Machine Tests

Testing the mark-making capabilities of a Singer 6606. Machine sewing is undoubtably faster than hand stitching, though less versatile, working in continuous lines of locking stitch.

Borne from ineptly tensioned threads and the topography of creased fabric, the tests materialize in varying degrees of focus under the illumination of a flat-bed scanner.

Travel Cloth #2

Planes of highway concrete smooth the transit between Sydney and Canberra, so the resulting stitches have not strayed as far across the fabric as the previous cloth. Instead, the stitches are more densely packed - a road map of the streamlined journey. Collected rubbings from both ends of the trip stain the fabric with a combination of dark exhaust stains and exposed earth. Stitching time was 4 hrs 45 mins over 479 kms.

Travel Cloth Project

While road tripping the South Coast recently, I started a brief, experimental sewing project, with car movements dictating where every stitch would begin. Along the way, I soaked the work in the turbulent ocean. I then stitched a length of found fishing line into the outer edges of the cloth. Finally, I traced charcoal (sourced from the remains of beach-bonfires) into the salty valleys of fabric. Impregnated with evidences of the sea and the surrounding landscape, the cloth represents 293 km's worth of travel - 4 hr and 17 mins.