Locating Week Two

After the Apron briefing we had a group tutorial as this was the first tutorial it was more of a group discussion about which live briefs we had chosen and how we planed to split the time between the two units. As this was something that was worrying me I brought it up in discussion as some girls were planning to do the two briefs simultaneously this was something that I didn't want to do. Lynn reassured us that we could create our own time plan and schedule for the unit, as we had the self initiated brief we could create one based around our live project brief. As I have chosen the Apron brief this is a time consuming brief due to the processes and planning needed (twill) my self initiated brief could be a more specific shorter brief. This put my mind at ease and so I plan to concentrated firstly on my Apron brief and then secondly my self initiated.

This week we had an edge treatment work shop in which we were inducted onto the over locker machine as well as learning how to create bias binding, mited corners and rulos and how they could be used to finish edges.

The workshop was extremely beneficial to me I found that I was quite comfortable with all of the processes and am looking forward to using them.This workshop sparked ideas for how I could create my apron and how different edges have different feel for example as the photo show the rulos used as an edge create a curved more feminine apron whereas the harsh edges of the mited corner imply both a masculine apron and a much more practical durable apron. This leads me to think about context and what I see the apron being used for this is something I plan to explore in the next week. 

Locating Week One- Unit Launch

This Week we had the Unit launch, the aims of the locating unit are to further develop skills in my specialist area of embroidery. To exploring personal interests and professional ambitions as well as locating personal practice in an external context. I feel this new project will be extremely beneficial to me as in previous projects and work I have struggled with finding my hand print and personal touch within my work and so my hopes are that this unit will help me find a certain path within embroidery that ill take me forward. The outcomes for this unit are to develop and realize a self-initiated brief and to complete one (or more) Live Project brief(s).

After the launch of the locating unit we this week we were introduced to the live project briefs. This was something that initially shocked me as I thought it was just a self directed brief we had to do for this project where as in fact it is both self initiate and live project briefs.
I began the week by researching into around the live briefs for me there was a clear stand out "Apron" brief. In this brief you have to make and apron with two of  each of the following. Necessities - edge treatments, fastenings, seams, a pocket. Curiosities – a facing, a binding, piping, bound buttonhole, mitred corner, rouleux or insertion. I chose this brief because previously I had only made finished samples and am looking forward to creating a finished piece of work. I am also interested in learning the processes of making an apron for example how to use the overlocker.



The Apron launch was really interesting an has re-enforced the fact that I have chosen the right brief during this we were shown several Aprons which have opened my mind to other designs of what an apron can be. I am looking forward to this unit and for next week I plan to sketch out some apron ideas.

Intentions Evaluation

For the unit Intentions I chose the theme of Urban influences. To start this off I experimented with a wide range of media; pen, pencil, graphite, charcoal, acrylic, water colour, oil pastel, soft pastel ect. I created a variety of experimental drawing both in and outside of my sketchbook not all of which were successful for example some stencil building this didn’t work as it was too literal and I prefer look more at the micro scale of the urban environment, the textures and forms.

 I feel that my development through this project has been steady I have been both experimental with sampling and drawing in the earlier weeks and more concise in the later weeks about choosing which certain lines and marks to translate into stitch. As a result my earlier samples were not so successful with their composition and colour way as they weren’t planned, they were an idea that I wanted to try out to see what happened. The process of experimenting with samples and drawing was beneficial to me even though some were unsuccessful they gave me ideas ideas to explore and refine and combine in later samples.

An example of this was scale. My samples were small squares as this was a size I felt comfortable with as was my sketchbook, during the tutorials the tutor asked me why I chose to work on such a small scale which left me thinking why not go bigger what’s the worst that could happen. I moved from an A4 square to an A3 sketchbook I kept in it for a week but it jus didn’t work for me I felt that I was making my drawings bulky and not detailed because of the large sketchbook. I finally moved into an A3 square sketchbook which I kept in. This process has made me a lot comfortable working on a larger scale.

I feel that my development has shown clear links and connections from my own photography, samples and drawings as well as artist research. One of the most influential artist for me this projects was Caroline Bartlett her along with Julliann Worell use the tonal grey colours which were in my initial photographs and was something that I used throughout my sampling and drawings. Caroline Bartlett’s work made stop and think about my ideas for composition to which before I had not thought about as much her work inspired me to think about how I wanted me work to have some parts heavily sewn to create dense focal points and others vacant and clear.

