Demonstration of Technical & Visual Skills- I think I have shown good observational skills and awareness in terms of colour and pattern. The design and composition of my Colour Resource Book and its contents has resulted in a positive outcome and shown my capabilities are improving.
Quality of Outcome – I have tried to choose the best of my work to be presented in my Resource Book and put them together in a coherent manner that translates well. I think my overall I present my work well and communicate my ideas.
Demonstration of Creativity – In my resource book I have used the work I have produced to experiment with different ideas and inspire moods and feelings with extra textile based mini projects and words. I feel like I have been given the freedom to create my own personal style with this project.
Context – My Blog helps me to reflect on what I feel I have done well or struggled with and I find that writing about the projects helps me to focus on what I need to improve upon. I have been researching different making techniques for books and pin loom weaving but I need to remember to also add this research to my blog.
I feel like I have learnt so much during this section of the course but still only scratched the surface in real terms. Having not really attempted colour mixing with paints etc. before, I now feel much more confident in trying out new mediums for my mark making and drawings which can only be a good thing as I have had a tendency to play it safe. I have a greater understanding of colour schemes and the different effects and moods that can be created by utilising these methods with projects and will now put this knowledge to use when creating new pieces of work.
I particularly enjoyed working with the fabrics and yarns and feel that this was where I had the most successful outcomes and also gave me the most inspiration. I found the watercolours quite difficult to get to grips with but I really liked the softness of colour quality that was achieved so would like to delve more into trying to improve my skills in this.
I found the collage exercises interesting and saw the value in completing the different colour schemes. Although not my favourite medium, it did increase my understanding through practical application and it was a good way of creating inspiration for new projects from a perhaps overlooked source.
The making of the Colour Resource Book was by far my most enjoyable project so far, and I would definitely like to make some more books. Originally I wanted to create a fabric cover for my book, but after experimenting with primary colours and paper paste I decided on the latter. This is definitely something I would like to revisit, ad perhaps utilise for future assignment submissions.
I was really excited to get started on this assignment and start experimenting with book designs and covers. I have seen and been researching different book binding and covering techniques. Because the work I will be including in the book will sometimes be bulky I need to create a binding technique that will allow the pages to take this. Japanese book binding seems to be the best idea for me as it will allow the pages to take bulkier materials. I wanted to experiment with different types of covering for the front of my book, based around the theme of colour. For me the biggest thing I have learnt through my work on colour studies is colour mixing and it has been a real eye opener. I want my front cover to be based around the primary triad and the mixing of the colours and I would like to incorporate some stitch, perhaps some free machine embroidery but I am undecided yet as to what materials to use. I am going to experiment with paste papers and also having been inspired by the photo of the wallcovering from earlier research with layers of painted fabric stitched together so the different layers can effect the colours beneath.
My first step was to make up some paste for my paste papers. I made a simple paste from cornflour and water then added acrylic paint to form my three primary colours. I experimented with sponges, and combs homemade from old store cards and worked on trying to create patterns that blended the colours. The comb gave a really nice textured effect but didn’t blend the colours as much as I’d hoped, however using a flat edge and applying the paste in a different way I found that I could get a lovely blend from one colour to the next.
Primary Colours painted onto Paper then patterned with home made comb
Paper paste manipulated with old credit card
I really loved the effect I got with the old credit card by blobbing paper paste onto paper then swirling with mixtures of red, yellow and blue. I did some further experiments with this technique before I got something that I was happy with for the cover of my book.
I started the construction of my book by cutting grey board pieces then covering with plain black paper for the spine and my paste paper for the front.
I wanted to make sure the paper inside was strong enough to hold my work so decided to go for white card, which I knew was going to be quite difficult to stitch and work with but other heavy papers that might have been easier weren’t bright white which was what I wanted. Before binding my book together I wanted to make sure I had a nice stitch pattern that I’d practised so I did a few designs on white card and played around with the technique first. I found a nice multicolour embroidery thread that I thought I’d like to use, but as it tends to split quite easily I waxed it first before starting to combine the cover and pages together.
