17.10.20 - Applique with Different Fabrics onto Jeans




So far I have only used plain cloth to make soft sculptures, so I decided to sample different fabrics that have patterns and colours. Because my last attempt at making a small stuffed bug was unsuccessful due to not being able to turn it inside out, my solution was to make two dimensional ones instead and then apply them onto something else.

I took an old pair of jeans and stitched the shapes on in a similar way to the patches on my previous sculpture, and arranged them so that they seem to be crawling up the leg in a trail - like in the vacuum form I did where they are all following each other. For me this represents a love for nature and becoming taken over by the living world. 

    

From the seven cut outs, I chose my four favourites which happen to be the pink and blue ones as those colours gave me the most comfort compared to the others.

Once they were stitched on, I saw that the moon and stars fabric was too dark against my black jeans so the shape is hard to see but I think the rest of them were successful. The blue fabric with the shiny sequins is really eye catching as the light bounces off in different directions like a disco ball, reinforcing my ideas about making bugs with shiny finishes, hopefully giving people a more positive perception of bugs. The flower print fabrics sh against the dark jeans and have depictions of nature that we would expect to see decoratively in the house, giving a sense of normality - this as well as being stitched to a very plain and everyday garment makes me see the beetles as very mundane and therefore comfortable. 

    

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