Assignment 1 - Stage 4: Selecting Designs for Specific Outcome

The Mask:

I decided to make a facemask, taking my inspiration from headwear and veiling practices in the region I am exploring. Headwear seemed to be very important (worn by men or women) within Ottoman/Turkish and Circassian societies at the time. But I am thinking a rather critical approach, parallel to my mood and response to resent political upheaval in the region disadvantaging women. I am thinking of a piece representing the oppression of woman under political agendas. The idea is to embroider the mask with goldwork and some cross stitch.

Traditional headwear Turkish and Circassian

My first thought is how to construct a mask? Therefore I did a little research. The mask designs can lead to dark places. It represents edgy and dark ideas. Alexadre McQuuen, and Iris Van Harper come to mind. Their mask designs are intriguing and can turn a person into a beast fashionably!. There are even darker places: SMs, Necromancers, even Lady Gaga.. I’ll leave them where they are.

Masks By Designers

I looked at my drawings of my mums work and decided on the very geometric design. I hope will look great when worked with goldwork. My colour choices reflect my pessimistic mood: muddy green. But it will work well with gold. I chose a satin fabric and bonded it onto cotton with bondaweb to strengthen it. I ordered a foam head mannequin so I can use it to cut pattern around the curves of a face for the mask.

Mask Design Sketches - S Payne

My first drawings are very sketchy. But they made me decide to divide the design in several parts and put them later. With the help of mannequin I cut templates and made sure they fit and work together. I ended up designing 4 parts, 3 will be embroidered.

Mask Design - Making Patterns S Payne

Second stage is finalizing the embroidery design. It is very precise work. There fore I purchased a graph paper notebook. My main problem at this stage is to figure out how to transfer the design to the fabric and how to style the embroidery; which stiches or embellishments to use.

Embroidery Design - S Payne

I did a test stich. I am ok with the results and decided to use beads, gold thread for cross stich.

Test Embroidery - Saadet

I photocopied the final pattern design onto semi transparent paper and stitched all the outline onto the fabric. Next I cut and stitch the felt to raise the structure. 

Transferring design to fabric S Payne

Embroidery in progress S Payne

Next stage is embroidering. It took me good 5 solid days to embroider 3 pieces.

Final stage is sewing and putting parts together.

The result and the reflections:

I am happy with my final design, the journey I took and the tips and techniques I learned along the way. My mask reflects my mood, worries, and concerns regarding women’s struggle. It covers eyes and the mouth representing not having a voice, not given equal chance. The gold represents the treasure in us, as women.

The Mask - Final Piece for Assignment 1- S Payne 

The Mask - Final Piece for Assignment 1- S Payne

However I accept the finish in details could be better. It shows I am rather inexperienced. But I welcomed the challenge and opportunity to learn. It was a problem-solving task throughout. A very technical challenge. The results are so simple that you forget how much effort went into it!

I loved to work from my mum’s vintage embroidery. I think I will continue to do so. I am thinking printing already.

I struggled with this project. During this time I moved house. It took 18 stressful and unproductive weeks. Now I have a room to myself, and a house to renovate. Life is always busy. The frustration comes from the feeling that you are not giving your full focus. When time is in short supply any crisis feels bigger then it is.

Nevertheless, I soldiered on. It only builds more stamina, isn’t it?

Assignment 1 - Stage 3: Portfolio, Producing Samples

Cross Stitch:

Very common, delightfully repetitive and hence calming, but requires great deal of concentration.

For my first sample I am using my mums design, but a scaled down version with muted pastel colours common in Ottoman Embroidery.

Cross Stitch - S Payne

Second sample I scale it up and stich on a plastic grid I found in a fabric/craft shop. I am very happy with this one. It is almost transparent with back of the work showing. I like the back too.

Scaled up Cross stitch - S Payne

Scaled up Cross stitch Back View - S Payne

My third sample is a stitch collage using pieces from one of mum’s work. I am rather pleased with it. It was an attempt to find ways to display her work.

Cross Stitch Collage - S Payne

Then I wonder a little bit. I started to look at contemporary use of cross stich. I found the work of Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė, a Lithuanian textile artist www.severija.lt . She is amazing! Beautiful, unusual effective pieces. The power of her work comes from the material choices and the contrast it produces. Who would stich a rusty bucket, oh what a delight!

I also liked Phil Davison and her re-work of Banksy. http://www.urban-cross-stitch.com

These are great pieces to show how embroidery can be so cool!

After this I was inspired to do a pop art cross stitch. I though pop art style can be transferred easily into cross stich. So I decided to have a go. I cannot say that the result is great but the process was fun.

Pop Art Cross Stich - S Payne

Gold Work:

Now I am venturing into the unknown!

I got a book “Goldwork” by Helen McCook and plenty of you tube videos. Below video describes the “Sim Sırma” technique. It is a good video describing the traditional practice. It is similar to usual gold work with subtle differences to the materials. For example they use cardboard to raise the embroidery. It gives very crisp edges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVXy4RDQkec

 So in my first ever attempt to gold work, I will use a Circassian design and try this technique:

Goldwork or "Sim Sırma" - S Payne

There are several mistakes I made with this first sample.

