I will be honest, last night was the worst nights sleep of my life. I dreamed about yarn all night long, how I could make exciting samples and what I could deconstruct to make interesting yarns. I woke up exhausted but I was determined to make this a more positive exercise than the last one.
I got out the colour work from Part 3, found the list of suggested words from Part 2 and had a bit of a brainstorm in my sketchbook. I looked for some potential materials and just got down to the job of making.
Sample 1
I started by simply deconstructing some plastic type string and polyester fabric. This, to me was the perfect way to create a lighter feel. I laid them on some solvy fabric and used my sewing machine to stitch the whole thing randomly together. After I had dissolved the Solvy, I added some frayed braiding.
I think it captures the colours and the airy nature of the glass that I was looking for. It has taken some dense, dark colours and really lightened them.
Sample 2
This was a lot of fun, I love how the lining fabric has bubbled and melted, it’s very cloud-like, I didn’t want to make this too heavy with other strands so I settled on little “pops” of colour with the melted Hama Beads. The deconstruction was all done with a gas torch. First the white lining fabric, then the silver ribbon which I stripped the wire out of – the ribbon was sculptable – then I melted the hama beads. As this was a case of deconstructing and reconstructing I used everything, so the wire was used to secure the embellishments.
It is a completely different sample but I think it also captures the the lightness that I am being asked to produce.
Sample 3
I really wasn’t sure I knew where I was going with this one, it was a case of just go with it and see what happens. It started with the idea of melting bits of wax crayon. I have played with wax in the past and wondered if it might work. To be honest it was a bit of a failure and the colours ran and the whole thing went a bit sludgy. I have since thought about this and perhaps using a different method to melt the wax would be better, a hot air gun blew everything around too much maybe I could have achieved more control with a naked flame. Anyway, I wasn’t happy with it by itself so I thought about how I could get some lightness in to the sample. I shredded some plastic and tried to braid it around my waxed string. I attempted this a number of times but after I made the plastic strips a lot thinner it was more successful.
I’m not sure this is my favourite sample but it was creative, experimental and all about deconstruction and reconstruction, so I may not like it all that much but it fits within the sample collection and meets the criteria!
Sample 4
After feeling very uninspired by the materials I had around me, I went to the charity shop and had a look for some things that could be deconstructed. I decided on these…
A body scrubby and a necklace. The necklace reminded me of sea glass so I thought it would be perfect to represent the translucency of the glass in my watercolour work.
The scrubby, once deconstructed is just one long tube of netting. It’s very springy and stretchy. I didn’t need all of the beads from the necklace, I just selected a few.
I wanted to keep some of the stretch so I used my sewing machine and some shirring elastic and stitched a line up the middle. I attached the beads with simple knots, removed sections of the netting and tied them around the row of stitching. I tried trapping things inside the netting but it was either too dense or ripped the very delicate mesh.
It is a very simple construction, just using basic knots. It sits well in the collection and definitely have a cloud-like softness and lightness.
So hard to capture on photographs because it is white on a white background. I really like this, there is a lot of movement in it because of the elastic. It’s very delicate in terms of construction and the very light hints of colour.
I’m leaving this as a collection of 4 samples, I feel I have experimented with deconstruction as much as my materials allow. I have picked out the colours from the watercolour work but given them a much lighter feel. I have probably returned to my more decorative nature but it was fun to see how I could change the materials I used to make them lighter or more interesting. The beads are maybe too vivid, but my watercolour work included brighter colours and as this wasn’t a colour matching exercise I went with what I felt worked.
The Fabric of My Journey 