City and Guilds Module 2

On Monday evening I submitted my portfolio for my second module.

This time I investigate shape and worked within the theme of Industrial.

At first I was bit daunted by the prospect of the theme. Industrial conjures images of grey, black, lifeless structures... a bit daunting for a person so obsessed with colour!

I started to think of all the places nearby I could visit that would fit the theme and the railway museum in Swindon sprung to mind. STEAM is a wonderful collection engines and information about the Great Western Railway works that once stood on the site. I had a discovered a place that fitted the theme but was full of colour - yay!

After a morning drawing engines. the Caerphilly Castle in particular, I knew I would be fine!

Here are some of the results of 9 weeks of work:

Primary Source Drawing

Primary Source Drawing

This front wheel of the train became to the focus of my design developments. It amazes me that it is relatively small but worked so hard!

Developing design ideas

Working with hand stitching to create the the idea of turning motion.

I became intrigued by the turning motion of the wheel and the pattern the centre detail of the wheel makes. It's like watching a hub cap turning when you are driving! So I wandered off into an investigation of mark making with swirls.....

More design developments!

One of my favourite pieces in the design development!

Cable Stitch

I am learning to just then the colours I use come to me as a comfortable feeling. In this design  development it was blues, purples and greys. Out came the dyes and these gorgeous purples were created!

Couching Stitch

I also have to produce larger resolved pieces that use different materials:

The wheel centre with writing.

The final resolved piece that became my experimental piece.

During each module you pull together 5 samples of the embroidery stitches being taught during that module and then a larger experimental piece. For this I wanted to depict the things the Caerphilly Castle would have carried on it's 1 million mile journey in service.

Experimental piece.

It was an interesting journey investigating different recycled materials, painting embroidery canvas with dyes and dyeing other elements of the piece. Using Feather stitch to sew the coins in place was a fun experience!

What do you think?

It such a fun journey to be on, but as a person with a mathematical mind I do find it hard to not have a definite answer! It is now time to wait for an answer from my tutor as to whether the process and final design are good enough!