Development of Embroidery Pieces🪡

 So far, the most successful process/idea has been the sewing pieces I created. I want to develop on this more. I have a few ideas on how I want to do this.

I started off by creating some more designs, using the scans I took from the dye workshop. See these below:

I think I want to use the male and female figures, whether that is the head or the body. I feel they show a sense of vulnerability, and the idea that we are both equal if you take away all the other aspects of life. We are both humans, who deserve equal opportunities. 

Rosie James:

I then had a look at Rosie James - a textile designer/artist. She works with stitch, textiles, fashion and craft. As series she has done is looking at individuals within a crowd, and documenting them through stitch. She focuses on one person. Who are they?

I love all of her outcomes. I feel they are so unique and each one has it's own story. Rosie doesn't just create work which 'looks nice' - she really invests in this idea of looking deeper than the surface. The actual aesthetic and way each piece looks is really interesting too - the placement of things, the colour palettes, the shapes, the arrangement. She uses layering, continuous line, collage - a variety of things I have looked at/want to look at. I thought I'd take some inspiration from her work and create some responses to this. 

I started off with a continuous line piece. I had been using a technique I had been using for a long time, with poking holes and threading the thread through them, leaving gaps. For these, I had the tricky task of going back and forth, keeping the line going. 

Actually figuring out where each line goes is a task in itself; it's a reoccurring process of looking back to the image and kind of 'drawing the dots'. But with these, I had a significant less amount of gaps to put the thread through to keep the line minimal, so the shapes are more abstract that the previous designs.

Her work isn't too 'detailed', in the sense she lets the lines flow, not too focussed on getting it 100% accurate so I tried it this way. I was very relaxed where the line went, and if it went a bit 'off course' then it was okay! 

I do like the design, and think it's really unique. Abstract. I think with some more development, it could form into something really influential. Imagine the design blown up massive - would make quite an impact.

I then had a think about layers - how could I include this? I found some poly pockets at home, cut these up and put my designs onto these. This was an extremely difficult task as the material is so fiddly! It took a few attempts before I managed to get two finished. See the photos below:

These are a bit rough, but I love the concept behind it! The idea you can layer these over things, over eachother, the way you can see the thread from all angles. I had a play around with the placement of both:

I think these really have potential! I had fun moving around the pieces, seeing where looked best, trying to form different arrangements.

In the sense of my idea, my initial concept, I think they are successful. Equality. Showing that we are both on the same level, regardless of our gender. There is lots of opposition, from stereotypes to an old fashioned way of thinking, to females and males being equal but showing that we are, that it needs no opposition is really important.

Feminism has been turned into something that is distorted from the original cause - it's not females vs males. We are one. The way the two designs interlink and lay together, I feel really shows this.

Some photos of my sketchbook documenting this: