Sunday, June 19, 2011

Starting points for discovery

The threaded stories commission got me exploring ways to make letters out of stitch. No longer am I obsessed with getting text into my felt. Now I'm exploring stitching, crafting small letters in all sorts of ways crochet, needle felt, stitch and cut. I may bring this back to my felt in some way.
...not all Love ends on a blue note. Roisin Markham 2011
I was inspired to make this for a friend as I was finishing the commission she needs more love in her life and I thought these small crafted letters would help her find the texture of that in her life.
The 'L' was stitch into tuile and different threads stitched through. Then I cut the letter out leaving a ragged lacy effect around the edge. 
The 'O' is crocheted a letter too small from the commission originally part of the letter loss. Kind of fitting in some ways love and loss.
The 'V' is the netting from a basket of fruit. That plastic diamond open weave. Stitched tightly it has a fantastic texture, rich colour and fluffy quality. It does not look like stitched plastic.
The 'E' is a cut out of blue material and stitched with blue and purple.
The letters are pin mounted onto handmade paper with petals and leaves in it. There is a double depth of foam board so the pins are held in place.
It was presented in a box made of tracing paper which gave it an ethereal quality.
This seems to have captured the imagination of my children who have asked me how I did it and are working on their own versions. It is curious to see how this commission facilitated stitch and a conversation about thread even in our home.
I can see myself exploring this idea a bit more, playing with words and textures. The scale of the letters is about 2cm. Have you ever made letters? What kind, size?
I have a whole thing about 3D letters and teach typography to children including a 3D letter model. I suppose this just takes it in a new exploration. Think I'd like to try moss graffiti next...

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