Juxtaposition Final Piece

The day has finaly come...I've now completedy juxtaposition project, here are my felt boots, embroidered, and lacy frames up and ready to go! 

Solid Wood Frames

To hit the design crafts unit for this project I had to use materials such as wood or metal and the machinery in the 3D design workshop at college... As you can tell by previous posts I am really not a massive machinery fan, although after getting some practice in and learning more about what you can do and how easy it can be I've managed to somehow make three box frames from solid wood! I've amazed myself a little bit on this one... They are still not as good as professional frames (obviously) but they don't look half bad, and are fit for purpose. All in all not a bad job. 

Sewn fingers, snapped needles and accessorize sale

I knew all this was running a bit too smoothly...but I've now put a stop to that, having sewn through my finger whilst having a battle with my machine, then the needle(s) snapping...all in all ending up with double the amount of coffee consumed, multiple swear words uttered, and more blood than expected! Never the less I still had time to become inspired by Accessorize and their broken bits sale, this is basically all the broken rubbish that can't be sold on at a reasonable price, banged up and sold for £1 or 50p...some of it is useful and some of it nobody in their right mind would by, but it's always worth looking if you've got a project on the go! I picked up a broken statement necklace that had little turquoise jewls on, I removed the jewls from the chain using plyers, and will be sticking them onto a fairly plain pair of boots at some point this week.

The extracted jewls.

Felt and Lace

Today has been spent reluctantly making solid wood box frames by hand in a very busy and equally as noisy workshop (a place best described as lad heven, and not so appropriate for little blondes in pink jumpers and nice shoes) but on the upside I've been doing some lovely lace work...I have experimented combining lace and felt together to create a really effective surface pattern and texture, I simply machine stitched some odd bits of contempory lace that I ripped out of last seasons sample book for a underwear company onto my plain felt. The results have been lovely, the neautral colours I've chosen have added an edge to the felt underneath, that on it's own is rather pathetic and boring. The combinations of the differnt colours, thicknesses and sizes of the lace patches adds a feel of patchwork to the fabric that works really well on the boot, as well as adding thickness to the sole. 

Here's the felt mid way through adding the lace and edging. 

The most challenging part of this process was having to go back a few times to secure the lace properly after cutting the pattern to size. But this could be much easier if I had used an embellisher instead of a traditional sewing machine. 

Felt Booties

After making an incredible amount of felt and having to get through problems including not having a sink big enough to rinse it in (ending in a few flooded rooms, thank god for super absorbant towels) shrinkage, and multiple coloured ink spills... I now have a teeny weeny pair of felt booties...The boots them self are incredibly easy and quick to make but the thickness of my felt has been an issue! I've had to steam, iron and tear it apart to make it maluable enough to work with. After stripping it back somewhat and cutting the shapes out using a pattern, I just went mad with the sewing machine to add a little bit of surface pattern, taking no time over this at all, but it ensures that this maqquette sample fits in with my sub theme of 'pattern' rather than just being a plain maqquette, and for the sake of five minutes, why not! 

So here are my sample boots, the pink sploges are a bit of a happy accident, some ink got spilt in the studio whilst my felt was drying, but I quite like the hint of colour! 

This is the pattern I've used to create the simple shoe!

After machine embroidery and the first stage of pinning.

All pinned and ready to be sewn up...

All sewn up, using button stitch around the sole, I feel this would be more effective if the felt wasn't so thick, but still a lovely stich to use, simple but effective.

On reflection I'm falling more and more in love with my accidental 'pink sploges' 

Things to remember next time you want to make a huge amount of felt...

1.IT WILL NOT SHRINK AS MUCH AS YOU THINK 

2.THE THICKER THE FELT THE HARDER IT IS TO WORK WITH. 

These are just maqquettes but I'm happy with the outcome and would recomend it as a quick and easy project for anyone!

The beginning of felt boots

As an experiment for my final piece for my 'Juxtaposition' project one of my ideas is to make a pair of felt boots...my initial idea was to make a pair by following a pattern, and focus of surface pattern while making the felt it's self, however now I'm thinking about making plain white/cream coloured felt and using hand embellishment and the embellisher to create a more detailed surface pattern once all the felt is made and possibly even once the boots are constructed...

Here's the begining of the process, the felt for my maquette being made (at home in my own little studio...aka mums kitchen table) 

Approximately 2x1m of merino wool tops layered up ready to be felted. 

Wool tops must be layered in opposite directions in order to bond together properly.

After adding hot soapy water and rubbing for about half an hour the felt is ready to be rolled repeatedly. 

The next step is to rinse the felt and leave to dry! And pray that it hasn't shrunk too much!

Tracey Emin

Although Emin does not feature in my current sketchbook as of yet, she is worth a mention for sure. One of my biggest idols yet someone I'd least like to be...there's a juxtaposition on it's own I suppose. Emins hunger for life seeps through every single piece of her work, whether they are prints, textiles pieces, paintings, or phrases made from neon lights. She's experienced life events that I wouldn't wish on anybody, and if they happened to me I'm not sure I'd be able to create work responding to them like she has...it's clear that Emin had had many troubled sexual and platonic relationships, followed by more than one abortion, these she documented through various ways, she's crated a sieries of small coffins, and displaying collections of baby garments. 

'My Abortion 1990   1963-93/2000'

Other pieces she's created that respond to her troubled sex life, create a vision that Emin was confused about her role as a lover, her self esteem especially low, and her body unloved. 

'Free + Really wet 1997'

'Sometimes I feel beautiful 2000'

'FUCK OFF AND DIE YOU SLAG 2002'

'Ive got it all 2000'

Everyone I've ever slept with is one of my favourite pices in the whole world, Emin constructed a tent, then embroiderd it with the names of quite literally everyone she had ever slept with, from childhood freinds, to family, to ex lovers and unborn children. 

'Everyone I have ever slept with 1963-94 (destroyed 2004) 1995'

Emin was part of the young British artist (YBA) movement. She was part of Charles Sattchi's 'sensation' exhibition held at the Royal Acadamy London, 1997...dispite the exhibition creating great stir in the art world due to the nature of some pieces that were exhibited, such as a portrait of Myra Hindley made from children's hand prints. This was the start of Emins career, but she didn't get famous until she appeard on a channel four discussion show, absolutely blind drunk, and asking for her mum, a and swearing profusely. In 1999 she was a nominee for the turner prize with 'my bed'. This was an installation of literally her own, un made bed, complete with used condoms, take away wrappers, blood stained knickers, alcohol bottles, tights, towels and other private belongings.