Developement

After deciding that the large scale samples were not quite appropriate for my work I decided to try and create some medium sized samples that could potentially be used as "ribbons" in something bigger to try and maintain some of the colour intensity. However I found that I really liked them as a little collection that gradually increase in scale: 

I enjoyed creating fabric samples with the embellisher and then using the photocopier as a tool to manipulate these samples. 

I then decided to print these onto acetate to see how the opacity affected the drawings, and then developed these further by adding a solid satin stitch. 

I thought it would be interesting to make these little pieces into something light could come through. So working with my scale I felt that fairy light shades would be an appropriate context for my work: 

I really like the way the light comes through and creates different coloured shadows. Although I think my work does look good in a lighting/interiors context I think next unit I would like to try make some more final products.

I can maybe see my work as smaller feature such as a pocket or edging on a garment, alternatively as a bigger statement piece such as a scarf: 

http://scarletchamberlin.com/2014/10/09/full-mooned-darning/

 It would also make a good feature on accessories or perhaps even interiors such as cushions. 

Reflection

I am pleased with the board I have produced for the Bradford Brief, I am really like my needle weave sample however I feel like I need some more direction in terms of my context. I feel like designing for a collection of final samples is very difficult to communicate visually. 

I found the two tutor crit this week really helpful. I enjoyed hearing lots of fresh opinions on my work as well as suggestions for new techniques. I am looking forward to developing my work further, I am looking to increase the scale of my work by using printing techniques and found fabrics. By using these techniques I should be able to create less time consuming samples.

It will be really interesting to see how the scale of my work affects the intensity of colours.  

I also got some helpful advice at other artists to look at that produce similar colour based work such as the Bauhaus Weavers:

https://uk.pinterest.com/explore/bauhaus-textiles/

https://couleurblind.me/2011/08/23/gunta-stoelzl/

I really love the colour use in these pieces and really relate it to the way I use it in my drawings. And although these are woven pieces I feel like they are particularly relevant to my constructed style of embroidery. 

Colour Curation

I had the opportunity to show my colour blind friend, who sparked my self-initiated project, all of the samples I had made and it was fascinating to hear what colours he could see. There were a few colours (particularly the pale pink and the bright turquoise) that he saw to be a different colour pretty much every time he came across it. It helped me see in my own work how the surrounding colours have an effect on one stand-alone colour. Also it was encouraging to hear that although he said it wasn’t very obvious to him, he was starting to understand the concept of the colour purple which he was previously completely blind to. Although I am not sure of the final context for my work, it is really satisfying to have produced work that has so positively impacted on someone’s life and quite literally their vision. This has impacted on some of the research I have done for my dissertation and encourages me to keep my eye out for arts/health and wellbeing opportunities in the future. 

I have also been offered the opportunity to exhibit my work in collaboration with some Art History/Curation students which I am very excited about. The exhibit is called “Curation of Colour” which is obviously a fitting theme for my work. Having sent the curators images of my work they have offered me a window space so that the light can really enhance my work. I am excited about collaborating especially because they have not asked for a specific piece to be made they just want to curate samples I have already made, so it will be really interesting to see how they curate my work. 

Experimenting

This week I experimented with lots of different techniques creating a range of samples. I really like the effect created by contrasting a bold machine satin stitch with the more irregular hand stitch. I feel this reflects well where I have used different media in my drawings.

In an attempt to create some speedy samples I tried to lay down threads and stitch over them. Although I like the colour mixing in these samples I feel like some of the linear and grid qualities of my drawing have been lost.

To take a different approach I experimented with some beading in between machine stitches which although I quite liked the contrast in weights of fine fabric and heavy beads however not all of the beads were opaque and some of the colour intensity was lost. Also I feel that the uniformity of the beads means the hand drawn qualities of my drawings have also bean lost.

I also found this with some samples I created using water soluble. I found that a lot of the linear grid qualities were lost and that having a white background would better reflect my drawings.

I have also created some only hand stitched samples, the first of which was needle weaving. I really like this sample because I have used the three primary colours and woven variegated threads through, which really recreates a pixel effect. I also like this sample because it creates a little series and sits well in the white space around it.

This week I would like to try and keep my backgrounds white to better reflect my drawings and experiment with found materials such as ribbons to help make some of the processes a bit quicker but still maintain a strong grid structure. 

I really enjoy creating these small scale samples, I think in terms of context I would like to produce a collection of final samples that might be bought by others as inspiration. It would be interesting to try and produce a sample book similar to the work available from James Hare Or some kind of colour trend book similar to ones found at: http://www.james-hare.com/607-embroidered.html