Aims:
Explore colour translation and development in yarn design and making
Explore textures and unexpected materials in the creation of yarn concepts and designs.
The colour palette of the material was quite soft and muted, with a high level of contrast between light and dark, while the handle of the material was soft and matte, stretchy, with a childlike design.
I had to search for suitable materials to represent this texture and colour palette, and found that children's craft materials answered the need for the slightly pliable, soft texture, in a similar, though slightly less muted colour palette. I wanted to convey the playful and slightly whimsical nature of the original fabric, the childlike and naive quality of the design, and the soft texture of the cotton jersey.
Materials used:
synthetic pompoms
plastic beads
plastic foam strips and shapes.
The way the jersey fabric felt in my hand, also reminded me of other materials, such as the smoothness of elastic bands, so I played around with some arrangements of coloured elastic bands and thought about ways of attaching them to each other to form yarn:
This led on to using the elastic bands in the same way as the recent children's craft craze of loom bands, but in a larger scale, using both a single elastic band and double bands. This was a good fit with the naive theme that was developing in response to the source material.
This led me on to also using craft foam, with its soft and peachlike texture as a yarn material by itself, experimenting with different ways of manipulating and linking the strips to form yarn concepts:
I explored the various ways I could think of the make this material into yarn:
looping
weaving
chainstitch effect
joining in different ways
regular and irregular
rigid and moveable
twisted and not twisted
knotted
cut or left whole
single colour or mixed colours
regular and random repeats.
The craft foam was an interesting material to make yarn with as it is pliable, but can maintain its form, can be easily pierced or cut into strips and linked with stitch or stapling. It has a lot of potential as a material, but it did make me quite uneasy when I reflected on what materials I 'should' be using, as it is probably not an ecologically sound material, as it would not break down easily and the production methods are probably quite harmful to people and the environment, so perhaps I shouldn't have bought and used it?
But this led me on to thinking that other art materials would probably fall into this category, and so what materials would that leave? Moreover, surely the point of artwork is that it 'endures' at least for a time?
This needs further thought and reflection as there are no easy answers to this problem.