Studio & Show

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I am going to create a two-part exhibition piece of a large canvas painting and a medium/ large scale sculpture. The area of the sex industry I have focused on is that of the women who work as erotic dancers in gentlemen’s clubs. My decision on to this is due to my personal experience working in these bars. I have found from my experiences, that there is a social stereotype that the women who work in these establishments are sex-crazed, drug-fueled, single, lonely and willing to do anything and everything for money. I have also found that this assumption also stretches to personal appearance, how you are supposed to look, and how you must be a certain way sexually by the way you look. These stereotypes and assumptions aren’t completely true to every individual that works in these industries, beneath what is worn and what is done, there is a human being beneath, with thoughts, feelings and a life beyond dancing.

The painting is to be titled “What’s your real name?” and will be a layered painting of a deep abstract background with three silhouettes of female forms. On top of these images will be a large list of names covering the canvas of real names and alias’ of erotic dancers I have previously worked with. The names and alias’ will be mixed together making it unknown which are real and which are stage names.

The sculpture I am wanting to create will be a female form replicating one of the silhouettes on the canvas (creating the illusion that the canvas is the shadow). Initially I have been wanting to create this sculpture out of clay and either carve into or write/ paint onto it the typical and common questions I was asked while working as a lap dancer.

The concept of this piece is to give an insight to how women in the sex industry are treated and what they encounter while being at work. I want to give a perception to the sex industry and the verbal/ physical abuse people of the sex industry go through when trying to earn a living. I want to be able to express the misogynistic views and opinions people have towards sex workers and how it is judgmental and wrong to presume a persons personality and lifestyle purely by the job they do.

I will be researching into similar pieces and artists for inspiration on styles and techniques I could practice to perfect my idea. I will use a sketchbook to draw out the initial ideas and plans for both my painting and sculpture. I have split my time period into a period of time for research, practice and perfecting my idea and then sculpting and painting.

As well as using acrylic paints and clay for my piece, I am looking into potentially using screen printing methods for the text on my canvas and sculpture, as well as embroidery on my sculpture.

I will need to create a guideline and sketches for my painting, before creating it on the canvas itself. I will need to use screen printing tools and look into text-based artists to get a good idea of what will look striking and effective for my concept.

For my sculpture, I will again create sketches to get a good guideline for what I will create with the clay. I will also look at other potential ideas for creating the sculpture outside of clay as I want my piece for connect more with an abstract or surrealist nature as it appeases more to my style of artistry. For my sculpture, I was also potentially making the sculpture from a mannequin and old dance-wear I owned, sewing the printing the text into this instead.

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DWG 151

Artist Influences

Hans Bellmer

The Doll are a collection of sculptures by German Artist, Hans Bellmer. Bellmer’s work prominently features the female form in a variety of compromising and non-compromising positions that objectify and sexualize women. One particular piece, has been described as a “bizarre robotic temptress” and the photographic print itself has an eerie electrical aura.

Bellmer has created many dolls within his life and depicted them as “language images” rather than sculptures. These language images were created during a time where they were portrayed as a kind of therapy for him, releasing and reflecting his disturbing thoughts and fantasies. The portrayal of these sculptures gave audiences thoughts of desire and lust as well as objectification towards women and male dominance. Bellmer’s work is mainly perceived as the latter, describing women as an asset for men to own and use at their own free will. Disregarding the time the piece was created and how freedom was limited for women in the 1930’s; Bellmer’s art was very explicit and pornographic, dominated by shock-factor and explored fetishes, fantasy, abuse and desire of women as objects.

The Doll’s Bellmer creates are interesting to look at, seeing the forms and curves that they have been positioned in. It is interesting when comparing numerous dolls to one another as they tend to frequent the same body parts, the legs, breasts and vagina are regularly featured. These body parts are stereotypically known to be the fondest parts of a woman’s appearance, bar the face, this supports the prognosis that Bellmer wanted to depict women as a desirable object. Not adding a face, solidifies the assumption of objectification as that is the prominently unique part of a person; and that Bellmer doesn’t want his pieces to have life or personality, they are there to look at, lust over and be desired.

