· Do not run with scissors.

· Mind your fingers when cutting material.

· Do not leave iron on unattended. (Fire Hazard)

· When done with iron, do not leave it face down on sole plate as this can cause a fire by burning through the fabric of the ironing board.

· When using embroidery needles be mindful of the sharp point as to not stab yourself when leading thread through the fabric.

Equipment list:

· Embroidery hoop (two circles, one with an adjuster)

· A square of calico fabric (big enough to fit in your embroidery hoop.)

· Iron

· Iron-on adhesive fabric

· Ironing board

· Different types of thread (thin and thick)

· Different needle sizes (Thicker threads need bigger needles so that the eye is big enough to fit the thread)

Step by Step construction:

First, I grabbed an embroidery hoop. This was used to measure how much fabric would be needed by cutting around the hoop. This was done with both the calico and the adhesive iron-on materials. Once I had both fabrics, I made sure the adhesive side of the iron-on was face down to the calico so that it stuck together well when I ironed it. After this was done, I could secure the fabric into the embroidery hoop, and pick out my first thread and stitch style. I attempted every stitch style on the paper given using a variety of colour and different thread thickness to accomplish this.

Evaluation:

This is a sampler of embroidery techniques for use in later projects. This was made as a guide on how to accomplish different looks and textures with the use of thread for patterns on materials. This was useful to my lessons as I’ve discovered different methods than I knew before the task, widening my skills. I have discovered how to do a split stitch which I feel is stronger, with the right thread, than a simple running stitch. I also like how the pattern looks and will be using this stitch on my self-portrait as I feel it would give a 3D look and would appear thicker, like real hair, adding dimension to the piece.

Angie Lewin is an acclaimed contemporary British artist who specialises in printmaking, her inspiration being found from the Scottish Highlands with her pieces being known for their depictions of flowers and other plants. She uses a range of techniques including lino printing, wood engraving, silkscreen, collage, and lithograph. Her talent has even led to her becoming a member of the royal society of painter-print makers in 2006 and later a member of the society of wood engravers in 2008.

Lewin was born in Bollington, Cheshire on the 18^th of October 1963. She attended Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design, located in London, from 1983 to 1986 this was quickly followed by a yearlong part-time post graduate course on printmaking at Camberwell school of arts and crafts, just from her education background it is clear why she is so famous with her skills being furthered at such influential schools.

As previously mentioned, her inspiration is founded from naturally floral landscapes. She focused heavily on the still life of the natural world with some prints even including insect eggs on flower buds, showing us the level of observation, she takes with her surroundings and her art.

Katsushika Hokusai.

Katsushika was a famous Japanese ukiyo-e artist active in the Edo period as a painter and printmaker. His exact birth is unknown though it is guessed to have been October 31^st, 1760. During his life he created over 30,000 woodblock, paintings and book illustration pieces. Some of his most famous works were the thirty-six views of mount fuji series. This series also includes the famous “Great Wave Off Kanagawa” print, with these works quickly securing his fame in not only Japan but across the world. His skills were considered revolutionary to the style during his time, with these praises leading to his place in history as one of the Master of Art History.

He began painting at 6 years old, believed to have shared his father's interest in the activity. This was because his father was a mirror maker, and it was his job to paint and design around mirrors. Hokusai’s own career started less than a decade later when he got the offer to be an apprentice woodcarver at the young age of 14.

Another marked breakthrough in Katsushika's carer and the history of ukiyo-e as a whole was when he changed the subject of his work, shifting away from the traditional subjects of courtesans and actors to his own interest in landscapes and the daily life of Japanese people of every social class. During his career, Hokusai went by many names, his most famed being Katsushi Hokusai, taken by 1800, which was his first name not tied to a school. This name linked to his place of birth and honouring the north star which held significant meaning in his culture, and the name he released some of his most famous work under. During his career he went under many names, so frequently, that the names are now used to tell periods of his life/career.

Early life

He was the eldest of six children to a protestant pastor. Vincent was born in a small village in the Brabant region of the southern Netherlands. His early childhood was spent wandering the countryside observing nature. At 16 he became an apprentice to an art branch of dealers within a national government place in the Hague.

Art style and technique.

Japanese woodblock prints and Japanese art are said to have inspired his work, which is noted for its expressive and bold brushwork, vibrant colours, exaggerated forms which are described as unconcerned about reality taking on their own shapes to show movement, emphasis on texture, and symbolism. He used a mix of different medias including pencils, pens, ink and paints to make his pieces, with 900 paintings being accomplished in a decade though Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime which was ‘the red vineyard’ which was sold seven months before his death for 400 francs in Belgium. This is a stark difference from his most expensive painting which was the ‘portrait of Dr. Gachet’ which was sold for $148.6 million in 1990.

