Setup for Final Project - influences, dismissed ideas, and gathering materials.

I've been gathering ideas and fabrics for my final project. I had a few ideas that I thought about taking forward for the end of the course, among them most notably was a plan to design a doll, and make her a set of clothes from clear vinyl, covering a wide range of fashion eras, and constructing the relevant undergarments (also from sheer/clear materials) in order to show how the fashions of the time changed the shape of the body, though the people themselves were essentially the same. I got up to the stage of wondering how to stuff her torso so that it could be cinched up or left free, when a thought struck me - this is a piece that should be personal, rather than something I think would be novel and therefore appeal to an audience. I should make something that I like, and that I would be pleased to have around and see often in the house. One category came to mind. If there's one major influence on my visual life, it is the Victorians. I thought to myself, they are people that loved to collect and to create 'things', which were often textiles. My favourite of their household items is the domed curiosity. In the field of textiles, these were most often silk flowers, or objects made from wound yarns. A prime example of a flower dome may be seen here:

As this trend developed, a popular commercial arm was in domed automata. This example was the one that really inspired me, though it's only a picture, and sadly, I can't see it in action. Apparently, the sea is only painted tissue paper! When I wanted to design a dome of interesting fabric objects, I thought immediately of one of my sketchbooks, where I took time in doing a little self-devised exercise to work out methods of manufacture for architectural details. As I often work on my projects over a long period of time, adopting a somewhat autonomous approach (I often have long periods of time where I feel very low, and the standard of my work suffers, so I tend to try and work as much as I can when I feel well), this was a very ambitious project to decide on - however, I want to try my best to bring in many of techniques I have learned/practised during the course, and think about the ways they will come in useful here. I'm effectively setting myself a puzzle with it, to ensure I remember as much as possible from the course term.

This dome features a very unusual approach to it's little landscape. Rather than being a rocky formation, a hill, etc, a piece of painted card has been inserted to form a background, and allows a bay to be shown. It also gives me an opportunity. I could take this piece as a starting point to design my own dome. Hopefully I can make a fully 3D object, and have a fabric painted background as a feature. However, if this is not possible, either for reasons of technique or time, an opaque backing presents another opportunity to prettily frame a smaller piece.

I have already begun to design the piece on paper, and to gather materials for it. The rough design so far is going to be based on my memories of a family trip to Bruges, and on my impressions of the beautifully stepped and tiled buildings there. My enduring impression of the city was of it's churches, and luckily my sketchbook features a good few techniques applicable to such a building. I'm also fortunate in that the textiles approach means a certain degree of irregularity - seam bumps, knot lumps, the occasional loose bobbin thread - and all these features apply both to the homemade domes of my initial inspiration and the worn nature of old buildings. This realisation is why I've decided to go ahead with my very large scale (thus far, it has all been mapped out on A2 paper) design.

Here are a few of the items I hope will come in useful for the piece. Some fabrics are plain enough to be ordered by the metre, but I'm doing my best to find more interesting fabrics in old clothing in charity shops, clearance sales, etc, in order to recycle them.

 

A few examples of my charity shop finds so far. Top left, you'll see a sheer dress with multicoloured palm leaves printed on it - I'm hoping to use this for foliage, or a riverbed, if I can work out a technique to create some water - my initial thought for model making was to use resin, though I fear this would make the piece very heavy indeed. Bottom row, from left: a sheer powder blue top, that I hope can be used to create a mist around the base of the dome, or in the painted background; a skirt with irregular metallic patches - good for making a cobbled road look wet with rain, I hope; a leopard print dress that I hope I can machine embroider to imitate the colours of a worn brick/stone wall; and a skirt with a wide, multicoloured weave that brilliantly reproduces a fine brick wall, albeit cut on the bias, which may cause some problems. 

A few of the notions I've also purchased include a large bag of 3mm seed beads, which I hope to use a very special technique on to make some stained glass windows for my church; some green crochet cotton (and matching eyelash/fur effect yarn, not shown here) which I hope to use on the green Aida to make some realistic grass for the church's grave/courtyard, using the soumac weaving I learnt about last section. I also bought some novelty beads - iridescent bugles for small fish in the river, or maybe leadwork for the windows, some silver charm bracelet beads in the form of fish, also for the possible river, and some leaves/acorns to fall in the grass or water. My first challenge, once my initial drawings are done, will be to find a way to create a tough, firm skeleton, so that I can cut my fabrics to fit it - one way would be to use buckram and wire, of course, and keep the whole structure fabric, but I would like to think I could make something a little more hard-wearing.