Exploring Materials

This week I have been experimenting with materials and how this can inform my embroidery. I have to think carefully about how the materials I use have relevance. Over the past few weeks I have been collecting bark. Bark is used heavily by the Aboriginal tribes in place of canvas, however the bark I have collected isn't large enough to use on its own so I need to find a way to join it. The properties of bark from different trees varies hugely, so it has been a challenge to figure out how I can make the most of this fragile material.

Here I have stitched the pieces together. It is too fragile to continue to sew into as bits of bark kept breaking away. I tried to make the structure 3D, but the fragility did not allow me to do this.

I used Bondaweb to join these strips of Birch together. I was intending on using the smooth side as I liked the quality of the birch. However when I peeled the Bondaweb backing away, a surface of glue was left behind.

This surface looks like frost, capturing the bark and preserving it in time. I want to explore how this reaction can differ across a range of materials. The slice of bark becomes a 2D surface, yet since it has been bound together, it also leaves room for me to explore the 3D. Next week I am going to explore materials further and see how far I can take this technique.