Memoirs of a Sewer

Experimenting with structures

Posted by Agnes Iley , Monday, July 23, 2012 8:02 AM

Working with paper and especially glue is never the most inspiring thing to me. So I started by cutting strips of paper and wove them in the most traditional way, interlacing them. So I made a solid rectangle, hardly revolutionary and this solid block of paper just didn’t do it for me. Maybe I needed to cut it again? Create a more open shape?

So I ended up with this, still not revolutionary, but a lot better than my starting point.

I found 2 fancy sheets of paper in my stash that had the same pattern, but in different colours. So what would happen if I cut them as duplicates, but with one paper rotated?

(Can you tell this was the point I started to have fun?)

I really liked the result of this and I can see this effect in some way will come back in my textile work in the future.

Now it was time to ditch the glue!

I cut some strips of paper and warped a kid’s loom with chenille thread. Then I wove alternately with eyelash yarn and the paper strips. After taking the structure of the loom, there was a clear difference in tension, because of the variation in materials. And as I was playing around with it a bell shape was formed. (Well it’s Christmas after all).

For my next exercise I wanted to use some different materials. Now I must tell you my husband is an avid cyclist and goes through an incredible amount of inner tubes. At some point I told him not to throw the old tubes away, but keep them for me. So I figured this was a good time to start using one of them. So I cut the tire open and made length way slits.

I really wanted to offset this hard, industrial looking material against something soft and delicate. So I got some fantasy yarn from my stash and a bit of vintage lace.

I also wanted to create a focal point, so experimented with making a narrow rubber tube that is covered with more fantasy yarn. I actually like this piece and I can see how with a bit of work this could make a great belt. If I was making a wearable piece I would stabilize the rubber first by bonding it to a canvas-type fabric and instead of tucking the edges under I would probably sew them in place.

For my last exercise something a little more colourful…

This is a grid made with some cords, a little fabric and some fabric wrapped skewers (for stabilization). This little sample is mostly glued together of little bits and bobs I had laying about and some cords I made. I know it doesn’t look like much, but I had fun playing. And it gave me a few ideas for future samples. I do like the open and airy feel. And it made me think about the rather traditional quilt where you get a number of pictorial blocks set in a framework of borders. I think it would be interesting to try and create blocks but set them in an open framework of cords and fabric strips.