The Harley Gallery

I often visit this lovely gallery.  It's the very best the area I live in has to offer.   The Gallery was built in 1994 and designed by Leo Godlewski.  It was built on the ruins of the 5th Duke of Portland's Gas Works.  The Gallery is run by The Harley Foundation, a charitable trust set up in 1977 by Ivy, Duchess of Portland "to encourage the creativity in all of us".  The Foundation works to encourage traditional craft skills.  It provides studio spaces for artists and makers and opportunities to sell their work through the Harley Craft Shop.

The Harley shows exhibitions of contemporary arts and crafts, giving visitors the chance to see work by some of Britains' very best artists.  It's where I saw the work of Ptolemy Mann and Lois Walpole last year.  There's always lots happening including open workshops twice a year where you can chat to the artists and buy their work.

The Harley Shop has a special range of work at the moment called Reused Refuse and it showcases work from artists who rescue their materials from landfill and litter bins.

My favourites were Kumi Middleton, Cath Ray and Rachel Darbourne.

www.kumimiddleton.co.uk/index.html

www.cathraybooks.co.uk

http://www.racheldarbourne.co.uk

Artisan food is also produced on the Welbeck Estate including cheese, bread, beer and chocolate.

That's a very good reason for going to the Limehouse Cafe!

Project 7 Theme book Citrus and circles

Citrus and circles

I've been looking for interesting images of fruit, particularly those that might offer me ideas to develop.  I found this lovely one and it's certainly good enough to eat:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACitrus_fruits.jpg

It suggests all sorts of things; printing, applique, stitch and some of the lovely manipulations in Wolff (1996).

I've taken a series of photos of some dried fruit slices I had as decoration at Christmas.

A funny thing to put into a hurricane lamp maybe but they look pretty

With the wikimedia image in mind I  chose to look particularly at the citrus fruit:

Then I did them separately

There are oranges, lemons, limes and blood oranges here. I suppose we don't often consider how fruit actually looks and I was surprised that these pieces all looked so different.  There's the size issue and the skin colour, with or without pips, the thickness and colour of the pith and on and on. The pith on the second to bottom photo has a real softness.  Some of the fruit has dried to look oily but one or two look quite dessicated. 

Very dry fruit looking feather like

I spent a few minutes doing a pencil and crayon sketch.  This still doesn't feel like my natural territory but I think it looks like a very bitter but juicy piece of fruit.

I have also been playing with the idea of fabric manipulation and trying to find a way to make something circular that emulates the segments of an orange.  I've done a mock up in newspaper to see if it would work.

I'm happy enough with this to take it a bit further. It needs a lot more layers to make it look "juicy".  There's very little room between the stitches as they meet in the middle so I  might try some slashes that go just half way down.

I painted up several layers of newspaper, and found some orange organza, yellow lining and an orange net.  I took my sketch as a pattern t guide my stitching and with vilene as a base I stitched my lines.

The back

Remembering not to slash all the way through (almost) I found it hard to cut into the middle. I ruffled it up a bit.

This looks very effective for something with such humble origins.  The more fabric you can squeeze in the better but the centre really did become very congested and hard to work with.  In my sketchbook it faces the first image of this section and the colours are gratifyingly similar.  It is very powerful.  Only very vaguely does this resemble an orange.

I've used this piece to explore image transfer with Bondaweb.  I approached this with some scepticism.  I found the Bondaweb got a bit snarled up in the printer and left a black mark on the print but by and large I'm delighted.  It gives a diffused, hazy result that will be wonderful to use as the basis for some stitching.  I'm not at all sure what I'll do and I'm in no hurry. I'm so enjoying playing.

Image transfer using Bondaweb

I've been inspired to try my machine now that it's sewing well.  I used this image with some wadding, backing and organza and made this:

I started with yellow because that was the palest colour and infilled some spaces.  I did the same with the darkest colour. The organza was a lovely dusky pink that seemed not to lend any colour but when I tried orange thread it was awful and I had to use a pink.  I'm pleased with this.  I like being able to trace back to see where it came from, see similarities but huge, huge development of an idea.

I seem to have become interested in all things circular and I remembered the Yo yo's in Wolff's book.  I had a go.

They are easy to do

Wolff suggests that these could be joined together and used as edging.  I think with some good fabric choices or skillful dyeing they could be pieces of citrus fruit.