"La Poupee" "The Doll", 1935

47.95 x 36.51 cm(Print size)

"Protect Me From What I Want" 1983-1985

20 x 40ft

Jenny Holzer

The piece "Protect Me From What I Want" was created in 1985. Holzer is a New York based neo-conceptual artist and is part of a group neo-conceptual feminist artists who rose to notability throughout the 1980s. She is particularly known for her text pieces that she tends to exhibit in more obscure places, rather than just indoor exhibitions. She produces her pieces through signs, projections, LED lighting, but has also reproduced a lot of work on clothing, plaques, benched and even condoms. Personally I think she reproduces her work in this way to emphasise her words. For example, having "Men Don't Protect You Anymore" printed onto condom packaging is expressing that women need to protect themselves, that the can protect themselves, that we're strong. It can also represent that men can potentially harm. With a condom being a protective product, it is a nod to the product itself: "I can protect you from what you can't necessarily".

The piece "Protect Me From What I Want" is part of the Survival Series collection, a series created between 1983 and 1985, which was presented initially in New Yorks The Times Square Show. Alike her works previous to this such as Truisms, which were pages of quotes put up around the streets of Manhattan, Survival was Holzer's way of generating debate, and getting you thinking about things such as consumerism, greed, sex, death and war. It is a series demonstrating the truths about violence, overheard by people out and about. It was her way of responding to the current times; the end of the 1970's was in turmoil due to the Manufacturing collapse, and in the 1980's, the economy were trying to rectify this which caused speculation in the stock market and eventually led to the stock market crash of 1987.

The Times Square Show's first exhibition began in June 1980 and lasted two months. It was organised by the Collaborated Project Inc, and displayed over 100 artists who wanted to branch out onto the streets from galleries. "Protect Me From What I Want" was displayed on the north facade of the building, in an area that was very noticeable.

The piece was first presented in 1985, and was created with LED lighting on a 20 x 40 ft spectacolour board. It was displayed there for the full two months of that years exhibition. Holzer recreated the piece for other exhibitions and viewing, such as the Las Vegas Project in 1986. The way the piece is presented is to fit in "non-spaces". These are places where you subconsciously take in the information, such as airports where there are already my signs. She uses the LED lighting as the brightness and boldness attracts the eye. Because she uses non-spaces, it generates conversation and debate on a subject you never expected to be discussing at that time or place. Holzer wanted this, as she believed "looking and reading art to be one in the same",

My initial thought when seeing this piece was that it was a personal piece, unfolding thought that what you want isn't good for you, or what you need. I instantly found a personal connection to the piece because of this, and wanted to delve more into what it is actually about. Because I had trouble finding a physical quote of the works meaning, I do believe Holzer intended this piece to be about personal perception. I like how Holzer's work is about your perception of her work, as well as what she intended it to be. Other themes I brushed over when researching this piece were greed, obsession and power.

Louise Bourgeois

The piece is suspended from the ceiling at the navel region by a steel cable which causes the figure the arch in a limp and lifeless way. It depicts a headless woman like figure, with only suggestions of the hands and feet, making the torso and legs the prominent focus. Where the head should be located, resides the female genitalia. Bourgeois did this to eroticise the sculpture, yet in a more subtle and unorthodox way as she wanted the viewer to be not instantly aware of whether the piece is depicted as a male or female. Bourgeois refers to gender neutrality in many of her works as she has an interest and connection to the similarities, differences and relationships of the human nature of men and women. Looking from a feministic point of view, these interests and themes in her work could defer from the man vs woman aspect of life and how women are often sexualised purely for the purpose of the male's desire.

Single II was part of a collection, along with very similarly presented sculptural pieces like “Couple”, and often had this visual appearance of an arched back, this was so the figure itself was associated with body contortion in a dramatic way. The compositions gave suggestions of vulnerability, especially as the figure was suspended from the ceiling and left hanging.

The main theme I found when looking into this piece was hysteria, and how it was “only seen in women”. It was suggested that professionals had previously believed that hysteria was something caused from the uterus and to be rehabilitated from the hysteria was to tend to the afflicting area, usually through shock therapy. Bourgeois believed otherwise to this, and this was one of the reasons for the gender neutrality in the figure.

Bourgeois commented stating that the colour black was used purposefully, “Black is the colour of resented authority” something which, in my opinion, is again connected to the male domination of the past and present and how women do indeed feel resentful of the unfairness and sexual degradation we receive from the “superior” sex. Also, it could be noted that the colour black is used to reflect the dead-like position the figure is positioned in.

