Imogen Anastasia Millard

 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.