Evaluation

I have really enjoyed this unit. Although a lot of my work was very laborious, time consuming and mildly eye-sight destroying, I am really proud of the samples and final pieces I have produced. I feel like continuing my project using my colour based research from practice unit, meant I had a chance to really develop my stitch work.

Experimenting with different fabrics has been interesting and I found using machines to explore the qualities of my hand stitch to be very satisfying. I was pleased I managed to achieve the same intensity of colour with machine embroidery as I have in my darning and could make them at ten times the speed.

My final pieces are not what I expected to produce, but were reached through experimentation and I love the outcome. They reflect what initially inspired them (traditional embroidery samplers) and they offer the white space needed to allow you to focus on the detail.

Being entered into the Colour Competition run by the Society of Dying and Colourists was an excellent opportunity to learn about how to present my work for a specific brief and although I’m not sure what I entered was entirely appropriate to the brief I was forced to come up with creative solutions to avoid mounting white on white, keep within the four A2 board limit and trying to show my work as appropriate for a sustainable fashion context. I was very pleased to receive a judges High Commendation Award.

Having learnt from the Colour Competition I have created a well presented portfolio that allows you to see the front and back of my samples and gives each sample enough space to be appreciated. I have also been able to make sure you can see the narrative running through my work, being sure to include visualisation and drawings.

Although I really struggle with presenting my work, because of the hand drawn qualities and lack of uniformity, I feel like this unit I have made leaps with my presentational skills. Window frame mounting was not my favourite task, however it seems only appropriate that time-consuming presentation would be required for time-consuming samples.

I was also fortunate enough to have my samples picked to be displayed in the TIP in Progress Show which helped me see my samples in an exhibition context and gave me inspiration for how I might present my work at the Degree Show.

Finally having shown my four final pieces to the curators of the Gawthorpe Hall brief from Practice unit I have been offered the chance to exhibit in the Knit and Stitch Show 2016 alongside Manchester School of Art students and staff. I have been asked to create a larger scale, around 2 meter square piece with lots of my little pieces of darning. This is an exciting opportunity and will keep my practice ticking over after graduation, I plan to man the stand at both the London and Harrogate show with the hope that more opportunities will arise. 

Evaluation

I have really enjoyed this unit. I feel like I started with a really strong concept that I was able to keep producing new and original visual research for. I have also enjoyed creating work without the restrictions of context to dictate my fabric decisions allowing to really focus on developing my aesthetic for my samples. Although I have enjoyed this freedom by designing a collection of samples, I feel like next unit it would be interesting to make a range of final products. It would be interesting to make some fashion or interiors products and see how that dictates what fabrics I use and the decision making process. I also feel like I have become more open-minded to seeing my work as exhibition pieces and really look forward to the opportunity to exhibit my work in two exhibitions. This is a direction I’ve never really considered before but I have enjoyed working this way. 
I really enjoyed producing a body of visual research, which is often something I struggle with so I’m glad I have improved in this area. I feel like all the work I have created is linked and has an obvious progression. 
Gawthorpe Hall has probably been my favourite part of this unit and I’m really proud of the samples I’ve produced. I think this is because I was reacting to visual stimulus as well as basing my work around a concept. I also just find textile archives absolutely fascinating so it was quite exciting to get to do a project on one. I hope to carry this project forward to unit X and hope my work is chosen by the curators at Gawthorpe. 
I also feel like next unit it would be really interesting to develop my darning technique. I think the old fashioned technique has so many variations and it would be interesting to see how far I could push it, perhaps changing the scale and experimenting with different materials. 
I would also like to expand my concept slightly to look more into the science behind how we see colours, the idea of chromophobia and I would like to do some research into colour forecasting. I feel like these would be appropriate steps forward and could lead to some really interesting projects. 

Reflections

This project has seemed backwards from our usual units. We had to come up with a context before we started sampling. I did not find this useful, because although I made the decision to make scarves I feel the work I produced equally fits an interior context as shown here:

I feel this way of working does not suit me very well because I feel like the fabric I create is more just a design to be bought and for the individual to decide its purpose, so assigning my ideas a product felt strange and limiting.

