New project in development, Part 3

Walk in the Woods #5, 2007

Thinking about how to represent organic materials using fibre has brought back memories of my "Walk in the Woods" series, undertaken some ten years ago, and the later "Seeds, Pods and Husks" series.

Seeds, Pods and Husks #1, 2008

One of my favourite ways to represent cellular growth and decay is to stitch a synthetic sheer to a cotton, and then use a heat gun to burn away some of the sheer fabric.

sheer brown organza pebble-stitched to a red cotton base,
then distressed with a heat gun

sparkling sheer stitched onto brown cotton,
then distressed with heat gun

Cheesecloth can suggest a fibrous network:

cheesecloth, painted and stitched into place

Scrim (rather like a starched cheesecloth) can suggest patches.

scrim stitched onto a cotton base

Random stitching on a wash-away stabilizer can create a kind of netting. Fascia?

random machine stitching with heavy thread onto wash-away stabilizer.
then secured onto a cotton base

The effect below was made by painting and then burning into Lutradur.

suggesting the surface of distressed bone?

Applying ink to cloth using bubble wrap can suggest cellular degeneration.

I am having fun looking back at techniques I used a decade ago, and considering how I might use them in my new project on the subject of surgical instruments. As with the Walk in the Woods series, I might make a grid of interlocking and overlapping rectangles. Some of these could have an image of a surgical tool on an interesting background, and others could simply be small patches of organic texture.

A grid seems rather bloodless for the topic of surgery, when you consider how surgery is a form of violation of the body. And yet, my piece is to be inspired by the collection of a medical museum, and what is a museum display if not bloodless? Further thought required....