unit X , Post 2, Lines of enquiry/ investigations

Initial Staring point, Linear drawings 

Over the Easter break I continued to gather imagery and visual research of flowers. These flowers where of flowers found in the Whitworth park and also because our focus is to encourage wildlife and bees, it was flowers that would encourage these to the area such as Cosmos, Coneflower, Salvia, herbs etc. My drawing took a while to get going, as I did not know what style to approach in, I knew that we wanted some sort learning quality involved in our work, to teach children a bit about the flowers, so this made me think that the drawings I created needed to be recognisable. I found this very exciting working in a very illustrative way, and found a real love for drawing in this style.

Work on my colour pallet

The final group colour pallet

It has been difficult at times working in a group especially at the beginning of the unit as it took a while to decide on a solid foundation for our work, deciding on a concept and colour pallet etc. But after the the first week and a bit back that was sorted and we all started working much better and more collaboratively. The colour pallet was still not definite, and things continued to change, due to everyone working with different colours. To solve this problem we placed all work together and took colours out that were included in everyone work. I feel that this is one of many examples where I have shown an understanding of interdisciplinary perspectives, and have overcome these hurdles by communication with my group.

visualisations of my prints on ceramics

A quick illustration of what the collection will look like

We decided as a group that we would create a product focusing on 'bringing the outside in' but taking it back outside. This product we decided would be a fabric wrap including gardening seeds, a plant pot, a spoon to be used as a spade, and a fact file about flowers and bees. This we thought would be ideal for the Whitworth as they show great interest in their garden space, and also have interest in getting people connected with the outdoors. We have focussed on 'the bee' because of the Manchester Bee. The Manchester Bee represents the worker bee which symbolises Industry. Looking at Manchester as a community and bringing everyone together. We thought that this was very relevant when collaborating with the Whitworth as they are very Manchester proud and I think it is great to recognise that within our product. With this in mind we have created a hashtag #keepthebeesbusy to keep followers up to date with the work we have been doing also to remind people that their is a decline in bees and we need to do what we can to help them thrive.

#keepthebeesbusy, Bee drawn by Laura 

This wrap will allow everyone in the group to continue their practices. Jemma would focus on the plant pots as she does ceramics, Lizzie on the knit lining the wrap, Laura doing the embroidery of the seed bags. This leaving myself to design the prints for the outside.

Within this project I have been designing the prints, to then be digital printed. I chose digital printing as I am not the most confident at screen printing, and as I am confident on Photoshop I knew I could achieve the style I was looking for. The fabric we chose for the wrap was Cotton canvas as it was the most sturdy material, and we needed the wrap to have structure, this is because we had thought about what the wrap could be used for other than to store seeds, we thought it could be a knee cushion or otherwise used as a pencil case etc. The flowers in the prints needed to be very bold and colourful as this is what attracts the bees but also in keeping with the colour pallet we decided as a group. 

I have enjoyed working in a way that I can show my work to my group and get constructive criticism back in order to push my designs forward. I have really loved constantly showing my work and keeping them updated, and also seeing what everyone else is doing and reflecting on how everyone works differently.

multiple drawings layered in Photoshop