Earlier Work of Laura Kent Textiles

Laura Kent | Level Four and Five Textiles in Practice | Manchester School of Art

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Sunday, 19 January 2014

Glue Gun Experimentation...

Continuing with my circular lace/ knot sampling, I have been messing around with the glue gun attempting to produce the same patterns as my yarns, with glue. It seemed pretty easy until it came to getting the samples off of their surfaces. Momentarily there was the added struggle of having gel nails, meaning gripping the glue proved difficult before I'd even come across the snapping situation. I've managed to selvedge most of the samples (with a few casualties).

It's interesting because the samples remind me of Fromental's work, unconsciously linking the samples back to my initial research week.


The pieces look interesting both on their own, and when added as another texture to the yarn samples. Also, sticking with the neutral palette idea, they look good just placed on a plastic wallet, with the transparency behind. When thinking of this idea in terms of my live brief, it once again boils down to looking at the patterns that I am able to produce in my sampling. With a material such as glue it is really hard to create neat, orderly work, which is why it makes sampling so interesting- never will there be a piece the same.

I'll have to make some more samples to continue experimenting, but as an idea I think that it's quite promising. I could change the sizes, thicknesses, colour of the glues (adding inks/paints), change the way that they are presented.. the list goes on and on. When speaking to Fiona earlier in the week, she rightly reminded me that this is the time to be playing and enjoying my work, experimenting with all kinds of materials. I think that I have a tendency to over-think my work, so playing with materials such as the glue is the starting point I need to let go of that control and just try as big of a range as possible.