Experimentation: Sewing Into Napkins
After my experiment with the ribbon, I wanted to use sewing further, I like the hand-made quality it gives the piece as it appears more personal and considered. Over the Easter period I got thinking about when my own family comes together the most and found it was mealtimes that we got chance to sit down and talk to one another. Because of this, I think I want to use a table setting in my outcome - or if not, for an experiment - as this seems to be, for my family at least, when we connect the most. I may do a survey to follow up this and see if that's the case elsewhere.
From this observation I came up with the idea of sewing into tablecloths and napkins to show the kind of thoughts and feelings about families in a setting commonly linked with them. Though instead of attacking a tablecloth with a needle and thread, I thought I'd start smaller to save time and to test the idea out as it might end horrifically. I decided to sew around the edge of a cotton napkin some of the answers from my surveys as these are a direct source into family life. I picked two almost opposing statements to show the difference in experience, the first being 'I feel like an outsider looking in' and the second 'They're weird and embarrassing but I love them'. I want this level of juxtaposition in my work as everyone has different takes on their families, my surveys were clear on that, and I want this to shine through in whatever I make. I want people of every kind of background to be able to relate to what I produce, even if in some small way.
In theory, I thought this experiment would look effective and aesthetically pleasing and though it does at a glance, the wonky writing and uneven letters let it down. I did write the words out before sewing, but it still ended up angled and a little bit weird. To remedy this on a larger scale, I would have to measure out each letter so they were consistent and created a better sense of flow within the piece, or alternatively I could try writing with a sewing machine. Though that thought scares me a lot. Another option would be to actually iron the piece of fabric first, which didn't occur to me until after I had attached it to my book. Que sera.
I tried two different styles of handwriting within this experiment to further the duality, one joined and more calligraphic and the other sans serif and blocky. I'm not great with handwriting, my own is a Frankenstein version of joined and not joined, so this was tricky. I do think the contrast of written style works for the piece though, where the first is more sophisticated it gets that sense of complicated family relationships and an older voice whereas the second has a younger voice and gives a sense of child-like unconditional love. Or that's what I'm trying to communicate, at least. I also chose two different coloured threads and I think this added to that sense of contrast, although I maybe would chose brighter threads looking back.
Though I quite enjoyed the experiment and I like the end outcome, despite the wonky letters, it was very time-consuming and I feel doing an entire tablecloth would take too much of the project up and for that reason I am going to continue exploring different ideas. Though I might come back to this one.