More Photography

   

P A N O R A M I C   S H O T S 

I have developed my photography for my visual research by choosing a different setting on my camera. I am now playing around with the panoramic button, and I have found the outcomes really interesting. The photos come out distorted, and it feels as if the photos are rippling and it gives a real sense of movement. The light reflections remind me of shiny yarns, when light reflects on them and the colour is removed. This also relates back to what I found when I was drawing with bleach. 

P H O T O S H O P  

To further develop my photos I chose the two best panoramic shots and played around some more on photoshop. I was trying to get a feel for what I could get my warp to look like and how I could relate it to my photography. I copied my images a few times and rotated them, and I found that from this angle they could represent my warp. After looking at this idea and having a tutorial I decided to use a brocade. I can use the brocade to move in and out of my ground cloth creating the same movement and I can also create three dimensional pleats. 

Samples with fabric

T E S T I N G 

Following on from some of my drawings, I chose to develop some of my ideas onto some cotton. I was trying to think about what the bleaching may look like on a woven sample, but I soon realised I was thinking too literally. I then thought about the texture of my weave and I want it to have three dimensional qualities. With this in mind I thought about creating some pleats on one of the samples. I did this by gathering lines of the fabric and then i stitched them with a monofilament thread. For the sample on the right, I thought about beading and how that could work in a weave sample. I hand stitched some french knots and beads onto my fabric. I have gained knowledge from this sampling, as I now know that I would like to create some pleats and so I want to incorporate this through my threading plan. I also now know that if I add beads to my samples, straight lines of beads would work better to reflect the movement I discovered through my street photography. 

Visual Research

S T R E E T   P H O T O G R A P H Y 

This week I have been focusing on street photography, capturing light through movement. I have taken these photographs in the city centre of manchester in the evenings. I found it interesting how the lights create lines and when you look at the photos and I am going to use these flashes of light later on in my weave. I think these patterns could be translated in lots of ways into my weave samples, for example  floats, flashes of colours, brocading, and using the patterns of light to draw out new peg plans. 

I have realised that most of my visual research for this project is going to come from photography. It is going to be a key part in my light brief and a key feature in my urban outfitters live brief. 

Light and Reflection / Urban Landscapes

C O L O U R    B L E N D I  N G

I am now developing my drawings through the use of thicker paints, more reactive dyes, bleach and white acrylic paint. I am now looking into the idea of colours blending and fusing together as through my previous imagery I noticed that when light reflects on water, the colours begin to fuse together to create these rippling patterns. I have experimented with dripping colours into one another, and fusing them using a piece of thick cardboard as an object to draw with. 

Light and Reflection Visual Research

U R B A N    L A N D S C A P E S

Following on from my previous post, I have begun to draw urban landscapes where light is reflected. I have been looking at secondary images for this as I haven't managed to take any photos of this myself, but I have still found them beneficial to my project. I have started to draw with reactive dye and I have used bleach to create marks where the light is coming from. I enjoyed doing this mark making/drawing and I have found using bleach quite useful to represent warm white light.

Artist Research

G R A H A M    C A L D W E L L 

Following my photographs of petrol, I discovered that I really liked the idea of using iridescent colours. I did some more artist research on iridescent and I found Graham Caldwell's work. Caldwell doesn't work with light like Bradley Basso, but he works with mirrors and glass instead. I found the outcomes of his work more inspirational than the content of it as it doesn't really relate to my brief at all. 

After pondering the thought of an iridescent colour palette, I decided to go in search of things which related to my project. I managed to find some foil and sampled some foiling onto fabrics using iridescent foil, and iron and some bondaweb.  I liked the outcome of these testers and so I think this will enable me to make decisions about what colours and yarns to use further on in the project. 

Visual Research

P E T R O L 

Today as I was walking to the bus stop I was distracted by a shiny puddle on the ground. I immediately thought this might be useful to my project as I had not thought of looking at light reflecting onto things in this way. The iridescent colours in the puddle were really vibrant and I loved the way they merged together to create a rainbow. After discovering this colour pallette I then went onto do some further research into these reflections.

