Tambour Beading Workshop, Hand & Lock, London

http://www.handembroidery.com/

Recently I have been researching further into the phenomenal embroidery company, Hand & Lock London. The company create the world's finest embellished hand embroidery; specialising in couture techniques such as gold work, military design and couture embellishment- working with clients, fashion and interior based- for example The Royal Family, Mary Katrantzou and London Fashion Week clients.

Using my embroidery knowledge, I entered a writing competition via MasteredHQ (https://www.mastered.com/), and was chosen as the winner to work with Hand & Lock London in their Festival of Embroidery. With many courses to choose from, I decided upon Tambour Beading.

Tambour Beading, known as Broderie Chainette/ Broderie de Lunéville, is a French haute couture technique in which by using a tambour hook, the application of beads and sequins to fabrics is used. This technique is frequently used in many couture fashion houses- the technique, slow; the results, perfect. I have been interested in learning the art since my recent trip to NYC and seeing it applied by the American equivalent to the London company, Penn & Fletcher.

The course proved to be extremely enjoyable, not only for being able to learn a new skill, but also to be both in the Hand & Lock studio surrounded by so many years of embroidery beauty, and to be surrounded by professionals from the textiles industry.

The technique was extremely intricate, delicate and very very fiddly to grasp. Essentially, the technique involves using continuous chain stitch motions in order to attach each embellishment one at a time. Being the first time, I didn't get too far with my piece, and found out very quickly that one wrong stitch could result in pulling out every single bead (spent a while hunting for dropped sequins on the floor) but I slowly got the hang of it by the end of the course!

Tambour beading has been an invaluable skill to learn, something that many other students looking to go into the same textiles industry may not have as a skill, therefore boosting both my portfolio and cv applications. Hopefully I will be able to return to Hand & Lock London in the near future, whether this be for a placement experience or just another course, I'll have to wait and see! In the mean time I shall be practicing this art form and hopefully begin to incorporate the skill into my third year portfolio.

Manchester School of Art Fashion Degree Show

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152426333999738.1073741839.15095489737&type=1

Unit X Evaluation

"I am going into this college with an open-mind, and the knowledge that this unit is going to challenge and push me as far out of my comfort zone as humanly possible."

From the offset, I knew that the Blue Sky Thinking unit x option was going to be a real challenge for myself, and I was right. I chose this unit out of curiosity of doing something new; the theory of 'blue sky thinking' and limitless ideas appealed as an exciting concept. I knew that this was something that I would never usually think of doing, instead using material/ physicality as a starting point for my projects, as that is what I am comfortable and familiar with.

During the introductory weeks of the college, I really enjoyed all of the workshops and guest lectures that I was able to attend. Hearing from a range of different artists/ designers meant being open to a number of perspectives and responses of working in the real world, not just those of a textile background.

Unit X is predominantly about collaboration. I was apprehensive in regards to group work, mainly because of how disastrous last year's unit x grouping turned out to be, however I have to say that this year has been the exact opposite. Working within a large group of independent, creative students obviously holds a lot of room for a variety of perspectives, means of working and characters. With so many voices, it is easy to feel lost and confused about what is going on/ who is doing what etc, which did happen a numerous amount of times over the course. Having to constantly communicate with one another, practically on a daily basis, is a very intense, tiring ask. Most days I felt completely drained, and in need of re-energising, in time for our next group meeting. Putting all of my effort into communication meant that I often felt that I was unable to get on with any of my own individual practice, which really comes down to having a lack of time management.

In terms of collaborative practice, overall I have really enjoyed working alongside students from Interactive Arts. It has been nice to see our differences in perspectives and how we go about tackling situations/ our projects. It was obvious that the group was split between makers and thinkers, however now that the unit has come to an end, and I've had time to reflect, I believe that each of us hold the qualities of both 'a thinker' and 'a maker', just not necessarily of equal weightings. As well as forming new connections in the art practice, I feel that we have all become really good friends too. Being in such an intense environment, we have been through a lot together. I found that it was nice to meet outside of university environment in order to connect and create better friendships (with the occasional night out to let off steam).

Reflecting on my own practice; I have questioned myself and my ability frequently in this unit which has been both difficult and upsetting. Overall, I have realised that my strengths are firmly set in 'making' and physicality; a skill that I unfortunately allowed to be pushed aside for a number of weeks. I have enjoyed the aspect of photography- it is a skill that I have always enjoyed using, however very rarely bring into my practice, as I am always so focused on stitch. This unit has opened my eyes to the idea that there is SO much more out there that I wouldn't normally think about researching into, ideas that I have only managed to spark through listening to other people's concepts and skill bases. 