I thought I'd see if I could print using my slices of dried fruit but it didn't work because the shapes didn't reach the paper.  Instead I did some rubbings:

On my sketchbook paper

This one shows a lovely metallic looking relief but I had to be persistent.  It confirmed the difficulty I had when I tried to print.

On printer paper

The printer paper was much easier to get an impression on.  The image was crisper but I didn't get the relief.

I'm going to take this image and practise my free machine stitches on water soluble fabric.

I printed the rubbing on A5 paper and drew the shape on the fabric which I mounted in a hoop.

Orange

or grapefruit?

This gave me lots of practise making textures. I was conscious of mark making whilst I was stitching. It actually felt like drawing at times.  I used different colours in the bobbin so the back looks more like a grapefruit than an orange.  In the centre the plastic gave way so I just put in a patch and it seemed to work.  There is a bit of instability on the rind at the edge where my stitches don't quite connect.  I am feeling much more confident as I practise - albeit with a temperamental machine.  I enjoyed doing this and am pleased with the result.

Image from my sketchbook

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Citrus_fruits.jpg
Wolff, C. 1996, The Art of Manipulating Fabric. Krause Publications, Iola, Wisconsin

Part 3 Research point 2

Art or Craft?

My home is filled with craft items of all sorts. Some items are mine.  Some are from holidays and others have been bought as gifts.  They are all loved because they are unique and beautiful.  Are they art or are they craft?  I didn’t know that such a hot debate surrounded this question until I typed it into Google. 

I found Kirstie Beaven from the Tate   http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/blogs/tate-debate-when-craft-art  was pretty good at stimulating the debate and some of the responses were interesting:

Comparing art to craft is like comparing philosophy to engineering:  they're two different ways of looking at the same thing.  To me art is communication of an idea or an emotion, while craft is the physical manipulation of material.  An object can easily be both, either, or neither.  One object could be viewed two ways: if you look at the way it was made and the materials used, you are looking at it's craft, if you think about its ideas, you are viewing it as art.
Tracy Fiegl 14 October 2011

or

I don't believe it's possible to serve two masters and feel that while art and craft can be related, they are definitely not synonymous. As a sculptor working in craft media who places a high value on technical skills, I also consider myself a crafts person. But content is what drives the execution-not the medium. Similarly, if I'm going to make a teapot, I want to make the most usable, ergonomic teapot possible-and the focus on utility will make it inherently beautiful. I can call it functional art, but when people see it, they will call it a teapot--not a sculpture with a spout and handle.

Kim Matthews13 October 2011

Whilst I admire the intellectual approach my favourite is this

When the ordinary becomes something extraordinary and speaks to your heart

Rita Koterba13 October 2011          

Considering all these points of view is difficult not because the views diverge so much but because they are so similar.  

The value of handcrafted work in todays' mass produced society sometimes seems quite remarkable.  Gale and Kaur (2002) suggest it is because no two pieces are absolutely identical and therefore items have a sort of "humanness" that is charming.  The skills demonstrated in handcrafted items are often rooted far in our past and this also gives a feeling of connection and uniqueness to them.  Items are often tactile and the quality of the materials well in excess of mass produced items.  There is a lot to be said for knowing you have the only one in the world quite like it. 

This reminds me of the contradiction I felt when I saw the work of Ptolemy Mann when I was doing Part 1.  I felt her work had a industrial quality that I didn't care for in the context of craft.  However,  I've now seen her inspired colours on the walls of Kings Mill Hospital it makes me think that  "humanness" doesn't always have to be craft based.

Meeting with Emma and Jan

Emma and Jan run a Textile Studio in Nottingham called All Things Crafty.  Between them they cover a whole range of crafts including craft workshops for children.  I first met them when I did a felt making course they ran and have attended other workshops and met them at fairs ever since.  When I wasn't able to do free machine embroidery without lots of loops Emma was the first person I thought of to help.  I went to the studio and in the twinkling of an eye I was up and running again.. Alongside that I got some tips and was gratifyingly able to pass on a tip of my own (just the one).

Emma explained that her route into textiles was quite meandering.  At school she did GCSE Textiles and was very excited by it especially as the teaching was inspired.  For A level she did Art and did well but it didn't give her the buzz she'd felt previously.  From there she went as a buyer to John Lewis, George at Asda and Next.  Emma always kept her interest in textiles and on a course she met Jan who earned her living making soft furnishings. Very soon they launched a business and All Things Crafty was born.

