Technical Block 3: Stitch - Research and technique

In the first day of our stitch technical block, we spent the morning getting to grips with the basic elements of the sewing machine: how to thread up the machine, testing out all the stitch patterns, using free embroidery, threading up the bobbin, etc.

Once we understood the basics, we were shown various techniques on the machine using lots of different materials: shirring elastic (smocked appearance), vilene (fusing), bondaweb (adhesing), broken needle technique (fusing fluffy yarns to material), etc. We were also inducted into using the heat press and shown various techniques on the iron: melting, fusing, flocking (velvety textured), foiling (foil like texture), heat transfer (for colour) and freezer paper (slightly adhesive). This was all really valuable for the first week where we were just encouraged to try out lots of small, different, experimental test pieces.

In the afternoon, we went through our drawings with the tutor and selected something which was suggestive of a particular technique that could be developed. We went around the class and were shown all sorts of different techniques. Because my drawings were suggestive of tubing, I was shown melting techniques on the iron using tubing, which melts really well and can be manipulated into a shape as it cools.

With this in mind, the next day we were sent to Shepherd's Bush Market to source appropriate materials. I bought a plastic material and a clear netting fabric that could be made into tubes and melted. I also bought lots of thin and chunky tubing, as well as electrical wires since I had these as objects in my Box Clever and thought they would melt well.

Foundling Museum

The final weekly lecture before the Christmas holidays, linked back to all the lectures we previously had throughout term. We were asked to visit the Foundling Museum - a hospital which was London's first home for abandoned children. The museum was restored and refurbished and built adjacent to the site of the original Hospital.

When I visited, I looked around at the various exhibitions, comprising of modern art from today and traditional paintings that were donated as part of the hospital art collection in the 18th century, where it became a public gallery. Where as the 18th century paintings make the story of the Foundling honest and real, the modern art acts as more of an interpretation.

An intriguing piece of art donated to the museum is Tracey Emin's bronze cast - 'Baby Things, Mitten', found on the railings outside the museum.

I think the representation of the mitten is bittersweet. On the one hand, it's symbolic of loss and abandonment - perching on the fence as a disowned object. Nevertheless it sits there poised and hopeful of a better future. A mitten provides warmth and protection from the outside, which is essentially what the Foundling offered - a shelter and safe haven for abandoned children. The charity still continues to care for children today.