Concertina paper lace
I am experimenting with some more ideas to necklace and in particular the lace from Elizabethan times. The images above explore the construction concepts of lace (usually they were folded in a figure eight pattern) and shape of the ruffle. I like the idea of turning these paper lace drawings into small books or wearable paper art…..
check out my blog for more images http://kate-ward-design.blogspot.com/2010/06/paper-lace.html
In this piece I wanted to use the clear plastic to create some sort of a grid, or net.
I really like how the plastic captures and refracts light and casts shadows even though the light passes through it. The plastic was originally a case for a product, so I wanted to use it as a template for an architectural structure. But in order to do that, I needed to deconstruct the plastic, by cutting away pieces, and then reconstructing it by weaving the pieces into place. From that point, it really became about the process of putting it together, as it really demanded that it be done strategically, or it just kept falling apart and flopping over.
In this sample the ridged nature of the string of plastic beads prevents the knitted net from sitting close and flat together as normally occurs when using more traditional threads. Due to this, the net is blown up or spread out and does not form a comfortably wearable fabric.
This ‘spreading out’ means that the sample is far less stable than traditional knitted fabrics. It also creates a more three dimensional knitted piece and allows the net construction to be more clearly seen. This amplification of the structure can be seen as deconstructing the traditional technique, creating something new.
Sample of plastic pearls knitted on size 10 needles
Julie Ryder sent a link to the Lodz Textile exhibtion in Poland. Her work is in the background of the general shots – some funnel shaped nets (- shots 17 &18 on the left). There are some other interesting net like structures http://www.muzeumwlokiennictwa.pl/czasowe/1/396,13th-international-triennial-of-tapestry-lodz-2010.html
My thinking has been along the concept of the line such as ‘the network of lines’. This has links to the lines in my life and my memories. I am still playing around with my net of weave but have been working more with the copper wire which in itself has a memory as it springs from a roll. I have come up with the concept of ‘memory lines’. This is the intricate web or net of memories, the background of the memories, the transitions and the in-betweens.
I have written several short stories which I am putting in small copper books. Each book is held in small knitted bag of copper wire. These small ‘billums’ or bags are about 12 x7x10 cms. The shadows that are ‘cast’ also create their own net of lines.
This weekend we finished the grape picking for the season. The last nets were removed and as I look at this photo I can see many of the themes we have been talking about and exploring in our work – trapping, protecting, keeping in/keeping out, a barrier between but flowing through…….
Sketchbook - ideas development
The giant Mekong Catfish is under threat of extinction due to over-fishing and loss of habitat. It is beleived that the fish used to reach sizes over 3 metres, but the largest recorded catch to date is 2.7 metres – a monster fish caught in Thailand in 2005. As its fame and the mythology surrounding it increases, so does the number of game fishermen keen to land a record catch or earn a sizeable amount of money in the exotic food marketplace.
However, the water flow of the river is increasingly more controlled by China, changing the natural habitat of the river. It seems that survival of the great catfish is being left to chance and the fish’s ability to avoid nets, lines and traps in the murky green waters of the Mekong.
My exhibition piece will be a giant, woven Pangasianodon Gigas – made as a shaped tapestry which will hang the way a fisherman would hold up his catch to display or be photographed as his trophy. The drawing was made from photographs of very large fish I observed in Laos and the detail on the body of the fish is deliberately ambiguous scales/nets. The piece will be woven on cotton seine twine (which was originally made as a string for fish netting) with mixed weft yarns.
Detail of digital print enlargement of original drawing which will be used to make a cartoon for the tapestry.
Valerie Kirk
