Exercise 3 – Materials

Exercise 3 – Materials

I am really looking forward to getting started on this section! 

In preparation for doing the exercise, I collected the following types of materials:

• Wallpaper (plain)
• Unwashed calico
• Washed calico
• Offcuts from some old denim style curtains
• Netting
• Fusible interfacing
• Bias strips of furnishing fabric
• Strips of wadding
• Carded wool sliver
• Lots of scraps of fabrics – all sorts

The themes I have chosen to follow (at this stage) are:

• Embossed and padded
• Fibrous and hairy

After a break of over 6 weeks, it has been challenging to get started again on my studies in a practical way.  Although I have found myself thinking a lot more about material and textures, especially when in the natural environment, such as beaches and woodland.

I started by researching some of the artists who use material manipulation in their work, although it could be argued that all textile artists use material manipulation, as there is always some form of ‘change’ which any material undergoes in order to become something else.  There are a myriad of artists and techniques ‘out there’ and after spending a few days looking at lots and lots of different artists work, I started to experience my usual overwhelming feelings of not being good enough and what on earth was I thinking by enrolling on this course.  So I stopped looking at other people’s work and returned my attention to focus on what I know and love …..

I have always loved the natural world, natural colours and natural fabrics.  I particularly love wool and am fascinated with the myriad of things that it can be used for and what can be done to it to create fabrics and material.  It was only when I began to think in more detail about materials and what we can do to them to create different things, that I came to realise how truly remarkable wool is.  Take felting and needle-felting for example; this technique can be used to create wearable garments as well as wearable art, but it can also be used sculpturally to create stand-alone pieces of art. So versatile. Felted wool is used as insulation in houses, packaging for delicate items and those which need to be kept either cool or hot, due to its insulating properties.  And one use which is probably not at the forefront of our minds when thinking about felted wool, is it’s use as a coffin for burials because it is totally biodegradable.  What a wonderful material it is!  And it is totally renewable – the sheep who provide this material, need to be shorn each year.  It is a crying shame that we, as a society, don’t do more with it and it is often seen as a waste product by farmers due to its lack of monetary value.  As someone who eats a plant based diet, I do struggle with the animal exploitation element of wool production, but, as with all elements of farming which involve animals, it can be done well with the welfare of the animal at the centre.  Maybe one day ……. 

But I digress, the task in hand is to examine materials and how they can be manipulated, so here goes.

Stage 1 – Material Tests

I began by looking at the individual pieces of material I had collected and putting them through various tests:

Technique – Tearing & slashing

Images from left to right: wool sliver – torn; furnishing fabric, scrunched and slashed; wallpaper – torn and pulled; washed calico – torn

Technique – Knotting & Plaiting

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Part 2 – Sample Development

I must admit that I’m finding this hard now.  I’m finding it difficult to come up with new ideas as to what to do with the material I have chosen to see what ‘new’ fabric/material I can produce.  I feel it has all been done before and what I’m doing is very predictable as to the outcome, and I’m just regurgitating old and established ideas.  I am very interested in Shibori techniques for example, and smocking, but again, this is all very old stuff, and although it’s enjoyable working with the material, coming up with new ideas is difficult.  

Then an idea came to me ….. I found a spool of macrame ‘twine’ and had the idea to plait it with two strips of the wool sliver and then to try to felt it to see how it would behave …… maybe I am loosening up a bit in my approach after all!

The result was less than inspiring! Maybe I didn’t felt it enough, but the end result was not much different from the original, a little more compact due to the felting, but not that much different really.  So I’m now going to coil it up and see if I can sew it on my sewing machine, going from something very soft and pliable, to a more compact firm structure.

….. And I was very pleased with the results – I sewed straight across the middle of the sample, in segments like a pizza, and the end result was certainly more firm, but not too firm. I think the combination of the felted wool, with the ‘core’ of the much stronger cotton macrame twine, has created a soft but stable structure. 

I then had a go at just coiling up the sliver of wool on it’s own and sewing it as I had done with the macrame.  The result was very pleasing with a lovely soft, but securely constructed and firm.  It felt just as sturdy as the macrame twine plaited sample. 

The next one I did was to take the sliver of wool and twist it before coiling and sewing it as before.  Again, a very pleasing result.

