Imogen Anastasia Millard

After a long, 12 hour digital embroidery stitch out session, the base design is complete. The design was stitched out onto a pink a sturdy cotton fabric which I dyed and from here the hand stitched beading elements just need to be added.   The total size of this piece is going to be 1m x 0.4m in size so the largest piece I have created so far. The extra details that are going to be added are to add more of the glamorous side of drag into the design again and provide a stark contrast between the subject of the embroidery. 

 Developed from first hand research as a digital illustration and then converted into Wilcom. Through converting the design as two layers - one being all the base colours and shapes and the other being the satin run stitch, I successfully transferred by design through the smart design feature. After changing all the base layer stitches to tatami and then adding back in details with satin stitch on the nails and the iron rim. For the tatami stitched parts I edited the angles of stitch so that they flowed better round the shapes of the design. On the arm stitching I added the Florentine effect on Wilcom so the stitches follow round and add depth to the shape.  This piece was stitched out onto a plain, hot pink cotton and is part of the Ready To Go Nowhere collection I have developed for the Hand and Lock competition.

 To develop this sample further, I added some hand stitched randomly shaped and sized beading on the floor. The different beads are used to reflect the dirt that the person is sweeping up and to emphasis the contrast between the mundanity of life and drag. 

 Following on from the concept of getting dressed to go nowhere, this collection explored how during the pandemic many people could only go out to do the weekly shop or to work. I did a drag look inspired by Tescos bags and photographed myself in the Tescos uniform to then develop print designs from.

 Following on from the "Doing the Laundry" post, this sample is again taking inspiration from drag and how it can elevate the mundaness of lockdown. These pieces are part of the development for my Hand & Lock competition entry this year the brief title being "Digital Doppelgängers".  I think that these samples so far playfully intemperate the "beauty in the everyday" part of the brief and take direct inspiration from my surroundings which they suggest. At the moment I only have two samples developed and stitched and still need to work out a way to successfully combine them. Perhaps in a blog post later on I will explain my concept in more detail! For now here is the latest sample I have done which has been developed from my Ready-to-go-Nowhere photography. From the photograph I created a digital drawing on Procreate on my iPad and then converted this in the Wilcom software in layers. This sample has been stitched onto an orange poly cotton with a layer

 This piece was developed from the photos taken from doing the chores in full drag. The design was digitally drawn on the ProCreate for my iPad. I then converted this image on the Wilcom embroidery software, experimenting with different fills, runs and motif stitches. To make the conversion process more smooth I converted the design in layers with the base layer first and then the continuous line drawing onto and converted into a satin run stitch which was then overlaid.  The design was then stitched out onto calico with a layer of fused Angelina fibres onto. After stitching to bring back some more texture and more of the glamorous side of drag to the design, I hand stitched on some delicate glass beads to represent the sequins of the top.