Alongside Unit X I have been taking part in work experience with artist, Alice Kettle. This is an ongoing work experience, that is opening a lot of possibilities for the future, something that I am really excited about (but am unfortunately unable to post on here at the moment). Working with Alice has meant I have been able to keep up with some embroidery work. Managing time between unit x and work experience opportunities has been similar to our Locating unit, managing time between our personal and live briefs- something that I have really enjoyed doing, and will most definitely continue to enjoy now that Unit X has come to an end.

Exhibition Set Up / Pitch

Setting up for our exhibition was great fun; It was lovely to see the group of us helping one another with the set up and layout. Myself and Claire kept to our textile roots- using our images and repeat patterns in collaboration. Our designs were being shown as visual outputs that could ultimately be used for the branding and visual merchandising of our design festival- used on items such as tote bags, posters, clothing etc. I like the idea of visual branding, allowing the audience to take part of the design festival away with them as a momentum. 

After setting up our exhibition, we had a short amount of time to practice for our pitch. Up until yesterday, it was decided that only two people would be speaking for the presentation however after consideration; and thinking that it may be intimidating for the panel to have nine extra bodies 'hanging around',  we thought it would be best to split the pitch into our different sections of working. Doing it this way around meant that we would be able to talk about our own pieces of work and our contribution to the design festival planning. I have never been a confident speaker, and became very nervous before hand. (let's say no more). After sorting out exactly what needed to be said, and having a motivational conversation with a few members of the textiles practice, I felt a little more confident, and overall, the pitch did go very well.

 Reflecting back to pre-pitch- feeling stressed out made me act extremely out of character, something that doesn't happen very often. I know that in the future delivering my ideas/ work to an audience is something that I will have to face a considerable amount of times. Talking about my own practice should be something to be passionate about, not worried. 

Design Festival Manifesto

Bringing back the ideas of the manifesto from our first weeks' of teaching to the final stages was something that I felt to be really important. The manifesto is used communicate our ideas for our Design Festival; for our audience to understand what our festival is about, and the key concepts that we followed in order to achieve our final output for exhibition. 

As previously mentioned, myself and Aine put ourselves forward for the writing and presentation of the  overall festival manifesto- I enjoy the written aspect of the piece, whereas Aine has great photoshopping skills- therefore using our strengths through collaboration, to achieve a positive outcome. Although the two of us had the overall say for the manifesto, prior to this, a group of us met to discuss the key words/ phrases / ideas that we felt needed to be included from over the duration of our research for this unit. Similarly to our wall of inspiration, it was nice to produce something collaboratively. 

Anya Gallaccio/ 'Preserving Beauty' Samples

'Gallaccio is known for her work with organic materials such as ice, flowers, fruits and sugar. Her installations often change over time as they melt, decompose or sprout new life. In preserve ‘beauty’ 2000 gerberas are sandwiched between huge panes of glass and left to wither and rot. Gallaccio has described gerberas as a ‘disposable commodity’, mass-produced all year round. Her work challenges romantic ideas of nature and culture, life and death. '

Taking inspiration from artist, Anya Gallaccio, I decided that it would be interesting to create samples using dandelions in a literal sense- trapping the flowers in between sticky-back plastic and letting nature take control. Over time, the flowers will begin to disintegrate, a process that is ongoing, alike to the concept of allowing our design festival to continue after the exhibition is over...

Regine Ramseier

'2,000 withered dandelion flowers hanging from the ceiling. A symbol of life and birth. A symbol of impermanence. Pause for a moment. Stop and breathe.'

http://www.regineramseier.ch

Stitching Colour into The City

I found myself 'doodling' sketches of dandelions one evening, in hope of gaining some kind of inspiration for fabric prints/ embroidery samples. The hexagons are a link to Manchester's emblem of the bumblebee, using the repeat pattern of honeycomb as a background to my work.

Using the ethos machine, I decided to translate the image of the dandelion into stitch. It was comforting to be back on the sewing machines, using my preferred practice alongside our group concepts. Using PVC- a strong, durable material- it was interesting to be stitching such a delicate design into it. Keeping to the idea of 'noticing', I felt that the over-baring background colour really helped the pattern to stand out. Using a repeat pattern, I could imagine this design to be used as merchandise of branding for our festival, possibly on bags, posters... 

... When speaking to Mark, he had the idea of using the PVC as a form of clothing, something that I hadn't thought of. My favourite part of collaboration is seeing how other's perceive your work and how it can inspire new, unthought of ideas.

Turning My Photographs into Fabrics

Thinking about past discussions that I have had with Fiona about weights and textures of fabrics, I began to experiment with different qualities of materials to print my photographs on to. Using heavy weight cotton, silks and acetate, it was interesting to see how the quality of the imagery was translated as a design. Different weights meant the vibrancy of colours altered, dependant on it's surface. The acetate when held again different backgrounds would produce an array of new perspectives for the photographs - similar to the principals of using filters. I am going to be using these photographs in our exhibition as examples to be used alongside the filter workshop.

