Summery

I found the model making workshop really useful as it helped me to visualise what kind of work would be produced well in felt. I found that I could take shapes from any area of life and then transfer them into a model which I could then make out of felt. I will definitely continue to produce models as a way of  creating visual research in future, it helped me with my progress in this project immensely. I found that I got my contextual references from a lot of different places so I was very interested in my work as I was keeping it fresh. The special collections was especially useful with this project as it gave me a lot of interesting facts and images to work with. The most useful reference I used in there was a book of bird paintings by Brian Wildsmith, I used one of his paintings for my colour scheme with the rest of my project. Anne Kyyro had a huge influence in my work as her work made me decide that I was also going to use felt and different ways that I could manipulate it. But I found the most useful thing in this project was the group blog, I could get the opinions of other textile students that may not create the same type of work as me or use the same processes but they gave me some really good ideas and were really encouraging when they thought my work was effective.  

Context sheets

This page is to represent my final visualisation and show the details of my pattern and fabric, also showing that I want my pattern to have shapes cut out so you can see through parts, like my masking tape piece on the window. The other photo is to show where my idea of the shape came from.

This sheet is to represent where my initial ideas came from, the use of colour from this painting by Brian Wildsmith which I then hand dyed felt using some of the colours from it. And also the inspiration to use felt and manipulate it like Anne Kyyro Quinn.

Final Visualisation

For my final visualisation I wanted my piece to be hanging somewhere open so that the light could come through my pattern so you can see it more clearly. I used my photographs of my last sample to put together on photoshop to create a pattern, I then put this into a artists representation of the new building. I think my piece works really well in this space as it breaks up the areas so it doesn't feel so open and would also create nice patterns on the floor from the light shining through my piece. I also had to edit the colours of my felt on photoshop as my hand dyed felt didn't come out how I wanted it to, but once it was all finished I was very happy.

This is my final close up that I have also chosen to be displayed on the big screen on Oxford Road I wanted people to see the texture of the felt and also really get to view my pattern properly as you cant see it that well in my visualsation.

Scalpel Cutting

With my last sample I was happy with the effect that the two layers of different patterned felt had created, but I knew that I wouldn't cut it out using scissors again as this created the pattern to stretch when hung up. I decided to use a scalpel for this sample as it thought it would give me neater lines. I also decided to use the modern and old style patterns, I wanted to use a modern pattern at the front to represent the new future of the art school, but not forgetting its past by putting an old fashioned pattern on the back piece of felt. I made the front pattern a much larger scale than the back piece so you could see both patterns clearly. I think the outcome of this will work really well when I introduce it into photoshop to create my visualisation.

New and Old

As part of the brief was to look at the old and new Manchester and celebrate both, I have decided to use an old fashioned pattern on one of my felt pieces and a modern one on the other. I have now found that the only way to create my cut out shapes is to use a scalpel so I will try this with my next piece. I am happy with the layout of my last piece when I photographed it up against the window with one in front of the other. I have decided to do the same with the next piece. Here are a few of my sketches for the patterns for my next sample.

Laser Cutting

I was very disappointed to find out that the technition at the laser cutting workshop did not have enough space for me on his lists to fit my work in, so I am unable to now get my laser cut work done, but here is the pattern I was going to use. I then went to see the technitions in the metal workshop to see if they had any ideas of how I could create the pattern without a laser cutter, there only idea was for me to use a scalpel, which I am now going to try instead. I am hoping this will make my patterns neater. My friend in 3D design had recommended I try using a needle point soldering iron so I decided to try this, but it wasn't hot enough so it created more of a hole in my felt rather than a line.

Pattern Creations

I have now started drawing from the photos I took at the Cathedral, this is helping me to create my own patterns for the laser cutter. I had decided that I wanted to create a sample using the laser cutter to see how it would change the appearance of my piece compared to cutting it by hand. Drawing from the photos of the Cathedral was really useful and gave me lots of pattern ideas. I decided to cut out patterns from two hand dyed pieces of felt using scissors, cutting around stencils that I had created. I decided to make the patterns on each different as I thought this would look more interesting as when one is placed in front of the other you can see different cut away shapes through the first felt piece. I decided to photograph my piece up against a window, I thought this worked really effectively as it made the patterns stand out more. But I think that the spaces of felt between the gaps creating the pattern need to be bigger in future as one of my pieces drooped, stretching my pattern.

Self Evaluation

     When I first got this brief I felt enthusiastic as I have always felt that the lost enjoyable and interesting part of a project is the sampling. Sampling is a way of learning and experimenting with things that were unknown to you before. I believe that the more sampling I do, the better student I will become as I learn more.
      I have enjoyed the whole of this project as I felt that there wasn't any pressure as to where it was leading, I was just experimenting as to see what new qualities I could create. I felt there was a natural flow to my project because of this. I started off my project as I have any other, by collecting as much contextual research as possible, my work was then generated from this. I have always found that the more research I have, the more ideas and work I can create. A page in my book of research and a drawing I created from it:

     I also found that choosing our own contexts for our work made it easier as this made it more possible to choose things that would link well with your theme. I chose jewellery as my theme as I have always had an interest in it and I have a lot round me so I knew I would find it easy to research. For my contextual words I chose repetition as thought about the repeating links in jewellery; and colour and monochrome which are used more directly in jewellery.

