Abstract hanging of fabric

I hung pieces of chiffon off the ceiling and walls to create an abstract effect, or to look like the fabric was about to take over, it looks like its going to grow and cover the walls and everything around it, I hung string in the same place where the fabric I had hung looking for again, an abstract effect, the string didnt come out as well as I had hoped though.

Light behind folds.

Detail of piece

This piece was inspired by an artists I found online last week named Karen LaMonte. She is a really talented artist who is also fascinated by the effects of fabric, she makes sculptures of fabric out of glass and they are really amazing, they look almost like ice! For this piece I just got a sheet of glass, (which broke several times and had to be glued back together) and glued on the chiffon leaving the folds and creases a wanted to stick out. I tried dying the fabric a dark purple as I think a darker shade would have worked better but the material wasn't one that you can dye. I put a light behind the glass to really show the folds of the chiffon.

Ruffles

I wanted to find out how to make ruffles so I borrowed a sewing machine and figured our how to make them, its alot simpler than I thought, all you do is loosely sew about a cm from one of the edges, then once done, pull one of the strings left sticking out gently, and you will create ruffles. I made mine into a spiral kind of thing and it looks sort of like a flower.

More experimenting with plaster

By using different materials with the plaster, I found that it can hold the shape of thicker papers and fabrics really well, I dipped this piece of cotton into some plaster and draped it over the side of a lunchbox, just to keep it steady. I really like this because it looks almost like a wave.

Plaster experiments

One of the smaller pieces of plaster

Detail of plaster

Through this project I have become really interested in the folds and ruffles in fabrics, and also the way that they can be manipulated. I wanted to find a way for me to show the layers and folds of the fabric in my own way, one that I could think of was to lay out the fabric the way that I liked the look of it, then mix up some plaster, and completely cover the fabric. It was really weird working with the plaster because when it started to dry it would actually warm up from some kind of chemical reaction. I hoped that once the plaster had dried, and I had removed the fabric from it, that you could clearly see the folds and creases in the fabric, thankfully, it worked! Although some of the lighter parts of the plaster cracked off, I was really happy with the result. I made three of these pieces and the one seen above is the smallest but it is the one that Im happiest with and decided to show.

Finally a post!

Ive been postponing this blog for as long as possible which was probably not the best idea but Im gonna have a crack at it now anyway. At the beginning of my 1st year project titled, Motion and Movement, I took a series of photos trying to capture the way that the fabric (chiffon) moved with the body, the only one of these photos worth actually showing on this is shown above. I really like the almost smokey effect the chiffon creates and thankfully my tutors liked the photo too