Monday 21 April 2008

Feeling better.

Thank you all for you kind "get well soon" messages. I'm starting to feel a lot better and in fact didn't mooch around all weekend as planned. On Saturday, suitably dosed with Lemsip, I went with a couple of friends to the launch of the Eastern Region Textile Forum which was held in Chelmsford. It was a buzzing lively event and there were plenty of good ideas for promoting textile art withinin the East of England. In the afternoon we were treated to a very inspirational and entertaining talk by the lovely James Hunting. He kindly brought along examples of his exquisitly stitched work which we got to handle and see up close. And as an added bonus I got to meet Purple Misses... another blogger I've known since I started blogging who was just a lovely in the flesh as she is in cyberspace! Really good to meet you Lynda.

I've not spent the entire week feeling sorry for myself either and there has been some work for the degree. I finished making my final piece of cloth - a crazy patchwork of metal scraps, made from wire mesh, tomato puree tubes and beer cans (there are advantages to living with all these men!) stitched together on the machine.




And I've moved away from the assignment on Making a Cloth and I'm now looking at Dress as a Sculptural Form in greater detail. I've become fascinated by the Japanese designers of Comme des Garcon, in particular with Junya Watanabe and his surreal honeycomb structures.


And as a result I've been exploring my own honeycomb structures - this first was made from kite fabric. It taught me a lot about the actual construction but I'm not that keen on the Christmas decoration I produced!




The next one was made from silk organdie, which is much nicer but very small due to the fabric used! This technique uses masses of fabric so given that I wasn't going to make a garment sized piece from silk organdie I investigated some other materials...



And discovered that plastic bags, although a nightmare to stitch because of the static electricity (they stick to everything!) give a very pleasing delicate result. So that is where I'm going with this assignment... dresses from plastic bags! I think my family will finally disown me!


15 comments:

  1. Gina, that metal work is fantastic, I would like to see it in real life sometime. It really is a work of art. If the plastic bags turn out as good it will be wearable art! I hope to see that too.

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  2. Some interesting things going on in your house. I am really enjoying seeing your work develop.

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  3. Wow! I have missed some fascinating stitching. Your honey comb fabric is amazing. Jane x

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  4. Oh they better not disown you, these pieces are awsome. Love the bottom two, the carrier bags look fantastic. This is so clever. Which C+G are you doing, looks so imaginative!

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  5. The metal cloth is stunning - did you have to be careful with your machine needles?

    I love the plastic bag honeycomb and can't wait to see the resulting dress. Will you be doing an orange Sainsbury dress, or a more tasteful white Waitrose one? :-p

    x

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  6. I've seen some fabulous things made from plastic bags. On my degree course there was someone who made them into skeins and knitted them up - they looked so good knitted - really comfortable and warm too I'd imagine (if a bit noisy).

    Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for this project

    Monda
    x

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  7. Oh my goodness! You are far too clever for words! My brain aches just thinking about what you have been coming up with - I'm seriously impressed and secretly very glad it's not me having to be so clever!

    Lucy x

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  8. I'm echoing Lucy - this work is amazing! I'm interested in what needle you used in the machine for the metal. (Darn! I've just squashed 2 beer cans!)
    Your pieces are great and just think..........you can now easily get a job making Xmas Decs! Ouch! don't hit me! lol

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  9. Dear Dolly Bobbin

    I know where plastic bag dresses are leading. Step away from the polythene now.

    Your friend

    Mrs Sock

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  10. You amaze me Mrs - d'yer know that!!
    I love your metal fabric and would never have dared stitch metal on the machine!
    Your honeycomb structures are stunning - I love the carrier bag one.
    Will you be modelling what you make with it?

    xxx

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  11. I'm glad you are feeling better Gina. What can I say? it's all been said already!

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  12. Hi Gina!

    I’ve just nominated you for an award. Please visit my blog to find out more!

    Celia
    x

    http://purplepoddedpeas.blogspot.com/2008/04/blue.html

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  13. It brings a whole new meaning to recycling!

    But beer cans and tomato puree tubes? Your poor machine! ;-)

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  14. fabulous work, Gina - cheers - Dale

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  15. Wow - there's some amazing work there!!! You are so clever. I love Commes stuff too - the designs are amazing. So sculptural. And, strangely, comfortable to wear.

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