This was a final piece I had done for one of my units called "Specialist Studio Practice one" (SSP1). 

This was done on canvas and I did it before I had worked out how I could continue the embroidery onto where the wooden part is. 

Therefore, to try to eliminate the white border, I painted the empty space a light blue. If I were to do it again I would paint it in an even lighter shade so it is slightly more cohesive with the embroidery.

In the last image, you can see how the back of the work looks like when the final piece is ready. I quite enjoy how the back of the work ends up looking very energetic and chaotic while the front is very calm and peaceful. 

This was the fourth embroidery I had ever done :)

In this one, I used tights to eliminate the border. I see this attempt as quite successful. The few issues there were with using tights was when stretching it over the canvas, since I had to layer the same pair of tights over and over again to get a solid colour in the back due to tights being transparent.

One can see that there are also various horizontal and diagonal lines in some areas of the work. I got this idea from a previous test piece where I was trying out some this. 

Even though this test piece was difficult to start at first (due to the tights) I am quite happy with how it came out (especially the shapes and colours).

There are many ideas behind this work. The first one was, to learn various embroidery stitches and techniques. The second one was, to try out this new type of thread that was more delicate, durable and shiny. While the last idea was to see how the work would look like if restretched onto a frame that is the same size of the embroidery part. 

Even though the work looks visually interesting. I preferred the tights method instead of this method because after I restretched the work, the middle area of the work became slightly saggy which I did not like. 

Even though I encountered this small issue, I really loved the vibrant colours in this work. I am quite happy to have done this test piece because I got to learn how to do different embroidery stitches.

This was my final piece for a unit I had, called "Specialist Studio Practice two" (SSP2).

In this one I still used tights to eliminate the border because it was the most successful method I had encountered. Though there was still a few issues when using said tights. The first issue was I had to layer 3 xxl tights on top of each other to get a solid base. The second issue was that I spend quite a long time stretching the work over the canvas, due to the canvas's shape and due to how solid the canvas is. 

The last issue was while I was working on it the tights started to run. Therefore, I first used hairspray as a temporary fix but then moved onto this type of glue spray so that the tights could stiffen and not run as much. 

Even though I encountered a few issues while I was working, which made me worry, I am happy with this work and especially love this fun energy it has, the vibrant colours and the almost tribal like patterns.

This is one of my test pieces for my dissertation project.

The idea behind this was not about the symbolism, but to figure out how to use lycra and to play around with the other ideas mentioned below. 

Therefore the main idea behind this work, was to use this material I had found called "lycra" which I discovered is quite a good, sturdy alternative to tights (it does not run and is easier to stretch over canvas!)

Excluding this idea, I also had a few ideas which were: to play around with composition and stitches/embroidery techniques. 

I always find myself loving the colours in my embroidery works and I am now especially happy that I found a good material (lyrca) that I can use.