After reviewing my work in Colour Studies and choosing pieces to go in my book I decided to create some further work to demonstrate what I have learnt both through the projects and other research that I have done. Some of the research I have done has been textile based so I wanted to include these pieces in my book as they relate to the projects, and how my understanding of colour has developed. I began looking at each piece of work that I had created and decided on the order they should go in and how I would communicate the colours and ideas in each piece. I wanted to show the work I had done in Gouache Studies, learning about colour mixing so I decided to create a colour wheel and greyscale to include at the beginning of the book as it seemed a suitable introduction to a colour resource book. My subsequent pages have taken the form of mood boards that hopefully communicate the colour and feeling of the pieces of work and also offer further inspiration. My woven textile piece in Gouache Studies was really interesting as it was a combination of different strands but woven together to create colours instead of for instance mixing paint to create the same effect. I decided to have a little experimentation with this technique so I made a little pin loom and used some wools and fibres I had to make a woven rectangle. I also played around with the difference in colour effects when dark backgrounds or light background are used with woven/knotted embroidery threads.
Moving on to my next pages I had a better idea of the style I wanted my layouts to take. I wanted each page to form almost a mood board, both showing the work I had completed and also representing the colour schemes, thoughts and ideas; a kind of reference or ‘resource for me to use in the future. Which I suppose, is the general idea!
Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skills – I think I show good design and compositional skills and link my designs well to my visual observations. My technical knowledge is improving and I am showing different technical abilities with some materials. I can improve by experimenting with even more materials and refining techniques and experimenting with pattern.
Quality of Outcome – I have applied my knowledge to present more content in my work in this part of the course and feel like I have done this well, both in my pieces and in my blog, communicating my thoughts, ideas and processes. I am pleased with the work I have achieved.
Demonstration of Creativity – I have been experimenting with lots of different techniques and processes to develop ideas and engaged in the creative process through working in my sketchbook and producing small samples before embarking on larger pieces.
Context – I have tried to increase my research into other artists and also technical skills. I am engaging with other artists and crafts people outside of the course and am gaining further knowledge and experience of a variety of mediums and subjects which is helping to give me a more critical understanding. I feel like I am able to reflect on what has worked and what hasn’t in my work which enables me to make decisions about work in progress.
Throughout part two of the course I feel like I now have more of an idea of how the design process works. I have experimented a great deal in this section and this has fed ideas into the work that followed. I hadn’t previously really used a sketchbook but I can see how useful it is to develop ideas and keep a record of my experimentation so I am able to see how my ideas and skills are growing and also perhaps be able go back and use an earlier idea with the hindsight of what works and what doesn’t. I have also learnt new processes both in stitching and embroidery, fabric manipulation and the use of different threads and materials which I will be able to apply to future projects. I really enjoyed learning new techniques, in particular free machine embroidery which I would like to pursue further. I enjoyed using the textile paints to create coloured backgrounds so would like to learn more about dying and printing to create surface pattern that can be stitched into and also manipulating the fabric to create shape and texture.
I have a new found strength and confidence in exploring ideas after this section of the course without the fear of ‘being wrong’ as mistakes can sometimes be just as valuable, and am eager to increase my knowledge of skills that I have touched upon. I think one of my weaknesses in the past was to rush and not explore topics thoroughly enough and I feel like I am progressing with this. However I think I need to create an appropriate timetable and take into account the time needed to complete each task to help me to further improve with this.
After my work on my composed paper samples, I was pretty clear about what style of material I wanted, the translucent and lightweight properties of tissue paper was what I wanted to replicate. I bought some polyester voile but then decided it was a bit stiff and silky so went to my local art and craft shop and came out with cotton muslin. I liked the softness of the drape and the lightweight open weave and thought it would be great to try and use the fabric in different ways to create different feelings and textures from it.
My first piece was going to be based around trying to create a 3 dimensional textured piece using stitch to create the folds and shapes instead of actually folding it like paper. The original drawing I was using for inspiration was my ink and pencil flower drawing. I decided to focus on the cow parsley flowers for the textured background and to try layering over the top with an applique fern. My original drawing is in colour so I decided to use textile paint for the applique motif to make it stand out from the background. I did some sketchbook work to solidify my ideas, along with some small samples to make sure my ideas would work before starting my piece.
Stitched circles on the rear of the fabric with loose ends
After stitching I pulled the loose ends together to create little 3D bubbles
This is the rear of the fabric, in retrospect I quite like the flower like texture created here, I could use this in the future.
I stitched in the centre of each bubble to create the centre of the flowers
I left the edges of the motif unstitched so they would lift off the background texture.