"Single II", 1996

203.2 x 106.6 x 76.2cm

15kg

Mel Bochner

It has been said that Bochner was one of the most influential pioneers of conceptual art. A theme throughout a lot of his work is the relationship between space, colour and physical language. His piece is a thesaurus-inspired piece, stating the word “nasty” and its synonyms. This is something he repeated within many of his works. What I like about this piece particularly, is the colour palette used, the shades and hues look sweet, something which is the opposite of what the words represent. This is something that may influence me in my work as I find the initial positive appearance of a piece interesting for it gets more people’s attention than a naturally dull and depressing looking image. The way he lays out the text, is in a perfectionist manner, something which I will be doing withing my work, making sure the layout of the texts I print will be evenly spread, or in a manner that doesn’t look messy or untidy.

"Nasty" 2009

160 x 119.4cm

"Everyone I've Ever Slept With 1963 - 1995", 1995

Tracey Emin

“Everyone I’ve Ever Slept With” a.k.a “The Tent” was a piece Emin created in 1995 prior to her career-launching “My Bed”. The piece had sewn in the name of every person she had shared a bed with between 1963 and 1995. The representation of this piece was to show how ones perception of a “loose woman” is unjustified. The initial thought when looking at the tent implies that Emin has been intimate with every person stated, however this is to be untrue, thus making your assumption invalid and creating a sense of guilt for that assumption. Emin wanted to show that what you think you know and what is actually true are two completely different situations and someone’s business is there’s and not yours, regardless of how much thought and opinions you may have on the matter.

I like this piece. I like the way Emin wanted you to perceive it and how she wanted to make you feel from that assumption. This is an idea I want to show within my piece, that what you may think you know and what is actually true are two different things.

Untitled-Memory-is-your-image-of-perfect

Barbara Kruger

The 1982 piece is of an x-ray wearing heels, a bracelet and ring, is a beautiful piece by Barbara Kruger. I like the way she uses the anonymity of a person to personalise the perception for the viewer. Kruger does this with a lot of her work, as she wants the piece to have a connection to anyone who sees it, from any walks of life. I like how she presents her work like an advert, something which would draw your attention to it subconsciously, making you think about the words she speaks, and the concepts behind them. Her use of text is influential to many an artist, especially since her concepts are perception. This is something I will be wanting to work towards within my project, as I want the perception of the sex industry to change. The women (and men) within the industry are still people, with thoughts, feelings and lives that should not be taken for granted. The way Kruger gets you thinking about different situations and incidences is a key influence in my work.

"Memory is your Image of Perfection", 1982

154.94 x 86.36 cm

Cosey Fanni Tutti

Cosey Fanny Tutti is the main influence for my project. The reason behind this is that her lifestyle and previous work parallels to things I have too experienced in my life. When deciding on what to do for my project, I immediately wanted to connect with my past in the sex industry as an erotic dancer. When researching for influences and coming across Tutti, I knew her work would be a great inspiration to mine. Cosey Fanny Tutti was also once working as a stripper, and has used this previous employment as a factor in some of her photographic images and performance pieces. Her particular show called “Prostitution” displayed magazine pages of her in compromising positions and was a feminist piece explaining the intimacies and dwellings of working in the sex industry. As my piece is about working in this work field and how there are many misconceptions about it, I find Tutti’s work to be a good representation of the industry and how people presume, leer and judge thoughs in it.

Prostitution, 1976

Cosey Fanni Tutti and COUM exhibition in 1976

The 1976 exhibition by the performance art group COUM (that featured artist Cosey Fanni Tutti) was week long exhibition that was so controversial, that it raised questions about the use of body representation in art and media, caused conversation and debate within the House of Commons and is still regarded as "one of the most controversial shows in the ICA history and that of British Contemporary Art".

Not only did the exhibition have pornographic content, but it also scrapped exhibition traditions throughout, replacing wine and calm conversation with beer and loud music, but it also replaced the directors speech with a stripper performance. The experience through the first evening of the exhibition caused walk-outs and made headlines, marking a pivotal moment in London's late 70's culture scene. Quoted by a Tory MP "[COUM were] the wreckers of civilisation".

My thoughts of this exhibition, are quite opposite to thoughs given back in 1976. I think the exhibition achieved what it was searching for. It wanted to show and show controversy, the point of showing such erotic and perverted situations is to show that the body is beautiful, sex is beautiful, lust is beautiful - it's all a beauty if you choose to look in the right perspective. It also represents the ongoing self-selling in the world, whatever your job is, career path or mind-set, you are selling yourself, whether it be literally or metaphorically. Any situation or walk of life, you are taxed, rented, sanctioned and abused by government, it's how we live, how we survive. "Everything is for sale, at a price, even the people".

exhibition bulletin

toxic grafity - the thing about cosey fanni tutti

Creating my work

For my project, I will be producing a mixed-media canvas print scaling 30x40" and also an embroided bodice and stocking piece.

