End of Unit Evaluation, Locating

Starting Imagery

Looking back over the unit of Locating I feel that I have developed my practice both knit and painting skills. I have really enjoyed the choice of media used, using oil pastel and acrylic, mostly to create abstract floral paintings, then translate them into knit using my knowledge on the Dubied.

 I have found it easy to manage my time between my self initiated brief and the branding project. I have really enjoyed how different they both were to each other, and find that my knowledge of the fashion industry has grown within the unit, finding it easier to locate were I see myself and my profession.

Starting Point photos

Within my self initiated project of floral chaos, I was very enthusiastic about my starting point. Focusing on flowers has always been something I have thoroughly enjoyed. I particularly loved the style of drawing this unit and will certainly draw in this style again, it felt very natural and energetic. I feel that within this project the prints that I created to lay alongside my knits, is something that I mostly preferred. I enjoyed painting so much and didn't want to loose the designs so including them in this way I felt complimented the knit samples well. knit I feel worked well for my context of sculptural fashion as it allowed me to successfully produce detailed samples, that I can envisage as a fashion garment. Using designers like Stella Jean to influence my knits, and mixing multiples prints helped me to push forward my knit designs.

Drawings becoming more abstract and more vibrant

I feel that within the unit of locating I have struggled a little to split my mind over two briefs, although I managed it I do prefer to focus my self on one unit, so I can't completely dedicate myself. I feel that this unit has been good practice for balancing two briefs and with more of this I think it'll be great to get good at for the future.  With the self initiated project I have found it very difficult to translate my paintings into knits. I feel that my paining were to busy and maybe to literally of flowers that it was hard to knit because I didn't want to knits pictures of flowers but capture a quality of my paintings.

Final Sample, Knit alongside Print

I feel that during this unit there are a few things looking back that I would do differently. I would try and simplify my drawings more so that they are easier to translate into knit and would also like to spend more time in the print room, dying yarns and printing more. I feel that combining knit and print is something that i want to try out more in the next unit, as I have enjoyed the heat transferring onto fabric that I have done this unit. I would really love to one day make a final collection of garments, and see my knit samples because outfits.

Final Sample for Branding Project

Within my branding project I loved the brand I chose of Marni, and thought that the way I interpreted my started point really reflected the style of Marni. I liked the way grid structures came in and using Photoshop to layer my imagery. Though I liked my starting point and the way it was interpreted, looking back I feel I could of done it better. I used the 7g machine for this project and maybe using the 12g would have been more suitable and high fashion, I think that foiling onto the 12g knits would have given a better finish.

During this unit one of the learning outcomes is to illustrate that we have built networks and contacts. So during the weeks I have been expanding my research of the fashion industry and looking more in depth at wear I see myself fitting. I have created a booklet of fashion awareness to show what designers I am interested in and influenced by. Also for people to see my work I have set up a instagram page dedicated to publishing my work called heather.textiles.

Context For Locating

Cédric Charlier Resort 2014

During this unit I feel that I am starting to find were I belong within the fashion world. The more I look at my work with an open mind the more I realise that my knits and prints are very wearable. During this unit I have been looking and multiple Designers, to influence my work, whether this is to alter my colour pallet slightly so it looks more expensive and sophisticated. I feel that from this unit I have a better understanding.

Milan Fashion Week Womenswear Print Highlights Part 2 – Spring/Summer 2016

Final Week of Locating

 

Close up of original painting, Oil pastel

 

During this week, I have been dedicating my time to creating knit samples. I have continued with the idea of using prints of my drawings with my knits, so experimented with this but found that when actually sewn onto the knits, they don't look very good, they don't look like then should be there, so am going to just present the two together, both knits and prints, to show that that will be an item. 

 



 

Close up of knit sample

 

Here is an image of one of my knit samples, I have stuffed a pocket with yarns which are colours relevant to my colour pallet. This is to show the chaotic feel of my paintings, all the marks made with oil pastel, quite scribbly.

 



Close up of knit sample

Here is an image of the knit and print lay together. I feel that they do complement each other well, and feel that they would look good together as a garment, the contrast of flowing silk prints and more structured knit.

The knitting during this unit I feel has not gone majorly well. I think that my paintings have been very complicated and I liked them so wanted my knits to be similar but that is not possible, I needed to take a quality from them to translate into knit, but did struggle to find this quality. I feel that my knits have been quite simple for this brief, which is not good as my concept has been chaos, however I feel that the way I work is always quite neat and controlled and this is something that I can never get away from, so the way I have interpreted chaos is still controlled, and trapped in certain areas of my knit samples, like the way the pockets are chaos but the rest is quite plain.

final weeks of locating

During this week I have found it difficult to translate my paintings of floral chaos into knit, I do not want to loose the quality of my painting and the chaotic style. I have started to knit this week and it has not gone as well as hoped to start with , I don't want my knits to be flat and this is what it has gone like this week. I have gathered my thoughts and ideas and find that I don't want to change my paintings and simplify them so that they are easier to translate into knit, I want my knits to represent what my paintings are like but not be replicas  of them but in knit. I think that with this in mind I will try and combine print techniques with my knit samples and physically join them together. Like designer Stella Jean S/S16 who has contrasting patterns laying directly next to each other, I will combine knit samples of my paintings showing texture and layering of techniques, contrasted with prints of fabric of my actual paintings, so I do not loose to paintings and they are still a major part in my work.

Photoshop samples to show how samples may look

Here is a collection of rough Photoshop images to show how home knit may look alongside my heat transferred prints. Showing the more literal paintings against the abstract marks made on the machine.

Self Initiated, Simplifying

Layering imagery and mark making

 

This week with my self initiated project I have been continuing to make my work more abstract, focusing more on layering textures and colour. To start more my paintings more abstract I have been cutting and sticking my paintings in different ways, so they are not recognisable. This I feel works well as it is then more about texture and colour than flowers. This I will continue with this week, but also need to simplify my imagery without loosing too much detail but enough to be able to translate into knit. 



Layering imagery and painting on top

The image below I find works well as it is busy enough that you can see it comes from my work but simplified so I can pull out techniques that may be relevant to use on the knit machines.

Layering imagery

Self Initiated, Development

stage 1 of painting

I decided to show some simple steps of a painting to understand how I would translate my paintings into knit. the image above is more simple, consisting of shades of red yellow, this I can knit using plating, hold or dropstitch to achieve the blend of colour, I could even dye my yarn so the colours do blend then use the techniques mentioned also. 

Stage 2 of painting

To achieve the next layer I can either foil, heat transfer, or using techniques on the machine, e wrap, plate, I can use multiple techniques to layer up texture to capture the chaos within my images. 

Stage 3 of painting

For the final stage of adding dark bold marks, This can be embroidery, foil, e wrap, or heat transfer, to add the dark details.