Fabric Manipulation Progress

Describing the beauty artifacts:

 

Israeli Soldier at Mount Hertzel:

I chose to start out with an abstract fabric manipulation representing the beauty artifact of the Israeli soldier at Mount Hertzel. This photograph that I rendered in paper cutouts carried the symbolic meaning of beauty through its layers of emotion, state of being, and perspective on life. I wanted to represent this through fabric by using the circle motif because it represents life. This soldier was standing at Mount Hertzel and he was happy to be using his life to bring security to his country. Although we were standing among the graves of several of his friends that he met through the IDF, he still felt proud of his home country. This process of this manipulation began with the circle motif representing the lives of the soldiers in the IDF. While each circle in the top right corner is intact, they begin to fray and become more sporadic towards the bottom left corner. This represents the soldiers lives disappearing. Eventually, the fabric starts to fray and disappear to remind us of the soldiers who died fighting for their country. This fabric manipulation yields a sad sense of beauty, but it also acts as a reminder to feel fortunate as well and change perspective on life. I am interested in the technique of creating pailletes out of fabric, but the muslin did not allow for them to be as flowy as I would have liked. Still, the muslin allowed me to create the fraying technique that I desired.

 View from the top of Saint Paul’s Overlooking London:

I wanted to represent the view from the top of Saint Paul’s with a structural technique that also offered a soft lightness. While looking through tutorials, the shell smock technique seemed to fit this concept perfectly. The structural rows and technique with the grid matched the architectural aspect that was a central piece of my trip to London. The feeling of being on top of Saint Paul’s and overlooking the dreamlike city created a light feeling that was dreamlike. These shell smocks are light and airy , representing the freedom I felt overlooking the city from above and freedom of traveling abroad for the first time on my own. I think this technique was difficult because I got confused with the grid at times with the direction the diagonal lines were facing. It is also hard to tell where the lines are once you sew them on the back, so I am sure the technique is not perfected in this piece. Still, I think the manipulation is beautiful and conveys the beauty and feelings I had in that moment.

 Pond on Block Island:

The pond on Block Island behind my grandma’s house brings back so many memories and is connoted with various layers of beauty. It contains the memories of my grandpa giving me rowboat rides and fishing, and of my grandma’s paintings of the lily pads. The technique that I chose to represent this beauty is the cross pin tucks. I never had created a pin tuck before, but I learned through the tutorial I found. The cross-pin tuck technique accurately conveys the beauty because it once again creates a crossroads of memories. So many layers of this place converge to create its ultimate beauty. Sad memories like my grandfather’s ashes being scattered in the pond combine with the vibrant colors of a Block Island sunset falling over the lake with the black silhouettes of the house across painted across it. The convergence of the two directions of pin tucks create the sense of a combination of layers which make this place beautiful. I used the sewing machine to make the pin tucks, and since the fabric was so thick in some places, I often would catch one piece of the fabric in another seam. This was difficult, but I eventually learned how to continue without catching the fabric. I think this piece is graphic and beautiful especially when held up against a light source where the pin tucks make an almost window-like effect.

 

Macaroni and Cheese:

I wanted to represent the macaroni and cheese with a box pleat combined with knife pleats. I felt that the box pleat would represent a “coming together” of the layers in which the knife pleats are all facing towards the center. This concept mimics the “coming together” of family based around tradition. A main layer of the macaroni and cheese that make it beautiful is the sense of family as well as tradition. Each Boxing Day, my family has the same recipe of homemade macaroni and cheese. We all come together and celebrate on this day. The pleats facing towards the center symbolize this idea. I had not created knife pleats before, and I think I successfully combined these with the box pleats. After the pleats were done, I still felt like the manipulation could be elevated so I added a shirring stitch to gather the layers even more. This gathering further mimics the idea of people gathering together. I knew this manipulation would shrink the fabric, so I used a 12″x12″ square, but the fabric only shrunk crosswise. I left this mistake because I had already hemmed the bottom of the fabric with a slip-stitch so it is still a work in progress.