"Do What You Love"

As I have mentioned throughout my blog posts, my strengths lye in the making process of my practice. The Blue Sky Thinking college involves constantly thinking, something that I usually do through materials/ sewing, not literally.... Well obviously I think, but the art of serendipity and experimentation is a huge role in our Textiles practice. 

I have been having a difficult time engaging with unit x, I don't know whether it is because I have chosen, not the 'wrong' college, but instead a college that is not suited to my style of working. I knew that this unit was going to be a challenge, that was made clear when discussing changing over groups, I guess I hadn't anticipated HOW difficult.. Working in larger groups has also proved to be a challenge; getting your voice heard and ideas across in a large group with large personalities can literally turn into 'who can shout the loudest', therefore instead of being my usual, upbeat confident self, I seem to have lost my voice. 

Not 'making' has also been a big problem up until now. Using all of my energy to meet up at least once daily with the group has left me feeling deflated most evenings, meaning instead of getting on with my usual making, I have just wanted to turn off all technology and relax. Being away from the studio, and instead in Federation House, means being away from the embroidery rooms, so finding time to get materials and sit and sew in between meetings has felt challenging to fit in.

Anyway, I managed to get myself all worked up and felt completely lost with both Unit X, and my practice in general. I know there's no point in getting upset, because that's when I hit this whirlwind of negative thoughts, which isn't going o help anything. Voicing my concerns instead of keeping them bottled inside proved the best thing to do. I was very touched by everybody's' concerns for myself, and managed to get in contact with the tutors and set up a meeting. 

Speaking to Mark and Kate really gave me the boost that I needed to get myself back on track. Speaking to Mark further about his and Fiona's trip to Milan Design Festival, it was refreshing to hear that for the time the design festival seemed to focus more on textiles based practice than it has in previous years. We spoke about bringing my embroidery practice into the design process, keeping to the concepts that had been discussed as a group. Why I hadn't done this from the start? I don't know. I had all of the research, just not the confidence to do so. I need to remember to do what I love, not what is seen as right to everybody else. 

Later in the week I was able to catch up with Fiona. Being my personal tutor for the past year, I felt much more settled when talking about my practice and how I'd be able to incorporate my skills into the project. We have always said that my work is most suited as fabric prints for fashion, therefore it is a possibility to use my photographs as a base fabric, and work into them. Also looking at materials and colours is something that we have spoken about greatly over the past year, so doing something with these could be interesting. 

Although still feeling unsure about the project, I feel much calmer work-wise and feel as though I have had the confidence boost that I needed to get on with some physical work .

Collaborative Wall of Inspiration

Taking into consideration our discussion about colours and materials, we decided that for our next session at Federation House it would be interesting for us all to each collect different materials/ objects focusing on our colour palette/ concept, and create a wall of inspiration, giving us a chance to see how we all approach the brief through physical objects. This was a fantastic idea. It was a means of group collaboration, and really showed how far we have come with the unit- not only over the past month, but also how greatly we have progressed in the last week too. Seeing our process as a physical output was comforting, as in relation to my own practice, I usually begin my research with a series of mood boards, trying to highlight my intentions for textures, colours and themes.
Summing up the past week, I feel as though each of us have began looking at our strengths, and using them now to our advantage. We have all become extremely pro-active in our studies, experimentation and making over the past week, through encouragement from our tutors, and a sense of the project 'coming together'. 

imagery: dandelions. yellow. posters. plastic bottles. photographs. raw materials. 

Tutorial and Final Discussion Regarding Roles/ Themes

Showing the photographs that I had collected over the past week in tutorial reached a positive response. I was proud of how they had come out, especially some of the colours that had been brought to life through the use of mirroring/ the sunshine. In terms of where to take them next, I think that I would like to turn them into a physical object, possibly fabrics or repeat patterns, but I'm not sure where that will fit into our exhibition at this point in time...

I have been feeling really lost in terms of where I 'fit' into the roles for our Design Festival. Assigning key jobs/ roles to individuals has really helped to see where it is that people are enjoying working, and to see where possible collaborations may be able to form in the last few weeks of the project.  As we are in such a big group, it has been difficult keeping up with exactly what everyone is up to, so getting it written down was really helpful. 

I'd placed myself into the roles of manifesto writing, making filters/ photographing and possible projections, as I felt as though these were where my strengths would lye. Saying this, I still felt as though these 'roles' were unable to define exactly what it was that I wanted to make for our exhibition. I really enjoy photography, a skill that I am constantly using. I simply just didn't want to 'take photographs', I want to do something more with them, what that is, I still haven't decided. This does make me feel a little uneasy about the coming weeks' worth of work. I feel I need to take myself away from the group and focus on what it is that I enjoy doing, possibly looking back at my previous unit sketchbooks ad looking at how I can incorporate my practice into this unit of work.