These patterns occur because the oil spreads out to form a very thin film on the surface of the water, but of varying thickness. In some places it is literally a molecule thick, whilst in other places it is much thicker. When light passes through the oil some of it is reflected back off the different layers of oil, whilst some carries on and is reflected off the surface of the water lying below. Because the light waves have now travelled different distances before being reflected they mix together producing a spectrum of colours - because the thickness of the oil layer varies. 

I feel like this photography is key already within my project, as it brings together all the aspects of my project so far. Light. Urban. Colours. Edgy. 

Artist Research

B R A D L E Y   B A S S O

At first I found it hard to find artists and designers who use light in their work, but this was because I began by looking at textiles. When I ventured out I came across Bradley Basso and I absolutely loved their work. Ray Bradley and Denise Basso work in a West London glass studio. Together they design beautiful glass art for architecture. I think that the designs are stunning both compositionally and the colours from the glass are so vibrant. It is the way in which they use light in their work, which I find most inspiring though. When designing these pieces, they consider first the amount of light in the space and then the direction it shines from. Their work emphasises the intimate interaction of light, form and space, to demonstrate the boundaries between the interior and the exterior. 

Artist Research

S A R A H    T A Y L O R  

I have begun my artist research for this project by looking at Sarah Taylor's work. Taylor has worked with fibre optics since 1992 and has developed a polymer optical fibre made from a non woven paper based yarn. She uses etching to allow light loss in pre determined locations and encases the optical fibre yarn in laminated paper. The etching creates a pattern, while the paper enhances the light emission and provides a particular diffused light quality. This all sounds a bit complex to me at the moment. What I have taken though from looking at her work is inspiration. I feel inspired to create samples which can reflect light in some way, possibly using reflective and shiny yarns. She also uses a lot of monofilament which I may also try using too. 

My personal Brief

P E R S O N A L   P R O J E C T    B R I E F 

I am aiming to create a selection of woven designs which relate to my key theme of light and urban landscapes. For my visual research, I aim to look at light in different aspects, but for my starting point I would like to concentrate on ‘Urban Light’ through the use of photography. For my live project, I have chosen to explore the Urban Outfitters Brief and look more specifically at jewellery through a contemporary view point. I want my projects to be linked to one another and so I aim to use my visual research for my personal project to inspire my live project, and I want my live project outcomes to enable me to develop my personal project. I aim to look at inspirational artists such as Sarah Taylor who specialises in using optical yarns for weaving, as well as contemporary jewellery designers such as Karl Fritsch. Throughout the ‘Locating’ unit, I would like explore more three dimensional work and also incorporate new techniques into my samples. I think that this will help me to push my work on from the last project.  For this unit, I want to push my work into the unknown and try to design and make pieces which are unique and artistic, but simple enough that they could be made as a small line in the Urban Outfitters store. In terms of process, I would like to use materials which relate to my very urban theme, and so my samples may include reflective yarns, rubber, iridescent colours and even pieces of glass (possibly in a bead format). The area that my proposed work is to be designed for is accessories and adornment for a middle to high end market range. Throughout this unit I aim to critically analyse and develop my work further in order to decide where it is that I envisage myself after graduation and I will do this reflectively through the use of my blog. Finally, I aim to create and build networks with practitioners who are working towards a similar market as me, and gain as much work experience as possible. 

Urban Outfitters

L I V E     B R I E F

For our new unit 'Locating' we have been asked to choose a live brief. I have been reading through the briefs for a little while now, unable to make a decision as to what one to choose. None of them were making me particularly excited. However, at the last minute a new brief came up on Arts Thread for Urban Outfitters. This new brief feels much more flexible and I am feeling really excited about it already. The brief asks us to design/design and make one of the products on the list below. I have chosen to explore jewellery as it is something I have recently become more interested in. I feel like exploring jewellery through textiles may help me to make my work more edgy like I have wanted it to be, as well as creating more contemporary style work from traditional textile weaving. 

Manchester Art Gallery Jewellery Exhibition

D A Z Z L E 

Today I went over to Manchester Art Gallery to begin some visual research for my new project. A few of the jewellery pieces caught my eye but I didn't find any of them particularly inspirational. I liked the dip dyed necklace on the left hand side, as the colour was so rich in comparison to most of the other jewellery pieces. I also found a few of the bangles interesting, I liked the way the wires were meshed together (centre photo) and it created a tangled effect and gave the jewellery a nice texture. In the third photograph, I like the way dyes have been used on top of metal, and I thought it was interesting how the colours merged together. This has given me a little insight into what might lie ahead of me for the next 8 weeks.  