First mistake is ignoring the advice! Gold work is very tricky. Because valuable metal treads are very expensive, the thread sits on the surface, and secured by a second tread. The use of bee wax to secure the thread is suggeted. I ignored it! What a mistake. Bee wax does two thinks: first it secures the gold tread, otherwise it moves a lot, bounces back and you would end up with uneven finish. Second it strengthens the thread. The friction with metal thread weakens it and causes it to break often and causes great frustration. And third stitching through cardboard is an absolute nightmare!

I am already feeling out of my depth, but I am committed to it, so I am going to do another sample. This time I am using several different gold materials, raising the structure with felt and using an Ottoman design. I ordered bee wax along with a embroidery hoop holder (Elbesee Table Clamp) which will enable me to use both hands. Good investment.

Gold Work - S Payne

I am better pleased with this result. Gold work is very a focused and slow work which requires precision and leaves very little room for error. It is very difficult to come back from mistakes. As described in McCook’s book, you need to invest in its design, and its construction properly before you start embroidering. The transfer of design to fabric can be tricky too. All stages take time and attention. But the result is very effective.

Because it is such a skilled and slow process, it is expensive too. Historically and still today it is only used in ceremonial pieces and hot couture for the wealthy.

But Gold work is slow work and I am falling behind! I need to start thinking of my final design. I regret that I will not be able to produce more samples.

Resources:

Indie Craft, by Jo Waterhouse, Laurence King Publications, 2010

http://www.urban-cross-stitch.com

www.severija.lt

Goldwork, Helen McCook, Royal School of Needlework, 2014

http://www.handembroidery.com/embroidery/goldwork/

Assignment 1 - Stage 2: Developing Research Material

Mother’s Dowry Booth:

My mother is of Circassian origin, born in Turkey. In her 70s now but she is an excellent craftsperson, She loves, embroidery, crochet, lace making, knitting and sewing. Her work is a great resource for the cultural textiles I am researching.

When I visited her summer 2015, she kindly passed on to me some of her work she made in her 20s and 30s. For my final piece I will take inspiration from these pieces and see where it takes me. It is rather emotional.

Yazma - Printed muslin headscarf decorated with needlework 

Lace decorating a ben linen

Embroidered Large Cushion

Cross Stitch Embroidered Bed Cover

I love my mum’s embroidery the best. She usually works with cross stich and satin stich. Below is a pillow cover she made in 1950s. I love the back of the piece as much as the front. I love loose threads hanging and the feel of a little tear and wear. I know it is all nostalgic! But I think from ‘mark making’ point of view, they are interesting. So I photocopy them, blow up, redraw, and see if I can use these marks in a new way.

Cross Stitch

Working from Mums Vintage textiles

Working from Mum's Vintage Laces

I have been struggling with this project because I am moving house at the same time. Not concentrating enough. So I make a snip decision to simplify and focus on two techniques: Cross stich: tribute to mum, and gold work: tribute to our heritage.

Assignment 1 Research Part 2:

Stage 1 Research

Part 2: Circassian Textiles:

My research into Circassian textiles is not as wide as the Ottoman Textiles. It is very difficult to find variety of visual and factual information. I guess because Circassians are people living in diaspora; any material into their culture is focused on preservation. By that I mean reciting the practices, rather then in-depth analysis of their meaning and the context. Nevertheless their culture crosses roads with Ottomans, Russians, Armenians and Georgians who share the same geography.

Circassian Cultre and Folklore book by A. Jaimoukha is informative but very limited for textiles. I found a Turkish book published by Circassian Culture Association in Ankara, called Circassian Designs. It is full of traditional design patterns, but not much information about what they mean.

My research focuses on the clothing, there seems to be more visual resource for them.

I was more moved by the historical samples I could find. The contemporary re-productions look flat and don’t have the feel that comes from material and functional design of these outfits.

Circassian Male outfit late 18th century

The male outfit has parallel lines on the chest. Apparently men used to carry their ammunitions in the little rectangular pockets sewn on their chest, so that they can reload and shoot their rifle whist riding their horse. This design is very common in Russia. I cannot be sure but suspect that this must be the beginning of military style, as we know it today. Circassian women’s outfit mimics the male version in design.

Circassian Girl 18th century

Sketches and notes . S Payne

Modern re-production example of Circassian costume

• Looking at the Circassian women outfit and reproductions I observe several points:
• Long kaftans/overcoats
• Thin waist, the silver belt is a must have accessory
• Long headpiece
• Decorated, embroidered chest design mimicking men’s outfits
• Long sleeves covering hands, apparently signifies royalty.

These elements define an elongated body figure. Being tall must be important.

These costumes are made with velvet and woven silk in rich deep colors to emprise the goldwork used to decorate them. The motifs are derived from nature but simplified in geometric forms. So they depart from representation of nature. They are embroidered along borders and edges to give stronger definition to the shape of the garment rather then filling the whole surface. Gold work “Sim Sırma” is the leading actress here.

Traditional Circassian Designs - S Payne

Traditional Circassian Designs - S Payne

These patterns made me think they could be great in block printing, or screen-printing. In these designs, both negative and positive spaces are well balanced.

Resources:

“Circassian culture and Folklore”, A Jaimoukha, , Beent and Bloom, 2010’  but it is not very rich in textiles examples.

“Çerkes Motifleri, Kuzey Kafkasya Kültür Derneği Yayınları, 1977” (Circasssian Design Books by Circassian Culture Association)

http://circasvoices.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/gold-embroidery-of-circassians.html