Self Initiated Project Concept- Monday 15th December.

Sketchbook concept page.

After being shocked by the articles shining light upon the scale of poverty in Greater Manchester recently, I would like to recognize and highlight this idea of the city of Manchester despite benefiting from economic recovery, and succeeding in areas such as redevelopment and culture like a city is typically perceived to do so, has this dark, weakened and deprived under layer. This holds connotations of negativity and sadness due to economic recovery not being felt ‘evenly’ across the area, which I believe is something that should be recognised.
This concept is something that I intend to communicate through my knitted pieces focussing on particular colours, techniques, textures, structures and pieces of imagery that flow and develop throughout the pieces which will communicate these opposing connotations and representations of the city.
Over the christmas break, I  intend to began visual research through a series of photographs, capturing contrasts in the city of Manchester. By exploring the city, seeing and capturing points that would not typically be recognized by an average person in daily life-  this imagery will enable me to develop and experiment into drawings and paper works in relation to the conceptual ideas that I have explained.

Poverty Scale in Manchester 2014- colour darkness represents scale.

Live Project.

Alongside this self initiated project, I will also be under taking a branding project. Having the oppurtunity to produce work in the context of fashion which is something that I do not usually do, will be a great oppurtunity for me to challenge my skills and knowledge. My initial ideas on this are that I am very interested and always have been inspired and interested in the work of Issey Miyake, espcially the pleats please collection, so this would be a great brand to refer to.

Monday 8th December.

After receiving my feedback for the intentions unit with some really helpful advice and ideas in terms of continuing through to next project I have started to collect some concept ideas through researching and thinking about the context of my work.

Contextualising practice this term has been really inspiring to my way of thinking about architecture and public art within the city, and the way in which the city is a subject of constant development and holds many possibilities of inspiration for a creative person like myself.

Contextualising Practice- Key reading.

This week I plan to think further about my concept, and what it is I would like to recognise, and communicate to an audience. Despite developing some ideas last week for this, I still feel the need to properly find something that I am passionate about, and therefor be able to push throughout this 8 week project. By doing this, I will then be ready to begin visual research and development over Christmas, to be ready to sample when we return. I definitely want my pieces to challenge the preconceptions of knit as a textile form, constructing, disecting and transforming pieces, which consider and reflect this concept based on an issue that is not typically associated with the textile world. I see my pieces as a canvas on which I can communicate these ideas and suggestions. Pushing these boundaries is something that I find really inspiring and interesting.

Project Reflection.

Looking back over this whole unit of work from my initial urban sketches to my final mounted pieces I feel like the project has been a project that I have learnt a lot from and got a lot out of. This is not just in terms learning knew techniques within my specialist area but also in terms of context and how I see my work would fit in the world outside of university and furthermore, about risk taking through experimentation and learning from mistakes made.

Focussing on this idea of “risk taking and experimentation”, I believe that I have evidenced this throughout the project in various ways but I feel that there is so much further that I could have pushed this if given the time. I think that this experimentation is clear through my cross disciplinary approach to the project, specialising in knit and experimenting with new techniques, but also bringing in techniques that I learnt last year in embroidery. I have always intended to use the knowledge that I have in both of these areas so I am glad that I pushed this idea throughout the project. Not only this, but experimentation occurred right at the very start of this unit under the “urban influences” brief to go out on site and try out observational drawing. For me this was a big step as it is something that I have never felt confident enough to do, but looking back, I am glad that I did, as the drawings that I produced in that week fed into some of my best visual research for this whole project. If I ever was to do this unit again, I would probably try to be even more experimental, and this whole idea of constant experimentation and sampling is something that I find enjoyable.

 

In terms of the whole concept of this project, I feel that there could be room for improvement in future projects when producing a concept for a project. I think that being split into groups at the very start of the project and choosing the “urban influences” seemed like a positive thing at first due to my interests in modern architecture, which is something, that I have always been interested in. However, getting this “urban influences” brief did at times make me feel restricted especially when moving into my specialist area and being asked to explain my concept. This meant that I had to think about a concept for the drawings, which I had already produced, which I think would have been much easier to do at the very start of the project. However, in a way I am thankful that this happened, as I will definitely be more aware and be more thoughtful of my concept at the very start of my future projects. So, my concept of dissecting or distorting architecture through these detailed pieces of textiles has been supported through my project from artists research such as Daniel Libeskind, Cathy Reed and Serge Ferrari which have given me great inspiration within my drawings and sampling techniques.

