Glimpsing the Storm
Virtual
Sketchbook
Glimpsing the Storm is a site-specific hanging made as an assessment piece for the City and Guilds diploma in stitched textiles. This virtual sketchbook explains the process of designing and making this piece and complements my folder of drawings, samples and site plan.
The Brief
To produce a hanging for an exhibition at St Nicholas Church, Gloucester as part of the Three Choirs festival in August 2010.
The Site
St Nicholas is a church located in the centre of Gloucester, a short walk from the cathedral, and dates back to the 12th century. It is no longer used for services but remains consecrated and is open to the public in spring and summer, often hosting art exhibitions. The church is noted for its pronounced lean which can be clearly seen when you stand in the nave - the pillars on the north side lean outwards as does the archway. During the week long festival, there will be a display of quilts in the centre nave and other artwork under the tower, along the north wall and on pews. The church will also be used for a number of music workshops and concerts during the week. My hanging is to be displayed under the tower, by the west window.
Special Considerations
As this is an historic building, there can be no alteration or damage to the fabric of the church i.e. it is not possible to attach hooks or nails to the walls, although anything already there can be used.
However, the curator is happy to tie items around the pillars, throw lines over beams or existing cables or hang very large artworks from the tower. In addition, there is a hinged pair of six foot hanging screens available and items can be placed on the floor
under the tower, propped against walls and placed on pews.
The building is consecrated so although artwork need not be religious, it must not be offensive or disrespectful of the Christian faith.
To see photographs and a full description of the church, visit http://www.stnicholaschurchuk.webs.com/
The Design Process
I started with two thoughts which I brainstormed
1) I liked the idea of a long narrow hanging based on some the designs I had worked on earlier in the course (See my blog post from December 2009 here)
2) the church is dedicated to St Nicholas and I wanted to reflect this in some way.
Because of the height of the space available, it needed to be on quite a large scale. I looked back at the prints I had played with before and found that the one I liked had sides in a ratio of 1:7.6. If the hanging was to be a simple rectangle, I felt it was important that the proportions looked "‘right", so I checked a table of silver means to find the nearest one, which turned out to be 1:8.1231. Scaled up, this could make a hanging 3m long and 37cm wide - large enough to make a statement without becoming unmanageable. To get a feel for working at this scale, I cut a roll of cheap lining paper to size and just scribbled on it with some Markal sticks, making big marks.
The original design, with its swirls of colour on a dark
background, looked a little like a night sky, so I thought this could tie in with St Nicholas being the patron saint of sailors, giving them protection from storms. I played with enlarging and cropping the image again and chose a section that did not have any of the gold lines but had some particularly interesting swirls that suggested chaos and storm clouds.
Next I considered ways of getting this image onto fabric, these are the ideas I noted down as possibilities
• dyed fabric base - could be various fabrics stitched together and
then dyed to give colour variations
• use Markal sticks on a midnight blue background, add detail
with stitch
• digital print for background
• add texture with gesso or crumpled tissue
• use padded or raised areas
• discharge colour to get swirls
• add line sketches of nautical/navigation images - layered
• is it to be opaque or translucent?
Overleaf are some paper samples printed to scale to play with.
From left - the print untouched, shaped at bottom (don’t like this), drawings of sextants and astrolabes
left to right astrolabe drawn on print - I thought this was a bit too literal so I tried just circle segments to suggest the instruments. On the right I have printed a small part of the background at a larger scale and gone over it with Markal sticks. At this stage I wanted to illustrate or represent the idea of the chaos of a storm being calmed or overcome.
Another rough sketch on a small piece printed full size.
I next decided to explore getting the whole image digitally printed onto one length of fabric by a commercial printer. When I looked into how to do this I was slightly hampered by not having Photoshop which is what is generally used, so I decided to try using Spoonflower in the USA. They print short runs and can work from a JPEG, and although the choice of fabrics is limited, their site is very easy to use and there is plenty of community support with advice on colour matching.
I had scanned the image at 600dpi so when I enlarged it to full size, it reduced to 150dpi which is what Spoonfiower uses. This is quite a low resolution but as there is no really fine detail in the image, it did not matter. As it is, the file is huge so my computer found it hard work to handle. I uploaded the file and ordered a fat quarter printed on quilting weight cotton as a sample. Since the pattern is 3m long, this was just a small piece from the bottom, but at full width (37cm).
This shows how I started stitching into the sample, following the swirls.
I thought about how to make the curved lines in the earlier sketches that represent navigational instruments, and tried various metallic ribbons and wires laid across it to see the effect. I was concerned that it would need to be very bold and with a reflective surface or the hanging would blend into nothing against the stone walls.
None of these were right but from the point of view of showing boldly the lurex was closest (but ugly) followed by the heavier tubular wire (too narrow and wrong colour). Really, I would have preferred a brass or copper colour rather than gold, and I needed to figure out how to vary the effect. In the sketch, the circular segments are solid at the bottom and become lighter towards the top, as does the background.
I stitched the sample (which tried out various threads and stitches) on the printed fabric backed with cream cotton. The fabric was stretched on a frame for most of the stitching, but part of the top left corner was stitched without a frame to see the difference. I decided to try a further sample with a black felt backing for two reasons a) the stitching is heavy and b) the printed cotton is unforgiving of unpicking as it leaves a trail of white holes behind, so a dark fabric behind would help.
Left to right, copper wired ribbon, gold/orange wired ribbon, lurex ribbon.
left to right - fine tubular knitted wire, narrow gold cord (could be braided?), heavier knitted wire.
