PE Task 2

Throughout the Sampling unit I have researched various Artists and Designers that would help to explore the 'Data' project and develop my work further.  The first artist whose work I explored was Alice kettle, as I found that when starting hand embroidery I really struggled to transfer my drawings from paper to fabric , and Kettle really expresses drawing  throughout her work. Alice Kettle’s work really showed me that I could produce a drawing onto fabric, only instead of using a pencil I used a needle and thread. This helped me to evolve my own hand stamp, and the further into hand embroidery I went the more it started to develop through the use of techniques.  Kettle’s work is loose and expressive so her embroidery almost looks drawn, however I like to explore detail and layers, therefore I used the looseness of her stitch, but with big strokes and added minimal detail. 
 

The second artist whom I came across was Karen Ruane, she creates intricate textural surfaces that are subtle  and used within commercial textiles – however it would bode  well within the fashion industry. Each piece of her work is really seen as a statement, with her intelligent use of stitch and colour, she catches your imagination with the subtle marks and patterns she creates on the different textural tones she works on. Her colour scheme is white onto white, which emphasises and really stretches her technical ability within embroidery. Karen Ruane inspired me to push the boundaries of the techniques I have learnt throughout embroidery, as I wanted to stick to the monochrome palette given to us, only I didn’t mix the colours, unless it became apparent that a sample would work well with a tonal range, I simply attempted to stick to black with black and white with white. This also worked in combination with other artists and my visual research. 
 

Marisa Ramirez was the third contextual practitioner, which I explored when I was producing my samples because I could create an embroidery design that could be used for any purpose. Ramirez’s work has indications of commercial textiles, illustration and fashion; this encouraged me to explore my drawings in more depth to join them with my samples. Even through her work doesn’t really relate to my theme of Limpet shells, Ramirez’ use of colour and shapes are somewhat organic looking. Her work relates to mine as it reminds me of photographical imagery of organic shells and beaches, and this is what my work started out like in the first rotation of hand embroidery – however when I started machine stitch I used Ramirez as a mere aura of inspiration as I decided to make my work more abstract to allow me to explore the technical side of machine embroidery, which also juxtaposed  the colour scheme and loose, drawn stitches displayed within other artist research.  Throughout the Sampling brief I have based my work within Limpet shells, using photographic images and focusing on the textures and abstract shapes within these.