Choice! what a dilemma, I am not yet very good at choosing. Making a decision about which drawings to take forward to stitch samples was a huge stumbling block. I really enjoyed experimenting with drawing in the previous projects but this task was asking me to identify which of my drawings were best suited to stitch, good enough even. I dutifully laid them all out on the floor and found myself lacking, I didn’t enjoy this part. So I put it off, procrastinated and did research and other safe tasks. Eventually I started to progress by using a view finder, then I took close up photos and found that things started to look more interesting.
Cropping, zooming , rotating all make such a difference. I didn’t manage to narrow things down much (aiming for 6 images!!!! ) but I do feel ready to move on. Hurrah.
I’ve been studying Drawn to Stitch by Gwen Hedley, she may just be my saviour!
This drawing of the Akha jacket was drawn partly with a toothbrush, which gave different line thicknesses and suggested quite strongly the weave of the fabric. I chose different thicknesses of thread and used a tube of paper to raise the white dots and add an element of depth.
The close ups show the detail of the holes, you can see where the needle came up and where it was pushed down, also how the folded creases of the paper add a feeling of weave.
The reverse has a charming sense of disorder.