light in an interesting way.

6:5

Below in 6:6 plastic sheeting has been pin-tucked and edge stitched, cut at right angles to those tucks then re-seamed with some tucks uppermost and others facing downwards.  There is scope to use this idea more imaginatively by making the cuts less uniform and re-stitching to form more unpredictable lines in the landscape.

6:6

In 6:7 I've used plastic sheeting again (old envelopes from my Selvedge magazine).  Here the material has machine stitched tucks which have been threaded with several strands of thick wool.  This has been drawn up so that the plastic sheeting gathers creating soft pleats between each tuck.  The surface is nicely raised and remains translucent.

6:7

6:8

The final sample of these combination tucks is made with stiff clear plastic seamed and cut diagonally, then pieced together with some seams above, some below (the same technique as 6:6).  The effect is like cracked ice on a puddle, the facets are off-set and reflect the light.

Gathers:   Below are three samples of gathers using man-made (net curtain) and natural fibres (muslin).

 In 6:9 radiating gathers from a corner of the net curtain fabric which created a spider's web of soft folds

6:9

In 6:10 muslin has been stitched in diagonal lines in two directions creating a soft bubbling, puffy effect.

6:10

Then in 6:11 spirals have been stitched close together on a piece of muslin.  I had to pull these shapes from both ends to create this interestingly pleated surface and gradually ease the fabric along the thread: the pleats are both within and between the spirals.

6:11

Since the wonderful Summer School with Caroline Bartlett the world of manipulating fabric and other materials has opened still further and I'm  thoroughly enjoying experimenting with so many interesting ideas.