Final Ideas Sketch

One of my final piece ideas which consists of a dark top of some description - whether vintage or contemporary is yet to be seen - which would feature collars or clusters of cross stitch loops pulling the fabric tight to highlight marks made with bleach. The patterns could run across the top of the item of clothing and be highlighted by the loops or the mark making could only be applied to the pulled fabric. I like the idea of attaching the cross stitch hoops using vintage or unusually coloured threads to pick up the variety of colours the bleaching will create. I'm not yet decided on the type of clothing yet as I'm hoping that we shall stumble across a beautiful unusual item that will be instantly recognisable as the right one to use - as seems to have happened previously with Re-worked. This design could be reversed in that the top could be light with the application of colour, but the idea of the bleach stripping the fabric as a destructive tool really appeals to the project.

Tea Stains

Here are the pictures of the results of the rose tea staining on the the stud clusters. As hoped there is a nice black rust ring round the clusters and also a nice layer of green on the studs themselves; from the coating of the metal I presume. 

Showing the black stains.

Close up of the clusters and the green coating that has appeared.

I am happy that more colours are being introduced into the work and would like to see more staining coming from the green coating - maybe some rubbings etc.

At the moment I am currently working on a plan for a workshop day with Sara, as we are just at the end of the experimenting stage. Re-worked has had to take a bit of a back seat, especially in the last few months as Sara is studying hard for her final Masters assessments, however we hope to get back on track quickly once it's ended. The works there - it's just not getting uploaded!! I hope to post the workshop plan this week with lots of basic workshop techniques!

Finding Relationships

A sister -or brother?!- piece of this ( I imagine?), wine glass bottom cover was seen in the previous post. Another rather distinctive item, I have been playing today with other relative materials, concentrating on contrasting textures and emulative form. Combining other circular pieces with this and trying to build upon the 'case'-like quality of the cover, I am still, as yet, unsure of where to move forward with this. These came as a set of four so there is plenty of scope to experiment.

Collar-ing

This was the winning mode of embellishment for me. Quite pleased with the progress of this collar, though I am unsure of how I will move it forward in terms of rusting or affecting the pearls as I do not want to 'attack' this piece with too harsh a process. As it is in the moment, (I am still stitching - those pearls are fiddly and require a teeny tiny needle!), I think the collar is very pretty and still rather delicate and I want this element to remain true as I continue to work on it.

Parcel From Nicola

This again, is a late post. I am finding it rather frustrating that the day-to-day is getting in the way of our project so I have taken great advantage of a free evening to catch up; Nicola's final parcel has proven very exciting. I have been eager to experiment!

I was very pleased that Nicola included materials that I have no experience in working with at all as yet, for example the hematite beads and pearls. Both are typically associated with jewellery as opposed to textiles, so it will be interesting for me to apply my skills in reworking them. The ring blanks too, will be interesting for me to play with; having no concept of 'building' a ring from bands such as these, I am hoping that my novice will introduce a new (and successful?!) use for them.

Nicola also provided interesting textile items, such that I am more familiar and confident in working with, though I will say, have prompted me to more consideration of my methods;

Mens' collars: I like the idea of working with this more rigid, masculine shape as I feel that I have subconsciously approached the project thus far, with solely females in mind, favouring looser shapes and softer fabrics. It will  be very interesting to see how rust might 'move' against a heavily starched surface.  I am currently pondering how I might best embellish and/or print designs onto these. It will be a great task to work with these in contrast to the beautiful, and extremely feminine vintage lace collar that Nicola also included. Having received them both in the same parcel, I am now able to consider the real difference in treatment they will require if I am to get the most from them.

 Pink Basque: I agree with Nicola entirely in that, upon first receiving this item, it did not seem to fit within our colour scheme but in considering the direction of our project now, it is a welcome addition to our palette and has wide scope for use. I can see too, it being useful as an embellished garment or in being 'stripped back', using parts of it to form other pieces.

Pins: I love that they are gold! For the most part, any pins that I have worked with in rusting experiments before, have been silver. I expect that this will prove fruitful in expanding our colour palette. Nicola is right in her comments considering shape and draping - I think their size and weight alone will provide us with a strong collection of experiments.

Large Brass Chains: I can only dream of the beautiful prints we can create with these - I want to experiment ALOT with scale here, repeats and layers. I can envision these working well alongside other items (mostly chains!) that Nicola has sent me in the past.

I am off to edit photographs (these will be posted VERY soon) and develop some sketches. Nicola has provided me with a wealth of inspiration in this package and I want to do it justice. It is worth noting as well that I absolutely love the box that the parcel arrived in (the collar case); the fact that this is a purpose built casing being used to house its intended contents as well as 'new' found members is a lovely notion when considering the ethos of Reworked.

