End of this blog

This blog will now come to an end and be replaced by a new one which will unite my practice now that my degree is almost at an end (just the dissertation to do). Thank you for reading it and please see new blog which will start after the school holidays are over and I have finished clearing out my loft - a project put on hold for the last 4 years!

http://julieheaton.wordpress.com/2014/08/25/new-blog/

I am very excited because my embroidered drawing of The Bristol 2 Litre Engine will soon be in the September / October issue of Embroidery. I am also going to London tomorrow to take one of my prints to the Bristol car Showroom on Kensington High Street. I am hoping to sell giclee prints of the embroidered drawing which are half the size of the original engine and printed on fine art paper. Tonight I anxiously signed the first copy and hopefully more to follow. 

After visiting the show rooms I am going to the Imperial War Museum to research my next piece of work. I am interested in the lives of women in the First World War - someone who was widowed but not because her husband died a hero, but perhaps because he was a pacifist or a conscientious objector. I hope to find an object or photograph that will represent her story - one that I can draw in thread. 

The last few hours

Another day at Dartmouth Avenue preparing for our assessment and then the degree show. Today  Sophia helped me to nervously place my piece of perspex with the mounted embroidered engine into the plinth. It looked great; I am really pleased with the decision to make a plinth and the perspex added to the effect by allowing the light through to show the delicate threads. 

Just a few finishing touches to sketchbooks tonight and then finished. 

Plinths painted and wrapped (back one for engine)

My space at uni for the exam and the degree show

Placing the wooden battons on top of the perspex in the plinth

Back tomorrow to uncover work and make sure everything is ok.

Plinth or frame

Just a short update on presentation of the work. The plinth is being made thanks to the help of Steve, the technician at Dartmouth Avenue that we just couldn't do without. The fit is now good after a mad dash last week  to wood work before they closed because two of the pieces of wood were too big. Thank fully, another patient technician, Stuart, let me route the edges of the wood before he turned off the power in woodwork. 

This week I have three days left to make some items in plastics for Textiles and sand, fill and paint two plinths. It is very exciting but I will be pleased when it is all over and I can enjoy some time with the boys. 

I have also ordered a frame from Meltone Gallery. It is very large - 90cm square and 6cm deep. It will be white and contain a pice of perspex in the centre onto which I will attach the embroidery and I will use this after the degree show ready to enter the Jerwood Drawing Prize. 

The final decision on presentation of work

The degree show is getting nearer and as of yet my work remains in a plastic wallet underneath my wardrobe! The big question - what to do with it?

As the Bristol 2 litre engine is embroidered there are several important issues I have to consider. First, it is a textile and will be subject to  dust, grease from finger prints (if touched), ultraviolet light and moisture. Cleaning once dirty will be difficult and fading caused by UV rays will be impossible to restore. 

Here are some images of work I have seen in exhibitions and online websites -

Anna Glasbrook, simple perspex frames, no space between layers

From Drawn 2013, work set back on mount board in wooden frame

Photographed at Cirencester New Brewery Arts Centre. textiles presented in a metal frame

From a London art gallery, 3d textile image in a perspex frame.

Amanda McCavour, machine embroidered drawings suspended on monofilament.

I have  emailed Amanda McCavour again  to ask if she used anything to stiffen her work before hanging it as mine is fairly soft and flexible. Very kindly, Amanda replied and stated that she did use starch to stiffen the work. Her work is hung and left open, the large drawings show their weak structure as the threads can be seen without anything obscuring the work. Also there is the play of life size object verses drawing which is strengthen through the absence of a frame.

I have visited several framing shops to try and decide how best to move forward. But now I  have two requirements, one the degree show and then an entry into the Jerwood Drawing Prize.  The Framing Workshop on Walcot Street were very helpful and encouraging about the drawing and suggested a perspex frame. This would be my first choice because the work will be unaffected by the frame - there would be a lot of space around the drawing as well as keeping it free from dirt and moisture. But it will be very expensive and not easily transportable for the Jerwood Drawing Prize because it would be hard to protect from scratches as the work needs to be easily viewed by the panel and not fully wrapped. 

The Framing Workshop, Walcot Street.

The second option is a wooden, white box frame with a piece of perspex in middle on which I can invisibly attach the drawing. The frame will be large and the drawing will appear to float. Museum glass will go on the front to protect the work from UV rays and reduce glare from light. I did consider metal but that is too similar to the metal engine and deflects from the feminine angle. 