The canvas is entitles "What Is Your Real Name?" and will have an acrylic paint background, with a colour scheme representing the lighting in a gentlemen's club, and with a silhouetted mid-ground of dancers. The foreground with have screen-printed text covering the canvas, with a similar presentation to Mel Bochner's text-work, stating the legal forenames and alias' of dancers I have worked with. The names presented will not be in any order. The idea behind this piece is to show that the names are just names, you do not know which are real and which are fake, you do not need to know which are real or fake, the point of the name is so you can communicate with the person you're talking to. Alias' are created for protection, not for the reason of lying for the sake of it. A common theme in a gentlemen's club is the customer wants "to save you" and "know the real you" as if everything you say or do is an act. This is not necessarily so. We are at work. You would not ask a Doctor their "real name", nor would you a barista or teacher. The point I am wanting to get across to the viewer is that the name is not the issue, nor is it the point of the job in toe, it is there for a reason and the reason is not an issue to the consumer.

The embroidery piece I am creating to couple with the painting, is entitled ---. It is a black lace bodice, typically worn by an erotic dancer, along with a pair of stockings. Sewn into the fabrics, will be questions that are repeatedly asked by customers to dancers while working. These questions are usually asked due to stereotyping sex workers, assumptions and narcissism.

After sketching out some figures and silhouettes, I've come to realise my multi-media canvas piece may become too busy and blend too much together with the dark colour scheme I am using along with the text that will be printed over the top. I feel I need to focus more on the embroidery and print side of my project before making any harsh decisions on whether to continue with the idea of adding silhouettes to my painting.

Here I was playing with colour schemes for the background of my painting. I wanted to have a scheme that was vibrant yet muted and would be a good representation of the lighting you find in lap dancing bars.

These are three of the seven mock-up backgrounds I created with acrylic paint on paper. I created these to practice my screen-printing because finalising on canvas to ensure everything worked smoothly and looked good. I wasn't 100% sure at this point in my practice which background colour would give off the right feel I wanted in my work. Doing multiple different backgrounds helped me narrow down in my mind exactly what I wanted to show. I want my work to embrace the ambiance and atmosphere of being in an erotic club.

Creating the screen-print

For my canvas, I decided to incorporate both paint and print. To create my text piece, I had to find a font that expressed the vibe in a erotic bar and create the text of the names I would be using. Finding the font, I liked was a lot quicker than anticipated, and I had narrowed it down to a handful. The website I searched for these fonts on is dafont.com. I then proceeded to write the text out in all the fonts I chose and made a final decision from there. Once a selected my font, Bronyx Bystreets, I sent it to a technician to create the text on acetate to create the screen. The screen? I would need to have to be to the scale of my canvas which is 30 x 40 in. Because my screen would be so large, the acetate was split over two screens and had to be exposed and printed separately.

While waiting for my screens to be created, I began to investigate what kind of background I would want for my canvas. Initially I wanted to have silhouettes of dancers in the midground of my piece; however, after choosing such a thick and bold font, I decided to remove this idea as I believe it would have made the print look too busy and take focus off the names. I then made several background ideas on thick paper to get an idea of the background colour I wanted. I manage to narrow down what I wanted and decided to create two canvases instead of just one for my print. I did this so I knew exactly which one I wanted for my final piece or to potentially use both for my exhibition.

When beginning to create onto my canvases, I began by painting multi layers of acrylic paint onto my canvas, waiting for it to dry and painting more layers and shades into it. I wanted to have a very deep and integrated shading into the background to give a sultry coloured lighting effect; similar to that found in the bar. I created two canvas with this technique, one red and black/ greyscales and the other using blues and black/ grey scales. In this one I did also work in lightly some deep green.

Once my acetate was ready, I cut it into two sections and exposed them with UV light. I then taped over any gaps in the edging of the screen with gum tape. I aligned my screen with the canvas and swiftly swiped the black acrylic print mix over the screen, washed the screen and waited for both the print and the screen to dry then repeated the process with the other screen. I find screen printing effortless and fun to do, so I did find a confidence in my work, while doing the printing and the after projects.

The remaining part of my process would be to reattach the canvas to its wood frame, as I had to unpick the canvas when screen-printing to prevent any springing when moving the ink. Though this was my first time stretching a canvas, I found a confidence in me doing this and had both canvases stretched fairly quickly. I did find the canvas to be tougher the pull, mainly due to stiffness of the gesso and paint I have used.

