Friday 9 April 2010

Brooch prototypes....

So here is the result of one of my recent projects: an experimental fibre brooch - this one is made from the raw materials in the first photo in my previous post.

My aim with these brooches was to explore making something less 'tidy' and more freestyle.  Fibres feel so good to touch I quite like having the edges left raw and fraying, and to be able to watch them wear over time.  I made the brooch by layering cotton fabric, fibres (silk hankie fibre and cotton nepps), cotton scrim and mixed threads. I held them together with 'magic film' and then machine embroidered over the top to trap them in place.

Here are some others that I made:



They all measure about 6cm x 6cm ish.

I'm not totally sure what I think about them, to be honest.  I like being able to feel the raw edges of the fibres but I'm so used to having neat edges, having a more freestyle look like this takes a bit of getting used to!  Maybe the idea is good but I need to develop it a bit.  I made more prototypes than this, but the 'magic film' malfunctioned a bit and they had to be abandoned (the magic film gets trapped by the machine embroidery and then you iron the piece, which is meant to make the film evaporate - but if you don't do it right it just goes sticky and that is disastrous!) - so before I try to develop the idea further I think I'll try an alternative - maybe Solvy.

Work still progresses on the other project - photos to follow soon!

3 comments:

artymess said...

I really like these pieces ........i use solufleece which is sturdy to stitch through and dissolves in cold water ........or is that the same as solvy ??? .....Lorna

Chris Gray said...

I like these too....maybe you just need to live with them for a little while :-)

I especially love the colours.

Kate said...

Thanks both of you :)

Lorna - yes, solufleece sounds like solvy - I think I'll definitely give it a try!

Kate x