However deciding a final context did help some of the decision making such as materials and in terms of keeping the length of time each scarf took to make down, in consideration of keeping costs of labour reasonable and the overall price. Also choosing a “high end/designer” context helped me refine my fabric choices and to inform my scarf designs forcing them to have simplicity.  

I enjoyed doing visual research and allowed it to fully inform decisions such as fabric and techniques used. I found myself feeling more confident with this element of the unit than I have done previously and look forward to practising it over summer. I enjoyed the activities that allowed us to meet new people and see a variety of work, as I have mentioned in earlier posts, had I done these maybe a few weeks before having to make the decision of whether to collaborate, I think I would have done and enjoyed doing so. As for tutorials and feedback, I felt I was challenged as an embroidery student with little to no contact with even a textiles tutor, or other embroidery students during tutorials. However this did not deter me from taking part in feedback sessions and attempting to give feedback on things I felt I knew little about. It was nice that 3D and graphics students asked my opinion on their products as a fresh pair of eyes to their work and the processes available to them.  Finally I really enjoyed the experience of putting up the exhibition at the Federation House, helping people decide the best way to present their work and coming up with creative solutions to achieve that.

I feel I have developed massively in terms of contextual understanding, taking time to refine my use of colour (which would otherwise been much more eclectic) to suit the style of the high end/designer shop as well as making sure I use high quality fabrics. I feel like I better understand the importance of dying fabrics myself instead of using shop bought, which also comes from the desire to create a high quality/designer product.

My primary motivation for decision making was my visual research, when it came to making decisions about refining my work I was then motivated by my context. I also feel I considered the three words “personal, intelligent and playful” given to us in the brief as well as the idea of “limited edition”.

I am pleased with the choices I made regarding my materials and processes, they made excellent functional products. If I had more time and money I would like to have expanded my selection of designs that played with scale. Also I would have liked to develop a label or packaging for my product. Although my digital skills have improved since last unit, I feel designing packaging for myself would have been difficult in the time limit.

In the future I will be more confident in creating a final product in order to visualise a context but intend to take full advantage of sampling during future projects. I would also like to collaborate in future projects and might do so in order to brand myself.

Evaluation

I have enjoyed this unit, getting to work on two projects with ultimate freedom for the basis of both has been very satisfying. This is the final product of my Apron Brief:

I am pretty pleased with how this turned out, I was pleased with my work on Photoshop work and my hand and machine embroidery. However after my last tutorial I would like to have organised my colour better and given my different techniques of colour work some space so that it could be fully appreciated, as it stands I feel it is a bit eclectic.

I also feel I could improve my garment construction skills, it might have been nice to try and use a more complex edging. Overall I am pleased with the outcome and with the knowledge of how to improve.

I have also enjoyed my self initiated brief, creating samples that are more refined with a very specific context has been a good experience and made me more considerate of my fabrics and processes.
If I had more time I'd like to have produced bigger samples or even a final costume piece and experimented more with different materials that would be appropriate for a carnival costume.

This unit I have also enjoyed the networking element, arranging work experience with Emily Wood at Cabasa Carnival arts as well as collaborating with a graphic design student on a branding project, which I feel will help in unit X for the Limited Editions brief.

Evaluation Blog

This unit I feel I have really taken risks and experimented. I have learnt lots of techniques on new machines and tried to use them in creative ways to translate my drawings into fabrics. My main evidence of this is my set of experimental samples, that I felt were too big and textural to correctly represent the qualities of my drawings. 

At first I struggled to find an under pinning concept due to the variety of drawings I produced in response to songs but I feel that once I had settled for one idea, I manipulated it, and explored it visually enough to underpin m y practice.

This project has definitely helped me experience the refinement and development of my work which I feel is evident through my sketchbook. I started off with very scattered drawings, unable to settle on a style or media, and slowly whittled it down to a collection. I then produced some very varied samples based on this collection of drawings before choosing a focus and creating samples to fit. 

I feel that I have done research on context and found that my fabrics would be appropriate for fashion or interiors. This research helped inform decisions such as fabric choice (stretch denim, satins and silks) and my colour palette (balancing the bold colours with a monochrome background). 

Finally in this project I feel that I have managed to create links between the my visual research, the fashion/interiors context and the different processes by which I produced my samples. 

These are some images of my final samples: