4 - Reflection

For Unit X I really enjoyed being placed in a large group with people from other courses. Although I did not take part in any physical collaboration, group sessions were a good a way of communicating my ideas and gaining reactions from other students. It was great to meet people from other creative subjects such as 3D, interactive arts and illustration, getting to view everybody else's ideas and final outcomes was helpful when it came to producing my own work.

The lectures that I attended during this unit have been a real insight into the professional market. One of my favourites was from studio collective Manifold. I loved that they were a team, yet worked separately  also. It was great to see how they have managed to get their careers off the ground by working together to establish a name for themselves.
Another favourite talk came from weaver Ismini Samanidou. As a weaver myself, I found it so inspiring to see how her career has blossomed through various projects. What I found the most inspiring was her attitude to work, Ismini is so open to new ideas and will try anything out. She spoke a lot about collaboration and this seemed to be an intrinsic part of her work. She does not put herself into any particular box, and this is what keeps her work so versatile and successful.

Overall I have enjoyed Unit X this year, however I have found it to be very challenging at times, especially when trying to navigate my way around two separate project briefs. The Wallace#Sewell brief was very specific and the National Trust/GNCCF brief seemed completely different. I did feel in the end though that I have produced two successful outcomes.

My weaving has come a long way during this project, and I believe that this is down to the challenging briefs. I have learned a lot of new practical skills in terms of the equipment and have utilised the new netbook system that is linked in with the ARM looms. This has improved my Scotweave program skills hugely and has allowed me to really get my head around designing my own patterns and structures. I believe that my colour work has improved, and that because of the nature of the Wallace#Sewell brief I will continue in third year to try to push myself out of my comfort zone.

Next year I will definitely be trying to improve my presenting skills. This is absolutely an important part of my work and an area that I need to work on. I will also be working on how I organise my time, as time management is something that I struggle with but do believe is improving.

For this unit, I have worked the hardest that I have so far this year. I feel the projects getting more challenging, obviously preparing for the final year, however this has only pushed me to do better.
I do firmly believe that this unit has been a success so hopefully my grading will reflect those thoughts.

For my final year I would like to focus on more of a fashion context, I will be preparing for this by doing as much research as possible, trying to keep up with trends and developing new ideas. I will also be attending a few university degree shows this summer, which will be a great way of preparing for my own in a years time.

3 - Refinements & Conclusions

As I came to the end of my Wallace#Sewell sampling and started with my next warp, I found that are are some qualities that I wanted to carry over into my new set of samples. An example being the blends of colour, it would be the same idea, just on a much more subtle level.
The mixture of warp & weft floats from my W#S samples are great for creating texture, and this is also a quality I really wanted to portray in my further sampling.

Proposal

The final samples for both parts of the brief have turned out well and are very different from one another. It has been interesting to see how two outcomes stemming from the same inspiration can be so contrasting. My Wallace#Sewell samples were causing me some frustration to begin with, but I now believe that this was simply because it was a way of working that I was not familiar with. The final samples actually ended up being some of my favourite work and fitted well into the interiors context (as seen in the first image). I learned a huge amount about designing my own structures and will be tweaking and using some of my designs again in the future.
I believe that my samples fit the context I was aiming for with both outcomes. With both outcomes, the aim was to make something that would fit in with the ranges at W#S and the National Trust, but to not copy what either do. For the National Trusts/GNCCF side of Unit X, I would have liked to have made more than one final product, as visualised in the second image. However I am happy with how my finished scarf looks and have received a positive reaction from staff and fellow peers.

I think that the ideas I have shown could fit in well with the professional market, and that the production is improving. While I am not the expert at woven fabrics, I do feel as though I am getting somewhere.

Presentation

At yesterdays presentation, I believe that my work was set out as clearly as possible, and the added mannequin to present my scarf on helped to pull the whole thing together (third image). For the verbal presentation, I think I definitely could have done better. Presenting in front of a group of people has never been my strong point, however I am hoping to improve with this. I did manage to successfully get most of my points across, but on the other hand I missed out a few parts that may have helped my presentation to come across more clearly.

