Embroidered map of imaginary islands

[oh-meow.livejournal.com]

Here's the embroidery I've been working on for my my installation in my MA Illustration exhibition. The whole thing (islands and sea) took me about 70 hours. I am thoroughly sick of embroidery at this point. It's part of an interactive exhibit about Greek Mythology.







I got some fabric printed up by Spoonflower and embroidered the waves on with chain stitch in standard embroidery floss and Rowan knitting cotton for the thicker lines.



(Here's a closeup- the whole thing measures 18"/45cm square and has about 50-60m of embroidery on it)



I added islands on, stuffed them to create a relief effect, and then mounted the fabric onto a wooden frame. (Sorry this one was on the floor- it was hard to get enough distance to fit the whole thing in with a 50mm lens, and my 28mm lens distorts the lines too much)



On a table to show the relief a little better.





Where the stars are, photoresistors will be connected up to an Arduino, and when a visitor moves the model boat to that place, the computer will play the animation (ok, Captain Pugwash-style animatic thing) for that island.

The textile map was meant to match as closely as possible to the style of the animations. Here's the loop which will greet visitors for comparison (there are some sea monsters and things I need to add in to the animation tomorrow).