Connection between drawing and embroidery

I firstly selected patterns out of my highly decorative chosen object. These patterns then gave me something to focus on. They influenced me and l produced a selection of drawings for Friday drawing day. I picked out certain colours and shapes and developed them further into some colour/pattern studies. I used gouache and watercolour but preferred the flat colour of gouache, as it gave me bright vivid colours. 

I was then given a task by Kate to develop the drawings further by making a linked textiles piece. There were some rules and restrictions, We had to incorporate Bonding techniques, Machine stitch and/or hand embroidery. Whilst taking influences from my drawings. I think the connection between drawing and embroidery is a very close one. I would have never been able to produce my textiles sample if l hadn’t worked from my drawings first-hand, as they were what gave me ideas and inspiration. We were given approximately four hours to complete the sample, with use of a limited colour palette associated with your drawings. However you could use any fabrics or threads that you wished to choose. I would have preferred a longer timescale as l felt like l was under pressure and l wasn’t happy with my sample all that much, I didn’t think it was as good as it could have been. 

 

We were then asked to go on and produce two more samples. I thought the second two that l made were much better. I thought limiting myself to even less colours on one of them was much better and less fussy. I also preferred to use machine stitch rather than hand stitch as l think it gives a more professional finish. I especially loved free machine stitching as l could create the shapes that l wanted too, I even incorporated some text like we did in our drawings, using the words that we think of when we look at the object. I selected the drawings I chose to make the sample from because there’s so much detail which l thought would be good to work with. I chose to use bright fabrics, It didn’t really matter to me what materials l chose, I was just being experimental. I chose lots of different types like Calico, Hessian, Mesh, Organza, and Felt. I used patchwork and bonded different fabrics together to create some interesting backgrounds to work on. I tried to use mark making in both my drawings and textiles samples. I could have made them better by choosing fabrics and threads more carefully and maybe sketched out a few ideas beforehand.