Leonardo da Vinci. 15^th April, 1452 – 2^nd May, 1519

Leonardo was an extremely talented man who achieved many things in his life. He was an Italian polymath of the high renaissance who was an engineer, scientist, sculptor, architect, theorist, draughtsman and painter. Most of his fame came from his work as a painter during his life with his works contributing to generations of artists after him, he is known as one of the greatest painters in history. Despite having many unfinished works as well as missing pieces the art known to be his is some of the most influential pieces of art history, including his masterpiece the Mona Lisa which is often called the worlds most famous painting.

Art style and technique.

Da Vinci’s main drawing material was ink, used in a quill pen. It is believed that the fluidity of ink helped him capture movements and energy easier and helped him draw in detail.

Some of his first noted pieces of work were completed alongside his professors, which is also noted that the beginning of his career held a classical academic look of the time, with these pieces being found in both public and private buildings. Examples given included, his 1888 piece, Vienna Burgtheater and on the ceiling above the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

While studying, both Gustav and his brother Ernst, along with a friend, Franz Matsch, opened a work and studio community, referred to as an ‘artist company’ in 1879. Their company specialized in wall and ceiling art. The business began to grow slowly until 1883 when they moved to a larger studio in the sixth Vienna district allowing them to create bigger pieces. I believe this showed how well business was going or even how popular they were getting as they gained requests for bigger pieces of work, I believe this is when Gustav really began to make a name for himself outside of his schooling. This was when his own style must have begun to develop for what is known today.

Gustav’s art was themed around life and death in many different ways. From growth and decay to happiness and love. His work even touched on themes of dark, sinister powers. This can be seen in his 1915 piece titled “Death and Life” which took seven years to finish, with the piece being started in 1908.

His most famous piece is considered to be the kiss finished in 1908. The painting, “The Kiss” is said to symbolise the mystical union of spiritual and erotic love and its merging of the individual with the eternal comos. The painting itself can almost be described as the two people becoming one upon entering a relationship. The two figures seeming to be a blob of yellow, the tones different for each with the woman’s being a brighter yellow then the mans. At the time of unveiling, the piece faced controversy as viewers were convinced that the man in the work was Gustav himself and the woman, a lover. This might be the one piece out of all his works that is considered the most known as it sparked the most debate at the time.

His style.

He was known for a decorative art style with a common use of gold and semi-precious jewels. He was inspired by many things throughout his life. A key inspiration for him was classical mythology and history, with one of Gustavs favourite Artists being Han Markart, a 19^th century Austrian academic history painter and designer. He was also extremely interested by Japanese art and methods, with him taking a liking to many Ukiyo-E artists. His art can be described as a flat linear style often decorated with biomorphic forms.

Early life.

Willem de Kooning was born in Rotterdam Netherlands on April 24^th, 1904. His childhood was quiet apart from his parents divorcing in 1907 and he lived with his father for a few years and then his mother in his late childhood before moving to America in 1926 at 22 years old and only became a legal American citizen thirty-six years later in 1962 at 58 years old. De Kooning began painting in his free time, but his career began in 1928 when he joined the art colony at Woodstock in New York. His early drawings were still life and figures though it wasn’t long before he was inspired by the works of Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro when his work became more abstract.  From 1946-1949 Willem de Kooning painted bold black and white home enamel paints which are still considered important history today thanks to their techniques, media use and form. Colour also played a huge part in his paintings, specifically when he moved to east Hampton. Bold colours would later become a staple of his style.

Experimenting.

Willem did lots of experimenting with his style and techniques in his lifetime with a few noticeable being from the mid-1960s where he attempted to break old habits by closing his eyes while drawing also claiming this to be a means to discovering new ways of expression. This resulted in several drawings which can be found in exhibits which were made with those exercises. These were considered mark making pieces with their fast charcoal strokes which showed the artists figures with a likeness to a snapshot.

I am heavily inspired by his use of bold colours.

The scene I depicted was of the view from a mountain close to where I live. I used different types of fabric and layered them to make the sky, city and cliff side of the mountain and used different sewing techniques to depict the buildings, flowers, and clouds. I attempted a distance play to show that the city was further away, and I was looking down from the cliff. I tried doing this by raising the darker green fabric out of the base background, using pillow stuffing. I could improve this piece by learning how to play with distance using material better in the future. I used a combination of lazy daisy stitches and French knots to make the flowers, with the French knots being used to make the flowers appear further away as well as a few pieces of floral material as a mix of media on the grassy area. I used running stitches on the building outlines in the city piece of fabric and I used a mix of fabric and stitches for the sky, with the sun being made of scrunched … material and the clouds being a long and short stitch.