This leads me on to the context of my work. Getting this chance to start thinking about my work and where it sits within the outside world and how I see myself in terms of a career has been a highlight of this project for me. I have always seen my work fitting into the broad area of textile art, which would be for a gallery space or commission work due to my interest in the audience and experiencing textiles in an unusual and interesting way. I have been greatly inspired by the artists Michelle Stephens and Lucy Brown throughout this project, as the way in which they work and present is where my interests lie.  I love the idea of people seeing textiles as something different to how they usually would in a fashion or interiors collection, and I feel like this project is the start of something that holds the possibilities to be explored so much further through lots of experimentation and development of ideas that makes me excited about future prospects.

Lucy Brown

Michelle Stephens

I feel like I have become much better at being much more considered and reflective throughout this project as I was in the first year of the course. This is through communicating ideas in my sketchbook in a way that actually aids my practice as a working sketchbook than a sketchbook to be presented. Also, my weekly blogging has helped greatly in realising where my strengths and weaknesses where each week in my drawing or my sampling or research, and being critical in reflection definitely helped in this process.

 

 

Furthermore, I feel that this project has left me in a position where I am full of inspiration that gives me lots of ideas and a sense of direction in which I would like to take my practice which I think is really important. This constant sense of development and movement that flows from one project to another is something that I think is key to finding a career path in the future.

17th November Tutorial

This weeks tutorial has made me feel confident that the final development I have done and the pieces that I've chosen and that I'm producing as final samples are going to be a successful set of final samples.  I just need to ensure that my final pieces are as neat and proffesional as possible when being presented which is obviously key when presenting.

 

As i mentioned last week, I decided to make use of PVC for its weight and transparency to reflect these visible layers which are in a lot of my drawing work and used embroidery along with foils to add some of the vibrncy of colour into the pieces which will lay over some of my other final samples. I'm really happy with they way these PVC pieces have turned out, and I love the use of foils on them which work much better on fabric than they did on my knits to add this vibrancy seen in modern architecture that i captured in my drawings.

By simply increasing the size of previous samples such as this e wrapped piece in a dark cotton denim I am really happy with the outcome for one of my final samples. Like with the initial samples, I really like the shapes and representation on my visual research in this particular piece, and by being much bigger this makes the detail and composition much better to view. Something else I'm really interested in in some of my final pieces are the way in which both the front side and the back side of the knit or embroidery piece are interesting, meaning that if they where to be viewed as I'd like them to be ideally 360 degrees around then they would be fit to do so.

 

Use of lighter yarns in this acetate piece with strips woven up between ladders has improved the overall look really well and this enables the details of the drawings on the actual acetate to be seen much better than previously. I think that if I had more time to develop this project I would definitely push this idea further as out of all my final pieces this is one my favourites due to its experimental nature.

 

I'm glad that I decided to have a couple of my final samples as simple fabrics with very detailed pieces of embroidery on them which will be mounted on their own, as I think that these connect my pieces of knit and overlays of embroidery through the colour and compositions which relate as well to my visual research as my knit pieces do.

 

 

Composing final pieces.

 

As I have intended throughout the project to have these overlays of fabric with details of embroidery and colour on them I have spent some time this week experimenting with different ways of doing so. This has obviouslt been really helpful in decision making in terms of what will be mounted together and what works well together.

 

 

10th November Tutorial

 

This week I have been thinking a lot about the context and audience of my work. My interests lie mainly in textile art, and I think that in terms of presenation an installation would be the ideal way that I would display this unit of work.

If I was to describe this unit and the way I think about it I would say that the development I have been doing is a representation of modern architecture through creative knit and embroidery techniques distorted and disected in response to the idea of blurring the boundaries between architecture and art- inspired by the book "art and architecture- a place in between" in which this relationship between artists creating public art and architects is explored.
 My focus is largely on the use of layering and revealing through extreme darks and lights of yarn and transparent fabric which represent those seen in modern architecture- to create intricate and sensetive pieces that would be viewed and experienced as a series of textiles which would fill a space by suspension at distance from eachother, allowing them to be experienced by the audience in a way that textiles aren't traditionally experienced.

A lecture from textile artist Michelle Stephens who has also been teaching photoshop workshops this term has really inspired me in terms of my context and how I see my work on the outside world. The way she creates installations along with public art, sculptures and wall mounted pieces really interests me and is definitely something I'd love to aim for the future.

If I was to actually exhibit my final work, I would need to decide on a scale of the pieces and I think that ideally the pieces would be so much more effective and interesting at large scale- possibly A2 size. I have been doing some presentations plans of how the work could be displayed in different ways if it was.

(sketchbook scan of plan drawings)




This week my samples have continued to develop into a set of fabrics that are working well together and I think that this upcoming week will be spent fine tuning my development samples through more experimentation and development to then be able to pick out which I will push forward as my final samples for this unit.

 

 

 

As mentioned in las weeks tutorial I this week I created a monofilamnet piece on the dubied with stuffed pockets. Although I do really like this tecnique the samples is really messy as I wasn't aware that casting on and ending the sample in lyrca is required. So I will definitly do this on a larger scale this week with use of lyrca to recreate a similar piece as I think this could be a really nice piece.

 

 

Making this sample larger and e wrapping more of the squares in has made it so much nicer and succesful. I think I'll definitely be doing one of these samples as one of my final pieces on again a larger scale as the overall look, feek, compostion and tones supports my visual research really well.

 

Another sample that I think could me made much more succesful by simply increasing the scale of it is this e wrapped piece which has a much more drawn feel about it due to the shaping and the planning out of the composition directly from one image. I love the highlight that comes from the different tones of blues and the small section of white- showing this idea of the extreme lights vs the extreme darks of my visual research.

 

 

 

 

 

I have again been playing about with embroidery onto more sheer fabric this week and again although the embroidery is working really well with my other pieces I don't feel like the fabric I'm using is giving me the look I imagined  when overlaying. I have been thinking about buying some transparent PVC this week to solve this problem as I think that will give me so much more transparency and a better weight to work with and overlay with my knit pieces.

 

 

The sample in which I have woven acetate through ladders are a piece I'd like to improve with a lighter background to improve the quality seen from the strips of acetate and also through use of fabric glue to hold the strips in more securely.

 

 

3rd November Tutorial

This week I've been developing my samples on the domestic knitting machines taking the feedback from last week into much consideration. This has made me much more confident and decisive in knowing what I want my samples to reflect (which is the feel of my drawings)  and I feel like I'm progeressing in a good direction to acheive this.

 

 

A favourite sample from this week is this black 2ply mercerised cotton piece which i e wrapped sections of with a turqoise vibrant blue and an emerald green on every row. E wraping in sections has created lots of floats on the back of the sample shown in the image which is something I really like. Also, the black line created by the part of the knitting that hasn't been e wrapped. I think the success of this sample is down to the improvement of colour after the feedback last week- this vibrancy definitely reflectts my drawings much better with the extreme lights and line of extreme dark.

 

 

This sample with the e wrapped sqaures of colour that have been softened around the edges to reflect the cut away sections revealing colour in some of my drawings could be much more succesful on a larger scale with more repeaing sections of the e wrapped squares. So this week I will definitely explore this idea much further and in larger samples so that its possible to see whats going on in the piece much more.

 

 

 

 

 

The use of monofilament in my work attracts me due to the transparency it adds to the structure of the knit. And as im really keen on the idea of overlaying in both my visual research and in the outcomes of this project I think this material could work really well. Experimentation with monofilament on the dubieds this week using the circualar knitting technique will hopefuly allow me to create full pieces of monofilament knitted with strips of colour stuffed into pockets created.

 

I have also scanned some of my favourite drawings and printed them onto acetate to weave in and out of knit samples which contain lace holes or ladders as an experimentation and development of this transparent effect in my pieces. Im hoing that the strips of drawings on acetate will add a really nice quality and structure to my samples whilst reflecting my drawings really well as they actually contain pieces of them.

