Reflection of Sampling Project

My inspiration for this sampling project was based on the words new and old. I applied them to the things I collect and what people in previous eras collected.  My initial drawings were from things that I keep around me, decorative objects that I have collected in the past.

However I was aware that there was no flow or link between the objects that I was drawing or any real connection that held the project together naturally. I decided to focus on the old element of my project and began to look at perfume bottles and their ornate designs. My work began to take more of a direction in mark making and patterns and linked in really well with some drawings of lace that I had done previously in the project. This then progressed through my machine embroidery and I began to manipulate the processes and techniques shown to me to bear more of a distinct relation to my visual research.  I think at first I was restricting my thoughts in the way I was worried that my work had to visually represent perfume bottles but actually simply looking at the object and thinking about what element I wanted to extract from it allowed my work to become more original and not just trying to recreate what I had seen.

One particular foot in embroidery worked really well for my samples. The tailor tacking foot allowed me to create really delicate illustrative marks. I wanted to bring across this element of transparency and working with materials such as silk organza not only exaggerated the marks but also allowed me to work the fabric in a much easier way.

Originally the colour choices in my workshop had come from colour experimentation that I had done from a post card which at this point had no strong relation to my visual research. After experimenting with relevant colours of blues and greens in my samples I realised that my work for this particular workshop wasn’t about colour. Therefore limiting myself to a simpler monochrome colour pallet allowed me to focus entirely on the marks that I was making with the machine.

I have definitely been made more aware of what can be achieved in machine embroidery as my previous experience has been with a simple free hand embroidery foot or a straight stitch foot. I think that there is the possibility within the next part of my project to combine both my skills in machine embroidery and the skills I have yet to learn in die and fibre workshop.  Although colour became less of an important feature in my samples for this workshop, I am going to continue with my colour pallets to help me develop my samples in the next workshop.