Final Parcel for Sara.

So I have finally gotten round to completing the final parcel I will send to Sara as part of Re-worked, in order to move onto the next stage of the project. Sara and I had previously decided that we would show the contents of the parcel we would be sending online so that we could form initial ideas from viewing the items and perhaps changing ideas when getting into contact with them. This will allow us to voice the initial ideas as well as those that will come from interaction and closer inspection. We thought that we would share our ideas for the use of the items we were sending in order to compare them to the others initial reactions.

  

1. Box of men's vintage collars.

I came across the idea of men's collars early on when researching items to send to Sara when I was looking into buying vintage jewellery boxes. They instantly struck me as something I thought Sara would like as I think she tends to play around with androgynous styles. I like that they can act as a blank canvas for attaching something that has been "re-worked" to: I see them almost as a blank shank or necklace that needs further adornment. I think they would make great supports for textiles to hang from in a poncho-style or something chains and necklace style pieces could be attached to. Alternatively they could be pieces within themselves. The box they came from is also a fantastic piece with a crumbly surface that has been leaving little trails of powder everywhere: maybe this could be incorporated into a piece?

2. Large brass chains.

The idea of playing around with chains has also been circling around for a while, although I had originally thought of silver. However, after playing with wrapping nuts and bolts and larger objects, I thought it would be better to play around with larger chains as it leaves more room for play. I had noticed a lot of my blog posts contained sentences along the lines of "I like this idea but think it would work better on a larger scale." so I thought I would start off with large chains. Sara could possibly wrap these with threads or ribbon etc but I also thought that it would be interesting to see how she uses these on the body as these, for me, definately fall into the "jewellery" category. They also have the brass finish that left such interesting "prints" with the washers on felt so she could also incorporate that idea with them. A lot of scope for play I feel.

3. Vintage lace collar.

This collar was accidentally missed out of a previous parcel and I still feel it has a lot of relevance to Re-worked. It could act in a similar manner to the men's vintage collars but with a feminine edge - something that can be used to play around with soft/tough clashes. I like the shape of it - it could be attached to the body in a number of ways meaning it doesn't actually have to be used as a collar at all. I like the very antique look and colour: a lot of items used on Re-worked have been either white or orange with rust so I like that other shades are being introduced. 

4. Pins

These small pins will provide a lot of scope to experiment. One thing I immediately associate with fashion and textile is how they will be draped on the body and the shapes they create, so I thought that the pins could be used for working with textiles produced in the project. As well as helping us create pieces, I think these pins could be used as pieces themselves: clustered together and rusted, used to brand material and creating growth-like constructions within materials. Again, I like the play on them being almost jewellery-like: small metal objects so I am interested to see how Sara uses them.

5. Ring Blanks.

I liked the idea of using jewellery findings as a fun way of introducing embellishment to materials and also a fun and easy introduction to jewellery supplies for Sara. I personally don't use ring blanks such as these for my own work, as my shanks etc are hand created and silver, but I love them as a tongue-in-cheek take on introducing jewellery into the project. I think that, branded, these would make great shapes and silhouettes on textiles, sewn on, they will make great embellishments and also lend themselves to the rusting process. Again, because there is a lot of them, there is scope for play with these. They are very cheap so will be a great start for adding jewellery into experiments. The idea of "clusters" and "collections" is becoming apparent in a lot of the experiments for Re-worked so I think these will be interpreted fantastically.

6. Hematite beads.

I have wanted to give Sara some beads for a while now as they are, again, a small introduction to materials associated with the jewellery profession and they can also be sewn onto clothing as embellishment within textiles. I had struggled to think of stones that would lend themselves nicely to Re-worked when I came across the idea of using hematite. I've used hematite in work before but it was only when researching the properties of some stones that I read that hematite can actually rust. I've not tested this theory out so I thought I'd let Sara try it for herself and see if she can work her rusty-magic on the beads. As we have started introducing metals such as brass, I thought the steel like appearance would fit it nicely in the project. Again, I like the idea of them clustered together or used in structures within a textile piece.

7. Freshwater pearls.

Another bead that came into my attention quite a while ago was the humble freshwater pearl. I did an experiment on my personal blog, after reading that pearls dissolve in vinegar, to see the effect it would have on some garish pink pearls I'd bought, being not quite aware of the colour. The vinegar dissolved several layers of the pearls, reducing the pink dye, turning them into a softer pink version albeit with a less shiny surface. Because of the use of vinegar with rusting, I thought Sara would enjoy mixing these pearls into the process and seeing if she can combine them nicely. I use a lot of pearls in my own work so thought it would be nice for Sara to use them too. They can be used as embellishment and I thought the irregular shape will produce some interesting results. I like that these pearls have a destructive process all of their own and seeing if they can be worked into our project.

