Making Masks

Putting my embroidery and stitching skills to some use I decided to make some face masks. I used the embroidery I had been working on for some time to make the first mask as I had no clue what I was going to do with the embroidery once it was done (Fig. 1).

After my first mask was successful, I had enough material to make a second one. I wanted to try stitch a flower, but I wasn't sure which flower at first. I eventually decided to stitch Forget-Me-Not flowers (Anchusa capensis) which are five-petaled blue flowers with yellow centres. They are indigenous to South Africa. I was given a packet of Forget-me-not seeds with my dog's ashes at the beginning of the lockdown. I haven't planted the seeds yet and I don't know if I will.

I started stitching with a dark blue thread as it was the only thread, I had at the time but when my local haberdashery opened I managed to get a blue thread closer to the colour of the flowers. I used yellow beads for the middle of the flowers which added another texture. The beads also catch the light drawing attention to the flowers so they don't get lost on the blue background.

I want to make a few more masks with some embroidery but I want to try sewing them up with the sewing machine as the embroidery takes time and stitching by hand makes the process a lot longer.

Figure 1 - Bowes, K ., (2020). abstract embroidery mask.

Figure 2 - Bowes, K., (2020). Forget-me-not embroidery mask.

Triangle embroidery progress

I tried to do a pattern with circles but I ended up trying to make all the circles perfectly round and I found it difficult to work with. The triangles fit together like a puzzle and I can use different types of triangles(equilateral, isosceles and scalene). The pattern was natural to draw because I used to do triangle doodles like this in school but instead of drawing on paper, I used to draw on my skin like my left hand or my knees. I chose the complementary colours so that the orange would stand out against the blue fabric.

Bowes, K., (2020). Abstract embroidery.

Doodles

I spent a whole day during the lockdown doing mindless doodles to pass the time. Once I was done, I filled the page, I thought it would be interesting to embroid all of the negative spaces between the triangles. I drew the pattern again onto some of the scrap fabric I have been using for embroidery. I use a fine liner that will wash out of the fabric when I am done so there will be no black lines left once it is done. I chose adjacent orange colours (yellow-orange, orange, red-orange) or as close to them as I could get with the thread I have on hand. I chose these colours as orange is the complementary colour to blue and the fabric is a light denim blue. Working with three colours is better than working with one as it can be boring and three colours will make the thread go further. I didn't draw the whole pattern because I don't fill the embroidery ring to the edges I want to draw as I embroid; I love the irregular shape the whole pattern makes naturally. The thread makes the triangles lose their ridged geometric look, even if the threads line up perfectly the sides of the triangles aren't smooth because I am stitching horizontally.

Figure 1- Bowes, K., (2020). Drawing of the triangle pattern.

Figure 2- Bowes, K., (2020). Triangle pattern embroidered.

Venation embroidered

I photocopied and enlarged one of my leaf skeletons on a photocopy machine so I could see the veins clearly. I decided to embroider the pattern as this is what I was going to add an enamel piece to, but I can't exactly enamel being stuck at home. I used the same photocopier to draw and pierce out the copper I was going to enamel. I used scrap material to practice my embroidery. I wanted to use green thread as I thought the finished embroidery might look abstract once it was done as the image was only part of the leaf and not the whole leaf. The only green thread I had was one that changes colour. This added to the randomness of the design as the changes in colour were unpredictable as the lengths of colours weren't exactly the same and cutting smaller pieces of thread to work with also made the colour changes unpredictable. The green is monochromatic as the thread was ombre that went from dark to normal green to light green and then repeated.

A 'nice' piece

For our first brief is to  "Make a piece (of jewellery?) that incorporates a 'nice' looking object that you made."  Which when it was discussed in class it was put in terms of making something nice and incorporate it into something else. The question is what do we think is nice and what will we incorporate it into?

We also discussed developing our craft skills during our advanced diploma so this got me thinking of incorporating some of my enamelled pieces into some embroidery. I started with the enamelling and stencils first so that if the embroidery part doesn't work then I will still have enamelled pieces I can work with. I also want to cast a few more succulents and enamel on those as well what I will incorporate that into yet I have no idea.

 Woolnough, M. embroidered Autumn leaf
https://mamabee.com/20-stunning-embroidered-leaves-that-look-like-the-real-thing/

Embroidery

Human eye- punch needle embroidery
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8Q5hHbn8HJ/?igshid=gzxtaw3p2kmp 

Biological diagram of a human eye done in embroidery cotton and beads. An interesting combination of biology and art.