Feeling doubtful about the design, I tried some more variations.
a) circle segments
b) similar but with fewer lines
c) trying close parallel lines (like the markings on an astrolabe)
d) change of tack - would it look better with long straight lines as a contrast to the swirling background?
e) and f) variations of d.
Finally, I used the offcut of printed fabric to try adding extra colour wth Markal sticks in case the printed fabric looked a bit flat over a large area. I also used bronze powder in fabric medium to paint the line, which could be enhanced with couching or stitching to
imitate the markings around the edge of a mariner’s astrolabe. I laid the offcut over the stitched sample lining up the print to show the difference.
At this point I ordered the full length of fabric, knowing it would need about two weeks to arrive.
Because the design is narrow, it was repeated across the width of the fabric and I choose to mirror it so I had the original, a mirror image and about 2/3 of the width of another copy. The image is not an exact multiple of 1 yard so I also had a partial repeat of the top.
The design at full size laid out on the floor.
Meanwhile. I had some feedback from my tutor, Sian, who suggested I try to incorporate more texture and take advantage of the dimensional possibilities. I spent some time in total inaction because I liked the length of fabric just as it was, and I had to convince myself it would be okay to change it.
As I was feeling stuck. I tried two different ideas simultaneously to see where they would take me.
Idea 1
I cut the mirror image into strips and laid them on top of the original in different arrangements.
Here I cut up the excess fabric into smaller rectangles and laid them on the main design matching the colours and adding a couple of pieces of bronze painted fabric. For scale, there is a 10p coin in the bottom right corner (1"” diameter). This and the following photos are ‘sketches which could be continued up to full size
This time I arranged the bits in colour order from dark at the bottom to light at the top. This breaks up the image but keeps the sense of movement in the fragments. It could be seen as reaching up to the light. I would need to reintroduce the purple/lavender shades as this bit is just blues shading to charcoal.
I finger-pleated some of the pieces in different directions to make the surface more interesting.
Idea 2
My alternative idea for the hanging involved manipulating the long
length of fabric. Sian suggested looking at gathering or pin tucks so here are two trials of gathering with deliberately uneven rows of stitching pulled up tightly. The first is an offcut with the stitches
running vertically, the second is one end of a full length with
stitches running horizontally. I liked the effect but it had two problems
1) drastically reduces the size and 2) it could be any piece of randomly dyed fabric.
Before leaving the samples. I rubbed Markel sticks over the second one and then undid it. This is how it looks when the fabric has flattened out - you can just see streaks of paint.
This didnt look very impressive but it gave me an idea to try random pintucks as I liked the scrunched up effect before the gathers dropped out.
A sample on the same piece of fabric.
I tried to use the pintucks to emphasise the curves in the design.
More of the length with the stitched part at the top. I chose this my favourite as it keeps the design but makes it more dramatic. Although it changes the shape, it should be possible to retain the general proportion and the shaped edges will make it look more like a crack in the wall (or floor), contrasting the serenity of a church with the storms and chaos outside.
Realising it would be difficult to back the hanging after it had been distorted, I tried another sample with a dark backing to see what the effect would be with two layers.
It does make the tucks appear softer, so in the sample
shown below I tried slashing them to add some drama (on the left). You can also see in the lighter section that I experimented with kantha stitching but felt it was too organised.
Work in progress - even with just a few tucks done it has started to change shape.
I used Markal sticks to lighten the large pale patch and to touch up other areas to add more contrast and then carried on adding tucks.
Although the final piece would be hung up, I enjoyed playing with arranging it on the floor.
The final step was to add some stitching in complementary colours, flowing up the length to lift the colour scheme.
So here it is in situ under the church tower. I decided to call it ‘Glimpsing the Storm’ to make the connection with St Nicholas as patron saint of sailors. To make it freestanding, I used a telescopic pole with a brass elbow and t-fitting attached to the top. The hanging rod then slotted through the t-fitting and I added ties down the length of the hanging to keep it close to the pole [see postscript for details of how this works]. I rather like the way it has no visible support
from the front as the pole is hidden. Placing it against the wall emphasises the idea of looking out through a crack at the storm outside. In this picture, you can also see 'Cogitation' displayed on a low table.
As always, once a piece is finished, I can see ways it could have been done better. If I were starting again,I would like to try the following ideas
- Make the tucks much smaller and more delicate, maybe working on thinner or sheer fabric so it is contorted even more and the tucks add shadows.
- In place of the red stitching, add a layer of fabric in complementary colours between the print and the backing and slash some of the tucks to let it show.
- Assuming money is no object, increase the print size so that it reduces down to 3m long when the tucks are sewn. Or print several full length copies on various fabrics, layer up and cut through.
October 2010
Postscript
To hang Glimpsing the Storm in the church, I used a telescopic pole bought from a kite shop , like the ones you can see here .
The pole is made of six tubes, each narrower than the last, which when fully extended reach to 6 metres, however the final sctions are very thin and bend easily. I needed 3m height so I only used the bottom three sections. All I needed to do was to find a way to attach a horizontal rod. On a visit to the plumbing section of the DIY store, I found an elbow and t-joint which fitted snugly on the end of the pole. These are designed to simply snap onto pipes so they don't need soldering and I was able to join them with a very short piece of copper pipe.
On the back of the hanging, I attached two short pockets so the hanging rod could slide through one pocket, through the t-fitting and into the second pocket.
These poles are usually fixed into ground spikes, but as this was not possible, I filled a tall, heavy container with gravel, which gave enough weight to stabilise the pole and was narrow enough to be hidden.
16.11.10
These pictures show how the hanging rod and fitting are attached to the pole.
