Locating Evaluation

The locating unit was made of up of two briefs firstly the live project which for me was the Apron brief and a self initiated brief. To start I was slightly overwhelmed about the prospect of having two briefs to complete simultaneously however I overcame this with a time plan. My time management was something that I have struggled with in previous units. I knew after choosing the Apron brief that it would be a time consuming brief as I would have to wait for the scheduled workshops in order to create my apron. From the start I had realised that with the self initiated brief I would have a shorter amount of time. I chose to work on the briefs one after the other as I felt that it dividing up the time would have me not giving enough attention to either of the briefs.

Starting with the Apron brief, I chose this as I wanted to create a finished product, this along with the way the brief is open to your own interpretation of what an apron is were the key factors for me choosing the brief. My work shows clear exploration as Initially I had so many ideas I sketched them all down and explored with the idea of what an apron is. I whittled my ideas down to the stronger ones before deciding on the idea of a practical apron. I researched and explored with how the apron could store away for example does it have a separate bag for the apron to go into. Is the apron the bag, does the apron have an attached pouch for which to fold into. The Apron brief allowed me to further develop my skill set at I learnt a large amount of new techniques including; induction to the over-locker, facing, bias binding, rulo ect. There is clear development shown through my apron brief from the initial ides through the process and technical samples to the finished apron.

During this locating unit I visited Florence and went to Pitti I used this trip to talk to people in the industry and get business cards and start networking. This was something that I feel has taken me one step further into building my pathway into industry.

There are clear links form the aritst Maxine Bristow to my work in the apron brief through her use of the bound buttonhole as well as the simple clean aesthetic to her work. When moving onto my self initiated project I struggled slightly. When the pin up was held it was said to go with the buttonholes which was a clear link and I could see that through both my work and my artist influence. However once I tried to go with that I couldn’t quite get to grips with it, I wasn’t enjoying it and for me that was one of the main draws from the self initiated brief. I took charge of my work and looked back at my apron project and Maxine’s work and instead of looking literally at the buttonhole on the artwork I looked at laterally at her natural colour scheme and the context of her gallery based work this was something I then worked with. I looked back into my work and found that I had concentrated a lot n finishing the edges in my apron brief and so I combined all of this and decided on my self-initiated brief being about the edge and the qualities of the material. This shows that I have critically reflected and analysed my work in order to develop my practice.

This brief has allowed me to refine my choosing of materials as I created a cohesive piece with a variety of materials with contrasting qualities such as flexibility and weight. I have learnt to become more sensitive with my material choice. I looked into Deepa Panchamia’s work for both the context of her gallery based work as well as the layering effect of her work which implies pleating and a similar texture.

Overall I feel that I was got a greater knowledge of my work and where I see my work located (gallery based). This project has greatly developed my skill set through the apron project and developed my work as an artist. I feel that if I didn’t lose the few days in which I struggled with the self initiated then the project would have more initial drawing which is something that is lacking. However I do feel that I have accomplished something with my time management for this project as this was something I previous have struggled with.