Images_May_2020_Digital_Edition

www.images-magazine.com MAY 2020 images 21 KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES This re-imagining of the cover of a 1954 horror magazine called Chamber of Chills, created by Marcus Davis, uses embroidery, glow-in-the-dark vinyl – and marker pens Anatomy of an embroidery www.threadgalleryemb.com The design was digitised using APS-Ethos embroidery digitising software. The thread used was Madeira 40 weight rayon thread. Also from Madeira was the 75/11 sharp needle and E-Zee Cut 2.5oz backing material. Marcus removed the protective covering of the vinyl before applying it to the canvas during the embroidery process to avoid adding an unnecessary layer to the appliqué. The embroidery is one colour (black) at around 68,000 stitches on 100% cotton canvas, which takes about two hours of run time on Marcus’s Barudan Bent ZQ single-head embroidery machine. During the embroidery process, Marcus took some of the Glow heat transfer vinyl and cut it to a size and shape that would overlap the areas that he wanted the embroidery to cover, creating a type of appliqué process. Marcus then took the image to his Stahls’ Hotronix Auto Clam Heat Press and bonded the vinyl to the canvas by pressing it at 300°F (149°C) at a medium pressure for 15 seconds. With the Glow vinyl now permanently bonded to the image, he began to paint and add colour to the image with Copic marker pens. M arcus Davis of The Thread Gallery originally developed this mixed media piece using just embroidery and Copic marker pens. He then thought about introducing some ‘glow’ to the design through an appliqué process. “Once I discovered the Stahls’ Glow heat transfer vinyl, I knew I had to try and combine this material with my embroidery file to give it an extra level of creepiness,” he explains. Embroidery is a “fantastic medium”, reports Marcus, as it can add dimension and depth to an image, but combining it with a material such as the Cad-Cut Glow vinyl makes it almost an “interactive piece”. He adds: “When the lights are dimmed, or even if a shadow is cast on the image, it takes on a whole new level of interest with the glowing letters. With a full charge, the Glow vinyl will shine for several hours. “I’m extremely pleased with my first attempt at using this combination of techniques and materials and I now have several other projects in mind on which to try this combination again.” Once the embroidery was complete, he began the weeding process of removing any of the Glow vinyl from areas that he didn’t want to keep.