Our point of interest, Grace, is introduced to us on her wedding day, with the ceremony taking place in her fiancé’s family garden. We do not see her in any other outfits but the wedding dress for this event.

The costume designer, Avery Plewes has told fans that the dress was treated as its own character, with the deconstruction taking inspiration from Bruce Willis’ character’s t-shirt in die hard as it slowly became many useful things for grace as well as symbolising her emotional changes through the films progression. The dress is a floor length gown in a bright white, which I believe is meant to give the traditional look of innocence and grace that is expected on a wedding day, I also think it could be seen as a symbol of her naivety to the situation she would find herself in later that same day. The princess like style of the outfit, which was inspired by Princess Kate’s own wedding dress, I believe is also to push the idea of her new husband’s family wealth and the importance of such an occasion within the family.

The first major change to her dress is 26 minutes in when her dress gets caught on the entrance of the dumbweighter and it tears, which leads to be later fully torn at 33 minutes, showing her yellow trainers that were put on at 30 minutes into the movie. I think the colour of her trainers is a significant detail as yellow is commonly used to symbolise caution or anxiety which are definitely emotions I believe would be running through our characters mind as she sneaks through the halls of a house where she’s trapped and being hunted for sport.

There are many events that occur from these pictures to the next I have used, but I don’t have space for all of them and this analysis would be a book if I tried, so the next image I used is towards the end of the film, after her dress has been stained by a pit of corpses, and her hand has been shot through, one sleeve being torn from her dress to act as a bandage to this injury. Another change noted in this picture is the ribbon that was once wrapped around her waist, has been used to strangle another attacker. By now the once elegant white gown is ruined with a dull grey tint to the remaining fabric. Grey is known to symbolise strength as it is the same colour of stone or gravel with many associating it with detachment or impartiality. This could show that Grace has lost her earlier innocence and is detached from the situation she’s in, with any hope of outside help lost she now acts more primal her dress can also be seen to have splatters of red, which is a colour known to symbolise many things, such as aggression and danger.

1 hour and 20 minutes into the movie the sun begins to raise, marking the end of the game and the defeat of the family, though they take two minutes to notice this. The remaining members have a few seconds of horror as they believe the curse to be a myth. Until their heads start exploding one by one covering Grace in blood. She is left covered in blood, her dress now a dark red, this could symbolise power, that she won their game as well as the earlier mentioned aggression as she speaks with her husband Alex, angrily ending their discussion quickly by demanding a divorce before he too explodes, and Grace is indifferent to this.

The movie ends with Grace outside the burning manor, lighting a cigarette as the police arrive. Her dress now a blackish colour from the drying blood stains, this could symbolise that she is now legally a widow, as well as her attire being on the opposite end of the colour spectrum from 24 hours earlier symbolising the changes her personality has gone through, losing her naivety for a hardened heart and colder outlook.

Make sure lanyard is taken off when using sewing machine.

Don’t run with scissors.

Keep long hair tied back to prevent it getting caught or in your eyes when working.

Equipment needed.

Sewing machine

Ironing board

Interface

Pocket panels

Button

Button foot

Thread

Needle

Calico

Step by step.

Step 1: pin stencils to calico.

Step 2: draw around stencil.

Step 3: Unpin stencils and cut out fabric.

Step 4: Draw on seam allowance.

Step 5: Measure interface and cut out.

Step 6: Iron interface onto one panel of pocket flap sticky side of interface down.

Step 7: Sew both pocket flap panels together.

Step 8: set up button foot to sew a button on the pocket flap.

Step 9: Cut strip through space provided by buttonhole.

Step 10 pin pocket front to pocket back, keeping markings visible and sew.

Step 11: Turn inside out to hide pencil markings.

Step 12: Line pocket flap up to the top of the pocket and sew along edge.

Step 13: line up pocket flap buttonhole to place the button on the front of the pocket.

Step 14: Mark and hand sew the button to this position.

Step 15: Once secured it is finished.

Today it is mostly used for gowns, dresses and costumes due to its ability to highlight the movements of the wearer giving a graceful look that is desired.

Production changes.

Chiffon was made from raw silk fibres until 1938 with the raise of the industrial revolution, traders began finding cheaper ways to make the popular fabric. This meant that by 1938 the first nylon chiffon was made, which was the first non-silk chiffon. Two decades later, in 1958 was the next big change to the fabrics production history, that being when the first polyester chiffon was created which used synthetic material. It quickly rose chiffon in popularity again due to not just its low price and durability.

Styling chiffon with pictures showing my results.