Material and Conceptual Investigations_8

Traditional works - I've started with the final pieces first... the craft of applique and reverse applique was used on these objects... I have great respect for these crafts and felt that the investigations into the molas of the Kuna peoples was a great place to start in terms of the choice of colour, culture, subject matter of each beautiful piece...

A few reference sites:
http://anthromuseum.missouri.edu/minigalleries/panamamolas/intro.shtml
http://www.molagirl.com/j/content/view/25/29/

Anyway, to my examples. My objective was to create three dimensional 'reverse/appliqued' objects with a focus on the textures of each chosen 'fibre' - from tulle to chicken wire and paper...



1. Materials: rope, tulle, cotton and embroidery threads, woven mat, chicken wire
Observations: sewing tulle to rope is difficult using embroidery thread, so I sewed one stitch, then cut and tied the thread (black) - this created an interesting visual to the rope 'cone'. The rope was easier to sew into when wet. Tulle pulls into shape quite easily.




2. Materials: hat mesh, tulle, copper wiring, embroidery and cotton thread, and cut out papers (used in project 2, ex 2)
Observations: the hat mesh was brilliant, you can pull and fray it. the fragility of both the tulle and this mesh however caused it unravel itself, so I sewed in the red embroidery thread and copper wiring as a sort of reinforcement... great thing there is you can manipulate the shape of the tube, so I experimented with round, U shapes and others


3. Method: Moist wood bark, apholstery pieces, kebab sticks, chicken wire pieces, satin, leather, embroidery, cotton and copper thread.
Observations: Making the bark damp keeps it softer and easier to work with, bark and leather are very tough to sew through together, copper thread tends to 'twine' up. Chicken wire and kebab skewers good for keeping the overall shape.