Module One, Chapter One

Well back in October I took a leap of faith and signed up for the Distant Stitch C&G Embroidery course. I immediately went into panic mode wondering what I had done and would I be able to do this. For a short while I just skim read the course work and thinking that although the sewing techniques were okay I wasn't sure about the design side of this at all, and as for drawing anything well there was no chance of anyone recognising anything I drew....

Anyway here goes an update of what happened next....

Chapter One

Stars or crosses that was the question. I decided to look at crosses rather than stars because I liked the symmetry in a cross and I guess I also thought it would be easy to find examples of crosses, but, initially at least, it turned out to be harder than I expected. Simple cross shapes were easy - fences, gates, windows, aeroplanes, religious crosses. More complex crosses seemed much more difficult to find. This was not helped by being confined to the house following shoulder surgery on my right arm and yes I'm right handed! I was expecting this surgery but wasn't expecting it quite as quickly but they had a short notice cancellation so I took advantage of this to get it out of the way. Consequently I'm a little behind with this work already, but I have some more time off work yet so plan to catch up before I have to rejoin the rat race!!
Anyway fortunately my other hobby is photography so I decided to trawl my collection of photos to see if I had anything of any use and the list so far is as follows...

Pattern on a wine glass, pieces of material, helicopter blades, airport runway, religious style cross necklace, five bar gate with cross bars, picture of embroidery from the Embroiderers Guild collection, threading on a corset, watch cog, chain link fencing, musical notes on a stave, Union Jack, B'day card of a scarecrow, swastika's various, lobster pots, mosaic from the V&A museum floor, natural cracks in a rock face, Hay feeder, flower head, celtic crosses, piece of ribbon, fence stile and a photo of a piece of embroidery that was on display at the NEC in 2010 (can't remember which stall or show though so am unable to give credit although I would if I could).

These are the photos of the composite sheets I put together after I became fascinated by the swastika shape, and how this shape has been used for hundreds of years, way before WWII and the Nazi use of it. It means well being in Hindu I believe.

And the pinboard pictures of some of the other images I collected...

I've studied the shapes and come to a number of conclusions :-
     i)  Stars and crosses are very similar, in fact stars are often made up of crosses of some sort
     ii)  Crosses usually have at least one line of symmetry and often more; are not always at right angles but often are; and have 4 points
     iii)  Stars are not always symmetrical, but can be; don't have to be right angles; can have any number of points but usually 5 or more; and can be made up from a number of crosses
     iv)  There appears to be many more natural star shapes than crosses and many more man made cross shapes than naturally occurring ones


Line drawings and rubbings

Drawing is not one of my natural skills! Therefore doing the line drawings, particularly as my right arm is still sore and not functioning as well as it can, was something I found quite difficult. In the past I have found it easier to skip any drawing stages when I've been making or designing things but I am challenging myself to practise my drawing at least 3 times a week, even if its only for 10-15 minutes.
However here they are in glorious technicolour (well ok black and white) nonetheless...

Colour circle

This was more fun than the drawing but I'm not sure I'm any better at painting than I am at drawing!! However I got the idea about tints and shades.