I thought that the timing of this lecture was quite ironic, because in our last tutorial Fiona had literally banned everyone in the group from using the free machine embroidery technique, and Alice Kettle's work consists primarily of free machine embroidery, which she uses to create abstract images of people and places.
I thought that Alice Kettle's different interpretations of thread, such as what it's for and different ways it can be used, was interesting to hear. She mentioned the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, where thread is given to Theseus so he will be able to find his way of of the labyrinth, so in this story thread has a key role because without it, Theseus would never have been able to find the entrance of the maze again. She then went on to say that she uses thread as an expressive material, and I noticed that her would could have been represented in a similar way by using paint.
Not all of her work is made by using the free machining technique though, She showed us some photographs of her work 'The Garden of England', displayed at the Queen's House in Greenwich. One piece that I thought was really interesting the flower helix that hung from the ceiling, in the centre of a spiral staircase. I like seeing how other materials can be incorporated into textiles, and I think that wire is definitely something I am considering working with at the moment, because I will need to experiment with different structures for nests, etc. She also said that some of the students from a previous year has volunteered to help her install some of her work for the project, which would have been a great opportunity to gain some work experience.
She also said that some of her work is created by using the ETHOS multi-head machine, however the one she used was an industrial sized one with four heads, as opposed to the one in the embroidery department which has one head. I've tried this machine before, and I thought that it was great because you can achieve a hand stitched appearance, but it doesn't take anywhere near as long. This is definitely a machine I would like to use more, whether that being with this project or future ones.
