Sweeping the Floor // Hand & Lock

 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 of pink and yellow Angelina fibres to bring back some more of the glamorous side of drag. Next I think I will add some hand stitched beading onto the dustpan and surrounding the feet to represent dirt but in a playful way.  I could also perhaps include some background details with free machine embroidery/hand embroidery or more beading.

This piece has been photographed hung on a line and I think this kind of emphasises the aspect of chores reflecting a washing line or a hung up tea towel and could be a way of displaying the final product.