The work for my final project is taking shape in the form of paintings/Stitch and a mixture of the two.One of the pieces I am currently working on is a vintage army jacket and according to research is probably a battle dress jacket(I’ve seen them on Dad’s Army so maybe I am right!)used by the Royal artillery as well as other regiments.As the photographs show , some of the paintings appliquéd are of an albatross,based on one of my Grandad’s stories of his travels and ordeals on the Artic Convoys as a soldier in the Royal Maritime Artillery.
The appliquéd albatross painting as well as the small ship painting at the back of the jacket is painted on calico in acrylic paint enhanced with a few stitches in silver metallic thread.It was then fused to the material using a hot iron.The stories and words will be continued to be stitched around the images.The other images of ships also include an image of one of his actual ships he sailed on HMS’Archer’.These images where a technique I have been working on by experimenting by glueing prints onto fine muslin fabric(white)and then allowing the PVA glue to dry overnight.The images were then ironed to straighten out the wrinkling and they were then fused onto bondaweb before ironing down and stitching onto the fabric of the jacket onto the sleeve.This was first practiced on similar weight fabric to see if it looked OK and also if I could get a needle through it(see photographs) I wanted the images look like fabric and not as if I was using paper.This seems to have worked well.
The work is slowly taking shape,slowly because it takes a lot of time to stitch the images,but mainly the wording onto the fabric.The work is partly resembling the picture I have in my mind, but having said that I do n to really know what the end result will be which is all part of the pleasure of the creative process.