Conclusion

If I were to take on this project again, I would hope to have managed my time more effectively, as I feel there could have been more final products made. I also would have taken more time when considering colours and structures in relation to weaving, for the second half of the project especially, I think that a lot more could have been explored. However for the most part I believe that the project as a whole has been successful.

2 - Ideas Development

Development From Research



I have referred back to my photographs of Formby, experimented with changing the colours to fit in with my colour palette, and then from those I started to paint. I painted using both acrylic and oil paints, with the oil paints giving a better result overall. I have tried to take both qualities from the photographs and a more abstract approach similar to the works of Barbara Rae who's work I looked at to start with. 

 

From my paintings, I developed my weaving structures. Using a combination of hand drawn structures and the use of Scotweave, I interpreted the paintings and photographs into patterns, while still thinking about whether they would fit in with the interiors range at Wallace#Sewell.

I was inspired by markings in the sand, the shapes of the sand dunes, lines in the driftwood and the blended colours within the sea. I created some wave like structures, a mixture of warp and weft floats to represent the linear patterns in the sand and wood, and used weft figuring to interpret shapes.

 

Sampling Results

After what felt like a wobbly start, I believe that the final samples for Wallace#Sewell are successful, the colours are not what I am used to working with, but it has pushed me and now I actually feel more open to stepping outside my comfort zone. I was also really inspired by meeting Ismini Samanidou, her approach to work is so refreshing. I found it interesting to learn how she doesn't box herself in to one particular area and is always open to new ideas and collaboration, I now feel an urge to try a similar approach myself.

 

In my samples, my favourite pieces turned out to be those with floats and satin/sateen structures, the blocks of colour that these create is something I will be keen to take further in the warp that I have just begun to weave. Different to the Wallace#Sewell brief, there is no restrictions to which yarns and colours I am able to use, this leaves room for a more experimental approach. As my colour palette is currently a lot more muted than it was for the Wallace#Sewell part, I aim to bring in flashes of other colours to bring out the stripes in the warp.

 

New Ideas

When looking at the National Trust online shops, I noticed that the range of scarves is aimed at women. This suggests that women are the target market, however in a gift shop situation, items can be bought as gifts for family and friends. Therefore I believe that a more unisex range would be beneficial and could sell really well. Even though for now I am focusing on scarves, my ideas may be able to translate into products such as blankets or rugs too.

Feedback

At the Interim Crit, it was suggested that my boards needed more text to explain my ideas which I completely agree with and will address this when it comes to making my final boards. As I am essentially working towards two projects, a very specific range for Wallace#Sewell and a more subtle range for the National Trust, combining both of these on my boards made it difficult to navigate around my ideas. I will be solving this problem by making separate sets of boards when it comes to presentation.



1 - Research & Ideas Generation

Wallace#Sewell

For this years Unit X I will be taking part in the Wallace#Sewell brief, this began with a trip to their design studio in London.

The front of the building is a shop, where they sell a range of their own products, the back is a small office & then downstairs has a store room type feel, with an archive of all the old designs and a cutting table for current designs.

It was a really good experience learning about how the business works, the pricing, how the designs are sent to be mass produced and even what happens to the wastage. 

We were given our brief & told to create something that fits in with the brand easily, but to make it different. I love the Wallace#Sewell range of blankets and throws so will be focusing on interiors as a context.

The project should use a painting as a starting point, so finding the right one and relating it to the National Trust will be my next step.

Click to enlarge

The National Trust

After the Wallace#Sewell trip, before choosing just any painting, I decided to look through the National Trust archive/collections. Initially I was looking for a painting to catch my eye, however I was not being drawn towards any. I was looking for something bold and brightly coloured to work well with Wallace#Sewell. In the end I found these buckets. Painted so colourfully, they are fun and quirky, the exact type of thing that I was looking for.

As the buckets are seaside themed, I decided to look further into that. 

