Machine embroidery week 2

During week two of machine embroidery we were introduced to four new techniques non of which I have never used, hair pinning; wrapping of materials or threads around a hair pin and using the zipper foot to sew it down. Tailor tacking using a tailor tacking foot, this is something I first struggled with as I found it hard to grasp how the sitched changed when the tention and length were played with at the same time being facinated how one stitch can create such a vast variety of marks on a material. We were also shown how to fold and manipulate fabric neatly and finally how to use the tufter machine to create a further fifteen samples. After the group and tutor discussion about my work in the previous week I decided to take on the advice and try to edit down my sample and although I wanted to get straight ahead and use every technique combined with one another I decided to concentrate more on my photographs and drawings for context and the use of materials and threads to create a sophisticated group of samples.

I felt this was my most successful sample which surprised me as it only used one technique however the composition and weight of the silk organza with the cotton was delicate and thoughtful. I loosely wrapped a black and white thread around the hair pin and sewed the tread in place I chose a silk organza for the thread to lie on and played around with the composition until I found this one, I took my experience of last week and learnt from it and took more time to think about my use of materials to give my samples a higher quality.

During this week I was inducted to the tufting machines one of which loops and the other cuts. This was a machine i had never used before and I was quite apprehensive before using it due to the look and noise of the machine however once I sat at the machine and got going I found it to be very enjoyable I changed the thread colours to a cream and grey to link to my colour scheme in my inspirational photographs. I also took the idea of pattern from my drawings and photographs and tufted on either side of the wool flannel to create this repeat pattern. Although in some aspect this is a successful sample to be improve i could cute the loops down to give a more rugged texture which would refer back to my context






For this sample I took the idea of circular forms which I had previously used combined with the technique of tailor tacking, along with the idea of the stark contrast of the white on the black background aloud the circular shapes to jump out and off the surface. This to me looks like gravel and small stones.





In this sample I combined the techniques of hair pinning and tailor tacking these techniques work really well together and the piece has an interesting composition and looks almost like a road mark. To take this further I could cut the edges of the ribbon and make some more similar samples so it could work in  a set. This type of long thin vertical composition is something I find myself using quite allot and is almost part of my hand stamp it is something that I feel comfortable doing so in future I could try and experiment more with composition .