My Independent project was intended to be a quilt of indigo dyed patched squares.

My process started out with creating my indigo vat and individually dying each piece of cloth. This part wasn’t too difficult except it was time consuming, I ended up dying over the course of a few days. The greatest struggle I faced was getting patterns to take, especially if they were folded alot. However, I thought the dying was successful and I enjoy the collection of prints and differences of deepnesss in indigo the quilt has.

The next step was patching the squares together, this step was difficult and again time consuming but there ere no major issues I. came across while doing this.

After I began to embroider at the corners of the patchwork. I recreated leaves and stems that had some color relationship to represent the natural aspect of indigo dyeing.

From there I began to quilt. This might have been the most difficult part of my process. I struggled to sew straight because the heaviness of the piece and my lack of space pulled it in a different direction while I was sewing. Also this piece was too big and dense and it gave me issues guiding it through the sewing machine. These issues are visible however I’m still satisfied with how the piece turned out.

This is the stage where my independent project is at currently. This last week I’ve been able to do a couple of dye sessions with my indigo vat to produce these 16 squares thats Ive been able to sew together.

I have found difficulty in the dyeing process. I had planned to do a specific pattern using the rod dye and have that pattern surround the work I’ve done as a border, however I’ve struggled to get the pattern to take along the entire cloth. Ive decided to abandon that idea and go for a simple dyed cloth that doesn’t have any pattern. I will be doing that soon and then then sewing the border on. Until then I am not going to focus on the embroidery aspect I would like to include in this piece.

In each corner I will be using a couple of different embroidery techniques to create a leaf like shape. The color of the thread will stand out from the the indigo blue of the fabric but won’t be so different that the colors seem to fight and argue for control.

After the border and embroidery I will begin the quilting process which I hope to start by the end of this weekend or early next week.

Update to timeline:

12/03- Finish Dyeing process

12/04- Sew on border

12/05- Complete Embroidery

12/06- Begin Quilting

12/08- Complete Quilting.

For my Digital Print I decides to pick object that were around me and were keeping me sane.

One thing I enjoyed about this project was my attention to detail with each sketch. Most of the elements in this print are products, so I tried to imitate the fonts and the texture of each element for it to be as realistic as possible. I do wish those details could be more visible so that they could be appreciated more. The image above was my first draft, which I wasn’t satisfied with because it looked super busy and reminded me of a Christmas wreath.

I added slight changes to the elements, for example I included a carmex that was opened and showed the jelly substance that comes out of it and for my nail spray I tried to depict it spraying everywhere to give action to these inanimate objects.

Another challenge I found was the significant effect spacing and order had. Where I put the elements, how I stacked them onto of each other and the spacing of the pattern really made a difference in what the pattern looked like.

I would probably make this pattern a sticker and put it on my laptop or water bottle because I think its too busy for it to be a wallpaper or something hung up or even worn.

Create a proposal about the direction you are your project.  Include in your proposals the following: three developed sketches or collages of your idea, a paragraph that states the core concept, a paragraph that articulates your choice of materials, and a practical timeline for your project. Create a blog post for your proposal for Nov. 24 in category labeled Independent Project.

The core concept of the project is to imitate adire patterns created with Yoruba traditional indigo dyeing. I want to dye about 9 patches with 4 patterns that will be repeated. The ninth patch will have a pattern but its main function will be to highlight the names of my family members. My last name means “The crown that never fades” so I wanted to incorporate that by taking an aspect of the same tradition that is not as celebrated and making sure it doesn’t not fade by trying to honor it. To incorporate the names I plan to embroider them using a back hand stitch (most likely).

For my choice of materials I will use muslin, cotton batting, embroidery floss, and an indigo dye kit. I will be using muslin, because I know I will need a goof amount of it and its easier to obtain. I expect the dye to come by next week, which will provide everything I’ll need to set up. The color of my embroidery floss will be a blue that is not as rich as the indigo dye however I want it to stand out without contrasting. I want the names and the patterns/dyeing to feel like they are working together rather than separate.

Timeline:

11/29- Dyeing Process will be complete

12/2- embroidered names will be complete

12/6- Quilting of each piece will be done

12/8 – Pieces will be stitched together

12/10- Final Presentations

The first sketch is an indigo dyed quilt to mimic Adire cloth

The second sketch is an indigo dyed dress with a traditional Yoruba style of dress.

The last sketch is a set of scarves/cloths, that will be dyed and embroidered to represent the meaning of my sisters and my names.

I chose the third prompt to make a pattern using drawn sketched of objects around us. During this project I was experiencing zoom fatigue and allergies, which inspired me to pick my artificial tears and allergy medication. From there I wanted to pick more of my everyday objects that I look to and interact with everyday. I then chose my Carmex and included multiple because I am never only using one. I also sketched a painting that I had done that I look to everyday because it made the collection of objects feel more personal. Finally, I sketched my snake plant and pothos and created a background for this collection of objects.

A challenge I had was learning how to use illustrator and getting through my upload issues and my laptops inability to process so much at once. Thankfully I had Olivia’s help as well as my design and architecture friends to help me through the questions that were not answered through google.

One discovery I found was that using adobe draw to sketch my objects was much more work than I expected. I tried to play with opacities, different stroke levels, and colors to create textures, but all that work is translated into the pattern because they are such minuscule details. Most of them can be seen in a blown up image of the elements used to create the pattern. However, for example the different colors and strokes I used for my snake plant to get the realistic look of the plant cannot really be seen.

