More about Part 3 Sample

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Some thoughts about working on translucent fabric.

- The threads at the back show through so I have had to tie off each separate one. This has actually led to something rather attractive - the cut threads at the back become a fuzzy part of the pattern. I think I will use that to give some shape to one side of the flower by leaving the connecting strands for the ones that are closest together. Or at least I'll see how that looks.
- It looks lovely and light as I had hoped - like a dandelion clock about to be blown off.
- There's a limit to how heavy and rough the yarn can reasonably be before it looks odd, like it's holding the whole thing up on that one stitch.
- Thin shiny threads look particularly good on it for some reason.
- I'm thinking that there may be a lot of other ways to use the fact that the fabric is see-through, and that I can't be the first person to think this. I should try it again, and I should see if I can find a textile artist who uses this in their work. Perhaps ask my tutor.

This is my sample so far.
I haven't worked out how to get the translucence to show up in a photo yet.
Something else to work on.

Well, I've been having a struggle with myself about whether my sample is going to be acceptable. The trouble is that when I am making it I keep wondering if I am doing what is intended by the exercise. Should it be more abstract and free? Should it be more like an actual 'sampler' like the ancient ones with pictures and rows of regular stitching on them. Am I actually making myself veer from the whole reason for the exercise in the course file / missing the point? And wishing that the instructions included some examples of other people's samples, to give me an idea of what I should be aiming for. Or if there were some way I could get reassurance that I am doing it 'right'.

Now today, I realised that what I am struggling with is the difference between a creative course and the kind of academic study I am more used to. For this course the instructions will be deliberately much more open to allow creativity in the response. I did not expect to find myself responding to instructions by wanting more direction! I will keep thinking about this issue, and keep trying to use the instructions as a stepping stone into opening my creative self rather than as step by step invariable laws.

I think I have managed to be open and creative in my own way with this piece. But just to be sure I want to spend a little time doing another one for this same exercise. This may mean I will need a bit more time to finish this part of the course, but I think it is important for me to get a bit more understanding about this relationship between a brief and my ability to do my own thing.

My experience of working with the flowerhead picture has made me think I might do better with something even more linear, and have picked a very small sketch of the lines on a tabby cat that I did as part of a page about great artists' mark-making in my visual workbook/ sketchbook.

For some reason I think quite bright greens express the feeling these give me. Initially I was thinking about a green background as well, but the new, clean feeling of the lines will go better with plain white I think.