Badly Dying Yarn

I have been thinking further about how to make my materials more relevant to my project. I wanted to bring more meaning to the thread that I have been using. Here I played around with badly dying some unbleached wool. I want to use this thread that tells the story of the song in a sample. I like how this worked, but I think if I was to do it again, I would use ink over paint. The wool has absorbed the paint so the yarn has only one colour where as I would of preferred it to have more than one tone to it.

Hand Embroidery

This week I wanted to explore hand embroidery and see how I can use techniques to enhance my work, but still keep it relevant to the project. I prefer hand embroidery although it can be time consuming. I have been using hand to reflect upon my work as well as enhance it.

In this sample I have used bullion knots to try and emulate the splatter patterns of a Boom Bip sample. I love the back just as much as the front as it shows a map of the song.

I want to keep going with this process and experimentation in order to select my work down to my most successful samples. Next I am going to play around with machine embroidery.

Playing with First Prints

I began to experiment with my samples to bring Embroidery into the mix. I initially played around with decorating the images using the tools I learnt from the embroidery workshop. Using multiples and buzzwords to enhance the images I photographed the experiments.

I want to continue playing around with being as experimental as possible to create interesting samples that reflect the mood of the songs. I want to decorate the samples, print over prints and see where the project can go.

Photoshop Workshop

Today I had a workshop in photoshop. I already have a basic knowledge of the software so it was a positive experience to gain further knowledge and shortcuts to help me to improve. I produced this image in the workshop. It is a manipulation of one of my cling films. I like this composition as I feel I can use it to inspire a sample

Third Tutorial

Feedback today has helped me to think about how I can use my sketchbook research in my samples

• Think about how to translate irregular shapes and composition from sketchbook to embroidery.
• Badly dye thread to tell story possibly?
• Use rhythm and freedom to create structure from unstructured.

I want to use my sketchbook research within my work more as I don't feel at the moment I am using it enough to influence my samples. I want to prepare surfaces before printing to make a repetition in the surface and more irregularities. By enlarging sections of my work already I am able to visualise the areas I like the most but now I need to translate these areas within my work better.

Influences - India Flint

India Flint has developed a dye method which she calls Ecoprint.
It is an ecologically sound sustainable dye process that transfers colours to cloth using direct contact.
The idea of direct contact inspires me as it leaves a print that directly reflects the memory. This si something that I have been using within my project, using sound to create drawings. Using a strong system of working like what Flint has created can help my process of drawing with music.

I really like the colours used and the display of sections of her work. I want to edit and select down my work to show the most interesting parts but still tell the story of the song. 

I can use this style of methodology within my practice in the future also. Having a strong method motivates me to produce more work which in turn I can build upon to take risks with.

Printing on Fabric

After experimenting on paper, I turned my attention to fabric. I gathered a variety of fabrics to initially experiment with how the paint and ink would react on different surfaces. The results I got were massively varied. It has also become clearer here to see the differences in pattern for the two songs.

Boom Bip - Roads Must Roll

I love the variation in mark dependant on the qualities of the fabric used. Above I have used plain cotton which has absorbed the ink, whilst on the right I have used a cheap blind material which due to the weave, has absorbed the paint in a completely different way.

This is the front and back of a piece of blind material. I used the other side of the fabric to the above print which allows the gouache to soak through to the other side leaving an equally as interesting mark.

Daft Punk - The Game Has Changed

I have also been thinking about colour more in terms of representing the two songs. The Daft Punk song represents more colder tones to me. I see a lot of deep blues and greens coming through in my drawings to the music. 

I am really happy with these experiments and now I want to see how I can incorporate embroidery into the experiments to enhance the mood of the two songs.