Get Inspired!

Architecture is something I have looked at before and I find it doesnt inspire me in the way I want to be for a project. I photographed familiar buildings around Manchester, experimenting with colour swatches from my images but I wasnt excited and felt slightly limited. Colour is one of my strengths and this is what I want to push in Unit X to build a really exciting body of work.

Manchester as a city is on a massive scale where buildings can be quite over whelming and the architecture isnt very vibrant or colourful. I want to look at Morroco concentrating on the warm colour pallets and inimate interiors which combine cosy textures and patterns. I want to create a sense of comfort and relaxation in a building which is used as a busy work environment.

Hotspur House - Unit X

So this is the new basis for the Unit X project. Its a really interesting building which I have walked past before and have had no idea what actually goes on inside. Its an independantly run space by artists, designers and creative people who work in the city. They have put a lot of effort into allowing the building to host their studio spaces and it seems like a lot of exciting things will happen here for Unit X.
Its definitely a change from the studio!

Sampling Evaluation

Now that this Sampling project has come to an end, my reflection is not what I expected it to be had I been asked at the start of the project. Splitting this project into two halves has really allowed me to see where the positives and negatives lie within my work.
My visual research started off quite vague not allowing any real connection to develop but after I had focused in on decorative pattern from lace and perfume bottles, my work began to have a stronger sense of direction. The way in which I was drawing really leant itself well to the marks that can be made with the sewing machines. I definitely went on a journey in my machine embroidery workshop making a lot of decisions rather than sticking to one path and following it to the end. Although I wish my end idea had come earlier to me, I feel that this really taught me about the creative process throughout the first 4 weeks. My colour choices went from pink and orange to shades of blue and then ending up at a monochrome colour pallet. Colour is always something that has been important to me and I never really considered not using it, yet for this workshop it was the best decision I made. I have a habit of complicating things and delaying time if I’m unsure of something but this realisation allowed me to see that sometimes simple can be more effective. I feel that from being in a confused question bubble, I ended up at a point where I created some really original samples that had a strong context within the visual elements of my drawing and sketchbook work. I ended this workshop with a lot of new ideas that I wish I could have developed further.

Although I feel that my first workshop eventually ended in a success, I know my dye and fibre workshop has really let my project down. Due to personal reasons, I missed two weeks of practical workshop time. This workshop had a lot of potential in really bringing the two elements of this project together and I could have used it to my advantage in combining techniques from two different areas of specialism to create distinctive and exciting samples. I wanted to experiment with the different techniques within Shibori such as folding, pleating, stitching, binding etc….., to discover the marks that could be made from each process. Initially I was going to experiment with dip dyeing, which I managed to do on a very basic level, and then moving on to being more purposeful and in control of what colours I wanted to achieve within exhaust dyeing. Once I had been able to create some controlled samples I wanted to work back into some of them with machine embroidery carrying on the successful techniques I was using at the end of that workshop to build a strong connection between each half of this project. For this reason I know I haven’t met my personal brief even close to what I could have. I think I’ve definitely learnt good things and bad things from this project. I need to be more decisive and confident within decisions even if they go wrong. There are many areas I am pleased with but also areas I wish that I could have achieved more from. I intend on taking everything I’ve learnt so far and put it into making my next project much more of a success from start to finish.

Dye and Fibre Workshop

I was really excited about the Dye and Fibre Workshop as although I really enjoyed working with a monochrome colour pallet within my embroidery, I was surprised at myself for this choice as colour has always been something that I find inspiring and important. I felt that because I struggled with my colour choices in the machine embroidery workshop, this new workshop was the perfect opportunity to explore this element properly and effectively. 

                       

                           

I narrowed down a colour pallet continuing on from development in my sketchbook.




The burn tests allows you to identify the fibre of the material. Synthetic fabrics do not work as well as natural fibres with particular dyes.

There are different sorts of marks that can be made through how you manipulate the fabric your working with. I explored some of these techniques with dip dying in direct dyes.

The materials I used were mainly silks but also some cottons.







Dyeing Yarn with direct dyes using a more controlled technique of exhaust dyeing.





