Once upon a time, there was a girl called Llia who had to do a project on ‘Narrative and Digital Form.’
The last time we saw Llia, she was starting to create a pattern for her sewing, as well as thrashing out the critical context of her project. This story is all about the creation of her sewing.
After deciding what kind of cloth she would use, Llia placed an order on the Internet for special cross-stitch cloth (8-count Aida, if you’re interested,) some DMC threads and some nice (not too sharp) cross-stitch needles. While she waited for these to arrive, she finalised the pattern for the sewing:
Taking inspiration from traditional embroidery samplers, she chose to include the date and iDAT logo to give a little bit of extra context, as well as her name.
The next day, she waited and waited and waited, then lo! The postman arrived with the sewing equipment she had ordered. So it was time to sew….
Starting off…. using the pattern on the computer as a reference.
The border was completed first.
After the first code was sewed, Llia tested it to make sure the software on her phone was able to read it still. She had been concerned that the stitching may mean that the code was unreadable, but happily, it was fine. (An audible sigh of relief was heard by all in the house…)
After approximately 20 hours of sewing, we see the finished piece, albeit badly photographed. Luckily Ikea and Ebay came to the rescue when Llia realised that custom-made frames are very expensive and take a long time to manufacture and deliver.
And, just for fun, Llia put it on the wall to see how it would look.
Lovely.
Then Prince Charming came to save her, the evil goblin was thrown down the magic wishing well and everyone lived happily ever after, yadda yadda yadda. The End.
Well, obviously that’s not the end, I’ll be writing a nice summary post at some point soon, as I present this project next week. I wish I had more time to make a full-sized version of this, but time is the one great luxury I don’t have. Anyway, I’m pleased with how it has turned out and I enjoyed creating it.
In another little linked bit of context, it was pointed out to me that Anya Lewin, Lecturer in Fine Art, School of Art & Media at University of Plymouth, carried out a project in a similar vein:
In Anya’s words:
“Inspired by the traditional embroidery designs similarity to early digital graphics I, along with artist Simon Poulter, designed a tablecloth based on the arcade game Pacman but transposed it into Euroman. The consequent tablecloth design humourously suggests a federal Pacman gobbling up as many countries as he can. I worked with the women to decide how to make the tablecloths; considering elements such as the best stitches to use and where to buy supplies while discussing the EU, creativity, and life in Bulgaria”
Again, there’s a kind of social commentary, or even narrative, within the Euroman tablecloths, which links in closely with my project. There is a further article here.
