Tree-i-fying
Posted by Agnes Iley , Monday, July 23, 2012 8:29 AM
Now my base was done it was time to make some decisions on tree-i-fying my Willow. 
Bark
Posted by Agnes Iley 8:28 AM
So now I had a human looking soft sculpt and had to decide how to morph her into a tree. I considered several options. One was to take fabric and pleat, tuck and manipulate it to look like bark. I did a little trial piece. Now to prove that I learned something during the course… Normally I would spend three days on this little trial, sewing all the little tucks and pleats. But now I covered the back of the fabric in glue and started manipulating it. I really liked the effect and when sewing it I could create knots and all the other features of real bark.
But looking at my inspiration picture I questioned if I could get the depth of colour and richness I was after. I got more and more drawn into my thread colour matching sample. I love that soft sheen of the thread and that would give me the richness I wanted, but how to layer those colours to create the depth and texture? Then it hit me, cords! Zigzagging over cords with the different colours of thread would give me the depth of colour and richness I was after and the cords itself would create a texture that resembles bark if laid next to each other. And since I really wanted the shape to be sharp and keep the strong lines of my sculpt I decided to incorporate a wire in each cord.
When I looked at Monet’s Weeping Willow I felt the tree was a little deeper and sharper in colour at the bottom and a little lighter and hazier towards the top. So each cord got covered in 7 different colours of thread and the stitch width varied as I went up the cord and with each layer, this to create some tonal difference between the top and bottom of the tree. I’ve got to tell you that I ended up cursing this process. Before I had enough cords to create my tree I had covered 35 yards of wire and cord and had used well over 8000 yards of thread! In the end I still was a tiny bit short and having run out of supplies I ended up my piece of demo cord from my scrapbook. To finish my shape, I have sewn the cords with invisible thread (the fishing line type for strength) to my human figure. I didn’t want to just go straight up and down. So I tried to create knots in the bark and really make the tree look like it was swaying in the wind.
I was very pleased how the individual legs came together in the trunk, they still look like separate legs, but at the same time it looks like a tree trunk that has a split down the middle. I felt that I needed a little skin peeking through the bark on one leg. Otherwise it was too solid and too much of a separation…. Feet in skin colour, head in skin colour and a solid tree trunk. The little gaps of skin on the leg break it up a little and give the whole figure a better “flow” for me.
The head
Posted by Agnes Iley 8:26 AM
I really had to think about the head. Usually I go for quite strong facial features. I love my sculptures to show character and emotion.
When I was thinking of my Weeping Willow I wasn’t so sure. I was thinking about walking by yourself through woods in dusk. When you see faces in the trees, do you see a face because of those pronounced cheekbones and strong jawlines or do you just see half an eye, a bit of a nose and a mouth? I thought if I made the face to pronounced it would stand out too much. I wouldn’t fit with the overall tree and serene tree feeling that I was looking for. So when I sculpted the face from pre-felt (I start by needle felting a basic skull shape and build on the face from there with little offcuts of wool that get needle felted onto the skull) I kept the features quite flat. Besides the wire frame, the only non-textile I use in my sculpts are the glass eyes. I am sorry about this and I have looked for alternatives over the years, but there is nothing that beats beautifully made glass eyes. They are held in place with very thin wires covered in pantyhose, this makes for an immediate eye-lid. After the eyes are in place the whole face gets skinned in the same way as the body, separate layers and each layer gets sculpted with needle and thread.
Skin
Posted by Agnes Iley 8:23 AM
The next decision I had to make was skin colour. The skin consists of 2 or 3 layers of pantyhose. Usually I use the various colours of the layers to try and create a realistic skin tone. But here I had to take a different approach. Did I want the skin to morph with the tree as well? Or did I want the skin to stand out and concentrate the morphing on the shape? I decided to do a few samples.
I didn’t want the human form to disappear completely into the tree. But I didn’t want to lively a skin tone either, I thought that would stick out too much and detract from the morphed figure I wanted to create. So after my first samples, I went back to the drawing board and tried to match a more “still” colour, something resembling bleached out bark, almost like driftwood.
So for my next samples I started with a base layer of lilac. The thicker pantyhose I use for a base layer only comes in white, but luckily it dyes very easily. The lilac made sure that any radiance I usually try to achieve was dulled down, over this came a layer of thinner pantyhose one in a light flesh tone, the other in an almost putty-like colour. I decided on the last sample for my Willow.
The skin gets sown on by hand. I use invisible thread and tiny quilting needles. Each layer gets sewn separately. In between the layers I enhance the features with needle sculpting. With needle and thread I go over the figure and pick out the parts that need to stand out a little more, for example the knees, buttocks, stomach, breasts and collarbone. After the skin layers are sewn and sculpted the basic figure is done.
The human form
Posted by Agnes Iley 8:21 AM
When I make my (human) soft sculptures I always start by making a wire frame. I make my frame against a print out of a skeleton, so I know I’ve got the proportions right. The frame gets then wrapped in strips off pre-felt. Pre-felt is a lightly
(I must admit that the pictures shown here are not of my “Weeping Willow” sculpture. I forgot to take pictures whilst I was working on her. The pictures shown here are of another sculpt I did, but I thought they would explain the process much better than I could ever put into words.)
Where to start?
Posted by Agnes Iley 8:19 AM
Just because I had decided on my theme, didn’t make this picture less intimidating. So where to start? Going over my past coursework I decided to break it down in simple steps. I started with a colour analyzing exercise. With threads I tried to match the colours in the picture. Which was very helpful it didn’t only give me a palette, it also broke down the picture into something tangible. I am not sure if I am making sense here but the abstract and subjective feel of the picture, turned into reality and became objective. The next step was to decide what kind of soft sculpture I wanted to make. I should say here that I love Weeping Willows. The draping branches that gently rustle in the wind or get swept into frenzy by an autumn storm. But also the mythical properties of a Weeping Willow. Just the name alone is enough inspiration for some wonderful stories. With all this in my mind I decided to make a figure where the human form would morph with the tree.
Assignment 6 – Design project
Posted by Agnes Iley 8:17 AM
Inspiration
When I thought about my design project when I started my theme book I knew what my inspiration would be. I collect pictures, on my computer I have a big folder of pictures, some I have taken myself, some are collected from the internet, some are postcards from museums, but all captured my eye at some point. In this folder there is also this picture:
Weeping Willow VII – Claude Monet
This picture I saved a long time ago and every time I looked at it I thought “I need to do something with that”. But I never knew what. I love the picture, but it always felt a little intimidating, difficult to grasp, to break down and turn into a useful source of inspiration. So I thought it would be a good test for me to see what I had learned during the course and how I could use the techniques when I ventured out on my own. Another thing I wanted to show for my final assignment is another side of my work, soft sculpture. I think my love for textural and 3 dimensional pieces must have shone through here and there in my work so far. But I thought maybe it was time to really push the boat out.