Sampling Brief

After overcoming my usual blank mindedness at the start of a project, I decided to just "go with it".

I was asked to choose a pair of opposite words from a list, I chose "calm" and "destructive".

This just baffled me. I had no clue where to start or what visual research to gather. So I took a step backwards..

I decided to go down a route that actually interests ME rather than trying to fit to a pair of words. I am interested in nature, in natural patterns and shapes. So the first part of my project is influenced by just one photograph, a photograph of some tree branches. This is what inspires me, and this was my starting point.

After a few drawings I decided to work with what I know, so had a play around with photoshop. I was quite pleased with the results..

I'm looking forward to seeing where my ideas develop further...

Hank Making

Yesterday was my 'know how' workshop, and it went really well. I am glad I chose the hank making workshop as I did really enjoy the weave option at the start of the origins brief. I will definitely like to use the weave room again. I wanted to create a post documenting what I learnt yesterday so I didnt forget the process..

Firstly for hankmaking you will need an undyed yarn. We were using a cotton yarn, but any undyed yarn will do. Thread the yarn through the small guide hooks on the wrap reel like this..

Tie on an end of yarn to the wrap reel.

 Next turn the counter down to "000000". This time we were measuring out 100 yards of yarn, so for this we turned the wrap reel by the handle until the counter showed "000100"

After you have wound off the yardage of yarn that you require, cross the two ends over each other, loosely wrap around the hank and tie together like this..

Using a length of strong yarn, wrap a figure of eight and tie loosely at three or four points through the hank. The reason we create figure of eight ties is to prevent tanlging when dyeing the yarn.

The hank is ready to take off the wrap reel. Holding with your finger and thumb and both ends, twist the hank tightly until it starts to twist again on itself. This is a good way to store the hank without tangling.

In this demonstration we did not dye our hanks, but this would be the moment to dye it. Instead we used this moment to transfer the hank onto a cone. The first step was to place the hank onto the machine and thread up.

Place your cone with the thread connected onto the machine and shut the door. Set a speed for the machine on this dial:

This time I used a slow speed as there might of been tangles in the hank so it may have jammed. So I used between 1 and 2 on the speed dial. Here is an image of the machine in process:

The machine will stop automatically once all of the thread has been transferred onto a cone, and you will have finished making a hank!

First Assessment

I found the essay to be a massive obsticle that I had to overcome, I was completely unsure of what to write about but as soon as I started it wasn't as bad as it seemed. I am glad to have it finished and submitted!

I am eager to get started with the new brief

"Sampling"

Students will explore and identify individual approaches to practice within the broad domain of textiles. Further development of specialist textile skills and techniques will increase confidence in sampling to articulate ideas.

Through experimentation with process and methods students are encouraged to apply gained knowledge, analytical and reflective skills through a series of thematically directed projects and blogging. Students will develop work from visual research and risk taking through to appropriate outcomes.

I am hoping to sign up for the hand processes workshop on Wednesday, however I tried to do this last time and the spaces filled up too quickly to secure myself a place. Maybe I will be luckier this time.

Know how worksop

Over the next two weeks various 'know how' workshop have been set up for us Tipsters.

I have signed up for the hank making workshop in the weave room. Really looking forward to this; I saw other students making hanks when I was in the weave room and it looks like something I will do further into the course. So my know how workshop is next Tuesday, when I will document it on here for future reference. For now I will have to crack on with my contextualising practice essay...

30 day drawing challenge

I found this whilst surfing the 'net and thought it could be quite fun... Something to keep in mind!

The 30 day drawing challenge posted on the blog "Show and Tell" by Allison Lehman.

Presentation 22/11/11

After my disastrous presentation I have come to the conclusion that I will have to work on my public speaking.

Sitting and waiting for my turn, heart thumping and palms sweating, felt like an eternity compared to the 5 minutes I was given to present my work. Thinking back I cannot even remember what exactly I said, but I know for sure that I didn't mention everything that I wanted to.

A horrible combination of nerves and fear washed over me this morning causing me to choke up and forget all of my well thought out notes.

I am truly disappointed in myself for such poor performance today and only hope that next time I can be mentally prepared. Despite my mental breakdown I am glad to have the experience, next time won't be so daunting. Every cloud.

