Project two: Recording and capturing: 1.5 Collage and creases

Whitework embroidery

Here I responded to the whitework embroidery using collage in a couple of different ways. Firstly I looked at the piece as a whole and captured the strips of different stitches that were arranged horizontally across the piece, ranging in styles and levels of complexity from top to bottom. I used different reused papers, some of which I painted with in a pale buff colour to evoke the discoloured cream linen of the embroidery.

Papers range from the inside of security envelopes which suggest the weave of the cream linen, to squared school paper, which suggests the learning nature and intention of the piece, to more translucent papers which suggest the more airy and lacy texture of the lower panels.

Here, I went to the opposite extreme with my collage, taking a small section and magnifying it many times, in order to capture how the straight lines and curves interact with each other:

I was quite free with my cutting here and didn't try to make the pattern overly symmetrical, as I wanted to reflect the subtle differences and imperfections of the original.

I then decided to make some of my own papers for collage:

With these papers, I then went on to experiment with some other collages. Firstly, this freer ripped paper one, which gives an impression of the textures and present in the embroidery:

Then I cut out the shapes of the design visible in one part of the embroidery, experimenting with more curved and more geometric shapes:

photo of collages to come here