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

The last hoop to complete

I am about to complete the final hoop of the thread drawing. I am very excited yet also very nervous as I just don't know what will really happen when the backing is removed next week.  Expectations are high as I have been predicted a very good grade in my third year formative assessment but what will happen if I am not happy after the backing is removed? But I know that the biggest concern is how this lack of control, which is the final stage of the endeavour to make a perfect piece of art, will make me feel? How it will answer my question as I seek to understand the need to be perfect.

The Bristol, the final hoop, Feb 20th

I have purchased two foam loft insulating boards as recommended by Amanada McCavour. I plan to fully pin the drawing to this board to help stabilise the work as the backing is removed and the threads become alive. I will photograph the work first and then film the removal of the backing so that the process is recorded. I am hopeful that it will be ok although, if previous pieces of work are anything to go by a period of adjustment will be required after the transformation from a piece of embroidery into a full scale thread drawing. 

Next will be the issue of framing: my tutors are very keen that I carefully consider this to ensure the drawing shows it's full potential and meaning.

Amanda McCavour

I was so excited today when I found an email from Amanda McCavour waiting in my inbox. saying how she was excited about my project and that she too loved the contrast between thread and metal and the  interesting relationship it provides.

McCavour agreed with my idea about how the  process of using water soluble fabric and thread allows for an element of chance and loss of control as the backing is removed. To this she added that white or clear threads can be stitched across the  dissolvable fabric before starting work to strengthen and reduce some of this movement, maybe something I can try next time. This was done on her large pieces like the living room and the self portraits.

McCavour suggested dissolving large pieces between plexi glass or as I had wondered, pinned onto foam board and then submerged in a bath and then left to dry in place. 

I am hoping to have the sewing finished by the end of the week if I can find enough time because it is half term, I have two tutorials at uni and my brother and his family are coming to stay. So whilst this is now reaching an exciting point, I am quite nervous. 

Nearing completion

I have worked so hard this week to get the embroidered drawing near to completion.I had a quick trip to Bath to buy more thread only to find an important colour was out of stock - I felt so anxious as I  needed to work hard to keep on track with my degree work time table. We eventually found a dark grey thread at the bottom of the 'Marathon' thread rack and whilst not quite the correct shade, I was sure I could make it work. Here  is the latest image

The Bristol, Feb 16th, 2014

and here are some pictures of the work in progress

Whilst in The Sewing Studio, Bath, where I have been purchasing all threads and fabrics for this work I asked for some advice re removing the dissolvable solufleece backing fabric. I have done this before on small scale works but I am anxious about doing this with such a large piece of work. I will only get one go at this and it will not be correctable. I did email Amanda McCavour via her website but I have not had a reply. So, after discussion with Lyn (Sewing Studio) and taking on board previous project experience I think the plan is to find a large piece of foam board that will fit the thread drawing, pin the image to the board and gently use a shower to wash away just enough fabric so that it is not visible on the surface but leaves enough glue behind to hold the threads in place. Whilst I am expecting some movement in the image, I would like to minimise this as much as possible.

The latest image of 'The Bristol'

Here is the latest image of 'The Bristol' - a lot of work this week and feeling quite hopeful now that I will finish as I have done most of the complicated and detailed parts except for the clutch and some lettering to be done on the plates. I still think that three weeks are needed but to make the other degree work manageable it really needs to be finished in two weeks - not sure if that is possible but will keep going.

The Bristol, Feb 10th, 2014

As part of my formative assessment at uni I needed to write 500 words about my practice and what is driving this work - I thought it could be useful to add this to my blog

My studio practice has developed out of  a desire to question the need for perfection in art and life. Last year I read a quote by Henri Moore suggesting that ‘great art is not perfect’ and set me on the path to try and find out just how perfect I needed to be.

In my art I am a perfectionist, I am stubborn and determined but this makes me very worried about the results and this is because I see art as a metaphor for life - a life where I am trying to make sense of my world and how others see me. When I am drawing with my sewing machine I will change the colours for just two stitches - but are those two perfecting stitches making my work sterile as Longhurst suggests (On Perfection, an artists symposium)? Instead, should I embrace chance happenings, accidents and imperfections which might open up a new way of thinking?

I know I need to make a piece of work that I feel pushes my creative abilities, one that proves I can produce work of a high standard but equally it must help me to understand the need for perfection I like to draw with my sewing machine and there are a few artists who have inspired this choice of medium and method. Firstly, Naseem Darbey, a textile based artist who makes 2D and 3D instillations out of thread by direct observation, i.e, no preliminary sketches on the fabric. My first drawings on calico were made in this manner - I was unable to correct any mistakes, they became part of the work. This was enjoyable and helped me to relax - I am scared of drawing on paper but  thread, fabric and my sewing machine could work. From the early drawings I moved on to making 3D sculptures from thread and dissolvable fabric and whilst this was an exciting technique I realised that both their form (car components) and grey colour was too obvious and that a greater statement could be made if made the pieces more feminine through colour and obvious threads/ textiles, because I was now making a subversive statement: it was not only was a question of perfection, it was also about gender and hierarchies of practice.

There was now just one obvious choice - the most masculine of images - a car engine. Inspired by Anne Wilson who makes complicated and detailed drawing from thread - black lace as a metaphor for exploring the worlds integrated and entangled networks in her topology studies - I was going to use weak threads obsessively and compulsively locked together to make a full sized technical  drawing of a car engine. I also need the work to about more than embroidery - embroidery would suggests perfection and beauty: I want my work to question these qualities and also recognise the conflict between and female and male identity. In an endeavour to do this I have gone for a full scale engine as inspired by Amanda McCavour’s large scale instillations which question the impermanence of the physical world.

To help answer the questions of gender I have looked at Rosemary  Trockel, a leading German artist whose work has included knitted paintings of swasticas and playboy bunnies. I plan to read further ‘The Subversive Stitch -  Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine’ (Rosika Partker).

My engine must be completed so that the final stage can push my question to it’s full potential - what will happen to my meticulously drawn engine when the structure it is built on is removed?

Here are some images of the artists work as discussed above 

Naseem Darbey
If your Heart is not Nailed to Cliffe Hall,2010

Naseem Darbey
From the same residency at Cliffe Castle Museum

Anne Wilson
'Topologies' 2010

Anne Wilson

Amanda McCavour
'Living Room'

Whilst adding these images to my blog I came across this new piece of work by Amanda McCavour. This thread drawing was completed during an artist residency program in Dawson City, Yukon through the Klondikre Institute of Art and Culture: McCavour stayed for 6 weeks in  a Canadian gold rush town. 

Amanda McCavour

During the residency McCavour translated a heavy iron steam pump into thread rendering it delicate and ghostly. This was as a response to the 'phantom view" of the pumps documented in the corresponding manuals which translated the steam pumps into transparent parts to enable an understanding of their construction.

The Bristol at the end of January

Here is the latest image from my free machine embroidered drawing of the Bristol. I am just over half way but I have calculated only 4 available weeks left out of my time table of work to complete for the degree show. Every spare minute is used to work.

The Bristol, Feb. 2nd

My work is currently being assessed in uni - formative assessment - feed back in two weeks. When I get my sketchbook back i will update this blog with information about the artist who are influencing this project and my current practice.