Assessment Monday 21/11/11

I found myself feeling lost and clueless at the beginning of this brief, but with many a consultation with several tutors I eventually found my way. The main reason for my panic troughout the first couple of weeks was the combined pressure of wanting to show my best work, being too precious with my sketchbooks in the past and the fact that I was meeting new people daily. Looking back, I was getting worked up over nothing and I now see that I wasted a lot of time. Despite this I am finally happy with my body of work. By looking at my own work I see the story of my first brief planned out before me. My initial struggle before the calm. I suppose this would not be obvious to anyone else but this is what I enjoy most about looking back on my work. I see a naive approach to my chosen 'thing' which transforms into a strong body of samples. These best express my ideas.

The first turning point for me was the large scale drawing task, as I have spoken about before. This allowed me to generate new ideas which created more fluidity in my work. I am grateful for this task taking place as I would not have progressed further. It was initially daunting but eventually extremely helpful.

Despite my slow start to the project, and my obvious struggle to connect with the brief, the final four weeks were very enjoyable. The print workshop sessions allowed me to visually explore my theme in ways that I was restricted during the weave workshop sessions, being another huge turning point in terms of production of samples. I created the most work over those workshop sessions, mistakes were made that I was able to overcome, and through those mistakes combined with taught sessions I learnt a large amount of new information.

My weakness overall has been my drawing. Looking back I feel I should have spent some more time drawing and tranferring my thoughts onto paper. Despite this I am thoroughly pleased with my sample work. I found creating samples a more effective way of expressing my thoughts than drawing. This is the main reason for my sample work outweighing my drawing work.

As this was our first brief set I look forward to feedback from my tutor. I am ready to take on board some constructive criticism, to build upon in the next brief!

Large scale drawing task deconstructed..

This WAS my large scale drawing, a combination of drawing skills explored during the drawing workshop sessions, inspired by my own theme. Last session we were asked to 'deconstruct' our large scale drawings bearing in mind the following terms:

to attatch, to puncture, to roll, of circles, to sew, to rip, to weave, to cut,

to knit, to perferate, to embellish, of layers, of edges, to fold, to slash, of multiples.

We were asked to use just one or two of the words, of which I chose weave, as this would link to my prior workshop option. I set to work by cutting my large scale drawings into thin strips, and by using my Fabriano paper roll I was able to contruct a new drawing.

After some experimentation I decided on how I would present my decontructed piece and I now prefer the drawing as it presently stands. My drawing has become a line drawing, having a stronger link back to my project. It is about the journey of a line, appearing and disappearing from sight. There are exciting movements of line where it actually leaps from the page in loops. I have taken this idea and developed it further both in my sketchbook and on bigger pieces of paper.

Sketchbook Exhibition - Task 2

Transferring my thoughts and ideas into a sketchbook has always been challenging for me, as I tend to work most productively on impulse. The first page of a sketchbook usually proves to be an obstacle; there is always the pressure of creating an exciting and inspiring introduction to the following pages. On this occasion I decided to include a mind map of any provisional thoughts I had on the topic, to help stimulate more ideas for research and drawings later. I find this process helpful when or if my ideas run dry.

I always think that a sketchbook is quite intimate and personal, so the sketchbook session on Thursday was initially quite daunting. Despite this I actually found the session enlightening and thought provoking. I have now realised that my book does not show how I have developed my ideas, and there doesn’t seem to be any fluidity documenting the start of my sketchbook to the end. I have little contextual references and my ideas do not flow as well as I had hoped.

Since my initial large scale drawing task I have struggled less, and consequently benefited from certain ideas generated during its creation process. The notable change in my work has occurred during this phase, and a pattern is emerging on account of this. I have developed more ideas after the drawing task than I have throughout the whole unit, and I think that this was the push I needed at the start.

My project is comprised of two books containing various ideas; one being purely visual and the other full of notes and scribbles. This method is definitely constructive, helping me to juggle ideas and find an interesting route to go down; however when we had the sketchbook session last week, not many people saw the two books together; therefore the process appeared incomplete. The two books are inseparable when clearly presenting the extent of ideas. This has been my biggest downfall in the project, and next time I will combine the notes and visual imagery into one sketchbook, showing my methodology and thought processes more clearly, hopefully making it easier to follow.

Other areas of improvement could be made to my contextual references included in the sketchbook.  Reviewing my sketchbook, although you can see the photographs and my location drawing, I could have precisely annotated and  scribbled down some quick notes from the source, so that viewers could see where my thoughts have been generated.