Final Evaluation

O V E R A L L

This term my journey through weave has had major ups and downs. I have found this project really difficult and I feel that I have tried harder and struggled more than in any other project. However, I do like to challenge myself as I produce more work under pressure and I have enjoyed it overall. One of the main aspects which I have enjoyed is the structure of the construct group. It has been really useful to have a set structure and timetable; if it wasn't for this I do not think I would have been able to continue on with a new specialist area as it would just have been far too stressful for me. 

My Visions of Sound project choice definitely challenged me and I have only just begun to find my way in the project as its nearly ending. Working in such an abstract manner was hard as before my work was very literal, but I now feel that I have developed my work in a positive way, or at least have begun to. This project has been a bit chaotic and I have darted in and out of more ideas than I normally would and have progressed from each thought process and stage very quickly. I only really used music as my starting point and quickly went on my own journey into the unknown.

I have found the last week of the project useful, particularly as we got to take our weaving off of the loom on Friday. This just gave me a bit of time to develop my thoughts and think mostly about context. I think I may be someone who needs to know what I am designing for in order to produce the outcome I want.

I feel that I have made a few mistakes throughout this project however I do think that I can learn from all of them. One of the main mistakes I feel is the fact that I have jumped from one thing to the next a little too fast and I don't think this makes my project seem very ordered or chronological. Another mistake I feel I have made was the fact that I used such a broad colour palette in my weave. On the other hand however I wish I hadn't used the white so much in my warp. Or stripes for that matter. But I will definitely know a little more for next time. 

Ideas Explained

I D E A S 

 shown throughout my weave . . .

               

Symmetry - comes from my initial idea of reflection. This idea developed as I was looking at sound being infinite in water.

Weft faced Weaving - comes from artist inspiration Taslima Sultana. 

Floats - create movement and come from my idea of sound in water (rippling and vibration). 

Colour Palette - comes from my abstract work. 

Blending- artist inspiration from Ptolemy Mann and blending of colour in abstract work.

Gaps in my weave by using sticks - this idea came from trying to create blank spaces after looking at the white spaces in my drawings.

Shiny yarn choices- help to suggest reflection, water, mirrors and help create lighter spaces.

Demonstrating the ability to contextualise my practice

C O N T E X T 

After finishing my weave I have been thinking about the context of my work quite a lot. I have debated this a little both in terms of fashion and interiors. In the future I see my work going into an interior based role however, at the moment I feel that I am still learning how to get this right. Most interior textiles are coloured moderately and have neutral tones whereas my work is bright and not tasteful to everyone which I am aware of. This leads me to believe that my work would only appeal to a small market audience within interiors. When I develop my style properly however, I do think that I will be able to contextualise my work much better. 

At the moment I am thinking of my work as fashion also. I started to think about it in terms of fashion as I recently purchased a jacket which had vibrant woven sleeves. I think that my work could fit well on a garment like that. 

In order to develop these thoughts and contextualise my work I produced some designs for both fashion and interior and I am happiest with the result of the interior outcomes. I take the majority of my inspiration (for colours) from cultural fabrics and colour palettes. They are extremely influential to me and I think this is why I see myself working for a larger perhaps international company. (Zara for example) .

How I work best

S T Y L E

Over the course of this project one of the objectives is to think about how we individually work best. This could mean starting off doing lots of visual research and then development or doing a bit of visual research then some development and then repeating it like this for the whole project. After nearly coming to the end of this project I feel that I definitely fit the second category I have mentioned. 

This term particularly I feel that my work has been more chaotic than ever and I think this is due to everything being new to me. Ive had to completely relearn how I think in order to produce non literal ideas, and I have also had to learn a whole new skill. Overall though my work always ends up on quite a journey and I find it much more useful personally, to go back and forward between visual research and development. Sometimes however, I think that if I did try and push the visual research at the beginning, I wouldn't end up in such a muddle later down the line. I occasionally feel that I have too many ideas going on at the same time when I go back and forth between development and research; its hard to put it all in order and organise it chronologically. 