      In future I think I need to pay more attention to writing my ideas down n my journal so in the future I can read how I came about these different outcomes. 

     I decided to choose machine knitting as my workshop as I have always enjoyed hand knitting but have never had the chance to work on a machine. I also thought that machine knitting would create a lot of interesting samples as there are so many different techniques and materials I could use. When I was initially starting to learn the different techniques on the machines I chose to use monochromatic colours such as greys, whites and blacks. At first I was interested in the process of lace holes and ladders as they reminded me of the patterns diamonds are set in, so I started experimenting with that. Lace holes:

I then started drawing onto metallic surfaces to emulate jewellery so I wanted to include this in my knitting as well. I started by knitting with wire by hand as I had seen some of Jurgen Eickhoff's jewellery in Manchester Museum, which included knitted sterling silver wire with jewels on. Photo of Jurgen Eickhoff's work with a photo of one of my wire samples:

But I knew I couldn't machine knit with either of the wires that I had used as one was too uncontrollable and the other was too thick and stiff. I also tried hand knitting with other metallic materials such as ribbon, but found they weren't easy to knit with on the machine. I then came across an artist who used gold leaf on top of his knitted garments so I decided this would work best for me. I also introduced coloured yarns into my knitting. I took the colours from the colours in my photoshopped pieces I have done of photos I had taken of pieces of jewellery. 

I mixed these colours with the monochrome yarns I was using before and metallic yarns. After a story workshop I found that I have been using circles and circular lines in my work so I decided I would use these in patterns in my knitting. I think this developed my work very effectively and I think also shows what I have learnt about the way I work.

     After this I found it quite easy to choose which samples would be developed in my second project. I am doing the photoshop workshop so I thought that I would use a few of my drawings or photograph close ups of my drawings that could be layered up or repeated as I have naturally used layering  a lot in my drawings.

I also thought I could create patterns as I started to involve patterns in my knit work.

The only part of this project that I would say is a negative for me is that I didn't get much chance to look at other students sketchbooks and give each other criticism as I think this helps a lot during projects.  

Curriculum Vitae

http://www.tumblr.com/blog/emmasenior2

http://emmasartdiary1.blogspot.co.uk/

https://twitter.com/#/EmmaSenior2

Relevant Skills

•          Experience with hand knitting and domestic machine knitting
•          Screen printing
•          Etching prints
•          Monoprinting
•          Natural and man made dying
•          Hand embroidery
•          Machine sewing
•          Felt making
•          Photoshop

Education

GCSE’s

·         Art and Design                      B

·         Textiles                                 B

·         English Language                   B

·         English Literature                   C

·         Mathematics                          B

·         Science Double Award          C/C

·         History                                  C

A Level’s

·         Textiles                                 B

·         Fine Art                                D 

·         English Language                  D 

Experience

     I ran an arts and crafts workshop for children and teenagers twice a week for four years at a Local Youth Club. This took a lot of planning and communication skills with the other members of staff, I also had to organise the finances.

     I have also taught arts and crafts to deaf and disabled children at a school in India.

     I am currently doing some commissioned art work for Whitechapel High Street with two artists Jai Redman and Robyn Woolston and around eight other textiles students. The aim is to create a number of different pieces drawing influence from the textiles industry and architecture of Whitechapel.  

Change of Direction

I decided to experiment creating my own pieces of felt that I could cut into shapes and mould together into a small sample of a wall hanging. Although I liked some of the surfaces I created, a lot of them weren't appropriate to be cut into because of the yarns I felted into them, or because of how thin they were.

Because I was so disappointed in these samples I have decided to experiment with the use of pre-made felt mixed with hand made felt, concentrating more on the shapes I want to create. I also decided that I needed to create a colour scheme for myself so that I just focussed on the shapes and the different ways I am going to create them. I decided on a dark purple and vibrant turquoise as I think they create a good balance of excitement and calming for learning in the new building. While dying per-made fabric I also decided to dye some of my own hand made felt, this didn't work that well as the dye attaches to this felt better than the pre-made so it made it darker than I wanted. The purple went to dark that the yarn I put in turned black and the turquoise worked better but was still a little too dark. 

Manchester Cathedral visit

Lucy gave me the great idea of looking at stained glass windows after seeing my masking tape window pieces, so I decided to visit Manchester Cathedral where I took a lot of photos to look at the details. The colours in the stained glass windows were so vivid and beautiful, some of them had also been etched into and painted on, I think this would be another interesting way of creating visual research. I also thought that the shapes that the windows are cut in could inspire the shapes I am using in my designs for my felt wall hangings.