The main income comes from running workshops so it's important to be able to offer something new.

Both Emma and Jan enjoy teaching and as Emma put it "We teach people who want to be taught, what's not to like?"

Asked if they found their art was compromised by having to earn a living the response was a resounding "YES".  One thing Emma misses is working in her sketchbook.  However, they both qualified it by saying they were far luckier than lot of people who are miles away from where they'd really like to be.  They consider they are fortunate to be happy and excited about the way they earn their living.

Emma and Jan both recognise the part technology has played in their success.  The difficulty of reaching a wide audience prior to the Internet might have made things impossible.  I would have been most unlikely to have heard of them for instance.

We spoke about the difference between art and craft and their strong feeling was that the two are indistinguishable - one informs the other.

Many thanks to Emma and Jan for a lovely time this morning.



www.allthingscrafty.org.uk

Gale, C and Kaur J (2002), The Textile Book.  Oxford, New York.

Project 6 Stage 4 Sample

Project 6 Stage 4 Sample

This image is one that just shrieks to be worked with.  It is developed from a photo of the roof of the Corn Exchange in Leeds.  I manipulated it with Paint.net with the "dents" effect and it looks frilly and quite unlike the solid, functional roof structure.

The 30cm square I'm allowed is very small considering any pleats etc taken up so much fabric so I'll need to be really selective in what I choose to do.  This is what I've chosen:

It is a very regular, systematic pattern but with fuzzy edges.  I really wanted to exploit some of the gathering I've recently been working on but this doesn't fit the criteria.  As I can't stitch anything on this gives me a bit of a problem.  My plan was to do fine pintucks for the  lower beams (by hand so that I can get a decent curve).  The three large beams could be projecting pleats with the pleats slashed and frayed.  I checked out with my tutor whether the stitching on was something I could pursue and she said if I could justify it properly it was OK.

I slept on the idea and came to the conclusion that my gathering idea was a bit of a cop out; it was just too obvious; too easy.  I decided instead to try a bit of an experiment.  I'd no real idea what the outcome would be so I decided to do a mock up on some sheeting.

I tacked three large pleats in the same positions as the large beams in the image.  The smaller cross beams I represented by stitching some darts that started as a point beside the pleat, widened towards the middle and tapered again to a point.

The result was quite floppy but the structure was interesting and bore some vague resemblance to the roof.  I decided to carry on and make the piece properly.


I chose calico (36cm x 36cm) because it has some body and I thought it would stand up well in the areas I wanted it to.

I measured much more carefully this time and stitched in the pleats.  I made a second row of stitching in anticipation of slashing and fraying.

I placed the darts in as before....

....and the crumpled result was much better than the mock up.

On the reverse the darts gave a particular pointed structure to the piece.

The reverse

The point of a dart on the reverse

This might lend itself to moulding.  I'll think on that overnight.

I've considered the idea of moulding carefully and decided not to do it

a) because I think the fraying is more important to the overall concept and I'm not sure it could happen if the material was stiff

b) there's difficulty in getting a heavily structured piece to my tutor - not insurmountable but a bit impractical.

c) if I was to do it I'd like a much bigger sample.

I slashed the pleats at about .5cm intervals



 then frayed them with a suede brush - gently.

This can be manoeuvred into almost any shape and it stays in shape because it's in calico.  Rather than moulding maybe spray starch would be an idea. The fraying doesn't quite give the effect I'd wanted - the original idea of a ruffle would emulate the fuzziness of the photo better.  However, I wouldn't have learnt so much.

Showing the height of the piece

When this piece is manipulated it takes on the shape of the roof that inspired it - very strange.
I like the contradiction of a very rigid structure becoming something so flexible and yet still retaining some of the original feel.  My initial measuring and sharp pleats had no defence against the pull of the cloth.  Amazing.

Project 6 Review

Project 6 Review

Working with fabric in this way isn't new to me.  The way it I've using it has been.  Manipulation is a terrific way to get, height and undulations that probably would be impossible with hand stitch alone. Layers can change how something looks almost beyond recognition, introduce a few slashes and the world changes again.  One of the good things about stitch is that it is slow and there's plenty of time to make changes.  The speed with which fabric can be changed is just the opposite and sometimes scary.  Combined with stitch or other techniques manipulation is an exciting prospect.

