Origins Evaluation

During my time on the origins unit, I have found it to be very exciting and experimental. I have loved being able to have the opportunity to try out a lot of new techniques. Firstly placed in Embroidery learning and working with machine and hand embroidery. I enjoyed this area and I feel that I have learnt many new techniques, and found myself getting better at it the more I do and practice. During the embroidery I found that I much preferred machine embroidery as opposed to hand, as hand for me was too slow and time consuming. I enjoyed machine embroidery much more because it was more fulfilling, as it feels as though you are making more progress, which I think is more important to me.

On Friday drawing days, which take place every week, we were focusing on positives/ negatives, narrative and drawing surfaces. Focusing on these areas is something I have never really done before, so I found it quite tricky, especially when doing the blind drawing exercise. I found it hard not to control what I was doing, but after a while of practising it, I believe that I got more into it, and loosened up. When we started the week on narrative I found it very hard to get inspired and come up with ideas, even now I don't feel as though I truly understand it. After these drawing sessions, I found that I could make the connection between drawing and embroidery and mark making.

I really like the way the groups for the different areas were organised, as they were small. This I found was really nice as it made it a lot easier to get to know everybody and settle in. When we changed over to construct we reassembled in different groups,which allowed me to get to know the group better. This makes me feel more comfortable in the working environment and overall more productive.

Most recently I have been in the area construct on the knitting machines. I have really enjoyed this. I feel that I enjoy this much more than embroidery,because the knitting machines work at a much faster pace and make the work look very professional when complete. During the lessons, we have been taught many varieties of techniques to manipulate the knitting, also learning more about different yarns and what effects they have to knit with. I am finding it harder to relate to my drawings when I use knit than I did in embroidery. However, the more techniques I learn the easier it is becoming. During the drawing days, we have been focusing on colour, using our objects as a starting point. Using the drawings, we removed the direct colours and turned them into yarn wraps. The colour has been the focus when creating samples. I feel that my samples are a good representation of my drawings as they all utilize neutral coloured yarns, which are the colours that emphasised through in my work.