This morning we had a tutorial with fashion tutor Susan, who wanted to make sure that we were all doing ok and were on track for the rest of the week. Those of us that had bought some samples with us, showed Susan, and as a group we explained our reasonings behind the pieces. As we hadn't been in touch with any tutors since our change in final piece ideas, we were all a bit nervous incase she didn't like our ideas, however she seemed to really like the concept, however correctly pointed out- why stop at nine samples, why not create a wall full of our pieces, in different kinds of mixed media, for example our photography, collages and drawings. This seems like a fantastic idea, the bigger amount the better, I feel.
Here is a photograph of the first batch of samples produced by Emily, Rebecca and myself. I feel that they all work really well together- we seem to all have the same style and way of working, which helps with the overall feel for the piece. Jess and Rachael had also started their pieces, however the change in plans for the day meant that they hadn't bought them to the tutorial.
Susan also asked us how we were thinking of having our samples placed, and where. We told her that we were going to a meeting later in the week at The Bay Horse, in order to discuss these ideas with Ali, the creative director at the pub. We had quite a few ideas floating around about the presentation of the pieces- be it the samples all joined together as a patchwork quilt, to being suspended around the pub. We really needed to have a look at the space that we had before making this decision. For our first ideas, we had thought about placing the textile pieces in frames, however when it came to buying these, it proved difficult to find the shape/ depth of frame that we had been hoping for. Instead, Rebecca, Emily, Jess and myself had purchased nine canvases, as we thought that that could be an interesting way to bring some depth into the pieces- using a 3D look.
The last point that was made in the tutorial was how Nicole and Sarah were finding the whole Unit X experience, and how they were contributing to the overall collaborative piece, which admittedly is very much textiles based. Jess had the best idea, offering the idea of the film students to design posters/ leaflets for the event, something that the girls happily accepted. As well as this, Susan suggested they could create some of the samples for the overall piece- not necessarily using stitch. The range of medias would look interesting, and bring together the message of collaboration.
Overall I think that the tutorial was a huge success, and seemed to help the group in the organisation that is going to be needed for the coming week. Our final piece sounded strong and meant that everybody would be participating equally in the output. Later on in the evening, Nicole poster a photograph of her samples, which in my opinion was very nice- collages of the old vs. new theme found in manchester, with the added connection of the restrictive lace.