Caroline Bartlett

development sample

The next thinking step for me after initial sampling was the context of my work and where I want it to be the first thing to do was to rule of fashion and the commercial sector although my samples may share the same theme they are not the same and couldn’t be easily repeated and so couldn’t be mass produced for the commercial sector. I feel that my work is a lot more one off gallery or exhibition piece. I began to research some artists for contextual purposes and came across Alice fox who is a textiles artist who exhibits her work in a white wall room this is somewhere I could see my work in a space similar to this where the white walls serve as an almost vacant space for my sample to become a focal point for the whole room. After finding Alice’s work I put my work up on the wall and began to imagine a spaces for my work to be I researched spaces and came across this one which I feel would fit extremely well. I can just imagine my samples taken further to create large scale long pieces drape across the walls the exposed pipes further implying the theme of urban influences. I imagine my work to create an installation to which the audience can walk into and have an experience with my work.

I feel that I have used my independent and studio time wisely although I did waver at a certain point however once I had my tutorial and my tutor told me its amazing what one person can do in a day when they put their mind to it I feel like I got back on track.

I feel my final samples are effective as they show clear links through my visual research and development. I also feel they are effective as they bring all the elements from my development samples and combine them together for example the cornelli, cording and applique. If I was to take my samples further as I have previously said I would experiment with scale and composition to create large textural gallery-based installations as this is where I see my work for an audience interested in  in an abstract form and an urban.

Urban Influences Week Eight

I created and finished my final six samples this week I used a variety of techniques; applique, cornelli, embellisher and several domestic bernina stitches such as tailor tacking, cording, satin stitch ect. I played around with the composition before finalizing on them.

I really enjoyed the process of mounting my final samples as it took me through the journey of my work this project and  I realized just how much I had developed and refined my work . The process of mounting my samples brought the whole project together for me. I feel me final samples are effective as they show the journey from my visual research through the shapes line qualities and colour scheme. I also feel they portray the theme of urban influences with the geometric shapes and layering. I took my inspiration for the long pieces from Jullian Worrel's work and added some hand stitch french knots in places which was influenced by Caroline Bartlett's work.

I am happy with the outcome of my final samples an if I was to take them further I would scale them up and create a whole series of them for an exhibition piece.

Urban Influences Week Seven- Contextual

As well as continuing with my samples and developing some finals this week I have been concentrating a lot on where I vision my work to be shown and what pathway it would.I started researching artists and came along Alice fox a textile artist who uses a variety of techniques and processes such as weave, print and embroidery to create her piece which is almost always based on he interaction with the area and landscape. This is just one of the reasons I find Alice's work influential because as like Alice's work is based on the natural world my work is to based on my interpretation and interaction with the urban city world.

Alice fox exhibition

Alice Fox exhibition

The way in which Alice exhibits her work is how I imagine mine to be exhibited. The clean smooth white walls fall into the back ground and allows the work to stand out more and become the focal point for the room the empty space around the pieces allows an essence of calmness giving the work room to breath. It almost implies a calm before the storm of the textile pieces. This galley based work is what I see my final samples to be. To create an installation almost, for the viewer to walk into a space that all they are surrounded by, all they can see and touch are the textile pieces,so that the viewer would share an experience with my work. This is where and how I would like my work to be portrayed.

I began experimenting with my work and taped it up on the wall just to put my work into some sort of context. Although the space wasn't exactly what i was looking for it gave me the ideas of the type of exhibition space I would like for my samples. They are a variety of shapes and some long an thin and I feel bet they would fit draping down. It gave me ideas of taking my final samples further and how I could imagine them elongated tens of meters long in a vast warehouse type room crawling from the ceiling down the walls and trailing onto the floor.

After imagining the type of space I saw my pieces I search the internet to find suitable venues to hold the exhibition I came across these photos where I feel my work would blend with well. The second industrialized building is somewhere I can especially imagine my work, the exposed piping all along the ceiling and the clean open white space I feel my work would fit well cascading down the space. The open industrial implication also works well with my work due to the urban influences theme to me the idea of this space with my work creates a gritty edgy urban space.

Google images white exhibition space

Google images white exhibition space

Urban Influences Week Six

This week I continued with developing my samples and researching artist I came across Jullian Worrel who is a weaver and creates long tapestry works, the idea of having long slim pieces is something that I have really taken inspiration from Jullian as well as her tonal colour way or greys black and white. The composition of her work relates well to the theme of urban as to me it looks as though its some kind of abstract painting of a structure or building. Julliann work horizontally whereas I feel that the pieces would be more effective vertically and o this is something I plan to take forward into my next samples.

