leather

Studio Practice update, July 2016

Recently I have been busy with my weaving practice.
While I was in Italy (to deal with the bag manufactorer) I spent my time weaving a wide range of (40×33 cm) samples to be collected in a swatchbook. The materials I have been using are raw silk, cotton and wool. I wanted to produce some more sample using different yarns but I didn’t have enough time and the yarn I have been using are suitable for making bags therefore I didn’t want to risk.

As for the leather, I bought an entire piece of natural color, thick, tuscan leather and after cutting 5mm stripes I have been using it as weft.

In terms of color range, I used:
-Blue (dark and light in different shades)
-Black
-White
-Brown (in different variation)
-Gray
-Yellow
-Red

During my interview at Texprint (London) I have been suggested to weave a selection of handwoved designs to show to possible collaborators; for this reason, I prepared the swatch books that could also be used as a source of pattern ideas for the future.
The picture of the smples are posted on my instagram page @Marianna.Nello as I find it a good way of sharing ideas and get advice from other weavers/designers.St

Working with leather #part2

Yesterday morning I booked an induction for the leather machine but unfortunately there was a problem with the bobbin’s thread and we couldn’t menage to make it work properly; therefore I had to use a normal sewing machine to sew some of my leather scraps together.

As said before, I’m not good at stitching and I have no patience enough to sit and sew a straight line, therefore the result was very poor but at least I was able to get an idea of how the leather will react to the stitching.

I tried to sew 2 small purses creating geometric shapes with a white thread; I sewed some “parallel” stripes trying to reproduce the work of Frank Stella (the artist that has been inspiring my work lately).

While I was struggling with the machine, my course leader came in and gave me some useful advice:

-Try to think about the color combination of the leather/thread (think about using sewing thread and bobbins thread in contrasting coors to create little dots and other effects).

-Use paper to define the shapes of the leather panels.

-Consider other sewing machine stitch

etc.

Here is the result of what I made yesterday morning:

N. M, leather and woven fabric samples, Feb. 2016.

Working with leather

Few weeks ago I picked up some leather scraps to use them in my current project.

I have never worked with leather before and I have absolutely no knowledge in the bag-making field. Anyway, I feel that making some fairly easy samples may help me to improve my understanding of pattern making and unable me to develop more detailed sketches.

To learn something more about the leather sewing process I borrowed an old book that I found the other day while I was doing my research in the library. I found some interesting patterns in it an I’m now willing to start creating something and see how the leather works with my woven samples.

I haven’t tried to sew it yet but I have booked an induction for tomorrow morning; today I just cut some pieces to be sewn together and I also tried out some ideas that emerged from my recent sketches. Here are the pictures I took today:

N.M, Leather and woven sample, Feb. 2016.