Discovering that the National Trust own many of the countries coastlines, visiting Formby seemed to be a good way of linking ideas and imagery together. I photographed through the woodlands and then along the beach and sand dunes. I plan to edit these images and create my own drawings and painting from them. As well as looking at the imagery for inspiration on weaving structures, I will also be thinking about the mood and atmosphere, especially for any pieces that I create after the Wallace#Sewell Brief.

Click to enlarge

Barbara Rae

Once I had the idea of a coastal concept, I decided to look into coastal paintings. Wallace#Sewell had mentioned basing the project on a painting, so I set out to find some that would have a great variety of colours and still incorporate the concept. In a tutorial, Barbara Rae's name was mentioned as an artist I should look at, this was a great suggestion as I was instantly drawn to the colour and knew that these could be translated into the creation of my warp.

Click to enlarge

The above painting, named 'Inner Sound - Low Tide' is what I would come to base my warp on. It is an unconventional style of coastal painting, not similar to the pale and pastel colours that are traditionally used.

(Click to enlarge)

For my weft I will be working with 8 colours/yarns only, as this is part of the Wallace#Sewell brief. Various Barbara Rae paintings have so far been the inspiration when testing colours. I have been finding it quite difficult to focus on the 8, the selection process has been tough, with so many different colours being used, it is not something I am used to. My work is usually quite subtle, with blends of colour and pale shades, which means so far I have been finding the brief extremely challenging.

The Poundshop

Earlier this week there was a talk from George Wu who is one of the founders of The Poundshop.

The Poundshop is a series of pop-up shops in & around London that brings life back into empty/derelict shops & buildings.

They take submissions from budding designers & makers, selling a small range of their work within their pop-up shops. The only catch being that your work will only be sold for either £1 or £5. I found the whole process really intriguing, how something that cost 50p to make would then be sold for £1 with the designer taking 40p profit & The Poundshop taking 10p. It was interesting to see how things could potentially sell for higher. George showed us an example of some hand carved beads for bracelets, sets of 3 that make up the full image of an animal, with each bead sold seperately at £1 each. Clever. 

The video above shows a hand built cart that the team used to go on a 'Summer Tour' last year. They sold items from the cart rather than in a store.

The talk was really interesting & got me thinking about different ways of getting work out there. I would love to do something like this in the future.

Final Visualisations

The 3 figures have been hand drawn using Adobe Illustrator & the styles of jacket are from various designers that I looked at (referenced in my sketchbook) during the research process of the project.

Rather than using photographs & trying to get my fabric to look real against them, I decided to draw the figures, keep them black & white & just use simple scans of my samples to make the jackets. Leaving out facial features & just adding a moustache or glasses was something I thought added a quirky edge to the images. :)

Click to enlarge.

Washing Many Samples...

Although they might not look particularly attractive in the photo below, I am actually really pleased with how all my samples have turned out. Once they are all dry, I'll be trimming & choosing 3 favourites to help create visualisations of how the fabric would look as outerwear.

Contrast

Cutting my samples is always a worry for me. Even though I know they will look better as samples rather than one massive strip. I always enjoy looking a few together before cutting though, the contrast between these 3 samples is really interesting.

Finishing

For the samples I have cut off along the way, I have been washing them in hot, soapy water & leaving them to dry gently on the radiator. Some I may have agitated a little too much & the fibres have felted more than I would have liked, however for the most part, it has left my samples feeling softer & more structured.

Because of the sportswear element included within the Dashing Tweeds brief, I decided to use some really thin, 1 ply wools to give the fabric a more breathable quality. These samples have turned out to be some of my favourites once washed.

Sampling Progress

After what seems like the slowest possible start to a project, progress has finally been made.

I have gotten to grips with the ARM machine & I'm really enjoying working on it. & my samples have also started to come together. I have got my head around using structures that relate to my paintings & photographs & I'm happy with the results that are appearing.

Further Painting

In order to make a link between photographs & weaving structures, I thought more painting work was necessary. It helps me establish shapes & patterns that may be able to translate into my weaving.

Masking fluid is something I have used quite often during this project. Used lightly it adds texture & used more heavily it helps to determine shapes clearly.

