Intentions Unit Evaluation

I must start by saying that it is so wonderful to be back in the Art School, and to be back in the embroidery rooms- learning new skills/techniques and refreshing old ones. This year I feel much more settled into the building and the course, and feel that I have been able to develop in my practice over this unit. 

Our first unit started with the message 'risk-taking and experimentation is key' being drilled into our systems. This is the reason that I decided to choose the Visions of Sound brief- I am not known to be an expressive student- I much prefer to have lists and lists of set orders and tasks- so letting go of that straight away meant a lot to my comfortable ways of working. 

I have enjoyed the unit as a whole; that's not to say that like all students I've had days of panic (over wether I had chosen the right topic, if I was in over my head with work). My work went through stages of progression- told not to rip pages out, ended up ripping up whole sketchbook and re-constructing it in a different order- I feel that my 'story' has been slightly mis-shaped. 

Starting by setting myself expressive pieces to create with very little material meant that I had to let go of all control, which was exciting, and I was pleased with most of the results. Alike to the drawing workshop- it was a great chance to let go and experiment with the ways that work can turn out when you are out of control of the end result (for example drawing with your eyes closed). My work has then later developed, and as I have mentioned through-out my blog, I have really enjoyed looking at the way that my initial circular mark-makings have developed into research of foxglove flowers, to ink, wire and embroidery samples. I am really pleased with my samples- from the start I had told Fiona that I was interested in hand embroidery and embellishment, so I am glad that I have managed to portray these qualities in my samples.

There are things that I would've liked to change in this unit. I feel that my colour scheme has let me down, as I was indecisive as to which scheme to choose, ending in attempt to combine them together. Another is my use of time- at first I really enjoyed the drawing workshops and research, however I then hit a wall halfway through the unit and found it very difficult to get back on track. As always, there is room for improvement and MORE work in general, as well as samples- something that I really hope I can stick to in my next unit. 

Samples Samples Samples

I have been developing the repeat pattern of circles/ foxgloves throughout my unit, and therefore have decided that that is going to be the main focus for my samples. I have most been playing with the Cornelly machine, and then embellishing on top of them, to replicate the idea of Robert Colquhoun's prints. I am pleased with the results (although these photographs don't really do them much justice). I think that if I had more time I would've been able to make them neater/ made more of them. I decided that I would merge my two colour palettes together, dark background with light stitching.

Artist Research- Hamada Al Fahim

Hamada Al Fahim is an Arabic fashion designer, that creates the most beautiful clothing, with the aim to bring the owner of the garment 'joy and confidence, to add more spark and fulfilment to people's lives through fashion and art'. She uses whatever materials she can get hold of, and creates intricate and delicate pieces of work, filled with the most exquisite embellishments.

Taking inspiration from this dress embellishment in particular, I tried to replicate the pattern in my own style, and in a way that would run nicely alongside my stitch research. I used both satin stitch and french knotting in order to create the bottom sample. I really enjoyed doing this- I find it both relaxing and rewarding, it just takes a bit of time! Looking at it now I think that I could've matched the colours better to my own colour scheme, but overall- I am pleased.

Guest Lecturer: Alice Kettle- The Transformative Power of Thread

This afternoon we have had a wonderful lecture by textiles artist, Alice Kettle, entitled 'The Transformative Power of Thread'. She spent the time talking to us about her own practice, inspirations and truly inspiring stories of the industry that she has managed to get in to.

Alice's work is from an embroidery based practice, and it is obvious how passionate she is about the material, with her opening sentence entailing "Thread is what keeps me going". Her pieces are all one offs, using free-machine embroidery (which is pretty inspiring as I have been inducted on the Irish machines this morning!) and a combination of old fabrics/ found materials. Each piece of her work has a story behind it- be it an inspirational piece of writing, poetry or many other examples.

Her use of thread is incredible, especially the amounts that are used to create her extra large scaled pieces- at the moment I can only dream of producing metres of free-machine work, however I know that I will most definitely do anything I can to be doing the same as Alice one day....

http://www.alicekettle.com

Cornelly Machine Workshop

This morning I have been inducted on the industrial Cornelly A machines, as this was a recommended workshop by Fiona, who felt that I would enjoy the mark-making that it produced- she was not wrong either. Learning about the machines seemed pretty straight-forward: seven machines... they work in two ways producing both chain and moss stitch... dependant on the fabric and threads depends on which machine you use... to operate press on the foot lever and create patterns operating the hand level...

Being an awkward left handier, it was highly amusing using hand-eye co-ordination and pressing the foot lever at the same time, so obviously it took a few attempts to get the hang of it. When I did, I throughly enjoyed the process, and was excited by the outcomes of the samples. As it is coming up to the end of the unit I have decided that I most definitely need to go back onto these machines and use the Cornelly as part of my final samples.

Current Industry

This week I have been looking into how florals are already playing a massive roll in the textiles industry. I started off looking casually through secondary resources- internet, magazines. It appears that they object is widely used (as most people already are aware) EVERYWHERE, with big brands such as Cath Kidston and Liberty of London using flowers as a trend setter. I then began to look at other ways that the flowers can be shown- my favourite example was in shop window displays. They are commonly used to break up a scene and to add a backdrop to the objects that are being displayed. With this in mind, I remembered that on a visit to London over Summer, I had taken interest in Selfridges' shop window, with them too, using this idea. I am always more attracted to a store depending on what is being shown in the shop window displays- a job that I would enjoy working in.