Liz Benjeddi Textile Art: Module 1 Chapter 10

Chapter 10 - Stitching Colours, Line and Texture

Sample 1 - Stitch and a Blob

I liked the colour combination of the threads used here and the texture created by the 'blobs'! For the sample in the middle, I increased the stitch width on the machine, and this produced quite 'regular' blobs, but for the sample on the right, I created the blobs by moving the fabric from side to side, producing more irregular blobs (which I preferred).

Sample 2 - Stitch and a Squiggle

I enjoyed stitching these samples and used pink, gold and metallic turquoise threads. I think that these colours look really pretty together and that creating the squiggles was quite relaxing. The texture here is denser than the blobs, as more of the background fabric is covered.

Sample 3 - Round and round, backwards and forwards

I used lilac, purple and gold threads for these samples and these were my least favourite of the shapes to create (particularly the circles!) When I had finished, I didn't really like the colour combination either - it looks too cold and there isn't enough contrast between them. I think that I didn't really like all the stopping and starting between creating each shape - once I start stitching, I like to carry on!

Sample 4 - Doodle and Stitch

These shaped were taken from doodles that I found in my diary that I drew during meetings at worke. I always find myself doodling when I'm thinking & it was quite amusing to look back through my diary & reflect on what kind of mood I was in during the meetings! I have scanned in the original doodles, so some pictures have dates at the top. Sometimes I find it quite difficult to produce a design 'on demand' for a sample, so looking back at designs made when I wasn't trying threw up some interesting patterns. I used dark pink, purple, gold and orange threads for this sample, and like this colour combination as it is quite lively and 'warm'. My favourite design is the little flowers/fireworks pattern, although I also like the triangular spirals.

My doodles!

Resolved Sample, using line, colour and texture

Pottery by Patrick Caulfield

This has five basic shapes and uses curved lines. The colours used are very bright and bold and on first sight appear to be mainly primary colours (red, blue and yellow), but varying shades of secondary are also used (green, purple and orange). A 3D effect is created by the way that the rims of the vases have been drawn and by making the background shapes smaller than the ones in the foreground.

Resolved Sample

My Design

I decided to choose green, purple and red as my darker colours for the design, with orange and a touch of yellow as the lighter colours. My first thoughts were to go for squiggles and spirals, but when I stood and looked at the design, I thought that the stitching would be too similar - the texture of the final piece wouldn't have enough variety. Perhaps there are too many lines and not enough 'blobs'? Also, could I use the same pattern of stitching for each colour? E.g. orange = spirals, red = squiggles.

Resolved Sample 1

I wanted to see what my design would look like on a light coloured background, so chose an orange piece of satin that I prepared earlier in Module 1. This was backed with white felt. I kept some of the original coloures in my own drawing (purple, green and red), but changed the yellow to gold and the orange to a bronze thread, as I thought that orange would be too similar to the background.

All the threads I used to stitch inside the enclosed spaces were metallic, and the outline colour was a deep pink. I also changed some of the stitching shapes from my original drawing, as I thought that there wasn't enough contrast in the types of stitching I had planned for or variety in texture. I did decide to use the same pattern of stitching for each colour, e.g. spirals for the bronze thread, green for the 'stitch and a blob'. For the 'squiggle' sections, I stitched quite heavily - going over the pattern again and again, so not much of the background material showed through. I was pleased with the effect that providing more variety in texture created, particularly the difference in how much of the background showed through, depending on which pattern I chose. The darker colours provide quite a good contrast against the orange background, but I wasn't sure that the ideas quite 'gelled' together as I had intended.

(time spent = 2 1/2 hours)

Resolved sample 2

For this version, I chose black felt as my background, which I also backed with black felt. I stuck to the same stitch colours that I chose in my original drawing (green, purple, red, orange and yellow) but used the stitching patterns that I used for the sample with the orange background, as I liked the variety in texture it created. The outlines of the shapes were stitched in gold thread.

Overall, I much prefer this sample, as the black background allows the colours of the stitching to 'pop' out. The green stitching looks much denser in this sample, although it isn't, because there is not so much contrast with the background colour. This reminded me of Christmas baubles hanging from a tree, but my husband thought they looke more like Moroccan towers! It was quite difficult to photograph this sample, as the ligh made the background look 'grey', but the stitching didn't photograph well in darker lighting.

(time spent = 2 1/2 hours)

Checklist for Module 1