After laying out all of my paper samples and drawings on the table and selecting the pieces and methods I wanted to develop I decided to explore some ideas in my sketchbook.

My collection of stitched paper samples and original drawings

There were so many different aspects of the samples of work that I wanted to explore and found it difficult to narrow it down, however I really enjoyed working with the origami inspired tessellated and crumpled papers so I decided to move forward with these ideas for now and perhaps come back and revisit some of the others later.

I have created two really different experimental pieces. This first piece was based around a tessellated texture with both machine and hand stitching on top.  I stitched first and manipulated the paper afterwards as I wanted to see the effect the tessellation had on the patterns on the paper.

The machine stitching gave the piece a graphic quality, and I like the way it exaggerates the tessellated texture especially when viewed from the side.  The paper was hard to manipulate after stitching, especially with the hand stitched motif on top.  I like the idea of perhaps using a different decorative top stitching on this texture, small individual stitches to accentuate the shape rather than a large motif like I have used here.

For my next sample I wanted to add some colour based on my original drawing.  As I was working with tissue paper I found online a method of bleeding the colours of tissue paper and also fusing them together to create one piece of paper, so I experimented with this in my sketchbook.  I decided to layer sheets of white with colours in between and then fuse them together with water.  Some of the colours bled into each other which gave a great effect and because I had layered the paper, it had more strength for stitching into, which was a problem I encountered with my earlier samples.  I decided to manipulate the paper texture before stitching onto this sample.

This sample in particular has given me some great ideas to explore for Assignment 2.  I want to develop some ideas in my sketchbook with particular focus on stitch, drape and texture. I would like to produce some soft crumpled textures and also some more defined and structured pieces based around this piece and my original Flower drawing. I am not sure yet whether to try and use one fabric source and try and push it to do different things or whether to explore three different fabric types, so I can use a variety of materials to stitch with?