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.  

    

Knitting with colour

I have now started to introduce coloured yarns that match the colours from my photoshop work, I have then incorporated different metallic yarns in with these and the monochrome yarns I was using before. I decided I would use e-wrapping in my work to add more texture and layers beneath the patterns I would create. After doing the story class in a workshop I found that I use a lot of circular shapes especially now that I am focusing on jewellery, so I decided I would create circular patterns in my knitting as I am using repetition, and then manipulate them with lace holes, ladders and e-wrapping so they look more unrecognisable.

Story Telling

In one of my classes we were asked to create a story with our samples, making links between different samples from this project and the last to see what we could learn about our work. I found that the way I work is very tactile and I like using more natural marks other than forced hard lines in both my drawings and my textile work. I think this is because I prefer softer circular shapes, I realised this by looking at other peoples work and the repetition of those shapes in my work. Here are a few of my favourite stories photographed.

Introducing colour

I now wanted to develop my project by introducing colour and more repetition into my work as these are the contextual words I chose to focus on. I felt that I had work with monochrome enough so I wanted to start introducing some colour in with the monochrome yarns I have already been using. I chose the colour from my photos I had edited on photoshop and then matched these with yarns. I have also started to add more colour in with my drawings, mixing it with the monochrome colours I was using before, like how I want my knitted pieces to be. I think this has worked very well and has naturally developed into repeating drawings in layers of jewellery.

These are both large scale drawings. I like the one above because of the different metallic surfaces of the smooth paper that I drew on and then the small parts of silver leaf that are cracked.

Beginning shape knitting

I wanted to start experimenting with shape in my knitting as jewellery often includes a lot of different shapes. I wanted to include this with more experimentation of metallic surfaces. I first tried using a music tape to knit with as I thought it would be smooth and easy to manoeuvre and control, but I found that it was very weak and broke easily so I gave up with that material. So I decided to try using a video tape which worked very well and didn't work as easily. At first I just wanted to start creating shapes so the first piece is more of a experiment.

After finding that on the back of this piece where I have had to tie knots where the stitches have broken looks interesting with the extra layers, I decided to create another sample of this. I wanted the loose pieces of video tape to stand out so I decided to paint these in a gold glittery paint, this makes it look more illuminant and lightens the bold thick blackness the knitted tape creates, making it more alluring. I also liked how the tape seemed to reflect light so I decided to apply silver leaf where light would hit the sample the most, making it more luxuriant and eye catching.   

Stitching into monoprints

I found that the ink doesn't dry on some surfaces such as cling film. I decided to stitch into some of the monoprints that didn't work as effectively as I wanted. After starting to use different metallic surfaces when knitting I also wanted to use them in my drawings. I started by using metallic surfaces to monoprint on, I then decided to stitch into these with different metallic threads. I think that mixture of the shiny glossy surface of the paper with the matt texture of the spray paint and the rough dry ink on top makes them look interesting but I am glad that I stitched into them to add more texture. Before stitching I drew on what I wanted to stitch, I think this was a good idea as it lay down an initial colour making the thread stand out more.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Although some of the outdoor sculptures didn't give me any inspiration for my work, I found a lot of the crafts pieces interesting. One artists work I found very interesting was Audrey Reid's, who combines crocheting, semi- precious stones and silver. I have now thought how I could trap my knitting between things such as cling film or felt.

I also liked the work of Danny Rie, who had hand knitted pendants out of wire to go on necklaces, I like how messy and intricate they looked. I also like how he didn't leave them a plain circular flat shape to lie on the chest, he makes them more interesting by giving them shape. I want to try giving my samples more shape.

I liked the whimsical pieces of felt jewellery by Joanne Edwards. I like the bright in your face colours with the unusual shapes. I also liked Angela O' Keefe's work as she challenges the belief that all jewellery should be made with precious metals. 

 One of Joanne Edwards broaches.

 Some of Angela O' Keefe's jewellery made from salt, combined with resin and silver.

I also liked the curvy shapes and bold colours of Anne Laycock's sculptures which appear to suggest imprisonment but actually takes beautiful shapes from everyday objects. I like the lines she creates with the smooth glossy surface of the clay. I could imagine drawing the lines and shapes of these sculptures in the same way I could draw my pieces of knit, following the lines of the stitches.