Starting to Weave

It has actually been quite a slow start to weaving, as I have been getting my head around the ARM. At first it seemed really complicated & I had to come up with a new system of how I work out programs in my head. Usually I would write out the numbers of the shafts that needed to be lifted for each pick, but with this machine the options are only up or down (0 or 1). So I worked out a way of drawing structures out larger & using a little hand made 'viewfinder' to read each row/pick more clearly.

Now that I have started to get the hang of the loom, hopefully I will able to start moving a lot faster.

Setting Up

This week I have been setting up on my loom & threading, ready to start weaving as soon as possible.

Last time I was weaving, it was my first time on an electronic Texel loom, this time I'm using an ARM, so there might be a slow start as I am unfamiliar with the machine. But I thought it would be best to learn how to use both & then I can determine which one I like better.

I have also threaded up on a pointed draft this time which I have never done before.

Blanket Warp

This time around I have decided to try out a blanket warp for my designs. So I have designed two 8 inch warps that will sit alongside one another on the loom. 

One side will be a light colour palette & the other side is darker tones.

This is my original yarn wrappings, scanned & then made into a simple check. I will use these as a starting point when I begin to weave.

Patterns From Paintings

Now that I have photographs that I am happy with, I finally have a direction for my drawing & painting work.

I started by just painting in the colour palette & added masking fluid to represent the patterns made on the windows of the bus.

Making Patterns

Although these colours are less suited to my colour palette, there are qualities within the image that could be translated into my weaving. Parts of the pattern remind me of rib structures or small floats.

Making Patterns

These patterns have been created using the bus photographs from the last post.

I took sections of the photographs, put them into a repeat pattern & then made them into a check pattern.

Transport Photographs

Continuing on with looking at reflective surfaces, I took some photo's from the inside of a bus.

It was an inner city bus route during rush hour in the evening, and I think the photographs show the busy nature of the city along with some interesting colours that actually fit quite well with the brief.

I was originally attracted to photographing around evening rush hour because daylight was fading & the bright lights of the city were becoming more visible.

However I ended up really liking how the photographs show what it outside but also a reflection of what is on the inside of the bus itself.

Developing a colour palette was something I was struggling with as I felt that none of my original photographs were capturing colours that could translate into menswear.

These photographs have been a breakthrough in that sense. They have captured dark blues & navys, purples & berry shades, with the odd gold or white flashes.

I love how the dirt & stains on the window almost form patterns themselves. And how in this photograph especially, there are tiny patterns within it, markings that I can hopefully translate into structures for my fabric.

Further Photo's

I have been finding it quite difficult to work from the two sets of photographs I have taken so far. So I set out to Manchester city centre on a busy evening, just before it got too dark; in the hope of capturing the right kind of colours.

Reflective surfaces became a point of interest & I took some really interesting photo's of a streetlamp reflected into water:

It almost looks like fire or sparks.

Reflective surfaces is something I will continue to look into.

London Collections - Oliver Spencer

There has been a few sheepskin lined jackets within the London Collections. These are two that I liked in particular from Oliver Spencer.

The way in which the outfits have been styled is similar to the Dashing Tweeds brief; neutrals with odd brights.

London Collections - Hardy Amies

This collection was one of my personal favourites from the LCM. Every piece links to another, the whole show just flowed. The pieces were quite understated, not too over the top, which I really liked.

These are some of my favourite looks:

London Collections - Menswear

The menswear part of the London Collections has taken taken place over the last few days. It's been really exciting following the action over Twitter & I've been looking closely at outerwear for inspiration.

In the past I have loved Jonathan Saunders' womenswear collections so was intrigued to take a look at the menswear.

These two coats stood out for me, especially the orange & black above. Autumn/Winter colours can sometimes be dark & gloomy, but the block colours of these coats stand out.

Daylight Photo's

I found that photographing so late at night meant that my first photographs were a tad too dark to take colours from & work from. So I decided to take more photo's in daylight, this time in Bootle town centre, an Urban area of Sefton.