Textiles World Week 2

This week in my textiles world : construct (knit rotation) I have been focussing on getting together a colour palette from my images and drawings and also getting more contextual research to inspire my knit samples and weave later on. I think that getting this colour palette is really important in any project, as it gives a focus and constraint in a way to the project, rather than the work being hundreds of different colours and shades. 

Task One: Mood Board.

To get an idea of colour, line, surface and texture i put a mood board together using a few of my favourite image relating to how I would like to develop my knit work. This task has definitely helped me to realise that my knit should be focussed on composition and making lines/squares within the knit itself using colour and texture to represent the lines, structure and architecture in most of my drawings and photography.

Task Two: Colour Palette. 

As a development from my mood board, I was then asked to use parts of this to make interesting compositions with a variety of colours/shades in which i then painted out into squares. I also added a few bits of yarn in some places which i thought matched some of the colours in these, however i think that i should have thought more about the texture and quality of the wool and wether it would represent what i would like in my knitting and weaving. For example wool is quite fluffy and course, so probably won't represent the clean lines of the architectural drawings/photographs I will be working from.

From these compositions and painted colours i then painted out a number of squares of colour to show the kind of colours I  will be working with in my construct project. This will be a great reference when choosing yarns to knit or weave with along with my mood board, drawings and photographs, and should ensure that my colours aren't all over the place within this project. 

Contextualising Practice: Challenging preconceptions: the uses of materials.

If we can challenge the preconceptions of making, how can the use of materials be explored? This lecture focussed on examining the work of different artists and designers in relation to the materials they selected to use within their work. We focussed on how this choice challenged the nature of the actual object, and how materials have associations that come with them along with how materials can have histories. 

The way in which we measure human development is always based on materials for example the different ages of humanity e.g bronze age. We have a certain way of thinking about materials as we are in a certain episteme. 

Can we challenge this? Are we now turning a corner in the way in which we do think about materials- back to a more magical way? 

Coco Chanel.

Coco Chanel's use of materials was focussed on the idea of the materials being true to the body and simply enhancing the ideal form of body which at this time was a sporty build, meaning fabrics such as Jersey where ideal for this job. The body was the core to the material- sleek lines and no decoration.

This suggests the importance of materials within the work of fashion designers like Coco Chanel in the way that different materials do different things to represent the body in different ways- some fabric can flatter and enhance the body, others not so much. 

Postmodern Materials? 

Mary Kantrantzou's- digitally printed materials.

Is technology beginning to defy materials completely? In pieces like this does the material have as much importance as the digital print on the material itself?

Materials and the environment.

Droog: Material Matters

"While we are hit with glooming predictions of ever increasing material scarcity, our material culture—from the way we consume and dispose, to the way we produce and collect, to the way we design and develop business models— largely remains unchanged."

Taxing on raw materials rather than the finished product? Would companies then by offcuts and bankrupt stocks etc? We need to start realising the concerns over getting the materials which we source- the precious and composite materials. Recycle/Remake? Using things that are already made to make something new?

Drawing Day: Colour Task

This weeks drawing day was focussed on colour and mixing colours. 

By having an activity like this to do, I think I have learnt a lot more than I previously knew about colour and mixing colours sensitively and slowly to get so many different shades and tones. These skills will definitely assist me in my textile world development work and development in my drawings, by introducing a colour palette my work will be based on.

Textiles world: construct.

After a meeting and review with tutors regarding the drawings I have been doing in response to the 16 chance cards and my own photographs in these first few weeks of the course, we agreed that the textiles world I will be most suited too is construct- knit and weave. I have always been very interested and intrigued with knit and weave as practices within Textiles, and i think that my drawings show this, through the use of lines, colour, structure and repetition within them. 

First Rotation: Knit.

As we have been split into two groups within construct, my fist 3 weeks will be spent on Knit. although i have done a bit of knitting by both hand and domestic machine before at Art Foundation level, I'm looking forward to refreshing and updating my skills within knit and learning many more techniques and experimenting with these for my origins unit of work. 

This first week we have been focussing on getting familiar with the basics of knitting and learning a few techniques such as casting on, plain knit, tension stripes and knitting with two yarns. These technical samples will be placed in a technical file alongside details of the technique, tension and yarn type so that i can remember how to do things in the future if i ever came back to knit. 

Initial Research.

Faster By Mark Fast.

This collection by Mark Fast really caught my eye when i saw it, as i really like the way in which the garments are structural and focussed on the form of the body. The tight fit of the knit makes it stretch over the body and i love the way the spaces in the knit allow us to see through the structure. In a way they are almost skeletal.  I think this work caught my eye because my drawings are very focussed on line and structure and mark making in medias like black ink, charcoal sticks, pencil and fine liner pen, so i think that my work within construct will be focussed on this idea of architecture, form and repeating line. Wether these will be focussed on Fashion I'm not entirely sure. 

Jessica Gore "Don't pull a loose thread."

Installation work like this has always interested me and inspired my work, the concept of this piece being accidental yet creating such an interesting piece is what makes it so appealing to me. In terms of structure again, the loops and the gaps alongside the tightly knitted sections work really well and i think the idea of having ladders/dropped stitches in my samples would work really well alongside my drawings and photographs as they could represent things like the glass windows against the concrete greys/blacks of the buildings. 

Initial knit techniques.

Here are a few examples of a few pieces of knit using different techniques I have done while learning some techniques this week. I think that these will work really well when I develop my work next week thinking more about colour and relating to my drawings and photographs I did at the start of my origins unit. 

Contextualising practice: Challenging thinking and theories of creativity.

This lecture considered how people have understood the nature of creativity and explored the way in which we can challenge the set methods which we have for ourselves in terms of thinking. Can you train yourself into thinking differently and therefor be more creative?

Are we creative?

 Do we have to be completely original to be creative?

Could creativity be seeing things in a different way?

Is it enough for somebody to make something and for them to make it no matter how skilled or unskilled they are?

Example:

Local Wisdom By Dr. Kate Fletcher.

  "The project explores satisfying and resourceful practices associated with using clothes. This ‘craft of use’ aims to challenge the dependency of the fashion industry on increasing material throughput and propose solutions through sustained attention to tending and using garments and not just creating them."

 When looking at this work by Kate Fletcher, we could challenge it and question wether Fletcher is a creative because she see's the creativity in other people, listed on this website. Do we have to be creating something, our own work, to be creative? Or could the idea of capturing other people's creativeness and ideas be creative in itself? What are the boundaries of being creative? 

Drawing in the studio.

Object Drawing.

"Make a compositon and draw it."

Alongside my chance card drawings which i have been working on from the photographs taken during the map the city task, I have been doing some still life drawing of objects given to us during studio practice.

I think that by doing these compositional drawings of drawings given to me, I learnt a lot about composition and still life drawing, which I have never had chance to do a lot of in the past. I really like some of the different lines and shapes I have made in representation of the object itself and the different types of media
I have used. In comparison to my other drawings I have been doing from the photographs I took in Manchester city centre, I don't think that these are quite as succesful despite me enjoying doing them. I feel that the photographs I have got will allow me to develop and expand ideas through my textiles world, whereas I don't feel like I could do much expansion from these object drawings.

Chance card drawings.

From the photo's taken around Manchester city centre earlier in the week, I have responded to these images by drawing in different ways instructed by 16 chance cards I was given in the launch of this project. These chance cards included tasks such as: " make a drawing onto a sheet of folded paper" , "make a cut paper drawing" , "make a light drawing on a dark background" and "make a drawing using only 20 lines". These where left to the individual to interpret the instruction in whichever way they felt best. 

These are just a few of the drawings i have completed in response to these 16 chance cards:

Make a drawing using dust:

Using the dust of a white compressed charcoal stick and my fingers, I created a drawing inspired by the windows, glass and lines of the new school of art building. I love the overall look and feel of this drawing and the way it isn't a direct representation of the image it was inspired by it is much more abstract and focussed on the actual marks and textures made using this technique.

Make a drawing using indian ink and different sized brushes:

Inspired by the lines and angles of this image captured of a building in Manchester, using black Indian ink and various sized paint brushes I drew a representational image of the building. I really like the three dimensional look of the drawing and the way the ink with the various sized brushes has varied the lines or brush strokes and created different textures and marks on the paper. I also find the repetitive lines really interesting. This chance card could be developed in a really interesting way if given the time experimenting with the different marks that could be made inspired by different imagery.

Make a folded paper drawing:

By folding my piece of cartridge paper into squares and ensuring the folds where really clean and crisp, when folded back out i was able to make a drawing using a charcoal stick and rubbing it over these folded lines. I was again inspired by the lines and marks of the windows of buildings in this drawing. I particularly like the way when pressing a bit harder on the charcoal stick there are darker areas of lines against the white background.

Make a drawing from shadows:

When taking this photograph in the northern quarter, Manchester, i wanted to capture the shadows of the steps on the building as I thought they where really interesting. So for the " make a drawing from shadows" chance card i decided to cry and create these marks of the shadows on paper. I used a scouring pad dipped in Indian ink to create the unusual marked lines. I find the marks made with this technique have worked really well and the overall composition and idea of the drawing a success. If I was to develop this idea, I would definitely be more aware of trying to capture shadows by camera in unusual ways to then draw and work from.

Make a drawing on layered sheets of transparent papers:

Working from a variety of different photographs which i captures around Manchester centre, i created drawings on various different pieces of tracing paper and then overlaid these in a certain way to create an interesting layered drawing and composition. I really like the way this works and the way the drawings overlay yet fit together. The overlaying and drawing has created some interesting marks and lines which i always find very interesting in my work.

Make a drawing on a found or ready made object:

This piece was created by laying my paper onto a textured surface in the art studio and sketching over the paper gently in lines with a pencil. the grooves and marks of the surface are then captured in the drawing creating lovely edges and marks.