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.