Day 2 -

Following on from last weeks research, with a range of photographs and sketches from the conservation workshop today we were able to show the ladies from the Embroiderers Guild the very basics in Photoshop. By scanning in our own drawings and some of the very interesting images from Lindy's amazing collection of Embroidery books we began to change and manipulate our findings.

For example, from this book I really liked the tiger illustration so I resized the image on photoshop and tried out some of the different techniques that I have learnt so far. Such as; resizing and rotating the image, changing the colour, using the pen tools and creating a repeat pattern. 

I think that this is a really exciting and innovative way to bring the Needlework Development Scheme into the 21st century. We now have the ability to take inspiration from past work and to build on it ways that would have been unimaginable at the time they were created.

I drew this design, inspired by a pair of English Crewelwork bed hangings from 1710. 

I proceeded to scan and open up this drawing in photoshop, from this point I was able to crop and resize my image and make any other changes. 

I decided just to repeat my design initially, without changing the colour and then I made a Gaussian blurred version as a background that I could potentially embroider onto.

In our group we decided to each work from our own images and create something that could be digitally printed. To do this we created a TIFF file that incorporated all of our selected designs at the right size. This is then printed onto paper using a sublimation printer which is specifically for textile transfer application. The printed paper was then given to us to transfer onto a synthetic fabric using a large scale heat press. This was a very fast and effective way to produce a very good quality print in a short amount of time. We were all very pleased and excited by the results. 

We were also shown another technique which uses the monochromatic photocopies and coloured heat transfer papers on the heat press with synthetic fabric to create simple transfers. This was very effective when using photocopies from some of the embroidery books, I particularly like the way it transferred text and fine details.  

The next part of this process is to use all of the skills we have learned and exchanged so far to create something unique together that embodies what the NDS were able to achieve with the wealth and depth of all of the exciting new technologies that are at our disposal today.