Weaving so far

F I N I S H E D    S A M P L E S 

Today I took my weave off of the loom and it felt great to have done it and to have finished my warp. I was in such a rush at the end of the day that I didn't manage to get a picture of it as one long piece. Altogether I have 9 samples and I am quite pleased that I managed to get that much done 

These are some of my samples now that I have taken them off of the loom. Some of them have been cut  neatly and some of them I haven't finished yet. 

I feel that I have managed to show quite a few of my ideas from my sketchbooks in a variety of ways. The floats in my weaving refer to movement, and my samples where I used elastic refer to the ripples I looked at in the beginning and again movement. I have used quite shiny thread as well which relate to water and the white spaces in my drawings. I got the ideas for weft faced fabrics from some of the artists that I used for my inspiration for example Taslima Sultana.

In the above sample I made a mistake and so I want to point this out as I think it will help me in the future. In order to produce the above sample I did a yarn wrapping and decided to use a couple of new yarns to give my collection a bit more depth. However, I did not consider my warp colour when I did this wrapping and I think the yellow colour with my red yarn looked absolutely awful and so in future I think I need to consider my yarns much more including my warp colours. 

Testing

E L A S T I C 

Its the day before the last day of weaving and I have been experimenting using a cotton lycra, which acts as an elastic when steamed. For some of my samples I wanted to think about the idea of movement and ripples seeing as thats what I was looking at at the beginning of my project. 

One of the tutors informed me that some yarns once steamed crinkle up, which I had no knowledge of and so after learning this I took a small selection of different elastics and put them on the steam bed. I them sampled them and decided that the one which gave the most movement was cotton lycra. 

I didn't know what affect the cotton lycra would have on each of my patterns and so I decided to weave each of my sequences on the loom using the elastic in some way. I then cut off these samples into individual strips and put them on to the steam bed one by one. 

The results were really interesting and I was actually a little shocked at how much some of the strips changed after steaming. Below are my results.  Going from top to bottom:

1- Floats of cotton lycra 

2- Plain weave and cotton lycra

3- Sateen and Satin with cotton lycra

4- Sateen block with cotton lycra

My favourite of these affects were number 1 and 4 and so in my sampling tomorrow I am going to try both of these. 

Dyeing again?

  

T H O U G H T S 

Today I am beginning to feel really fed up with my warp and I don't know how to make it look how I want it to. I have been looking at Ptolemy Mann's work this week and I feel like her controlled vibrant work would be great on a warp.

From this I have been thinking about possibly dyeing over some of my work based on inspiration from her work. In order to help me think about this a little better I decided to create some basic plans by hand and then on photoshop of how to redesign my warp. 

Getting better slowly

S E E R S U C K E R 

I have learnt how to make my weave into seersucker which has been interesting and I quite enjoyed doing this technique. Surprisingly I haven't found it hugely challenging but it was a little bit tricky at times using such a loose tension. Whilst doing my seersucker I have also been thinking about which yarns to put in and have been trying more out. I think the second image is beginning to show my colour palette a little more but its still not completely right. 

Colour Inspiration

C O L O U R

I have decided to have a look at a few weave artists in order to understand how to use vibrant colours effectively. 

Wallace and Sewell

Their work is so beautiful and primarily designed by very selective warp designing. I think their work is inspiring as they use such a wide range of colours and make them work in a powerful yet no overwhelming manner. Wallace and Sewell have a unique design studio in London and they create textiles for both fashion and interiors which I also find inspiring.

Taslima Sultana

Taslima Sultana is a recent graduate. I came across her work and thought it was beautiful. Her colour choices inspired my colour palette. I also love that her fabrics are weft faced. I feel that her fabrics have cultural feeling to them which I also find inspiring.

Ptolemy Mann

Ptolemy Mann's work is so inspiring as she uses huge blocks of colour. I particularly like the use of blending in her work. I like the fact that it seems both very controlled but at the same time almost not controlled due to the blending. I think her use of colour is lovely and her work really stands out.

Weave

W E A V I N G    F O R   T H E   F I R S T   T I M E 

 This week I have begun weaving, it hasn't been as scary as I imagined it to be. Dressing the looms wasn't a hard process it is just a little bit lengthly, but I found that to be a positive aspect as it gave me a bit more time to develop a colour palette and think about how to translate my ideas. 