 

To communicate the feeling of the layers in my drawings, I'm really liking the idea of over laying piece of fabric over my final samples for this unit almost like compositioning a drawing with my pieces of knit and fabric. I create this piece of embroidery onto a sheer fabric this week and I'm quite pleased with the outcome. I like the use of colours and shaping in the piece as I created the piece referencing a single part of one of my drawings. One thing im not happy with is the transperency of the fabric, as when overlayed onto one of my other samples it does not allow us to see the knit clearly. However, it has been suggested that  I could have a couple of these embroidery pieces not overlaying but supporting my other final samples which I think would be really nice.

 

 

I have so many more ideas to push my sampling this week thanks to this tutorial in terms of technique, colour, embroidery, overlaying and scale. I think that I really need to think about the scale of my pieces especially the e wrap squares piece as it could be made so much more interesting.

I'm going to really push the e wrap techinique as it's working really well in what I've created so far and could be used in so many different ways. In terms of colour, the tones and composition of colours are working well together and I have been told to keep changing the background like I have been doing to represent those changed between extreme lights and darks in my drawing work.

 

 

 

 My sketcbook continues to be a working book in which I am generating and piecing together my knit development and samples.

 

 

 

 

27th October Tutorial

The decision to move into an A3 sketchbook this previous week has definitely aided me in seeing realtionships between my drawings and research and has helped me to start planning and making choices about what I want my knits to look like. I have been trying to sketch out some ideas to get an idea of composition and technique, and I have also done some yarn wrappings thinking about quality of yarn and what kind of texture and overall feel that I want to come from my knitting.

 

Despite doing a variety of samples on the domestic machines this week I haven't got any that im particulary fond of, and this is definitely due to the yarn choices I have made. The thick white double knit cotton that I used as a background for most of them came from the white that is the background of some of my drawings. However, white in my samples is not succesful at all as white can be very hard to get right, and I feel like it just looks dirty and is very boring in my sampling from this past week.

 

 

 

However, I am enjoying the e wrap technique which I've been experimenting with and I feel like this is a technique that could be pushed and experimented with much further to create different patterns or textures over my knits, as there are some reallyt nice areas of detail in my drawings that could be represented through heavy e wrapping.

 

 

A sample which I thing has some success from this week is this e wrapped monofilament with the blue 2ply cotton. Although the samples a bit tatty and too small, the quality that the monofilament brings to the piece I think works really well. This idea of having some transparency against the solid colours of the knit really interests me and is definitely something I'll be bringing into my work a lot for this unit.

 

This weeks tutorial has given me so many ideas on how to develop my knitting more. Colour is definitely something I need to work out, and I think that instead of using the white as background, I will vary the backgrounds from extreme lights of blues/greys to extreme darks of blacks, blues then bring in flashes of other colours through the piece. Working like this will be much more reflective of the qualities of colour in my drawings and will work really nicely. In terms of technique, I will be pushing e wrap much more along with weaving in,  the use of monofilamet, grid systems, lace and ladders , partial knit to create spaces and punch cards to break pattern up over the piece. Furthermore, I need to beging thinking about what elements of embroidery I'm going to bring in to this sampling and how I will work these with my knit.

 

I also need to make sure that my yarn wrappings and therefor the yarns in my samples have an element of vibrancy in them, as the ones in my sketchbook so far don't seem to capture the vibrant elements of the colours in parts of my drawings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20th October Tutorial

This past week has been spent developing my drawings using the points from last weeks tutorial to improve them and make them more exciting ready to go into sampling. I think that this experimentation I have been doing with different kinds of paper, transparencies and colours of baskground has definitely improved them and I'm really happy with the way they are looking. I love the use of layering and different levels of transparency blurring sections, and this is a quality Im going to be keen to transfer into my samples using both knit and embroidery techniques. 

 

 

A tutorial today has made me realise that in order to start to develop and transfer ideas from all the visual research I have done so far I need to start working in an A3 sketchbook. This will be so helpful in generating ideas and choices in terms of colour, composition, yarn choices and technique and also having the space to plan out samples in a sketchbook alongside my visual research and contextual research will make me much more productive when getting on the knitting and sewing machines in this apporaching week.