Fabric Sculpture - Creating Sculptural Forms with Textiles

Why not?

Why be constricted to working in 2D all the time?

For years I've had an urge to work my textiles pieces in 3D - technically I have done this all along by making art dolls and even bags and purses but I want to start making vessels too!

I've played with stuffing shapes and making structures to attach fabric to but I want to play with making a sculpture that's made out of fabric and nothing else.

How far can I push fabric? How high can I build it without it going floppy? What textures can I create?

Fabric can be coiled, in the same way that clay can be coiled, to make structures.

In order to make a coiled structure you need to cut a piece of fabric into a long length (I usually make the strips of fabric about an inch across).

Next you twist the fabric strip until it makes a more solid cord and coil it around whilst sewing the coiled strip into place.

The diagrams below show you how you can sew the strip into a coil. Either tack the strip together with little delicate stitches at the edges, or slip the thread right around the whole twisted strip.

As you sew the coil it will probably start to take on a bowl like shape instead of a flat round shape because of the tension from sewing it together. This is perfect for making a big vessel.

Don't despair if your coiled shape comes out looking weird.

I had trouble when I first started making a coiled bowl because the base just didn't want to lie flat. In the end I had to push the base up so it made a wider base. You then need to sew that shape in place.

The images below are my first attempts at coiling fabric.

I used cream coloured yarn (with a tapestry needle) on a dark brown fabric. The fabric was from an old pair of trousers - this horrible synthetic stuff that no one in their right mind would want next to their skin!

Of course, you don't have to make your stitches so obvious against the fabric but you can create some gorgeous effects this way.

Once I'd made these coiled pieces I melted the fabric a little to give them a distressed look.

Coiled fabric pieces can make a fantastic organic texture and could be made into objects or applied to textiles backgrounds.

The image below shows a fabric bowl in progress.

I wanted to make a bowl that looked like a nest.

I made the coiled bowl from tweed fabric and then played with stuffing little pieces of fake fur in between the coils - I didn't end up using this for my finished bowl but I love the idea of being able to poke other fabrics and objects between the coils and have them poking out.

I covered the finished nest bowl with strips of fabric.

These strips were sewn vertically to counteract the horizontal coiling. The strips acted as anchors that held the coils into a specific shape.

I'd love to make a large vessel where you can see the coils on the outside as opposed to something like this where all the coiling is hidden underneath.

I love the idea of making a large coiled fabric pot like the one below.

I'm not sure what I'd do with it, in my tiny house, when I'd finished with it though!

I've been wondering whether a larger pot like this would be able to support its own weight.

When I made the nest above the structure became much sturdier when I added fabric along the inside and stitched it all into place.

The doodle below looks like some sort of beehive or wasps' nest.

The beads pictured below are made entirely out of wrapped fabric.

I started thinking about how these could be attached to each other to create structures.

I love the idea for adding these to the top of a coiled fabric pot.

To make the beads you need a long piece of fabric. Make a ring at one end of the fabric and then continue to wrap the rest of the fabric strip around this ring until you get to the end.

In the doodle below I've thought about making a vessel out of these donut beads.

I love the idea of creating a vessel that has holes!

If you don't want holes you could stuff them with contrasting fabric or line the inside of the vessel with another fabric.

The images opposite and below are from a crazy knitted wall hanging that I made for my partner.

I was following a pattern that is supposed to depict Megatron from Transformers by alternating knits and purls. I was trying to use metal colours and because I didn't have many yarns in greys and silver I decided to spin some yarn from my fabrics.

I ended up with this really thick cord which was a bit of a pain to knit with but it created this amazing warping effect.

You can see this warping in the image opposite even though this is just straight garter stitch.

I didn't intend to have this warping occur in this piece but I felt excited about it. I started to think about how I could use this effect to make a really interesting piece of sculptural fabric.

The knitted fabric has such a fantastically heavy solid quality to it too.

Below I've doodled down a really quick idea for making a knitted hanging.

I love the idea that hangings don't need to be flat on a wall.

I love the idea of forcing so much fabric into a row of knitting that it bulges out in funny directions.

To make it bulge even more you could add big chunky beads or weave other yarns, fabrics and cords in between the stitches.

I'm not sure the doodled idea below would work but I love the idea of making a circular piece of knitting and in the same way creating these buckled areas where there's too much to fit.

This piece could either hang from the ceiling or it could be stuffed to make some sort of odd sculpture.

Intense stitching can create raised areas like the detail below.

Of course, alone this isn't going to make a sculpture but you can stiffen pieces of fabric with really dense stitching and these pieces can then be attached together or applied to other pieces.

I've never tried it, but I'm wondering whether you could create a 3D bowl by sewing in concentric circles?

Maybe you'd have to pleat your fabric in places a little to force it into a shape.

If you have more fabric than you know what to do with - like I do - then this could be the process for you.

I seem to have a lot of fabric that I don't like as well so this process could be a good way of using that fabric up without having to look at it!

Basically if you layer up really thick layers of fabric and sew them together in "slabs" you're creating something thick and solid that can support itself.

In the same way, as you use slabs in ceramics to make a structure, you can make a fabric structure out of thick fabric layers.

In the doodles below I've thought about using different processes with layers of fabric.

It could be fun to carve holes in your fabrics so that you can see all the layers - this would be particularly fun if you have different coloured fabrics running through your layers.

You could either make holes by using scissors to cut the holes in exactly the right places before you layer the fabrics or you could use synthetic fabrics and "carve" holes with a soldering iron or melt through with a hot air gun.

As mentioned above with my ideas for a circular knitted wall hanging you can stuff shapes to create a solid soft sculpture.

In fact people have been making soft sculpture for years.

You can make a stuffed sculpture in several different ways.

1. Make a pattern first and sew it together and then stuff it.

This is the way you'd make a traditional teddy bear or a similar soft toy. The hat shown below was created by stuffing a cone shape with stuffing.

2. Grab a ball of stuffing, cover it with fabric and start stitching.

I love this technique. You're effectively sculpting with needle and thread and you can create some great little faces this way for art dolls.

3. Needle felting.

Needle felting is awesome because unlike wet felting you can use manmade stuffing or pieces of wadding to create sculpted shapes (check out the needle felted doll shown further down this page).

The image below shows a doll that I completely needle felted from wool and off cuts of wadding discarded from other textiles projects.

I love that wool and stuffing could be used to make large sculptural forms. As long as the base is bigger than the top it would stand up if it has been felted enough.

Needle felting does take a long time, however. This doll is huge and I worked on it on and off for a few weeks.

Under Structures can be made out of anything.

I've made a lot of art dolls etc that have structures made out of junk - a lot of old tins and plastic tubs and wire coathangers.

The piece below is a Christmas tree I made one year!

I started with a old metal biscuit tin and attached a piece of wood to make the height.

I then made the cone shape out of layered textiles and stuffed it with an old duvet!