These four images show the journey of the text in my work. The names, layout of the text, font and the screen-printing process.

These images represent the testing portion of my screen-printing process. Because it has been so many years since I previously screen-printed, I wanted to ensure no mistakes were made on my final product. Bar the thick smudges from excess ink on a couple of the tests, the images came out well, with a equal amount of ink and no major smudging. After doing these tests, I found the red and blue images to be more sultry and velvety, something which I needed my work to look. I wanted that hint of seductiveness to come through in my pieces. Even though the pieces are about the mistreatment of the dancers, I didn't want the loss of sexuality, confidence or femininity, I found these colour represented that more so than the green or multi-coloured.

Final Product
"What's Your Real Name?"

Here are the two final prints, I created for the exhibition. I was a tad reluctant to put both prints into the exhibition as I thought the red print was a little too dark. However, thankfully, I was persuaded otherwise. I found the reaction from viewers positive, empathetic and curious, which was exactly the reaction I was hoping for. I am happy with my final products, though I noticed some minor issues in light scuffs and ever so slight wonkiness of the text, they didn't appear to be noticeable to the viewers eye.

Potential Video for projection

An idea that recently came to me as an addition for my project was having a video of a dancer moving around with a song playing along with bar background noise. I thought this would be a good way for the audience to really ingest the feelings and emotions of being in this type of bar. I wanted the beauty of the art of lap dancing to really be shown and my idea was to have this video/ audio projected over the top of my canvas on loop.

This idea is still early in process and may not be achievable due to the current pandemic, as I may not be able to get a dancer to video, however I keep my idea and hope to get it into production asap. Below I have began creating a storyboard of what I would like the video to show along with the audio I would be using which I downloaded from Youtube.

Breezeblocks, Alt-J (slowed)

This would be part of the background noise played over the video

Due to Covid-19, I was unable to create the video in the original likeness I had planned. This caused my idea to shift from the subject of the video to be dancing on a stage to in a private lap dance, captured in a similar way to CCTV cameras in dance booths are. I imagined numerous clips of a dancer working her normal shift doing the same dance repeatedly as I spliced each video clip, with each customer together. I immediately planned and initiated recording for this, using myself as the subject and asking my partner and my close friends to participate in being the "customers" I would be dancing on/ in front of. Filming the video went smoothly and as plpanned, however, when watching back the footage, I was largely dissapointed with the footage, primarily the way I personally looked and moved in the video. I did not feel the footage I had captured highlighted the concept of my project very well and also found my participation in it made me quite self-conscious. At this point within my timescale, I found it would be best to drop this idea completely and focus on the other aspects of my project.

I feel this portion of my work was a great learning curve for me in regards to experimenting with ideas, as well as teaching me about my own boundaries of what I am currently prepared to do when presenting my art.

Here is the second story-board I made for my second video idea.

Sculpture

From my initial sculpture idea, I have adapted it from a clay engraved sculpture to a mannequin with the text of the frequent and repetitive questions and statements made to lap-dancers painted and printed onto it. I found this would be a more contemporary and time efficient way to creative expression I was idealising.

I found it increasingly more difficult and time-consuming in the search for a full-bodied mannequin for my project. Because of this, I decided to once again re-invent the sculpture aspect of my work. My latest development so far into the project, was to look into an embroidery piece rather than a body-formed sculpture. I used a lingerie one-piece as the base of this piece. The initial idea for this sculpture was to stitch the statements directly onto the bodice, however the fabric of the lingerie would be far too thin for using the embroidery machine I would use to ensure I stayed within my timeframe of the project. I knew that with the skills I have in hand-stitching, it would take far too long. Knowing the thinness of the fabric, I gathered a skin-coloured cotton fabric to use the basis of the piece, where the embroidery would be. It would still be noticeable sewn under the bodice, as if the words were stitched into the skin rather than the clothes. I found that this idea would be perfect for my concept as the things said to you stay with you and mold you to the type of person you are perceived as.

How Much?!

I’ll do it for a tenner.

I’ll do it for a fiver.

Can I touch?

Why can’t I touch?

How about I give you a dance instead?

What’s the point if I can’t touch you?

Do I get a happy ending?

I’d rather take you on a date.

I’ve got a hotel.

Do you want to meet me when you finish?

Do you do extras?

Can I wank in the dance?

If I pay extra, what will I get?

How long does it last for?

Can we kiss?