Fern and Cowparsley Textile Sample on Cotton Muslin
For my second piece I wanted to try and create a crumpled piece of fabric with similarities to my tissue paper sample. I also wanted to recreate the blended colours that were in the sample when the tissue colours bled into each other and to embroider a repeating pattern on the fabric. Again I did some initial work in my sketchbook to try and get a firm idea of what I was going to do before beginning. I found that my original embroidery pattern ideas developed as I was stitching onto the fabric, both in pattern and stitch.
Before Stitching I wanted to crinkle and colour the fabric. I wet the fabric and painted with textile paint adding more water when I wanted a more translucent colour. After this I twisted the fabric tightly and secured it with elastic bands and popped it in the microwave for a minute to try and get a bit of moisture out of it. I left it to dry out a little more naturally before untwisting so that the crinkles didn’t fall out and then hung it to dry completely. I got a really good colour result from this technique as well as the crinkly texture, the only problem is because I used textile paint that needs ironing to fix I can’t fix the colours without ironing the crinkles out! So can’t be washed!
The first stitches to represent cowparsley flowers
I found that repeating the pattern across the bottom of the fabric gave a nice effect
The poppies
Embroidered Floral Pattern on Cotton Muslin
You can really see the crinkles in the fabric in this photo.
My embroidery plans seemed to organically develop as I was working on this piece, my initial thoughts were to just embroider a couple of flowers, but once I got going and looked at the size of the fabric and the layout, it just seemed right to add more, slowly increasing size down to the bottom right corner.
For my next piece I wanted to create layers incorporating ideas from my previous two samples and introducing a new idea by creating a firmer texture on top. I had the idea to create a 3 dimensional flower on top of a layer of machine stitched crumpled fabric. My first port of call was again to explore ideas in my sketchbook and try and figure out how I was going to make the material almost moldable and firm so it would stand up when stitched onto the backing fabric and be able to take some heavier weight materials that I had ideas of stitching with.
Experimenting with PVA Glue and textile paint to see how it stiffens fabric and reacts to the colours of the paints.
I decided to experiment with a mix of PVA glue and textile paint to see how this would effect the muslin. I put my samples in my sketchbook and did some exploratory stitching with some ideas that I had to see what effect I would get. I wanted to have a sturdy background that would stand up to having a heavy piece of work stitched to it but also wanted a contrast for the main flower motif. I used my earlier experiments to decide which of the different techniques to use for each.
Work in progress, fabric mix for the stitched flower
Free machine embroidery on background piece
Petals finished, now for construction
Finished sample
I created the background by painting wet fabric with textile paints then coating with pva, I then twisted the fabric and left it to dry out a little overnight. In the morning I unravelled the fabric as I didn’t want it to stick together but just hold its crumpled texture, and dried flat. My initial thought was to use white muslin to again create my bubble flowers, stitched onto the background but felt that the white was too stark against the muted colours of the background and would detract from the main flower. I decided to use a softer approach to give the idea of the cowslip flowers behind by stitching with my machine with metallic thread.
To create the flower I added machine stitched edging and detail to each petal and some of the leaves, then created a centre by scrunching up some muslin and hand embroidering to get a firm disc shape that I could then stitch the petals and leaves to. I stitched thin beading wire to the centre so that I could have stitches that would actually stand up on their own. Then it was just a case of hand stitching the flower to the background.
I’m really pleased with the samples I’ve created, each one seeming to give inspiration, feeding into the next. I have tried out new techniques and can see how the design process is an organic one, with ideas developing both on paper and as you are stitching.
I found this artist through a google search of artists using recycled materials. There were many artists using recycled materials in a variety of ways, however Louise’s work seemed to connect with me more than others that I looked at. She uses old scraps of fabric, paper and packaging and then stitches on to the surface to create pictures and wall hangings. By her own admission, she doesn’t pre-plan any of her work and takes an organic approach by letting the work develop as she goes, sometimes cutting down pieces to fit and form backgrounds before creating the top stitching. This way of working also conveys the message she is trying to get across in her work about the way we as humans function, sometimes we just ‘go with the flow’. This resonates with me, as planning ideas gives me a focus, but pieces only come to fruition through a practical and experimental process of doing.
Another artist that works in this way is one I have mentioned in an earlier post, Joanna Atherton who uses items washed up along the coast to create pieces of work that also give us an insight into human nature.
