Mixed media textiles

Questions, questions!

After three weeks of "transform, change, disintegrate", these experiments are the results -

Setting out to try "washed paper", I didn't get very far with that, but did suss that the type of paper, the amount of stitching, and the amount of rubbing are important factors. Something to go back to...

In class I made another machine-on-screen piece, with coloured thread in the bobbin appearing on the top (loose tension helps). The letters were sewn onto newsprint and then torn out along the stitching lines.

The idea of having the back as "part of the piece" didn't pan out with that one - nor do the words fit at all with the shape, which looks like a shouting mouth! I was using scraps of the base fabric, so didn't particularly notice its shape. Something else to be aware of. Further, with adding paper behind the letters, the see-through effect of the mesh was lost. I seem to have got caught up in the excitement of stitching and colour, and lost focus in the process. "What works & why"; "What do you need to work harder on & why" - ah, where to start! What worked for me was making "mistakes"; I'd like to be able to use text without using letters (especially letters-on-paper). 

In the final hour we laid out our work and each talked about it briefly -

The thing I'll continue with is the idea of the double-sided "book" - paper pages held together by a fabric between them, with the stitch moving from one side to the other and from page to page -