3D Letter Make - Needle & Thread

Carrying on with the currently theme of typography in graphics, I was tasked with making a 3D letter that I would then at a later date photograph with a single light to look at how shadows work. First however i needed to make a letter and since my cliche/phrase I'd been using for the past few objectives was 'Honesty is the Best Policy' I went with the letter 'H'.
I didn't just want to make any old clean cut letter 'H' though as my phrase has a lot of hidden meaning. So i decided to go to Hobbycraft who sell single letters made out of brown tape and pick up a letter 'U'. Which i then tripped apart to have 2 long sections and a curved section which i cut out to be straight. Then i got out the needle and thread.

First I punctured some holes in the front and back of all the pieces so I had some sort of guidance to where I should be sewing

After a lot of back and forth I created a quick basic stitch starting in the front then the back. At this point I noticed the piece would look best nothing being a perfect piece so I didn't focus to much on making perfect tight stitches or having the same number on either side. As well as that i decided to wrap some of the thread around the piece as i had drawn a little to much.

Above is the final piece, After repeating the same method on the first second i did the same for the second. Sticking with the red thread. Once i had it all connected to the point I felt it wouldn't fall apart when stood up, i added some green thread just to help break up the mass of brown paper texture. I think for a quick object made for a photo shoot to play around with lighting this turned out rather nice and not being 100% perfect should give the shadow a few nice rough edges.

Monomania - Foam Printing

Foam print block making :|
Making a mess with paint and printing :D

Possibly the best way I could describe this session. I can't help but love anything where I get to be messy and make unique mess into something fun and creative. Following my work on the shape shape I picked one of my final shapes to make out of a piece of foam which funnily enough is from the bottom of a pizza box but enough of that. To cut the foam I used a soldering iron which utterly stunk up the room I was working in so we had to open all the windows. I'm just glad I went first so I didn't have to stand around for ages waiting to cut my shape and having to smell what I can only describe as a melting rubbish, kind of smell.

I think my shape turned out rather well considering I hadn't held a soldering iron since i was about 13 in DT class back in school. I didn't just want to use my shape for the printing block as it would make the print very bland and boring so i added a few drops and squiggles here and there. Which as you'll see below really helped when it came to adding the acrylic paints and printing.

I produced patterns with my tear drop styled foam print block on 4 different types of material, black paper, white bin liner, white fabric and stripped fabric. Using 3 different colours of acrylic paint, white, black and grey and it go messy fast. I wish i took a photo of my hands at the end of it. I still have paint dried on my nails at the time of writing this.
I really enjoyed making these prints as it was a very unique process for me and the way all the work has been linked together. Having to move the block in different directions and overlapping of different colours made some really interesting patterned appear. For example I really love the way the prints look on the stripped fabric as where I cut away at the foam print you can see the fabric coming through the prints as well as where there was less ink on block giving the print a very unique look which will give even more depth once the excess material is cut away. Using a foam block is a very quick and easy way to make a printing block and is something I would like to incorporate into some of my work later down the line as it would come in handy when working on mixed media piece as a little something extra.