Why Petroglyphs
My favourite find at second hand markets of op shops (thrift/charity) is anything Harris Tweed. I am a bit obsessed with this fabric because it is so special, as it is dyed, spun and hand woven by weavers from the Isle of Harris in their own homes.
Many of the tweeds that I have salvaged have textures that reminded me of rock or stone, so my mind went to petroglyphs, as something I could apply to them and give them new life. Strictly speaking, petroglyphs are prehistoric rock carvings, while rock paintings are pictographs; I have used reference images from both of these. If you have ever seen this rock art in person, then its graphic vocabulary is obviously projecting a powerful mythological narrative; and the fact that you don’t clearly know what the story is does not diminish its power and effect.
My Process
I followed my usual process of tracing my reference pictures with a heat transfer pen onto paper and then transferring the image to felt backing fabric with an iron. The backing fabric was a colour that I new would come through, as part of the needle felting process, and give me a rock carving effect, with two colours. I then needle felted by hand, followed by felting down with my felting machine. I then had a number of appliques available.
The jacket that I decided to use was an R.M. Williams jacket that I salvaged from an Op Shop in Melbourne and not Harris Tweed. I decided that the herringbone texture was closer to the rock texture that I was looking for.
These appliques were then arranged and pinned to the jacket until I was satisfied with the placement.
Application Process
Normally, I use my felting machine to apply these felt appliques and this was reasonably satisfactory on the front of the jacket that was double sided. The back, however, was only a single layer of fabric, which was quite thin. On top of that, in my experience, herringbone is prone to fraying. Therefore, there is a lot of fraying on the edges and I actually made holes in the sleeve. I repaired the sleeves by applying a felt backing underneath and needle felting by hand on top. You can see by the image that there is some puckering as a result.
Necessity is the mother of invention
Despite my attempts to repair by needle felting alone, I was not happy with the results. I think I was weeding the garden when it suddenly came to me that I could do some Boro Stitching. I have previously completed a few Sashiko garments, so I felt confident that I could use these techniques to great artistic effect and repair and strengthen the jacket at the same time.
The results were quite pleasing and repairs look like they were an intended part of the design.
The last thing I did was to balance the back of the jacket with a hand print.