I’d rather fuck you.

What’s your number?

What’s your name on Facebook?

What’s your Instagram?

Do you have Snapchat?

I bet you have an OnlyFans?

Can I get a picture?

Do you want my number?

Here’s my number.

I’d rather get to know the real you

Why do you change your name?

Are you a student?

How could you tell your kids you do this?

What if your kids found out you did this?

Can I slip you a finger?

I bet they don’t watch the cameras.

I bet your filthy in bed.

You’re so naughty, aren’t you?

Have you ever met a customer after work?

I’m gay.

I’m not getting any dances.

I’m just here for a drink.

I’d rather you just sit and talk to me.

Wow, you’re so brave doing this.

I could do this you know.

It must be so easy being a stripper.

You must make a lot doing this.

Do they pay your by the hour?

Are you allowed to get drunk?

Do you have another job?

I bet you’re really kinky.

You’ve got massive tits.

Do you do “stuff” outside of here?

Can I have a private dance at home?

Is there any big girls?

Why would I pay, when I know I can get more off you for free?

What’s your bra size?

When is it your turn on the pole?

You’re too big.

You’re too small.

I’d rather have your friend.

Is there anyone with hair?

Is there anyone without hair?

Where are all the ginger girls?

There’s not many ethnic people here.

It’s his birthday, can her have a free dance?

It’s his stag do, can he have a free dance?

It’s my birthday, can I have a free dance?

Do you dance on old men?

I bet you dance on old pervs all the time.

How long is a dance?

Can I pick the song?

Would your dad still love you if he knew you did this?

I might get a job doing this.

Can I take your knickers with me?

Wow you’re a bit big to be doing this.

Wow, you’re really tiny.

Are you pregnant?

Why do you do this?

Have you done this long?

Why would you do this?

Where do you live?

Where are you from?

Do you have a boyfriend?

What does your boyfriend think about you doing this?

Does your boyfriend know you do this?

I couldn’t have a girlfriend who did this,

I’d get too jealous

I’d love it if my girl did this?

How much money do you make?

Are there cameras in the room?

Will you play with yourself?

What do your parents think of you doing this?

Are you ashamed of doing this?

Are you proud of doing this?

Do you have kids?

How can you do this with kids?

Do you want kids?

How could you tell your kids you do this?

What if your kids found out you did this?

Can I slip you a finger?

I bet they don’t watch the cameras.

I bet your filthy in bed.

The bodice I am wanting to use for my project. As you can see, the fabric is extremely thin, so it was decided I would use a nude fabric underneath that isn't as thin or stretching to embroid my text onto and then sew in the bodice. This would make the words look as if it on skin rather than the clothes itself. I found this idea would be more true to my concept, as the questions and statements said to the workers stay with them, like they are etched into their skin.

I tested the typing on the embroidery machine prior to sewing onto my fabric. I wanted to test which fonts available would be best for the presentation of my piece. Once I decided on a font, I began testing the embroidery on a small portion of fabric to ensure there was no wrinkling or snagging. In regards to this test, I found that this fabric still wasn't as stiff as I would need to get the best quality possible for my work. This caused my to put another underlayer under the nude fabric. In comparison with the further underlay to without, I found it more helpful to have the extra layer.

The embroiding process was quite lengthy, a lot more than first anticipated. This was mainly due to the fabrics used and the thread snapping multiple times. At this point in the project, I was a little worried about the remaining timescale, however, still pursued with the piece as I was determined.

My next issue was running out of the navy thread I was using for the text. Because of time becoming a slight issue, I changed to what seemed to look like a similar coloured thread. Unfortunately, it was more obvious that it was a different colour, but I had finished a quarter of my piece at this point and was in the hope that it wouldn't be as obvious when under the bodice.

When moving onto the next section of my fabric, more issues occurred. Not only did the thread snap even more regularly, it had caused the needle to snap and began tangling and knotting underneath. I still had patience and determination with this piece until the second needle snapped and the thread caught in the machine. Fearing the machine would break if I continued, combined with the result of the tangling, I came to the decision to stop my process with this piece. A like my video concept, I have used this part of the project as a learning curve in my abilities as an artist. I have learned that I need to look more into specific fabrics and threads for future products and to be more realistic and weary of size and styles of fonts to use. I have found during my process of this part of my project that the combination of these aspects were more than likely the reason for the failure of this potion of my project.

Images of the fabric where the thread caught and needle snapped

Final images of my fabric piece, front and back, after deciding to terminate my process