Moving from Birds to buildings...

So the move from birds to buildings seems a little dramatic.. but in my head it made perfect sense. There was one image that I had taken that formed this dramatic move. I had already considered the structure of birds when looking at the stuffed ones, so in my head it all made perfect sense. How I got on to considering derelict buildings is another matter in itself! This was brought around by the theme of destruction and distress (which I have always had a keen interest in). I thought I should possibly clear up how I moved from birds to buildings for those who don't understand my complex mind... :)

27/10/2012 Blackburn Museum

I returned to Blackburn Museum to have a look at the collection of stuffed birds. I decided that I wanted to move on from using the bright blues and greens to a more delicate colour pallet of browns. I remembered that there was a collection of birds with more natural feathers. Looking at the birds themselves, I liked the idea of using a structural element to create a piece. Here are some images of these birds...

25/10/2012 Feathers Galore...

Water Colour feathers, on tracing paper.

I tried using water colour on tracing paper because it was thinner than the standard paper, giving a delicate nature to them and it means they can be manipulated and shaper easier.
An artist that inspired me to try these water colours is Mary Hayes, one of her watercolour paintings is of a peacock feather, however, she uses much more dull colours. I Have used the colour pallet that I have previously been using to create my own watercolours.

Mary Hayes

23/10/2012 Garment experimentation...

Today I tried using different methods on my feathers to see what results I could get. I tried using lace and stitched it onto the screen printed feathers, this didnt work as well as I hoped because I couldnt cut the fabric out behind it very well, so it just looked sloppy, it took me a while, but I will definitely try it again on the vanishing fabric, hopefully this time it will work (fingers crossed). The feather that I previously created using vanishing fabric lacked structure and was hard to work with, I decided it would be a good idea to be able to manipulate it more. On the back of the free stitched feather, I used zig-zag stitch to attach a strand of wire to make the feather easier to work with. Its very time consuming creating the feathers solely using sewing and the machine, I think I need to find a different method to produce the mass of feathers for my garment. Here are some images of my experimentation of creating some form of garment (bare in mind, this is my first experimentation and it will get better, I promise)...

18/10/2012 Nature...

By using vanishing fabric, I worked on my adopted theme of nature and used the peacock feathers that I used in my screen printing. I was able to sew onto the vanishing fabric by drawing the feather onto it, I stitched yarns on top of the free stitch to create layers and texture. Later you wash away the vanishing fabric to be left with just the free stitch of the image.

17/10/2012 Experimentation...

Masking fluid prevents pain from covering the paper and can be easily peeled off once the paint/ink is dry. Working with my fashion shoot images, I used the masking fluid to block out the model from the background, I then used paints in powder form and scattered them to make a background which resembled that of the image. The first one I made didnt work very well as the masking fluid split and the paint leaked through (as shown below). However, the second one worked really well and I hope to work into this further by using free machine stitch.

16/10/2012 Textiles...

By using a screen I experimented with surfaces and textures that could be created by placing objects under the screen. I tried using different types of lace and fabrics, but this was unsuccessful. I found some fathers which I placed under the screen, initially I used a mix of green and brown to create a natural look. \this created really nice prints that I can later work into.
In the afternoon I was able to use the sewing machines to work into the prints I had created. Also I screen printed using a bright orange ink to create a contrasting print, this wored well as the feathers printed onto the fabric in green.