Where do the ideas for tapestry designs come from?

WORKING DRAWINGS/MACHINE EMBROIDERIED WORKS

Time 4 Tea

I decided that this exhibition was going to be used as an opportunity for the viewers to see where my future work was heading from a design series point of view. It is all very well to show the woven end result, but some people don't understand that there is so much going on behind the piece. 

These machine embroidered working drawings are part of the design process I have used for creating a future mini series of weavable designs. I have used tapa cloth, artist canvas, acrylic paint, cotton thread and my hand-made paper to produce fibre works that were fantastically playful to produce while at the same time are reasonably resolved fibre artworks in their own right. 

Male on Friday?

These stitched works have been photographed and then adjusted in Photoshop until a satisfactory colour and contrast has been achieved. 

Me standing next to the machine embroidered works, showing the  proposed cartoons I will be weaving from them on the right hand side. 

Keeping in mind that they will become weavings is an integral part of  decision making during this procedure. What yarns, colours and textures will best be able to be replicated with the new image I am creating? How will changing them add artistic value to the end weaving? How much will I be able to deviate from the exact image without losing the integrity of the design details?