I'm generally pleased with the results I've achieved.  I've begun to think differently and be able to take paths I'm unsure of with more confidence. 

I particularly liked the gathering because previously it was a means to an end .  Now it has become an exploratory exercise that can throw up surprises.  I feel as though I've been given the best gift ever with Collete Wolffs' book and I know it will become a dog eared favourite.

I enjoyed being able to take a piece of my printed fabric and work with it again in the applique work. I wanted to keep the colour theme going but tried experimenting with the material I used.

I liked doing my Stage 3 Sample from the applique point of view.  There's a bit of design work to think about though.

I was rather lukewarm about the moulding and raised surfaces work maybe because it was unknown territory.  In the end the moulding proved a revelation.

It's so hard to identify best bits because they're so tied up with the pleasure factor and I've enjoyed it all.

I didn't have Tyvek so missed out on that.  However, I am now the proud possessor of a fine soldering iron so that will come soon.

I sometimes find a dilemma in changing halfway through when there's a plan to work to but I'm finding that I'm less worried about sticking to my drawing - more able to go with the flow.  I'm the sort of person who likes to know where she's going so this is quite a big thing.  In my last sample the challenge for me was not the outcome but the fact that I didn't know where I'd end up.  I think this must mean that the fabric manipulation took over.

I have come to like working from drawings; it's becoming part of my process.  It's a bit like knowing the provenance of food; it can be traced back to it's roots and I like the idea.  I think I would find it very hard just to pluck ideas from shapes and materials; it wouldn't mean anything.

Loving stitching is why I'm doing this course and I'm  just finding more things to love.  The breadth of my new experience is opening up other definitions of stitch, for instance fusing.  So a definite NO I'm not finding the idea of stitch limiting - quite the reverse.  

Wolff, C. 1996, The Art of Manipulating Fabric. Krause Publications, Iola, Wisconsin

Project 7 Theme book intro

Theme book

Introduction

I've been thinking for some time what to do for my Theme book.  I've looked at images of rust and and marvelled at the beauty of devastating viruses.  An obvious choice would be my garden that is going to claim my attention before too long.  But I've chosen none of those things.  As I sat doing my pleating and gathering I looked up and saw my fruit bowl and the decision was instant.  The colours and textures were fabulous and the flavours are such an essential part of my life I couldn't resist.  When I thought further I realised how wide the scope was - even including the fruit of the vine!  I may well have to rationalise a bit.

Having learnt so much from my Marrakesh sketchbook I'm going to make the Theme book mine by working on a cover for it.  I want to use something I have done that has a fruit theme and I've chosen this image;
 

I have used Paint.net again and used the "twist" distortion x 2 at the default setting.  I then printed the image on some paper with fibres in it.

I'm pretty happy with this. Now that it's on my book cover I'm beginning to wish that I'd embellished it with some stitching.  Maybe this is something I could pursue.

I have used fruit images in my work before.

An early drawing...

Another early drawing

Still Life with Apples, Cezanne
www.ibiblio.org

Francoise-Loumagne, 2006

I've spent a bit of time looking for images that are a bit out of the ordinary and found macro photography by  Estonian artist Heikki Leis who has a taste for the bizarre.  The turnip below is just one of several surreal images which can be found at:

               http://www.heikkileis.ee/fotod/afterlife/

Rotten turnip

Developing my Theme book cover design

I've been itching to begin some work on this design.

Holey paper

The paper the book cover was printed on is integral to the design so I somehow wanted to retain it but also give myself something to stitch onto (the paper is very, very holey).  When I printed for the book cover the paper went through the printer without a hitch but on subsequent tries it became jammed.  I got around this by putting the paper onto bondaweb and printing it that way.  I'd then got a piece I could iron onto fabric and stitch or embellish as I wish. This is what I did:

My materials were hand dyed silk embroidery threads which were varigated, tiny pieces of silk ribbon and bits of organza.  The curly bits are the wire edging from organza ribbon.  I'm quite pleased with this, it seems to make the print come alive and I'm happy with the colours.  I'd doubts about the pink but it looked OK on the print so I just went with it.  The green silk ribbon mirrors the print colour as well and is a bit of a saviour for the acid of the organza nearby.  I chose my colours in electric light and didn't realise just how acid it was. It is a long way from an apple.

