Introduction to machine embroidery week 1

Going into embroidery the group was initially split into two large group of hand and machine and then into four smaller sub groups within each technique. I was in the machine embroidery group, going into the introduction for the machine I thought that it would be quite arduous to learn the workings of the Bernina sewing machine as I had previously used the same machine throughout my practice however I was wrong. I found out new thing I didn't know about the machine such as how to disable the the spool to unclog the built up cotton and how to tighten the tension on the spool.

For the first week we were given the fundamental machine stitches straight, zigzag and satin stitch to create fifteen sample, I got onto the machine and started by sewing off some quick technical samples for my file which would in then include a variety of stitches I would learn throughout the 6 weeks embroidery introduction. I found this quick and easy

For my first sample I used a variety of materials including wool flannel and silk organza. I looked at my original photographs and took the tactile nature of subject matter in the photos and translated it into my work. I layered the materials together and sewed them vertically then cut the material and sewed horizontally allowing folds to happen. I used the colour scheme of greys and creams to give a the effect of stone. I found it interesting how some of the edges of material frayed and others were flat and how they worked with one another, this is something that I i would experiment with in my future samples.

For this sample I continued to work with the idea of frayed edges against straight. I decided to keep it as a thin vertical focal point against the black wool flannel to draw the eye up and into the work. I feel that the frayed Hessian edges works well against the organza to create rough surface against a soft one. I played along with the stitch width on one line of satin stitch which created an interesting mark on the background and the contrasting white against the black allows the stitch to stand out away from the dark background playing with tension stitch width and length is something i found interesting and was something I took forward into my work.

I went over my my drawings and found one of my twenty lines chance cards drawing which was simply twenty vertical straight lines with fine liner, although it was simply it gave off an organic feel and so I decided to translate this into a sample, I chose a white cotton and sewed thin pleats to create a repeat pattern, the idea of pattern is something that interested me and is something I would take forward and expand on. Although this is quite simple it is very effective and has an organic innocent effect.

I decided to post this close up of a sample because I feel that it has a good quality of line and shows a subtle experiment with stitch width and tension, and the use of a gradual colour change thread help to show a subtle continuation of line.

Overall I feel that I let the thought of doing fifteen samples weigh on my mind and so I thought more about getting fifteen done then the planning and quality of my samples, and so my samples suffered for this in my later samples toward the end were rushed and unclear to see the link to my context. Although I feel that fifteen sample lowered the quality of them I did learn an important factor of time management and so in future I plan to concentrate more on this.