8. Vintage corset/bustier. 

This corset was actually sent to Sara a long time ago, when we were first discussing Re-worked. We swapped some initial ideas and items to get a feel for this project and we disregarded this item because it was pink and we didn't think it fitted in with Re-worked. However, on second inspection, I think this could be a great "canvas" piece for which Sara could attach items too, as well as be re-worked itself. I want to introduce some more colours into Re-worked and don't want to scrap an item just because of it's colour. The hook and eyes at the back are also of particular interest to me and I thought that even if Sara decides this item isn't suitable then it would be interesting to strip it down and use the hook and eyes from it: showing any item could have a potential use, even if it is just a small element. I hope Sara enjoys the items and am very eager to hear her initial reactions.

Latest Items.

Here are the latest items I have received from Sara that I will be experimenting with. This will be the last parcel swap of this kind in Re-worked as we will be taking around two weeks to build up larger parcels that will signify the end of the swapping stage before starting more of a design-led stage: mini-workshops, sketching together and beginning to produce larger samples. The larger parcels will be shown differently as well as we will be choosing items that we feel will challenge or suit the other, posting pictures here before swapping parcels detailing why we have chosen the items and how we think the other could use them. I have a few ideas already for what I can send Sara so I am looking forward to this next stage.

Bolt nuts. I am interested to see how this coating is affected by experiments.

More brass washers.

Large screws. Again, another coating to experiment with.

A selection of weather-rusted characters.

Hook & eyes. Both coated and bare.

Coated snap fasteners.

String. I am thinking that wrapping items with this, 

such as the bolt nuts, could produce some interesting results.

Various trims and ribbons. Again. these could be used to wrap some of the other items. 

Powder Puffs - Post Rusting

As expected, these have been well dyed whilst rusitng despite my vigillance with exposure to oxygen being unpredictable in the continuation of the process. Again, I find these interesting as objects but am unsure as to how these would fit in with our final collection - perhaps not sophisticated enough an outcome. The sample in the bottom image rather reminds me of a mushroom! In the flesh, it's texture is pleasing - the embossing effect having been successful. I had planned to remove the staples but seeing the samples as they are now, I fear that removing them would leave them a bit lack luster - the embedded metal adds interest to the softness of the puffs.  

Powder Puffs - Before Rusting

These powder puffs have been stapled in the hope of altering texture and shape. Again, I have been concerned with repetition - edging the puffs with staples in a regimented fashion and pinning the pearl wire rings to reflect shape. I expect that the nature of the materials will see the puffs rather saturated with rust if I am not too careful in controlling the process so I plan to monitor these closely. Despite this concern, I am eager to see the embossing effects that the staples will have against these spongey textures. I quite like these as objects in themselves though I am unsure as to how well these will work within our final collection...

Studs / Rust

I decided to make use of the butterfly clips Sara had given me by combining them with the felt circles from a previous parcel. I thought that the butterfly clips on their own through fabric would look too similar to everyday studs already used in clothing so thought the felt circles would give them something extra. I really like this outcome as I think it looks like some sort of natural growth or honey fungus. I'm interested in using the idea as small clusters on clothing combined with a completely covered section - playing on the idea of deterioration. Although I liked the look, I experimented further with vinegar and salt to induce rusting (see below) to see if it improved the look. I also like that the "wings" of the butterfly clips underneath have criss-crossed to create a sort of mesh - something I again think would make for an interesting piece - if an item of clothing was completely covered it may become malleable, like the mesh/silver wire samples I played with in an earlier post, and would be interesting in terms of weight.

I do like the effects of the rust on the butterfly clips - they succumbed to deterioration very easily - but equally feel they look great untouched so maybe a mix of the two on a single piece would be great. I have a few designs for garments sketched and one idea I had was to have a heavily embellished top section (say the bodice of a dress) which would be rusted then gradually spacing the embellishment out to create small, untouched clusters. I think that highlighting the degrees of deterioration throughout the one piece would look great and sum up Re-worked. I was also pleased to see what looks like the start of salt crystals - maybe a new direction for the project? - a welcome embellishment!

I also did a smaller, less successful (in my opinion) experiment just scrunching up the fabric & securing it with clips to see if the rust would transfer throughout the  fabric. I think I was too heavy handed on the vinegar and the fabric is now almost completely orange! I like the colour but I wasn't overly impressed. However, it did give me an idea to use the butterfly clips to create structure within fabric - maybe create bunched up sections on large areas of fabric?