I used pleating to create this sample which shows clear links to my visual research. I took inspiration from Juliann Worrel's long pieces to create my own, this sample is effective due to the materials used; I used the same polyester in two different tonal shades of grey to imply the process of weathering, a surface being stripped back. This sample relates well to the theme of urban influences and I feel is simple subtle and effective. I plan to experiment more with scale longer and shorter pieces as I come to create my final samples

                                     

Urban influences Week Five

This week I struggled and felt slightly overwhelmed and lost, as though I had no ideas for my development samples. I let this get on top of me earlier on in the week and fell slightly behind which I have no excuses for. We spoke about this in the tutorial to which my tutor said she was slightly worried. Although this was tough to hear it was exactly what I needed as I felt I had let myself down, it gave me the push I needed to get out of the rut I was in. In a way I am glad this happened to me as in previous projects I have gone through a similar stage and not known how to get out of it. Hannah said in the tutorial its amazing what a person can get done in a day let alone a week when they put their mind to it, this statement was extremely influential in getting me back on track. After the tutorial I got my sketchbook out and just quickly sketched some sample ideas, processes and techniques. This process was especially helpful s it gave me a variety or options to take in a little amount of time and by the end of the week was back on track. This process is something that I intend to take forward into future projects if I feel overwhelmed again.

 

I was inducted onto the embellisher this week, this was something that I felt my work would benefit from as it creates a rugged texture that links well to the theme of urban influences. I started by making a sample as this was something use never used before I was excited to see the outcome. I placed folds within the fabric to add another tactile quality.

After creating my sample a photograph came to mind that I had took in Manchester a few weeks earlier. The dark speckles gives implications of an embellished surface and so I experimented with a light grey pollyester and a black linnen. I added tailor tacking to further portray the rugged surface. This development sample shows clear links to the theme of urban influences and to my visual reserch.

  

After looking further into the work of Caroline Bartlett I came across some of her work where she has use the cornelli machine to build up a surface this was something i was keen to try and so I took my sketchbook for ideas to create some cornelli samples. I had jotted down some sample ideas earlier in the week and so got on with  them. Although Caroline's use of cornelli was inspiring sh uses it to create curved soft edges where I used it to create more sharper angular edges and lines as this relates to the theme of urban. I plan to take forward and explore more with cornelli in my further samples.

Caroline Bartlett

Urban Influences Week Four

After last weeks tutorial moving into a larger sketchbook It didnt quite work for me as I felt itwas ruining my drawings I gave it a few days but didnt want to fall behind so I asked a group of peers for their honest opinion and they too thought that my work was suffering from moving into a large sketch book so I hae chosen to move to the A3 square small then the last one but alot bigger then my first. I continued with visual research and sampling on a larger scale using the more tonal white greys and black as these were the type of colours that came from my photos. I also did some artist research and found Caroline Bartlett similarly to Mathew Harris, I found her work very inspirational as she uses layering to explore ideas of concealing and reveling which is something that I am interested in. I also found that her work through its colour scheme and composition had strong links to my visual research.

Caroline Bartlett

Caroline Bartlett

Textiles form the core of Caroline Bartlett's practice, providing not only the means and materials to process and articulate ideas, but  also often through acting as a reference point in relation to content. Imprinting, stitching, erasing and reworking, folding and unfolding  become defining characteristics, whilst explorations have also resulted in works which integrate textiles with other media such as porcelain.  Weebly. (2010). Caroline Bartlett. Available: http://carolinebartlett.weebly.com/. Last accessed 16th Oct 2014.

The samples  I created this week are far more successful in portraying my theme of urban influences than the smaller samples I previously made. The colour way Iv'e gone with shows clear links to both my visual research and artists work. I was more concise about the composition of my work as in past weeks the samples were very busy and overcrowded whereas this week I concentrated on having some parts heavily sew to create dense focal points and others vacant.I plan to experiment with a variety of sized samples as most are square; this isn't how I imagine my final samples to be shaped, at the moment they are mostly all a uniformed square. Whereas my vision for final samples is a variety longer and shorter irregular pieces as this would represent the theme of urban influences better.

 

This week I was inducted onto the ETHOS machine this was something I previously had no experience in, the idea of using the computers with a program I hadn't used before was very daunting, I initially though that I would struggle with the technology however I found it surprisingly simple and understandable to us. Although the this was an enjoyable process the outcome is very precise, flat and orderly and for those reasons isn't something i feel is relevent to my work in the urban influences project however now that I am familiar with the machine i would like to experiment and use this in future projects.