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.

End of Unit Evaluation

Starting Point Photo 

Looking back over the unit of 'Intentions', I feel like I have really developed my practice, specialising in knit. I have found it overall very exciting. I have really enjoyed my starting point using mostly Acrylic and watercolours to capture the beautiful landscapes of my holidays over the summer. And then using my knowledge on the domestic knitting machines and new learnt techniques on the Dubied to translate these into knit. Working with the context I chose allowed me to be very experimental, and really push myself to doing things I had never done before, this involved working in a more sculptural/ three dimensional way.

Development Photo

Development into Drawing

Knit I feel worked very well for my context of sculptural fashion as it allowed me to successfully produced detailed textured samples, that I can envisage as a fashion garment. The way I captured condense ripples with blocks of bold colours I feel is very striking and could be on the runway. I feel that I had planned out my samples well when it came to refining my ideas, this meant that I used my time efficiently.

Final Sample

I have found that during the unit, learning the new techniques on the dubied is what has worked most successfully. I feel that I have picked it up very easily and quickly and am kean to learn more and get much better on them.  I also have discovered that I have found it a little easier to translate my drawing into knit this unit, though am still not a completely confident, I have myself felt an improvement. For example, in my knit samples I have focused my work on the theme of capturing movement, so my drawings turned more abstract  than literally drawing what I saw. This then helped me to think of ways that I can move these drawings into knit. As they were more about a quality than an object. I then started to play around with form, using materials like bin liner, so that I could see exactly the shape and textured that I wanted to achieve on the machines.

Final Sample

There has been many hurdles during these few weeks which I have had to overcome, something that I found did not work so well is my context. Though During the unit I have done a lot of research.  My research has been towards installations. As the unit has unravelled it seems that my knit samples have not developed enough in the direction of creating something suitable for a space, though if I had more time this may be more visible, but as the unit did not last too long, it was not so clear. So this forced me to look more into fashion as a context, and feel that this works very well. My knit samples are very three dimensional and textured which I feel fits well in the fashion world, as a catwalk garment.

If I had time to continue with this project, I would love to see it go larger, and see how the linear marks within my work really become movements. and I would like to experiment more with manipulating the shape of the knit. causing more three dimensional shape.