Although this was my first time trying to achieve a particular colour, you can identify the difference. I was hoping to get a more sky blue colour in the yarn as opposed to turquoise blue cotton sample which I feel you can see in the photo above.


After researching more into Shibori and the techniques available I saw that a lot of the marks made on the material through tecnhiques such as folding, pinching, gathering, stitching etc, had an apparent resemblance to some of my linear lace drawings.

Machine Embroidery

I experimented most with the Tailor Tacking foot in my machine embroidery workshop as I found that this could create marks that linked in with my drawings and translated particular features really well. The colours selected for my technical samples were based on the colour workshop from the very start of the project giving me an initial colour pallet to work with.

When thinking about creating more directed and refined samples I realised my colour ways had to change to give a stronger link to my visual research.

However after a tutorial with Nigel where we discussed what direction we were taking our samples in, what was working successfully and what we wanted to push forward, it was suggested to me that because my work was primarily about mark making, perhaps I could think about simply using a black and white colour pallet. Before this suggection I was finding it really difficult to be happy with my samples particularly within the element of colour. I began to be more selective and purposeful with my choice of fabric, experimenting with opaque, delicate materials such as silk crepeline. The nature of this material allowed me to create really original samples that were in strong context with my drawings.

Had I have had more time to continue experimenting within this workshop I would have definitely stuck to the monochrome pallet. I wanted to explore working with white thread on to black material giving a subtle contrast to samples I had already achieved.

After being reminded of bonderweb, I went back to a technique I learnt in my BTEC art and design course. This particular drawing of lace really reminded me of the effect giiven by painting onto bonderweb and then ironing it on to fabric. I thought about how this could give an initial surface to work into with some of the emroidery techniques and perhaps if colour had have been more important to me for this workshop at this stage, this would have been an alternative way to bring it across my samples.

Analysing Colour

I find colour one of the most inspiring elements about creative work and analysing colour in such a strict way as we were shown in the colour workshop was something I really enjoyed. Being very critical on what I could see enabled me to achieve a much more realistic use of colour. This is something I experimented further with in my own time and found that it helped me with directing my colour pallet with in my work and also helped me translate it to others.



Looking at colours from collected fabrics.

Initially being quite loose and allowing room for errors when searching for the right colours allowed me to feel more confident at this exercise. I then looked over the swatches of colours I had picked out and narrowed them down more decisively to make colour ways based on the fabrics.

Reflection of Sampling Project

My inspiration for this sampling project was based on the words new and old. I applied them to the things I collect and what people in previous eras collected.  My initial drawings were from things that I keep around me, decorative objects that I have collected in the past.

However I was aware that there was no flow or link between the objects that I was drawing or any real connection that held the project together naturally. I decided to focus on the old element of my project and began to look at perfume bottles and their ornate designs. My work began to take more of a direction in mark making and patterns and linked in really well with some drawings of lace that I had done previously in the project. This then progressed through my machine embroidery and I began to manipulate the processes and techniques shown to me to bear more of a distinct relation to my visual research.  I think at first I was restricting my thoughts in the way I was worried that my work had to visually represent perfume bottles but actually simply looking at the object and thinking about what element I wanted to extract from it allowed my work to become more original and not just trying to recreate what I had seen.

One particular foot in embroidery worked really well for my samples. The tailor tacking foot allowed me to create really delicate illustrative marks. I wanted to bring across this element of transparency and working with materials such as silk organza not only exaggerated the marks but also allowed me to work the fabric in a much easier way.

Originally the colour choices in my workshop had come from colour experimentation that I had done from a post card which at this point had no strong relation to my visual research. After experimenting with relevant colours of blues and greens in my samples I realised that my work for this particular workshop wasn’t about colour. Therefore limiting myself to a simpler monochrome colour pallet allowed me to focus entirely on the marks that I was making with the machine.

I have definitely been made more aware of what can be achieved in machine embroidery as my previous experience has been with a simple free hand embroidery foot or a straight stitch foot. I think that there is the possibility within the next part of my project to combine both my skills in machine embroidery and the skills I have yet to learn in die and fibre workshop.  Although colour became less of an important feature in my samples for this workshop, I am going to continue with my colour pallets to help me develop my samples in the next workshop.