So I continued on this theme; I then knotted the sliver and coiled and sewed it. I liked the result of this, but not as much as the others as it was not as easy to create the ‘round’ result. So looking at them all together:

Sample Development (continued) …..

I then decided to return to the slashing and tearing techniques I used before.  I had an old sheet which I had earmarked for my sewing projects, specifically to use as toile material, and I decided to use some of this for this part of the project.

I used a large piece of fabric and enclosed all the scraps of fabric that I had used earlier – plus a few more and the wool sliver.  My idea was to layer up the fabric inside the larger piece of fabric and to sew shapes (in this case I went with the brief of stripes and spots) and then cut through the fabric layers to reveal glimpses of all the different fabrics within the ‘sandwich’.  This idea came to me to do this whilst I was making an advent calendar for my granddaughter! The idea of creating little pockets of ‘surprise’ appealed to me, as I had absolutely no idea how this slashing and sewing project would turn out. 

I delved into my scrap bag (I never throw away any scraps from my dressmaking) and decided to put more layers of different types of fabrics, including pure cottons, jersey, stretch fabric, lining material, cord, plastic string bags from onions, garlic etc., and just kept layering them up.  I then folded the top fabric over the stock of scraps and, using my sewing machine, I sewed up the edges. I then sewed two rows of stiches straight up the middle and cut the piece in half to create two separate pieces. 

I then sewed channels in one of the pieces, to create a stripe effect and random circle (or at least oval) shapes on the other, following the brief of spots and stripes. I then cut through all the layers of fabric, but not the backing, along the channels to reveal the scraps. 

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The results:

I was pleased with the fabric ‘wad’ before I made the cuts. It felt really solid, but flexible and the ridges were well pronounced.  I was also pleased with the result after I had made the cuts/slashes and ‘fanned’ the scraps out. I also, unintentionally, cut right through the fabric on one of the ridges and I was pleased with the result of that too.  In fact I felt I could have added more layers and used a more diverse range of materials. Also, as the top layer was a polyester base, I felt it I had used a more loosely woven fabric as the casing, that might have frayed more too and added to the effect of distress. I tried to tease the scraps out a bit from their restriction so that I could see more of the enclosed fabric. I screwed up each sample and this helped a little with the distressing process. Maybe I need to make my channels a bit wider and scrunch the fabric up to help the exposure process?

The circles though were less impressive. I found I had to cut the fabric on the circles in a cross and then remove the outer layer to expose the scraps within.  The effect was nowhere near as good as the lines, but again, they may have been more effective with a larger quantity of scraps inside and a different fabric as the casing.

I always try to imagine a ‘use’ for anything I make – maybe this technique could be used for rag rugs or matting? Or maybe things don’t have to have a ‘use’ they can just be what they are?

Summary

Although I have enjoyed this Materials exercise, I really don’t think I’ve achieved as much as I would have hoped to have done following on from the collage exercise. I really suprised myself with how much I enjoyed Collage, and was really looking forward to experimenting with materials. However, I feel I have just drawn myself back into techniques and materials I know well, such as wool and fabric, albeit trying to manipulate them in ways I have not done before, such as the plaiting/coiling and layering/slashing techniques. I looked at lots of different images of material manipulation on Pinterest and Instagram, and became completely overwhelmed, as I often do. During my research I came across a very interesting article, written by Joe Pitcher of TextileArtist.org, which highlights that too many techniques can be overwhelming and stifling to creativity. The full article is here: https://www.textileartist.org/textile-technique-addict (retrieved 19.10.20).

Of course, I appreciate that this course is designed to unlock your creativity by challenging you to explore new techniques and introducing new ideas to try things out, but the above article really resonated with me and I actually felt relieved that to feel overwhelmed is quite a common emotion amongst textile artists! I think that I would benefit from being in closer contact with other creatives, rather than just on-line, but of course this is not possible at this moment in these Covid times. But I do feel very isolated and although I know I can reach out to my fellow course members, this too is an overwhelming thought as I seem to spend a lot of time on-line in all areas of my life, and the thought of increasing that time in forging new connections is not something I relish.

I will now turn my attention to the next part of the course …… sketchbooks. I think this is something I’m going to really enjoy. At the beginning of this course I bought a number of ready made sketchbooks, and they are all still in pristine, blank condition ….. !