Tellier-Loumagne,  Francoise,  2006, The art of embroidery.Thames and Hudson, New York.
Wolff, C. 1996, The Art of Manipulating Fabric. Krause Publications, Iola, Wisconsin

 http://www.heikkileis.ee/fotod/afterlife/

Project 6 Stage 4

Raised and structured textures

There seem to be as many ways to shape fabric as there are days in the year, perhaps more.  In the past I've used many of the techniques I've been researching in dressmaking.  It's usually been for purely practical things like setting sleeves or gathering a skirt onto a waistband.  Sometimes I've used it decoratively as in smocking but that's been rare.  I've never really considered that what appear to be only functional techniques could be used decoratively.

I've used a brilliant book called The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff (1996) and Stitch Magic By Alison Reid (2011).

Gathering

"Gathering converts the edge of a piece of fabric into mini-folds bunched together on thread stitched close the the edge".  (Wolff, 1996)

To begin this section I've chosen to use an old poly cotton sheet because it doesn't matter how much I use.  I want to use the same fabric for everything so that I can see exactly what happens with each manipulation I try.  Then I'll go back and try edited highlights with other fabrics.

I've cut lots of pieces each measuring 40cm by 23cm.  I've taken photos along the way but because the cotton blends well sometimes they are hard to follow.  For this reason I've made some pictures larger than I normally would.  All my stitching is by hand.

First I tried standard gathering with three evenly spaced rows of running stitch .5cm apart.  Below that I left a gap of about 3cm and repeated the first three lines again.

Below that I ran a two gathering threads .5cm apart that meandered across the fabric, left a variable gap and repeated it.

The straight rows 

The middle section - one straight, one meandering row

The next photo shows the meandering rows.  When the lines converged the fabric fell into more regular lines but as the lines of gathering parted there was a lovely bubbly effect

I pulled everything up really tightly

Encouraged by my success I thought I'd try some circles of gathering thread:

Circles of gathering

I did gathering stitches making ten circles placed at random on my fabric.  Most were single lines of stitch but on three I did a double row.  One was spaced wider than the rest. When I pulled them up  I was surprised at the difference the spacing made.

I decided to change one of the single thread circles into a triple thread circle and look what happened:

Some of the circles I pulled up tight and others I left quite slack.  Overall this is the result:

Front

Back

I can see this has real possibilities - closer circles, different size circles, coloured stitching, filled spaces; the permutations seem endless.

Next I thought I'd try a ruffle.  I cut two strips of fabric  (40cm x 8cm and 40cm x 4cm)  and ran two gathering threads down the middle of each one.  I pulled them both up so they measured 18cm and placed the smaller one on top of the larger one.  I anchored them together with a 3.5 stitch which left a little movement and removed the gathering threads.

The ruffle

I pulled it into a semi circle....

....and then a full circle

Completely by accident when I was making torn pieces of fabric my muslin puckered up and gave me this idea:

I used the threads of the fabric to gather along the length (three times) then I pulled up threads the other way as well.  Because I had no hope of finding which thread I was pulling I just got things to the halfway mark and stopped then pulled a thread from the other side.  This meant that I couldn't fasten anything off so when I'd finished I gave it a massive dose of spray starch and I'm hoping it holds things firmly enough.  It's one of the most effective things I've done for this section - dead easy and accidental.

Folding and pleating

"Pleats are measured folds formed at the edge of a piece of fabric where they are secured with stitching".  (Wolff,1996)


My first effort was doing some knife pleats, securing them at both the top and bottom and then pressing them well:

At the halfway mark I pulled the pleats to face the opposite way and got this lovely effect.  This could be used with closer spacing.  If I've time I might have a try.

I got so involved in the next example that I didn't take enough photos.  I stitched projecting pleats both vertically and horizontally then at the intersection pulled the fabric down to form something that looks like a sort of knot. In practical use these would probably need anchoring with a stitch.

Full instructions are in Reid, 2011 p 43-47.

Pleats can be used to manipulate the pattern on a fabric.  Here I used the stripe to determine where the pleats were placed.  The pleats are left unpressed as in curtains.

The fabric is a heavy linen and in a large piece like a curtain it would drape beautifully.  There are many curtain heading tapes that exploit the pattern of the fabric.

