Project 8 Stage 2 Ex 1

Experimenting with structures

This section introduces weaving.  I've been looking around to see how many of the things around me are woven.  I lost count.  I thought it was more manageable to look in the garden, maybe there would be less.  I was surprised.

Garden chair

Another chair

Hurdles that hide the compost

Another chair

Playing at weaving

I must tell you that in spite of how it looks I don't spend all day sitting in the garden.  The weaving with dogwood and raffia reminded me that the warp doesn't need to be tight; I reached a point where I couldn't do any more.

I've done some weaving of this sort before.  These are felt that I made:

Felted once

Felted once...

...and again

This time I need to be a bit more inventive.

My first try was with rolled up magazine pages which were then flattened.  I've had to staple them to keep them secure but the result is surprisingly strong.

The next one is also from a magazine but this time it's the glossy cover.  There's no coherence to the design but it feels quite swish; it's probably the shiny surface.

This one is flimsy paper with holes in.  The cuts I made are far apart and very curved.  This gives irregular shapes.  I found it difficult to make this lie flat.

I couldn't resist playing about with it.

I put running stitches along the edges then used the holes for a variety of threaded ribbons.  It was all a bit intuitive but it's feminine and pretty.

The weaving has really gone in to the background

This one is made from an Easter egg wrapper and the leftovers from printing on Bondaweb a fortnight ago.  I used straight lines that were not parallel.  The Bondaweb leftovers were so curly they were impossible to work with so I had to snip them apart.  The result is very attractive in a blingy way.  It has lots of texture and reflection.









This one is made from polypropylene parcel strapping in white and pale blue.  My original intention was to thread it on the diagonal as well but I started using the brads and found I liked them and didn't want to cover them up.  This material was hard to work with as is is very slippery and I had to stick it down with masking tape.  The completed structure is decorative and very firm.  Last year I saw some work by Lois Walpole and she used this material to wonderful effect although her work was plaited.

Lois Walpole

My final experiment is with plastic bags.  I've used the heavier weight variety simply because last time I had a real static problem with the flimsier ones.  I used two contrasting colours and put snippets of lime green and blue randomly over the surface.  I then ironed but got it a little too hot.  The edge shrivelled but the centre is something like what I'd got in mind.

Showing the overheated edge

This is a bit better

These experiments have been fun and at times frustrating because I could have done with six hands!

With the enormous variety of material available and a good imagination the sky's the limit with this.