Making my textile piece.

The brief for Project 10 is to create a textile piece based on the theme we chose back in Project 7.  We do not have to complete it but we are required to look at an area that takes in a variety of elements and is representative of the piece as a whole.

I have based my sugary confections loosely on lollipops.  I wanted to work with circles as I felt they would compliment the cogs in the processing plant, the continuity of the shapes appealed.  The left hand section has been wet felted from wool fibre (see previous posts), is virtually unadorned and the surface design is fully finished.  I have three rows of different ‘ingredients’ being fed into the machine.  These are portrayed in light, un-demanding colours to show how ordinary these items are.  This section is designed to be harmonious with no particular focal interest.  It is the banality of the substances that I am trying to show.  After all, who would be interested in a spoonful of flour, a raw egg or perhaps a cup of desiccated coconut alone?

It is only when these products enter the processing plant, have sugar added and are mixed, cooked and churned out that we see an irresistible treat we are dying to eat!!

The machine has had every component hand-made and is fully finished.  Techniques used include silk fabric dyeing, hand and machine stitching, stitching cords on soluble backing, rust printing, painted Vliesofix (applied to fabric to obtain the varied surface colours), fusing fabrics, silk paper making incorporating rust, building a raised molded surface, manipulating fabric, using hardening products, layering surfaces, manipulating wire and Dorset button construction.

Where possible the rivets and brads (split-pins) have been sanded to take the brilliance off the sheen so they appear aged.

The third section where the final extravagant, exaggerated candies have emerged is not completely finished.  Due to time constraints regarding assessment and postal delays at this time of year I’ve decided to stop at this stage.  Enough of the section has been worked to understand the intention.

Techniques used include wet and dry felting, beading and extensive hand stitching, also ruched viscose tubular ribbon, wire wrapping, padding and layering, stitching over large beads and washers.  Stitches include stem, whipped stem, wave, twisted chain, Palestrina knots, elongated Sorbello knots, colonial knots, buttonhole, drizzle, couching, variable length picot, pistil, spider web and detached chain.  The sewing machine was used to create the lacy yellow section.

Finishing off:

Once all the embellishment on the right hand side piece has been completed the two felted sections will require blocking and backing/lining.  I will then build a rigid backing, frame-like, on which to attach all three pieces so they abut and unify as a single art work, as per the picture where they are pinned to my work board.

And finally:

This project has been produced as a prototype for a much larger and more involved piece.  It has been designed specifically for Diabetes Australia to be displayed in one of their clinics, the one at Sutherland Hospital to be precise.   This Centre has a lot of very interesting material on the walls, there are many models of parts of the body, plastic food to help with portion control, educational leaflets and so on but I feel they need an artwork to explore whilst their clients await their appointments.  I would like to enlarge and extend the complexity of my piece to not only provide a wonderful visual spectacle but also to gently remind people about what we consume on a regular basis without possibly realising it.