unit x, Post 1, Research

For unit X I chose the Whitworth Threads project. This brief interested me because the outcome is a product and I have never had the opportunity to create an end product before, so will be great to see a project from the beginning to the end. For the first few weeks of this unit we have been taking visits to the Whitworth. I have learnt a lot from the visits to the Whitworth, I have learnt that the re-build theme was to 'bring the outside in'. This theme runs throughout the building, from the large glass windows all around the back making it very connected with the outdoors. This theme in particular really interests me as drawing from nature has always been one of my favourite starting points. So within this project drawing and taking inspiration from nature and the outside will be a strong narrative. 

With this theme in mind, the current exhibitions at the Whitworth are very nature based , for example many of the wallpapers include drawings of floral and trees. The wallpaper particularly interest me as print has always been an area of practice I have wanted to push further but not had the chance to do so, so during this unit feel that I will be able to use the time as an opportunity to try working in a way that is very new. The above image of one of the many wallpapers caught my eye as it is a very literal way of drawing, and again drawing in a way that is very literal is something that I love but do not get chance to do, as I specialise in knit so is quite an abstract way to work. 

Lucienne Day Special Collections

One of the many visits to the Whitworth included a look in the special collections, looking more into Lucienne Day. All the prints of hers we where shown where lovely though her style is not a style that I work in. Though what did interest me was her inspiration, and this was of nature and her bright bold colour pallet. 

Collaborative Art work with Alice Kettle

Another activity that we took part in was a Visit by Alice Kettle. Alice Kettle spoke a lot about narrative, and encouraged us to work collaboratively and create a big piece of art work. This task told me a bit about myself. When working in a group I feel like I like to take the lead role, though I am very open to listening to what everyone else has to say, I like to have lots of discussion and be productive. I have found this out more whilst working in groups, even when working in groups for the egg throw, were our egg was lucky enough to win and survive.

I feel that I am still figuring out what drawing style I have, though find that when I do draw I choose to draw very literally and with a lot of detail. This is always tricky I find when I am working in knit, as I struggle to translate my imagery. So during this unit I am wanting to push print, I would ultimately want to combine both knit and print. 

The egg challenge 

With all the visits to the Whitworth I felt that the unit was moving very slow. I felt that we knew a lot about the gallery but nothing about what we were actually going to do, and with the fact that it was group work it wouldn't of been useful to start drawing anything as my group may not want to do what I was doing. so with this in mind I thought it was best to hold of doing any drawing and wait until I had a group sorted. Waiting through those weeks made me almost quite nervous as I was not doing anything and felt that I was wasting time. On the last day before breaking up for Easter we finally got our groups sorted. This was decided through a speed dating set up, where we had the chance to talk to everyone in the whole group and find people like ourselves who had similar goals.

For this unit I wanted to focus on floral and the theme of 'bringing the outside in'. This would be using a starting point of nature. I also wanted to create something suitable for the Whitworth gift shop. This is what I explained to the people I met in order to establish a group to work with. After speaking to multiple people I found three others who had similar ideas to myself. Jemma who does ceramics, Laura who does embroidery and Lizzie who is doing knit like myself.

My group and I decided together that over the Easter break we will create a variety of floral drawings, keeping in mind that it would be something suitable for the shop, this maybe to encourage children to get in the outdoors and learn about flowers, and planting things that will help the bees and encourage wildlife. We also considered the thought of designing kitchenware, and with this in mind thought we could create some sort of outside pop up cafe in the Whitworth garden, again to encourage people to get into the outdoors. With this in mind we want the flowers to be painted in a colourful vibrant way.

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.