This is a small embroidery by Sarah Lipska. I chose the first textile because I appreciated the color contrast and how striking the combination of these two colors were. I also think along with the contrast, the intricacy and nonuniform direction of all the lines makes this piece even more captivating. As simple as it is it still finds a way to draw it’s audiences eyes and I found myself wanting to trace the lines or follow the many direction they go in.

This piece is called Mermaid Legend by Sorosilutu Ashoona. I chose this second textile because I liked the fantasy of it. The first image I could interpret was the mermaid, or what looks like and aquatic human. The next image I could grasp onto was the intimidating bird that connected and feels like it is terrorizing the aquatic animal. This piece was interesting because the mixing of reality and fantasy ideas. On one hand humans are real, aquatic animal are really and there are birds that eat and terrorize those aquatic animals (fish), all of that are real things, events, ways of life. But the inclusion of this semi aquatic, semi human animal is a fantasy and is inputed into real event (birds eating fish), which takes this real event and turns it into the impossible by simply changing the subject.

I had a pessimistic view of our future. With everything that has happened this year I feel as if this is the beginning of a movement that will lead to a civil war. Tensions have been high and it doesn’t seem like they will lessen or change will occur. What I tried and am still working to depict is the ending our country by our history. The phrase that I got from this was “Hung by your past”, which is similar to the phrase “come back to bite you”

The first thing I created was a 2 colored doll, with a rope wrapped around its neck and body. With this I wanted to allude to lynchings that occurred in the 1860’s till around the late 1960’s. To do this I drew of the wrong side of the fabric and then sewed the two pieces together, leaving a space open so that I could flip it inside out. I then suffer the head and limbs with rice so that they had a nice hang un filled the rest of the body with stuffing. The difficulty with this figure was that the fabric I used was delicate, and came apart very easily.

This is an up-close image of the roots of the tree that I drew with the sewing machine. I enjoyed the texture that this gave the tree and felt as if it did look like roots which was what I was going for.

I then sewed the rope around one of the branches I created to give the effect that the top was tied around the tree. I wanted this to show Black people being hung by roots, because roots are usually tied to history. So this is meant to show what has happened in the past.

I also sewed the top of the tree which represent the present/future. This piece was tedious and took a large time because of the lazy Daisys and separating the different embroidery flosses so that I could have different mixture of greens. It also took time because I stuffed each other branches and had to cut multiple holes to get this raised effect.

Finally I created a character depiction of a KKK member. To do this I first created the figure and stuffed it, after I used red embroidery thread to sew this on the silver fabric. The most difficult part of this piece was the rope, I found that it mattered how fast this was running under the sewing machine and it made a difference in how spaced out or close together the sticking was. I also struggle with keeping the stick in line, because the position of the needle was sometime misleading.

I plan to keep working on this and make it a story quilt with more patches of symbols of our present and future that connect now.

1. hazy sky
2. fire
3. white house
4. American flag
5. white supremacy organization symbols
6. confederate flag
7. “We the People”
8. “In God we Trust”
9. blood tree
10. roots to slavery
11. rice
12. whips
13. hoses
14. teeth
15. ropes
16. lynching
17. white coats
18. slave patrol=police officer star
19. politicians
20. Supreme Court justices
21. weaving black woman
22. heart=humanity
23. Blood dripping from sun
24. dark new moon
25. grim reaper
26. ten commandments
27. bible
28. skeletons
29. music notes
30. trail of blood
31. tear gas cans
32. ivy
33. chains
34. loose limbs
35. evil eye
36. witchcraft
37. potions
38. rag dolls
39. dreads
40. braids
41. lots of hair
42. cameras
43. flashing lights
44. tv
45. phones
46. radios
47. instagram
48. facebook
49. twitter
50. bonnets
51. durags
52. pregnant woman
53. giving birth
54. globe covered in dripping blood
55. paper and pen
56. backwards/ non- linear story line
57. diary
58. burning forests
59. “NO”
60. “HATE”
61. bruised face
62. spotlights
63. roots
64. animals
65. marine life
66. the levels of life
67. hell
68. marine life
69. land
70. wildfires
71. war
72. global warming
73. purgatory
74. heaven
75. flipped tree
76. hangings in hell
77. roots to heaven
78. bullets
79. bats/clubs
80. silver lining
81. unity
82. washing hand
83. the creation of Adam
84. weaving
85. sewing outlines
86. mixed race
87. black titans
88. chopped up bodies
89. clan masks
90. bird masks
91. African mask
92. health mask
93. crematorium
94. cemetery
95. sprinklers
96. smoke
97. handcuffs
98. huge watering can
99. blood money
100. scarves

There are images that might make people feel uncomfortable regarding recent protests and racism.

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By 2030, I see a civil war. This year has been focused on police brutality, oppressions of poc (with emphasis on bipoc), the intersectionalities with race, gender, sexuality, etc. It feels like there is a war coming because no matter the actions of civilians administration isn’t listening. Anger and being ignored is growing and by 2030 I feel it will bubble over. Another thing I see is white supremacy, I think it will be louder and more explicit. It seems that organizations with this belief are becoming more bold and outright with their belief and actions. Overall, I see alot of violence, fighting back, reform and hope.