Week 2 - Graffiti and Couching

This week we got into colour in a big way! We made a 'group graffiti' using found objects, such as feathers, string, elastic bands, sticks, seed heads, cardboard and our fingers. There was no deliberate pattern or order - just had to cover the lining paper with as many different marks as possible.

Then we had to choose a bit of the whole that appealed to us. Luckily we all wanted a different bit! I went for this section because I liked the blue/green/yellow swishes. 

Next we had to decide on our background fabric and gather our materials - we swapped between ourselves so I got some fabulous orange and black fabrics and yarns from my neighbour. I chose a fuchsia pink background because I wanted to go really colourful.


The tutor asked that we mainly use couching techniques to attach our threads. I really enjoyed this week's challenge - playing with all the bright colours and trying out mad things with pipe-cleaners, feathers, chunky wool and embroidery floss to create a lot of texture.

Here is my finished piece - I am really pleased with it. I don't think I would change much but the feathers were really difficult to sew on successfully.


Materials used - feathers, chunky wool, funky fibres, embroidery floss, sewing thread, sequins, pipe-cleaners, fabric strips and a rolled-up wet-wipe that I had used to clean my hands after the graffiti!


Below are some arty close-ups of different sections so you can see how many stitches there are!