Happy days!

Had a very good tutorial with my contextual studies tutor. Made a great start with my research and I'm not so daunted by the word count, in fact I'm worried I'm going to go over! I hate to admit this but I'm actually enjoying reading around the politics of Soviet Russia and Communism. I'm such a sadist!!!!!!

WARPING AND WEAVING

I'M HALF WAY THROUGH!!!!....... Well kind of 3 fabric samples done, 3 to go then the final item. I've been looking at peeling paint and rust, trying to get the effect of paint lifting off the surface and crinkled textures. I looked at the Victorian iron railings outside my house as inspiration for the textures and the colour palette. 

 I decided on a double cloth weave for this project, putting a dark red layer on the bottom to represent the rust, and a black layer on the top to represent the paint. The warp yarn I'm using is very fine so it's added up to 480 ends in total which has taken a total of 3 days to warp! 

I've felted the first 3 samples so i can cut into the top layer and 'peel' the sections back to expose the bottom layer. This is the first time I have ever tried felting a sample and I must admit I was a little nervous, but I have really enjoyed the felting process and it has come up with some very interesting results.

For the next sample I am wanting to play around with swapping some warp threads for elastic to see if I can get a crinkled effect....