The Idle Housewife

  I feel like I am complaining and whining all the time but this was a painful and stressful assignment, I actually thought about quitting the course. The beginning of the assignment was fine, I had fun and I fancied a lot some of the exercises, I am almost proud of some of the results of combining textures and colours. Thanks to this assignment, I came up with the softies idea and at this moment there is a very small  exhibition  of my softies in a book shop nearby. But projects 4 and 5 were hard, I felt a huge lack of motivation and totally uninspired, both are reflected on my work and the exercises result, it is a kind of a disaster. But it is finally done. The exercises I enjoyed the most were those of project 3 even if I got stuck in the begining. After doing some mood drawing and finding some colour inspiration, I finally arrived to the stitches part. After some experiences with some polyester thread , I finally reached the natural fib...

This is my larger sample, it has 30 cm x 120 cm, once again I used Markals with rubbing plates over linen. Do you feel you made a good selection from your drawings to use as source material for your design ideas? Which interpretations worked best? Why? No, I feel I didn't made a good selection from my drawings or the other drawings I used. This happened because at the beginning of Project 4 I got stuck and lost all motivation I had for doing this assignment. Which fabrics did you choose? What particular qualities appealed to you? I chose cotton and linen. Cotton and linen, linen on top, are my favourite fabrics. Both are easy to work with (to sew or to paint), very agreeable to touch and "fresh" as materials. How successful do you think your larger sample is? Do you like the design? Have you recreated or extended your ideas from the smaller samples so that there is a visible development between the two? Does your repeating design flow across the surface, without the obvio...

Mask made with regular tape to create a kind of a stencil :: Markals on cotton fabric Effect after taking out the tape Markals over rubbing plates on black cotton fabric Markals over rubbing plates on thick linen fabric Markals over offset printing blocks used as rubbing plates on cotton fabric Markals over offset printing blocks used as rubbing plates on very thin linen fabric The idea/objective was to see the text on the the "other side" of the fabric, the fabric is very thin and transparent. It didn't work out and the text is not visible. Small samples of Markals over rubbing plates on thin linen fabric I used only the rubbing plates I bought instead of my own drawings. The drawings I made that I liked were used on the first assignment and I didn't want to reuse them. So I chose the easy solution - otherwise this assignment wouldn't be over - and used already made rubbing plates.

Stage 1 :: preparation I prepared everything, ordered Markal paintstiks along with some rubbing plates, two Speedball screen printing kit and some block printing material. Stage 2 :: experimenting with techniques I used the Markals and the rubbing plates. And with those I used masks and stencils while I hand painted on fabric. I will use the block printing material later, when I feel more inspired because this is a technique that I really enjoy. I just lost all motivation for this assignment and I don't have the courage for trying the screen printing. I am not a big fan of fabric painting.

I was (still am) stuck, totally stuck with this assignment 2, not knowing what to do, where to go, not knowing, feeling stuck, not motivated at all and thinking about not going to be formally evaluated. I am trying, for many weeks now, to do finish this assignment. So I decided to move forward and review all the work I have not yet done on project 4. I already asked two times for deadline extension and I stopped because my tutor understood that I would need more. So, I decided I will have bad marks and get on with my academic OCA life. Did you manage to "make space move"? Yes, I feel like I did. From this project, this was the only part that I actually enjoyed. I played a lot with the squares and I could see the same space differently. The same happened drawing lines in a square. What are your thoughts about the drawings you did in Stage 3? Helpless. I made some drawings from a Juan Miró picture using felt tip markers an they where useless for all Stage 3 exercises. This is w...

Constructive picture with red and blue squares, 1923, Hannah Hoch Gouache on paper Detail of Constructive picture with red and blue squares, 1923, Hannah Hoch Oil pastel Felt tip marker Paper collage Felt collage

This exercise does not respond exactly to what is asked. This second assignment is not being easy for me, I feel blocked and not knowing what to do. I spoke with my tutor that was of great help, I was planning on redoing the exercises but decided, on the meantime, to present this. Then if I have the energy, I will redo them, if I don't have the energy I will stick to this and accept that sometimes not everything goes as planned or has I wish. In one of my first texture exercises  I tried to reproduce the texture of a flower, of the smoothness of its petals, with oil pastels. On paper is does not actually works or at least it doesn't look like the same texture but it feels to me the same texture, the touch of oil pastels reminds me of some flower petals such as these. From this exercise from assignment 1, when I look at the pastel picture, I sense the same softness as when I look at the flower, it is a kind of soft-grease touch that I see in the petals and that I have with the o...

 Leaves, 1925, André Durenceau Detail from Leaves, 1925, André Durenceau   Exercise 1 :: first drawing :: texture I used pastels because I find them very smooth and soft but on paper they do not represent the original texture at all Exercise 1 :: second drawing :: colours Exercise 1 :: third drawing :: shapes This was supposed to be the third drawing - shapes - but I used also for colours. Exercise 1 :: third drawing :: shapes This Stage 2 has been a total disaster from the beginning, I am not happy with it, nothing worked.

Composition, 1971-76, Juan Miró  Felt tip markers and graphite Felt tip markers and graphite   Felt tip markers and pastel Felt tip marker  Felt tip markers and graphite

 "Dirty drawings" from cat's paws

When was the piece made and how long has it been in your possession? The piece is a "chemin de table" and it has been in my possession for almost one year, I brought with me after my last holidays, it came from my mother's house. Who made it and where was it made? This piece was weaved by my great-grandmother and embroidered by my mother. It was made in Alentejo, a region in the south of Portugal. What is it made of? It is made of linen and embroidered with cotton. Can you identify the techniques that have been used? It was embroidered by hand using satin stitch, cross stitch and a stitch that I cannot identify that looks like a kind of couching mixed with Herringbone stitch that I cannot really identify. The weaving is normal and straight, made with an old wooden weaver. I know the fabric is handmade, the stitches in the embroidery are handmade stitches. Was is made by hand or machine? How are you able to determine this? The weaving is normal and straight, made with an ...

Were you able to mix and match colours accurately? I believe I did mix and match colours accurately. Well, at least I did before they got dried, I remarked a big difference between gouache colours wet and dry. And I had some perfect matches between fabric samples and wet paint that became quite different when the paint dried. Mixing colours was easier with gouache and matching/reproducing colours was easier with watercolour, I felt this with the lemon colour reproducing and not matching fabric colour perfectly. Were you able to use colour expressively? Yes, I think so. Or not really. I was not very much inspired and I have to confess that I am not a painting fan. Mixing colours is a fun experience as the colours change but I feel less skilled than with other things. Can you now see colour rather than accepting what you think you see? Yes, I can see colour differently now, I see colours more accurately and it is so much easier and faster to achieve a certain colour by mixing other colou...

Alternative exercise :: machine embroidery Soluble fabric still on the embroidery hoop Experience using soluble fabric, normal cotton thread for sewing, cotton, wool, silk and steel threads on bobbin, cable stitch and free machining. The base was made with sewing cotton thread on soluble fabric. Before washing the soluble fabric After washing soluble fabric After washing soluble fabric Detail :: the brown thread is the silk and steel yarn I enjoyed this exercise very very much. Until now, it was my favourite one using colour. I liked the effect of the silk and steel yarn and the mixture of green wool and green cotton thread, together they give a beautiful texture to the tree. I also like the effect of two different thread types and colours on the flowers. But the best of all was "weaving" my own piece of 100% cotton fabric with sewing cotton thread with the sewing, the soluble fabric is magical. This is just a small rectangle of 6 cm x 9 cm.  Used materials: wool yarn, cotto...