Meltone Gallery, Bath

So, I will order the frame for Jerwood and Art in Action, but for the for the degree show I have decided to make a plinth out of MDF.  The structure will be slightly larger than the dimensions of the real engine with the top left open and the work presented on a slope / angle. I do not want to add starch to my degree piece as I haven't got enough time to experiment so I will add a piece of perspex to the top of the plinth with a space between it and the MDF giving the appearance of a floating, suspended drawing enabling light to show through the layers and enhance the stitches - I need these to be obvious - I need to demonstrate an argument between male and female gender by questioning the idea of feminine stitch with a man made metal machine as a way of reflecting on the capabilities of women and the quiet, yet subversive nature of my work. Work that shows how hard I will strive to be perfect after the loss of my husband, but  what matters is the way I learn from how I solved the issues that arose during this endeavour and how I use this knowledge for my next project in art and in life.

Presenting the work

I had a crit at uni today where we discussed the degree show. I know that a frame may distract from the stitch and that perhaps this might not be the way forward but I was taken a little by surprise at my tutor's very strong opinion - "Do not frame this work". But also, not to worry about making further work, this will be enough for my show as long as it is well presented. Perhaps good advice but also quite daunting - 67.5 cm square drawing made just from thread, displayed with minimal interference.

So, I have emailed Amanda McCavour to ask her advice. I will also see the fine art tutor at uni and discuss with textile tutors. During the Easter holidays I will try and get to some exhibitions so that I can gather ideas about display and presentation.

Here are some images of the final piece 

The Bristol, 2014

What happened next

Well the engine has had its backing removed and it wasn't quite as I expected. Carefully the work was pinned to the loft foam boards and then gently washed under running water. 

Cold water gently ran over the boards for about 2 minutes. I then couldn't quite decide how to dry it - flat, on an angle or against the radiator? Did I need slow steady drying  or fast so that the glue dried without running away?  I chose to leave it to dry on a low angle in my sunny dining room. And the next day I looked and was disappointed - it was dark and had lost a lot of it's definition - all my hard work with colour selection and shading appeared to be lost but the shape had remained. There weren't any holes - it was fairly solid - no organic form as had been expected, perhaps another disappointment. Usually impatient, I decided that this time I really had to wait and think before I started taking the pins out.  

After two days away at work, I made the decision to try and wash the engine again. Perhaps it was dark because I had left too much glue in it. But it was quite firm and if I re- washed it I would lose this strength and then have a potential problem with framing. Again, a short wash of about 1  minute and  then left to dry overnight. I was relieved to see that it was slightly lighter but it still wasn't showing every detail. Was I aiming too high, would I get that detail back?

And the final wash, well that has to be it. The colour is now near perfect but I have lost a bit of the strength in the structure and framing is now going to be tricky. The plan is to have a test frame made as used in my previous pieces of work, but instead of using monofilament to suspend the work, it is going to need a piece of perspex or glass to support it in the middle of the frame. But I must make sure that there is a lot of space because I don't want the frame to distract from the delicate stitch.  

Below is some audio of the conversation that occurred during the pinning of the work to the loft board.

Exciting morning

Today I am in the process of removing the backing from my work. My lovely friend Marta came over and helped me pin the engine to loft foam board. My mum had bought me one tin   of stainless steel pins and we soon realised that another two were required. I whizzed up to the local fabric shop to buy more and had the most exciting conversation with the lady who served me - she commented that I was the second person asking for stainless steel pins (required so that they won't rust whilst the work drys) and asked what I was doing - I explained the work and she proudly announced that she owned two 'Bristol' cars and that to buy an engine such as the one I had just copied would cost £25,000 - and then asked if I could bring in an image of my work when finished. What a small world!

With three tins of pins the work was pulled flat and pinned well concentrating on the more isolated parts and any areas where a lot of stitches had been used so that it would not balloon. Once happy that it was secured we took the boards outside and then using a hose pipe we carefully washed away the backing. The whole process was filmed and this is now loading onto the computer whilst I post on my blog. The work is drying in the dining room and as of yet I do not know if more fabric glue needs to be removed. I will post some photos of the work with the pins in but have decided to not include full pictures until nearer my degree show. This work is finished ahead of time but that is at the detriment of textiles - instead of working on the two projects concurrently I have done one at a time and feel it is too early to reveal the final piece. I also need to think very carefully about how the work is displayed. First it must dry and only then will I know how successful it has been.

Here are some photos of the back of the work

And here are some macro images of areas with pins in ready for backing to be washed away

I will add some more images and comments on how removal of backing goes in a few weeks but I must make a start on my textile project work.

Here is the link  for my textiles blog  julieheaton-textiles.blogspot.co.uk