Tearing, fraying and slashing

Taking Kim Thittichai's faux chenille sample as inspiration (Layered Textiles, 2011, p72) I laid several pieces of fabric on top of each other and pinned and stitched them together with rows about 1cm apart.

 I then cut through all but the bottom layer.  I ruffled the result and got this.

Before much fraying

After fraying

The top layer is organza over a print and the effect is pretty stunning. 

The photo belies how effective this is. The toning organza over the print works very well.  The solidity of some of the fabrics below makes fraying quite difficult and I would have been better using  something a bit flimsier.

I decided to try the above method using painted newspaper as detailed in Kim's book.

Kim Thittichai's vase

My effort

I was really pleased with this.  It behaved in a completely different way to fabric; it stood up when bent and distressed brilliantly.  I will put it in my store because at some point it will be just what I need.



After this I decided to go natural.  I used hessian, muslin and silk organza.  I wanted everything to be minimal so I stitched with the fabric itself and tied knots. Everything that would tear was torn.

The muslin on the left is in short lengths and simply stitched through the hessian and knotted. he central strip which hangs from a thread is gathered with strips of silk organza.  The muslin on the right is my favourite because it bubbles and froths as it goes through the fabric.

This technique offers a lot of possibilities.  It would take a long time to develop the frothiness with any sort of stitch.

Tucks

Pintucks are little folds of fabric that sit on the fabric's surface (Reid, 2011).

I love the look of the tucks in my books especially the random, curved ones.  I don't have a special pintuck foot for my machine so I'll just stick to the basics. It seems that the projecting pleats I used earlier are really just big pintucks!

Because I was making tucks with just lines of stitching I made big ones knowing that accuracy was going to be a big issue.  I did 1cm tucks in my regular 40cm by 23cm piece of fabric.  This meant 1cm tucks and .5 gullies.

After my plain tucks I decided to satisfy my whim to put extra work into what I did for the projected pleats earlier.  First I placed the central line of stitching:

 

 Then I added four  more in alternate directions.

This was fiddly but very effective.

I've come to recognise all too well that accuracy is an absolute essential for pintucks.  With this is mind I think I'd better call a halt here because my next pintucks were a bit of a disaster.

I'm offering no excuses - just carelessness I'm afraid.  The tucks themselves were fat too chunky for the task required of them.  I would have been better off using some silk.

Quilting

I selected some white embroidered cotton covered it in white organza and used a backing of white sheeting.  My idea was to free machine on top of the embroidery already there in contrasting colours.  My machine didn''t like this idea and once again the bobbin tension let me down.   I had to revert to standard stitching and because I knew this would be far harder I used self coloured cotton because any glitches wouldn't be so obvious.  I cut away the organza.

The cotton material has small bobbles on and I planned to do further anchoring with French knots.  Out of all the colours of thread I have I found I'd no white.  Instead I used some small, clear glass beads instead and they look OK.  

I'm going to have to make a big effort to get my machine sorted for free stitching.  Having it so temperamental is really getting in the way of what I want to do.

Raised shapes

Of all the things I've been asked to try in this part of the course these last two are the ones that appealed to me the least.  I stitched a beer bottle top, a polystyrene ball (tied in) a cocktail stick and a taller top into the fabric.  I used the gathering technique again to do the tops and the cocktail stick was simply caught with a running stitch (effective).  For a softer, less pronounced effect I rolled a piece of plastic bag into a ball and stitched it from underneath.  I came to the task in a pretty negative frame of mind, didn't enjoy it so let it go.  I'm sure that if I ever consider it's the tool for the job I'll find a bit more enthusiasm.

Moulding

Still waiting for it to dry.

I enjoyed these tasks very much. After so much new stuff it was lovely to get back to an old skill and look at it in a new way.  I can see lots of opportunities for using some of the effects I have made.  They can provide textured backgrounds or make a stand alone piece.  Some of the work in Wolff (1996) is really exciting - I love the Italian smocking.

I chose to use a sheeting fabric because I wanted to see how the fabric worked with shadows and so on.  When I looked I found I'd very little by way of heavier fabric so that becomes a priority to buy.

Reid, A. 2011, Stitch Magic. A & C Black, London
Thittichai, K. 2011, Layered Textiles.  Batsford, London
Wolff, C. 1996, The Art of Manipulating Fabric. Krause Publications, Iola, Wisconsin