Ami James

My creative journey towards City & Guilds Embroidery Certificate - Level Three

Wednesday, 16 December 2015

Module One - Chapter One - Research On Stars & Crosses

For this module I have chosen to go with the star shape. At first I thought I had maybe picked the hardest between stars or crosses. However I stuck to my decision and before I started to gather samples, I sat down and thought of words related.

Starboard, star burst, stardom, stardust, starfish, star flower, starfruit, stargaze, star light and star struck.

They are all quite magical names.

Then I looked up the definition of a star.... As you can imagine most of it was very scientific but I did find some that that I could understand...

A graphic design having five or more radiating points, often used as a symbol of rank or merit.
gifted or highly celebrated person in some art, profession
gold or bronze star worn on the ribbon of a naval decoration to represent an award 
To mark with a star or asterisk, as for special notice
To shine as a star; be brilliant or prominent

My first page is grouped as man-made / designed. This page has man made materials (poly cotton) and felt both showing stars and a star snowflake. There are three magazine cuttings showing a basic star shape. I also star pattern design that is repeated over and over using just one star shape. At the bottom left is a cut out of the Embroidery magazine- Micheal Brennard - Wood and the piece is called New World.

The second pages of samples I decided to research nature and religion. Tropical flowers that I found on the Internet look stunning and the brightly coloured starfish. I printed off the Christian Christmas Star, the Tribal Sun/Star, and the Star Ocean Symbol.


Next are my rubbings - Using tracing paper and a black wax crayon. I think my favourite has to be the coat of arms.

Next there is a page of traced samples - I used the Design Source book by Jan Messent .

Next I have two pages of line drawings which I have really enjoyed and has made me realise the difference in star shapes ans symbols.



Colour Wheel

This task took me a while. Its no secret that I'm terrible with colour. But I found this very interesting. Here are a sample of colours used and colours mixed.
Finally my colour wheel....

References

Embroidery magazine- Micheal Brennard
Molly Makes Magazine
Design Sources Symbols - Jan Messent

As well as keeping a paper log of Time & Cost I thought I would also keep a log at the end of each chapter. So here goes....

Costing

Brushes from Hobbycraft    £2.00 But will reuse.
Paper - Cartridge                 12p
Paints Gouache                     £4.80                                               Total £6.92

Time Taken

13/12/15 - Gathering Research & Samples - 2.5hrs
14/12/15 - Setting up Blog                          - 1.5hrs
14/12/15 - Sorting through research            - 30 mins
15/12/15 - Colour wheel mixing                 - 4.5hrs
16/12/15 - Colour Wheel finishing off        - 3hrs                    Total 12hrs






Monday, 14 December 2015

This is a test post

Hi

Welcome to my new blog - Thimble N Thread.

This is a test post to make sure that my Tutor Sian Martin can see my blog.
I'm not used to using Blogger as all my other blogs are posted online using Wordpress. However a new course warrants a new blog so here I am using Blogspot.

For that reason I'm going to practice uploading a photo.... hopefully it works.


This is a photo of one of my samples from my Machine Embroidery Level One with Jo Edge - Distant Stitch. My work has been uploaded and maintained on another blog - www.simplytextiles.wordpress.com