Barbara James Uses Photos, Stitch, Burlap, and Roving to Give Us an Impression of the Tides.

https://barbarajamesart.com/home.html

 

To make Carried Away 1, I took an original photograph of a downed tree and manipulated it on the computer and had it on cotton sateen. After cutting up the fabric I then collaged and stitched my impression of the tides into a triptych mounted burlap. The representation of the tide on the bottom of the piece is made from the wool batting that was pulled from the back of work and then enhanced with wool roving that I felted onto the batting.

Adding Dimension to Your Cloth

Many artists working on a flat surface continually strive to create the illusion of depth and texture. There are many printing and dyeing techniques that accomplish that goal.  However sometimes the work calls for an element that is raised above the surface of the cloth. Do you want to create real texture, not just the illusion? Over the next few weeks I'll highlight some of the techniques I use to add dimension.

Hand stitching in a contrasting or complimentary color adds a nice accent. If you don't consider yourself good with a needle - no problem. I did not come from a stitching background. When I first started using stitch seven years ago, it felt very awkward. But I have come to love it. I find it calming to sit with a needle and thread. You don't need to know any fancy stitches - a simple stitch repeated many times can result in a rich surface. 

Use a thicker thread (4-6 strands of embroidery floss or size #3 or 5 of pearl cotton)  for more impact. Embroidery floss is made up of six strands that can be separated to create the desired thickness. While that sounds great because you have the flexibility to create the thickness you want, beginners may find it harder to stitch with the floss.  Sometimes the plies separate while stitching, leaving a loose thread in some stitches. Pearl cotton has multiple plies, but they are non-divisible. It comes in several thicknesses - the smaller the number the thicker the thread.

This Moment, detail view

This Moment, detail view

This Moment, 80" x 24", Silk noil

 See how a simple straight stitch in red thread draws the eye into the small circle?

Marking Time, detail view

Marking Time, 80" x 24", Silk noil

The stitching on Marking Time is more subtle.  A tone-on-tone effect was used to keep the emphasis on the red painted marks.

The decision about what stitch to use was easy.  These two pieces explore our emphasis on "marking time" - looking to the past or future rather than focusing on the current moment. The universal symbol for counting seemed to make sense as a stitched element.  As did a double chain stitch to complete the larger circles on This Moment.

Printing with Ink and Paint Textured Thermofaxes

In my last post I shared a method that I use to create thermofaxes for my textured backgrounds. Now it’s time to print some fabric with my altered ink and paint texture thermofax! Below is the thermofax image used to create the textures for an ArtCloth piece called Moon Dance.

After masking out areas that I wanted to remain free of color with freezer paper, I used opaque textile paint mixed to match the purple background (tone on tone).

Then after masking the newly printed purple background and figure, I did the second printing in yellow textile paint for the moon.

And finally after some hand painting, stamping and beading below is Moon Dance finished.

Moon Dance, 60x40”.

Materials; MX dyes, discharge, fabric paint, and glass beads on Fuji silk broadcloth.

Hand dyed, discharged, thermofax screened, hand printed, hand painted and beaded.

It is enthralling to watch a piece of cloth transformed from flat plane to a luminous field of dimension with this technique!