J Linley Access

Final Major Project title - ' What's the point of life if you don't live it'   I chose this title because it sums up my whole scooter journey that this piece represents. It shows the link between the past, the present and the future. How one aspect of your life can continue like the threads of time interlinking the past memories with creating new ones.   I like the fact that it tells a story, although anyone who views this won't know the personal story behind it. To them it will just be a piece of artwork and will look more at the aesthetic side. The fact that only a selected few people will ever know the true meaning behind everything incorporated into this to me adds more depth and substance. 

I created some bias binding to sew around the shape. This reminded me of the legshield rubber around an actual front legshield of a scooter. It also neatens the edge of the fabric.

I then traced around the original card to create this shape, adding seam allowances so that I could sew it onto the card.

This shows the embroidery and the words of two northern soul songs completed. The songs are Just Your Fool by Eddie Whitehead and I'm on my way by Dean Parrish. These were chosen as they have a great deal of meaning to me but also that Northern Soul music is a large part of the scooter scene. Northern Souls songs courtesy of - 'I’m on my way'. Dean Parrish. 1967. Written by Doug Morris, Elliot Greeenburg. Released on Laurie Label   'Just Your Fool'. Eddie Whitehead 1969. Written by Kenny Smith.   Released on Blackjack Label

To add interest to the jeans I roughly cut them into strips and sewn them back together to create a more textural/rough platform to then start adding the words. I decided to embroidery the actual scooter rallies I have attended which has the greatest meaning to my work. Bridlington, Scarborough, Whitby, Southport and Kelso. These all have personal meanings i.e. from the first scooter rally I ever attended to the last my husband attended. I chose to add two northern soul songs which again have a great deal of personal meaning. I first started to embroidery this on, but found that visually this wasn't strong enough as I knew that this piece would be exhibited online only. I therefore decided not to embroidery these words and just use marker pen. This shows up more in a photograph.

I decided to cover the card in wadding to give it a bit more shape and structure. I then chose to cover the piece with a pair of my late husbands jeans.   I chose this fabric as my brief throughout has been my personal story with the scooter scene throughout the years. I wanted something that would connect and interlink the whole piece together. I wanted to create an object that obviously told some kind of story and that would make the viewer wonder and think about what the connections could be. I feel it adds meaning and depth to the piece when the actual personal connections are then known. I chose these colours for the embroidery as I wanted to add a more feminine aspect as it mainly male dominated in the actual scooter scene.

Hole cut into card and the speedometer placed in. I decided to place the speedometer into the card rather than at the top to keep the original curved shape at the top. The overall shape reminds me of the front legshield part of a scooter.

I have a piece of curved cardboard which shape reminds me of the front legshield of a scooter. I am thinking of cutting the bottom off it and then creating a hole near the top to insert the speedo. I will cover this with foam first to create depth and then in fabric.

I decided to try a different medium to experiment with. I am interested in textiles and feel that I haven't experimented in any 3D work within this unit. I like the art that I completed previously which shows my story of scooters in rallies and northern soul songs and want to experiment more in 3D. I have sketched a rough idea of what I will be making. I have an actual scooter part that I want to incorporate into art, with the though of putting the speedo into the middle of the work. The work is made with fabric, possibly a patchwork effect of my late husbands denim jeans, with various scooter rallies and northern soul songs hand embroidered/hand printed onto it. The back may show a 'spare tyre' which will enable the work to stand independently.

Experiment with decollage. I have never done this method before so was interested to see how it would turn out. I used pages from a scooter magazine as well as words from northern soul songs, with different scooter rallies printed on. Quite pleased with the outcome although I used the wrong coloured paper, the blue and the yellow as its too stark. I like the 'roughness' of it I think it ties in well with the scooter theme. Will experiment more with this.

I then combined my scooter 'story' onto one image. Everything on the image holds meaning for me, from the northern soul song I chose, the scooter image I used and the different scooter rallies I have attended. These were then over laced by the different coloured threads, representing the continuous threads that have tied me to the scooter scene for a number of years.   I really like this image, it tells my scooter story which is important for me. I think the words are very important, to the general public they may seem quite random, but like that this is a story that people would have to guess/imagine what the connection is.

This is an image of 'Queenie', a scooter that we owned several years ago. I decided to expand on the hand sewn threads theme and decided to add hand embroidered images onto the scooter itself. Pleased with the embroidery actually on the scooter itself.

I then decided to experiment more with the threads combination. I decided to use 2 different coloured threads and really like the way it that the 2 threads create a linear 'grid' look. It adds texture to the image.

Photograph with added hand sewn thread.   Decided to experiment with threads, to continue to explore the textile/paper combination. The image I printed off in sepia which gives it a more older feel to the image. I like the way that the threads radiate out from the abbey, may complete a bigger image of this but with more threads.