During the feedback process I was given positive comments, which I will embrace and attempt to strengthen appropriately, however comparing my work against other sketchbooks has illuminated my strengths and weaknesses, and turned out to be a most worthwhile activity. I will be continuously reflecting on the unique and creative ways that others have presented their work and will bear those methods in mind when presenting future sketchbooks. 

Print Workshop

After four weeks, working on the 'weave workshop', I have now been enrolled onto the 'print workshop', which appeals to me, as it seems challenging and intriguing.

I was excited to begin work, and relished the prospect of printing, however, I was at a loss of what images I would like to print.

This minor obstacle coupled with much deliberation must have kicked me into gear, as I have now assembled loads of ideas for images. I have wrestled with the concept of 'line' in my work, as well as a contrasting loose pattern/drawing, influenced mainly by the blind drawings we have worked on in the workshops.

I am excited to see how my prints turn out..

Here is an image of one of my print designs almost ready to be exposed, however I don't know if I will make some alterations before sending it off:

Weave Workshop

For the initial four weeks of the 'origins' brief we were given the opportunity to sign up for various workshops, my preferred workshop being Weave. I found the prospect of this exciting as I have never produced weave samples before.

I thoroughly engaged with weave and enjoyed it immensely. I decided upon 'China town' for my theme and concentrated on this for my warp (bright red and yellow)

The workshop has been revealing and thought provoking having opened my eyes to new ideas and techniques that the course has to offer, and I will certainly consider working in the weave room again. Overall it has been a worthwhile experience, both enjoyable and rewarding.

Origins: Sleuths, Spies and Lies

After some necessary deliberation I have settled down with my project.

Firstly I was asked to pick a person, place or object from a list given to me. I chose 'China Town' - representative for its beautiful colours and richly adorned features it certainly posed a challenging theme; it is unlike anything I have done before. This momentarily became problematic as I was struggling with where to start with the project and I began to think that perhaps I should have stuck with something I was more familiar with. This problem quickly vanished as I explored further into the more subtle and intricate details, such as the marks on walls and the small details in the artwork on the China town arch.

Summer Project

I have been asked for my summer project to creat/make/design a dog, to be shown on my first day back at University on Monday 19th September 2011, at the Textiles in Practice Crufts style 'Dog show in the park'.

I am interested in putting some new 'life' into my old clothes, scraps of fabric and other found materials. I would like to use these gathered materials as the basis for my dog.

I have a large supply of random buttons, old and new, buttons that have been given to me and that I have also found.

Below is a photograph of my work in progress, I am looking forward to the finished result!

Old Paint Palettes (FMP Imagery)

Final Major Project Exhibition

This Thursday is the Bury college BTEC National Diploma Art and Design exhibition.
I have spent the week preparing my work for the exhibition, by designing the layout of my space, and mounting the final outcomes of my Final Major Project (FMP).

My FMP consists of work that follows a self-written brief with the title "Accidental Beauty". This was a semi-three-dimensional abstract project looking at the accidental patterns and imagery found in places such as the college desks and sinks, floors, peeling paint on surfaces such as old doors; generally unconventional primary sources. I included a lot of photography in this project, and worked hard to produce relevant final pieces. Here are some images of the final set up of my work.  

Statement

This is a collection of work created over the last 18 months whilst studying Art and Design BTEC National Diploma. It shows a range of mediums and styles including textiles, 3D and life drawings. The works seleceted come from a number of briefs such as "Dreaming", "The Elements" and "Abstraction". I have explored a variety of techniques such as Shibori and Embroidery as well as Printing, Plemping and Ink Drawing.

I am a very passionate person with the desire to work hard and commit myself to my studies as demonstrated by the high grades I have recieved in the past. Art and design has allowed me to express my imagination and creativity. Outside of college I am a sociable and friendly person with a good work ethic and excellent organisation skills. I recognise the importance of balancing my social life along side my studies and will continue with this attitude if I am given the opportunity to study at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Pencil drawing was always a favourite medium of mine, however the last 18 months has opened my mind to new and exciting ways of expressing my ideas. I am excited about the opportunities this university would provide in terms of developing and expanding on my current abilities. I was drawn to Manchetser Metropolitan University because of it's outstanding reputation and reccommendations from existing students. Manchester is home to a diverse culture providing many art galleries and architectual and design inspirations. Studying at this University in the city of Greater Manchester will provide me with everything I need to be successful in my future career.

"Dreaming" Photography

"Elements" Design Idea

Texture