Let’s make a background!
Hi everyone! This week is where all the excitement starts…Let’s make the background!
So. This piece is huge. We’re talking nearly 2 metres by 2 metres, which I don’t think I really could comprehend until I cut all the fabric out and laid it down. I’ve decided to split it up into two long strips, which I will work on separately and then join together just before it gets installed. This will make it so much easier when sewing and a lot more manageable in all aspects.
I knew I wanted to create a background which I could then use as a guide when I begin sewing and adding other elements, so that I wouldn’t have to constantly look at my reference image that I drew last week. This background will also ensure that no white of the background material has the chance to show through if there are areas where my stitching isn’t entirely dense. It won’t be exact or have many details, just the basic shapes and colours that I suggested on my original plan. Originally I had planned to use watercolours just like I did previously, but I soon realised that would take approximately 1000 years to do, so I changed it up.
Make it stand out
This is a mix of different coloured acrylic paints and water, which I mixed up to create a really watered down base that mimicked water-coloured paints. It is still super pigmented like acrylic paint, but would allow me to cover a larger area much quicker.
Mixing the paint with water
I did this process many times to get all the different colours and tones of the fields and the pebbled sections beneath what will become the train track. Each time I mixed up a lot of paint and water, it gave me a slightly different consistency which meant that some areas where deeper and more pigmented, but I actually don’t mind this at all! This has really taken the pressure off of stitching every single inch of the piece, as it the background shows through in areas it will just add more depth and texture to the piece.
Both panels laid together to show full painted background
I then decided to go in and just draw some rough guidelines to further assist when I get on to stitching over the top. For instance, the images below show where I’ve gone in and added roughly where the tree line is all along the top of the piece where the sky will then meet it.
Doing this process made me really think about the textures that will be in this piece. I don’t just want it to be a flat tapestry, I want to demonstrate how different textile skills can come together and work with each other to create a piece and make it more visually interesting. My plan for next week is to do some sampling of some textile processes that I could add to add different points of interest. This will mean that wherever you look on the final piece, there will be something different to look at, even if you look at it for a long time while waiting for a train!
Thank you for joining along with me this week for this experimentation, from now on we will be building up the piece and figuring things out, lots of exciting stuff! I’ll not only be showing everything that works well, but also what hasn’t worked, or maybe things that didn’t go according to plan, and showing how I resolved it!
Stay safe and keep creating,
Jodie