My first go at weaving was really fun but I already absolutely hate my warp. I think this is because I didn't have the experience in order to design it the way I wanted it to look but I now think that if I do it again I will be able to make much better decisions. The strange pink/purple sections of my warp are too strong and I don't like the colour at all. I feel like I want to just paint all over it!! I feel like it isn't portraying my ideas or the style of my work at all. 

Developing my drawings

P H O T O S H O P  

This week I have been using photoshop to develop my drawings further. I have also created a mood board for my weave which I think has really helped me and I now feel that my work is going in the direction that I want it to. The abstract drawings and getting out of my sketchbook have enabled me to enjoy what I am doing and choose a colour palette. 

I wanted to develop my drawings more, and look at which individual parts of them that I like in order to be able to translate this into my weave.  

I started by scanning my drawings and then cutting and layering them by hand. An example of one of them is the image below.

From this point I then scanned them again, and started doing the same again but this time digitally on photoshop. 

After developing them further I have now found the qualities that I want to take through into my weave. I now know that I want to try some samples using white space or this could perhaps be created using floats or shimmering yarns. I also want to create some patterns where the colour blends as this is evident in my drawings. I would also like to think about my previous ideas on movement and so perhaps take this into my weaving as well somehow. 

No More Sketchbook!

A B S T R A C T    T I M E 

This week after my tutorial on thursday, I have decided to develop my work outside of my sketchbook. I have been advised this week to just really enjoy what i'm doing instead of being so rigidly sticking to my sketchbook work. Abstract work is something I have never been good at and I have always avoided it at all costs. Since I have been in weave however, I am quickly learning that not thinking too literally is key when it comes to translating my ideas into my weaving. So I gave it a good go and have produced some larger scale drawings on A3 and A2 sized paper which is unheard of with my work .

In order to loosely relate the drawings to my project I made sure I listened to my chosen music without concentrating on it too much but just as a background. I also decided to use this time as a way of figuring out my colour palette for my weft colours. 

To begin my abstract work I had a look at some of Cy Twombly's pieces. I think some of his work is really beautiful and I love that he makes use of lots of colour. I found this quite inspirational and it made me want to have a go, although I feel that I've got a long way to go before I am going to be able to produce something so beautiful with an equal amount of control and lack of control. 

So below are some of my pieces of abstract work 

Down shot, prepare for lift off

J O    D U C K 

Today I have been experimenting again after looking at Jo Duck's jelly recipes. After a tutorial we came up with the idea of dropping things in water which relates to my project. Jo Duck creates these beautiful pieces by using recipes of items such as alcohol and drops them into jelly before it sets. 

I find these really beautiful to look at and I like the way the colours blend. I had a go at some of my own and added things which I thought would work, for example, milk, bleach, glitter etc.

However, the result after two attempts was awful. I couldn't get anything to work or look good and it was a huge failure. So in the end I decided to leave the jelly that I had unsuccessfully made, for a period of 3 days like with my previous experiment to see what the results were. 

Warp

W A R P   D Y E I N G 

I have been thinking for what seems like days now about what to do with my warp, particularly the colour of it. I have found it really difficult trying to make a decision about this as I have had no experience of how to design it in order to create what I want.  I might be thinking about it all completely wrong but the only way to find out is to produce my first ever weave, then maybe this will all begin to make much more sense. 

I have derived my colours for my warp based on both of my developed photographs from my previous post. When I went into the dye lab I still couldn't decide which photo I wanted to take my colours from. Sooo.. I ended up making 4 hanks and making up several pots of dye. I then dipped and tested them all, some with other colours over the top, some barely even dipped in, and really tested them all out. 

After a while of deciding I decided to use the colour palette from the second one of my photographs. (Purple image) . I had spent 3 hours already in the dye lab and in the end I have ended up just taking the plunge and going for it.  

In the end the colour hasn't come out too bad. Although I did make a mistake which I will be able to correct in the future. When I dyed the warp originally it was a bit more purple and a little darker, although after washing it and drying the warp I have found out that it has lightened up a lot. I don't know whether this will necessarily be a bad thing for my weave ..