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.

Wrapping & Rusting

Here are the latest batch of images from experiments with the contents of my latest parcel from Sara - combined with some items from previous parcels - which coincided with collecting items for a "final parcel" for Sara. The final parcel is just about complete and I am looking forward to sharing it's contents and the reasons I chose each item for Sara to work with and what ideas I have in mind for them and how that differs from Sara's initial ideas and impressions.

Washers linked with a lace trim creating a bracelet.

Worn as a bracelet.

The washer bracelet after rusting. I love the intense orange combined with the black. The coating on the washers has also corroded into some  interesting colours. I got the instructions for the linking in the bracelet online and I think that it's a nice way to integrate the metals and materials. Individually the bracelet isn't enough though, and I would like to see this idea layered up.

Bolt nuts linked in a string braid.

Again here, but rusted. The rust has only affected one nut because of the way the nuts were placed in the vinegar. Again I tried linking them into a braid with instructions for simple "craft" bracelets online, but this method was less effective as I hadn't used the right nuts. I will have to see if I can get thinner ones as the bracelet links they can create are really tough looking and would look brilliant on a large scale design.

Again taking inspiration from combining metals with fabrics I came up with the idea of wrapping nuts and washers with different materials. I like them already; before any destructive processes as they are very soft and feminine and I think they will look really striking after some experimentation. I love the mix of different shapes and fabrics so I think for a final piece, a good mix of different wrapped objects sewn together would work most effectively.

More experiments with wrapping - this time a large screw and string. However, this wasn't nearly so impressive as the other "wrappings" and I have definitely overloaded the string with rust and it is now rather sludgy. I like the marks made on the tissue with it though, so maybe it could be used as a tool for mark making.