Exhibition: David Shrigley

10th October

HOW ARE YOU FEELING?

AN EXHIBITION OF STUFF BY

DAVID SHRIGLEY

AT CORNERHOUSE IN MANCHESTER

Today has been a very dull and rainy day in Manchester, so my flatmate and I decided to take a trip the Cornerhouse for a little inspiration. David Shrigley's 'How Are You Feeling?' exhibition is currently being shown- not the type of work that I am usually interested in, however I found a lot of his pieces ever so fascinating to read into and interpret in my own way. It is very clear that his pieces are packed with emotion, created, I believe through his own personal journey in life. The idea of journey held great inspiration for our own current unit, making me think about maybe incorporating my own emotion into some of my pieces. I enjoyed looking at David's use of lines and text, with many of the pieces holding very meaningful quotations and drawings.

Hand Embroidery Samples

I have been developing my technical file this week, learning french knots, fly stitch and chain stitch. My favourite stitches are the french knots- though a little fiddly at first, when building up an image their details become very intriguing. The below photographs show my interpretations of the given stitches, I am looking forward to incorporating these into my work.

Artist Research: Julia Jowett

This weekend I managed a trip home, and happily accepted the chance to have a look around my local gallery, Unit Twelve. It is my absolute favourite place to spend days looking at the beautiful art work and feel super inspired. As I am currently halfway through my Origins unit, looking at embroidery, I focused on the work of Julia Jowett.

I find her work very inspiring; her use of hand embroidery is incredible. Using gauzed material, Julia stitches all of her pieces of fabrics- the details are so intricate, and the amount of time that it takes to produce the pieces is outstanding. I am also very interested in the way that she uses wire, and creates a line with the material- I think that it could be very interesting to manipulate fabrics and threads in a way of creating repeat patterns.

Exhibition: Great Northern Contemporary

Since living in Manchester, I have found that it is impossible to ever be stuck for something craft-related to see/ experience in any free time I may have. This weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to the Great Northern by one of my friends that was holding a stall there. The GNCCF is an event that I have always admired, and read fantastic reviews about, so having such an opportunity on my doorstep would have been silly to have missed.

The fair was packed with a host of inspirational and amazing crafts people, working with every imaginable media- paper, embroidery, sculptor, metal. It was a fantastic even to be able to speak to a variety of these artists about their experiences in the art world, and even more wonderful to hear that a vast majority had in the past graduated from MMU. Two artists that I really enjoyed talking to were Holly Levell and Katie Almond. I have always been a fan of their art, so being able to speak to them both was amazing. I would love to be able to have my own stall here in the near future!

Hand Embroidery Samples

For the first three weeks of my Embroidery unit, we are learning the basic methods of hand stitch. I have always been very comfortable using stitch, however I tend to use machine in my work as I find it less time-consuming. My favourite part about hand embroidery is the relaxed and personal feel that can be found in each piece of work. 

Today we have been looking at the exploration of stitch through different materials, using straight, ladder and chain stitch in our own personal styles. It was interesting looking at how each other the fabrics took to the use of threads, and how the thread was able to manipulate the fabric. After doing this, I then went back to my sketchbook, and began to chain stitch through some of my previous sketchbook samples, following the original lines on the dress-making patterns- manipulating the paper and stitch to incorporate with the idea of weather.