PLAYING!

This is a bit of a departure for me. I've been rediscovering my love of stitch - hand embroidery mostly that I must have inherited from my mother who was a keen stitcher. But I've decided that I want to learn about other things - mixed media pieces, free machine embroidery and everything else that can be done with textiles and stitches. I got myself a reasonably inexpensive sewing machine that has the stuff necessary to do free stitching and am now on a huge learning curve. I'll never abandon hand stitching but want to be able to combine the two.

One of the first experiments I've played around with is using Tyvek. I painted a few small shapes in different colours and attached them using buttonhole stitch. I then added a few french knots, fly stitches and crosses and finally bound the edges of the whole thing with more buttonhole stitch. None of these were very good - the sample was tiny and therefore difficult to sew and the Tyvek was pretty flimsy. Once I'd done this I used a heat gun to shrivel and melt some of the Tyvek, pulling it slightly to create a few holes. This is the result ...

I know it's a bit messy but I'm already thinking of the possibilities (leaves, petals, etc) and I can think of ways I could have done it better (painted both sides of the Tyvek so the white back didn't show when it curled, done some of the embroidery stitches after shrinking, etc.) but I love the way the material has shrunk away from the stitches which are heat resistant.

If any true stitching/textile artists happen to read this I apologise in advance!! I'm just a learner :-)