Re-worked Skill Swap: Dundee

So today Nicola is visiting Dundee and it's my turn to show her a little tricks of my textiley trade. I had hoped, now being a Designer in Residence at DJCAD, that I might take her on a grand old tour of the dye lab, mix up some dyes and make some lovely prints in the studio BUT then I am reminded of the ethos of Re-worked; being spontaneous and reactionary to our materials. So, this considered, I have chosen to host my workshop for Nicola in my home.

Our workspace for the day (my kitchen table) with a range of fabrics etc.

I plan to work with Nicola on a dye technique called Shibori (often regarded as tie-dye but with more to it!) in emulation of some of our natural rusty dyes.

Some Shibori making materials - we will use the polystyrene and string as resist markers.

We will also construct a couple of collars (in a similar vein that is demonstrated by this A Common Thread blog post) mostly by way of hand stitching and perhaps a tad sewing machine as I would like to show Nicola a little pattern cutting and fabric construction. We will design our collar shapes together and pattern cut original shapes a la this. (Thanks Google!)

A vintage collar that Nicola sent me previous is inspiration for this route.

Nicola's workshop was such a wonderfully comprehensive one stop shop of a range of jewellery and metal work techniques that I found my own a rather difficult feat to plan but given the steps we are making towards creating our final pieces, I feel the dye, embellishment and construction techniques I will share with Nicola today are apt in helping us realise Re-worked project. 

Exciting! Can't wait for her to arrive! 

The Pink Basque

The pink basque and the pins both are from Nicola's final parcel to me. I have worked with the basque as a whole garment leaving it's actual form and structure untouched but thought it might be fun to play around with ideas of wearability, comfort and contact. These gold pins are very fragile and pliable to touch but when layered and lined up they become collectively strong and sharp. Immediately upon touching the basque, I am vulnerable to (mild!) pain which is thought provoking when considering our Re-worked aim of communicating preciousness in materials - making my own experience with this garment vulnerable inspires further awareness.
Aesthetically, I love the combination of the gold and baby pink and I like that the pins target only the elastic. This was partly because, already perforated, I was able to pass the pins through the material easily, the form of the pins unaffected but also because I felt it important to embellish only certain panels or sections of the basque.
The basque is a 'statement' piece, even without embellishment, reminding me of Madonna circa 80's and more recently, Lady Gaga.

Unplanned Post

This is not the post I had hoped to make tonight - I am having irksome technical difficulties uploading photographs of my latest experiments. So instead, I decided to show some more goodies I've found laying around. On my jaunt around the factory I work in, I found some utter beauts but they were sadly too large to pocket, so for now, meet these:

Another mobile phone special, this photograph lacks in quality but I am glad that it still portrays well the warped shapes of these 'specimens'. I still enjoy the idea of cataloguing these found pieces and examining them for inspiration. I feel that shape manipulation and moulding are aspects that I would like to play around with more. Being a printer by trade I am too quick to 'make prints' and dye as opposed to physically kneading my materials and affecting their structure.

Experimenting with Ribbon

These are experiments based on Nicola's initial ideas when collecting the first lot of materials:

And compositional experiments with lengths of ribbon,silver chain and paper clips:

Both ideas combined:

I like the simplicity of these samples and the idea that each piece can be added to/have sections taken away. The pink ribbon allows for me to experiment with the softer spectrum of our materials and achieve a pretty and wearable outcome. I actually really like the silver against the pink. Being cleaner and reflective, it is a nice contrast against the grittier rusted pieces, whilst still sitting well within our collection. Although I will make similiar pieces to rust too.

Repetition and Interrupted Patterns

This post is long overdue! A few images from my initial compositional experiments after receiving the first parcel. These should be ready soon - simple in their foundations for where I hope to move next.

Experimenting with length of links and weight.

After my initial experiments with the rusted paper clips, and the immediacy in creating my own chains, it seemed sensible to use the clips again as a base. I like the idea of building up layers, almost like chain mail and embedding the rescued fastenings within the links: 

It is an extremely rudimentary way of producing jewellery but I do find the process interesting - hopefully once I can partake in a workshop under Nicola's guidance I'll be more adept at construction with metal.

Interrupting the constant stream of the very identifiable form of the paper clips, I find very appealing visually, though I do look forward to seeing the finished product once the paper clips are fully rusted. The idea of having to study the piece before being aware of the interruption of the lovely hooks and eyes will, I hope, draw attention to the questions we are posing with this project. And if these chains react in the same way as in previous experiments, I hope to produce rusty rubbings (as suggested by Nicola in a previous comment - see post here) from the lengths of clips. I imagine this piece, when finished, will shed if worn. A nice nod back towards the ideas expressed in Nicola's final year project and a literal prompt to being conscious of value as the piece reacts with the wearer's day to day surroundings.

So as not to tamper too much with the state in which the hooks and eyes are currently, (they are beautiful, having rusted slowly in their own time), I intend to lace the majority of them into the paper clip chains after the paper clips emerge from their induced rusting. I like the idea of a contrast between the naturally affected and the immediacy of the induced samples.

I have also been experimenting with the idea of softer constructed pieces - creating loose concertinas and ruffles by stapling the ribbons Nicola sourced.

More soon.

Parcel & Contents

Letters / packages from Sara.

The accompanying letter with contents.

A vintage collar that really appeals to my personal taste.

Sheets of wool.

Brass washers.

I really enjoyed the contents of the latest parcel I received from Sara as I felt they were really in par with the direction of the experiments I have been doing for Re-worked. Sara & myself both agreed that the sheets of natural cream wool instantly lend themselves perfectly to branding techniques, something I particularly want to use the brass washers for. Included in the parcel was a piece of wool shaped almost like a shoulder pad that I found really interesting - hopefully Sara has more or similar? I think they would be amazing layered up - very dramatic. Also part of the parcel was a bag of butterfly clips - another perfectly suited - easily found item that will be easy to work into experiments and the overall look / feel of Re-worked. 

One item I instantly fell for was the vintage lace collar. This item is the sort of thing I first had in mind for the project and the sort of thing that falls into the "soft" category - in need of some destructive processes to bring it back to life. I think that it's a perfect base to create a piece from. It also reminds me a lot of the sort of vintage items I searched for use in my degree show project Vanity Series 2010. While in my personal project I played on the idea of "feminine" by creating intrinsically "pretty" items, I am looking forward to taking this element away from most items - making them beautiful in an alternative way.

I am also excited to say that Re-worked will be expanding to Aberdeen! In our initial proposal Sara & I specifically identified that this project would expand over two cities (Inverness & Dundee), highlighting that collaborations can take place by different means i.e our blog and posting items and ideas so to add a new city into this equation, as I will be moving there on Sunday, is just another exciting turn. 

Myself & Sara also have a few more steps planned for the course of Re-worked. We hope that once I am moved in and have set up my work area that we can have mini workshops in each other's discipline: Sara learning a few metalwork techniques & myself learning some basic textile approaches. We also hope to have a day or two rummaging around some local vintage shops and recycling centre and I would love to take Sara, at a later date, to Baird's in Glasgow to hand pick some silver wires / chains etc to use.