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.