As this is my first assignment and review of my work it’s hard to judge what standard I’m at as regards the assessment criteria. I feel like I have progressed and learnt since initially receiving my course materials and am pleased with what I have achieved although am aware there is a lot of work yet to be done.
Demonstration of technical and visual skills – I’m really pleased with my drawings and collection of items. I have played around with different designs and compositions in my work to show differences and similarities in texture and pattern. I also tried to capture the essence of the original pictures I took when I was on the beach of everything all tangled up by the sea. Visually I have learnt much about paying attention to different layers of pattern and texture in objects and have tried to capture this in some of my drawings. I have used basic materials for this project, and altered the background papers to see the effect it had on the composition. As I have just begun I know there is much to improve in technique, however I’m particularly pleased with my work in ink, I had never used it before as I was worried about going wrong (no rubbing out!).
Quality of Outcome – I feel I tried to communicate the idea of the ocean with the flowing nature of some of my drawings, and the tangled nets and seaweed surrounding everything. I focused on the textures and patterns of different objects and the way they interact with each other. Although I’m pleased with my collection and my drawings I would have liked to convey a message, initially when I was looking for objects on the beach I did see quite a few plastic bottles and rubbish. I’m a little disappointed now that I didn’t pick some up to use in my collection, I was thinking about making it look pretty, which is obviously not a bad thing, but I would have liked to have created a point of discussion or dialogue in the work.
Demonstration of Creativity – Initially I found it difficult to get started and was stuck for ideas, what to draw next! Once I got going though and using the words in my coursework for reference I felt quite comfortable and had different thoughts about changing the backgrounds using varied mediums. I would like to develop the ideas further with perhaps prints from the patterns or some three-dimensional work.
Context – This is the most challenging aspect of the project for me. I’m aware that I have to make more of an effort to research other artists and need to set aside time to do this perhaps once a week. I find it difficult to analyse and review my work and others, but I think through making time to research and become aware of other artists this will improve and get a little easier for me. After all, when I did do the research, I did actually enjoy it!
Having now completed my first assignment, my thoughts turn to how far I have come in such a short space of time. My initial response to the work was excitement mixed with some trepidation. I knew I would enjoy the content of the brief but what of my ability to do so?
I settled on my theme very quickly as it was the topic that seemed to generate the most ideas. My first thoughts took the topic quite literally and I was focused on foods alone. When I actually started looking for objects however my focus changed, the starfish had such a beautiful and intricate texture and detail I knew that I wanted to use it, so I elected to portray the ocean as ‘Nature’s Larder’. I went on to find other items that I thought would create a varied and dynamic collection, selecting objects for their different textures and shapes.
Through my research of other artists work and mark making I was inspired to give some different techniques a try. I’m particularly pleased with my continuous line drawing in ink, inspired by Alison Carlier’s ‘An Unknown Word’. It took a while to get it right but I feel it flows well and gives movement to the collection as if in the ocean. I tried to experiment with close up and distant textures in a variety of mediums, and also shape,silhouette and line. Many of the items had repeating patterns that I could use different techniques to show, and I tried to vary the time I took on my drawings, some taking hours and others just a few minutes. I found the results interesting, as those produced more quickly seemed to capture the movement and essence that I wanted to get across.
The researching of other artists was very helpful, this was the side of the project I was most concerned with. As my learning tends to be based around doing, I was aware that reflecting on, and analysing both my own work and the work of others was going to be the most challenging aspect of the assignment for me. I did however very much enjoy this part of the brief and it allowed me to understand how much of an important part of learning and progressing it is.
With all of these thoughts in mind I feel like I have learnt so much already, not just about research and using different techniques to capture ideas and objects, but also about my own learning journey and what I need to do to keep moving forward with my work. My confidence has grown and I feel proud of my first collection of work, and based on this first project I would like to take time at some point to explore printmaking, or manipulating fabrics in further detail to recreate some of the shapes and textures in this collection.
Cuttlefish in Ink
Starfish in Ink
Silhouette of Starfish and Shell in Ink
Glass Float and Net Silhouette in Ink
Natures Larder, Chalk on Black Paper
Texture Rubbings, Oil Pastel on Blue Tissue Paper
Seaweed in Ink
Seaweed close up textures in pencil
Natures Larder, Charcoal on Paper
Starfish Oversized Pattern and Texture, Pencil on Paper
Eli Pope 