Processing meets Blackwork

I spent a few hours yesterday doing a bit of processing playing. I’ve done a few basic tutorials etc over the years but haven’t really felt the need to do anything with it, and without a project it’s a bit hard to get stuck in.

I have some work data I’d like to visualise, not to get any additional meaning out of it particularly and not in an infographic sense, just because I think it could be an interesting and fun thing to do, and is something I haven’t done before. Actually, as the data is geographical, I might actually be better looking at something like D3 so I might give that a try another day.

Yesterday I just wanted to get a feel for processing. So I thought I’d try and draw the two blackwork patterns I stitched at the weekend.

I started by making a background grid in a pale grey. This was to mimic my fabric.

I then coded up the Open Zig Zag pattern.

And then the tulips.

And then I thought I’d do the experiment in code that I’d been considering doing in thread - different coloured tulips. (Yes, I know, the word ‘black’ in blackwork implies black thread but that isn’t actually a restriction.) These colours were chosen deliberately, as they match the paler oranges in the first iPhone case I stitched which is what I’d been thinking of using as I have still got left over threads. As is visible from the screenshot below, it doesn’t exactly stand out and is quite subtle, so this may need a bit of a rethink. Easier to do in code than in thread!

Anyway, an interesting and fun way to spend a few hours, and coding up some blackwork patterns captured my imagination a bit more than just following a tutorial to get a (very) basic grasp of how to work with processing.