week 12 conclusion

The good news: I've begun sewing the actual materials I am going to use in my final piece...experimenting is good and all but I'm really diving into the real thing now.

The bad news: I don't have as many handkerchiefs at home as I thought I did...in fact my mother informed me that we don't have any (other than the ones I had already brought to school). This means I need to go out and get some - which is fine because Adrianne reminded me that using other people's handkerchiefs just opens the piece up to include the collective heritage of many different women and families - but it is bad because I will have to spend money on handkerchiefs which I thought I could get for free :(

just incredibly cool...

Beautiful save the dates printed on antique handkerchiefs - check out the website here.

week 11 conclusion

This week our section visited the Fine Arts Library in Tappan Hall, one of my favorite spots on campus. In searching for some books on textile art I came across the work and collection of Jack Lenore Larson. He created textiles but was also a collector of many types of art. Larson was a close friend and mentor to the great glass artist Dale Chihuly, and many of Chihuly's works were in Larson's collection. One work in particular struck me - Chihuly's "Tabak Basket Set with Black Lip Wraps" (seen above). It was place on the same page as many soft, fabric sculptures and I was mesmerized at how similar the glass behaved to the flowing fabric. This gave me the idea to begin sewing wire into the edges of my textile forms, in order to create further extensions into 3D space.

Adrianne Finelli, the fantastic instructor of my "Home" course last semester, paid our section a visit this week as well. We held a small critique and I got some great feedback as well as encouragement. My biggest question for Adrianne and the class was whether I should stick with the handkerchiefs (and therefore changing patterns of the squares) or if I should shift and use just one pattern in order to let the form shine though. In the end we sort of came to a compromise - I would continue to use the handkerchiefs (because they are important to my concept) but I will group the patterns and colors together so that they flow and are not sort of splotches of color here and there.

What's next:

I will need to gather all the handkerchiefs from my home over Thanksgiving, then begin putting them together into true-to-scale works. I think my mock forms have served me well but it will be time to move on to the real thing after Thanksgiving! (The use of wire is still up in the air, I think if I choose to add wire that will happen next semester when I am exploring installation of the work).

week 10 conclusion

This week has been a great continuation of on my new concept - textile installation. I've been working on new forms, which were very much inspired by the class' trip to UMMA. I spent some extra time looking at the Sam Gilliam piece and really began noticing the negative spaces and cavities created by the fabric (which I hadn't really realized before). So, I tried to incorporate that more in the experiments I continued to make this week. I will continue making more forms and experimenting with shapes. The other factor I'm beginning to grapple with is one fabric/pattern vs. a collage of different fabrics/handkerchiefs...something else to consider...but as Janie suggested, I'm not worrying about that too much - I'm really just going to keep plugging away with my sewing.

Also, I applied to get access to the fibers studio today :)

(Should make my experiments go a little faster).

week 9 conclusion

I made some great progress this week, feeling better about my project than ever before (which tells me I'm headed in the right direction). I've really started to dive into the textile installation idea, using fabric as a means of expressing collection. I was originally thinking of working with clothing - shirts, pants, the whole shebang - but now am thinking of working more with handkerchiefs and scarves. I really like the square format and the interesting forms that can be made from such a simple shape. The very feminine quality that little handkerchiefs have is also another reason I might work exclusively with them.

I had a few of my grandmother's handkerchiefs, so i loosely hand-stitched them together, but didn't want to take that too far...so I decided to being using scrap fabric and start sewing mock forms that way. I made a few tiny ones, but with squares that small you really didn't get much in the way of draping. I found that four or five inch squares worked great (easy of size, but still allowed for some movement, you can see this in the blue and red patterned form).

I'll continue to build upon these shapes, experimenting with different ways to fit the squares together. I also hope to assess my collection of handkerchiefs fairly soon, and possibly go searching for more if need be.

This week:

Tuesday - sewing...

Thursday - more sewing!