Initially I was expecting a great deal from this project brief. I felt that I had let myself down in the previous project, and I wanted to better myself and my work.
I identified the problems I had with the previous project to be the colour palette, uninspiring visual research and a lack of connection to the brief. I was determined to turn this around by manipulating the new brief to suit my interests. I am interested in nature, and in particular trees. I embraced this and used the image of a tree as the starting point for my work, in place of a word. From this starting point my expectations were higher than before in terms of work production and especially sketchbook work. My work has been relatable to the opposite words “calm” and “destructive”.
I chose hand processes workshop with the view that hand stitch would be thoroughly taught. In fact this was not the case. Despite being a little disappointed by this, it has been a blessing. I was driven to produce work independantly and was able to explore through sampling experimentally. Although practice is still needed, my hand stitch has improved and my knowledge of stitch has expanded. I feel that by taking part in the hand processes workshop I have been able to discipline my patience with hand stitch. I was expecting to create a large amount of samples during my hand processes workshop, which changed once I began to create samples. I found them to be quite time consuming.
The direction of my samples had to be changed part way through, from finger knitting to working on a ground, and then working across a space. The finger knitting became repetitive and uninspiring. Although I enjoyed it, the work needed a new direction to freshen up my ideas and to develop into something else. From this necessary change my ideas have took on a new path, from looking at the trees from a visual point of view, to using the “tangled” idea of the branches. I have now started to create tangled samples and look at tangled mark making and line drawing. This is an idea that I will drive forward into the next project.
My sketchbook has been an important tool throughout this project, without it my work would not have progressed. It has helped to establish both my colour palette and direction. I was able to transform ideas into successful samples. This is somewhat new to me. Previously I have struggled to produce much drawn material due to the lack of connection to the brief. I have been excited and inspired by my drawn work this time, which has proven to be a great bridge between my thoughts and samples. This is something I will carry on through to the next part of the project.
I have realised that as a creator I work better when a clear direction is apparent. I need to find a definite starting point to utilise my own working styles and expand from this starting point. I have also realised that I am quite a technical worker, which is one of the reasons that I excelled during the weave workshop. I feel at ease when organised and concise. Contrary to this I have order and boundaries that sometimes need to be broken to add some excitement to my work. Perhaps in the future I should throw myself more wild cards to challenge my ideas and work.
