Unit X - Evaluation..

My projects are becoming even more colour focused. I am now dying my own yarns; previously I had been piece dying my work. I wasn’t quite achieving the depth and vibrancy of colour I was looking for and I'm also dyeing the warp and weft separately. The outcome is a more of a professional cloth. There is a natural progression to experimenting with how the dye takes on different yarns. My aim with this brief was to develop my colour palette significantly; to learn about the dyeing process; to experiment with depths of colour; to try different techniques; and I believe I've achieved that.

I'm now inspired by colourful surfaces and colour in abstract places. My research took me eventually to images of ‘colourful rust’. Previously I had been brushing and teasing my weave to blend the fibers more effectively. I loved the way that the colours ‘bled’ into each other and weren't as distinct. The ‘colourful rust’ images behaved in the same way. I'm also focusing on ‘natural light’; the way light changes, reflects, colours and brightens what we see around us and I wanted to attempt to recreate that light impact in my work.

I began to research current weavers and the vibrant colours of Ptolemy Mann popped up. I've interpreted this by adding a coloured strip in my own weave. I also love the fact that her work covers the complete spectrum of interior design but also includes gallery work. I looked separately at distressed surfaces; depths of texture; flaking paint revealing colourful under layers; cracks in pavements showing shadows of colour. I discovered the photographs of Welter Seven Star close ups of 3D surfaces that have a luminescence and texture. I felt I could translate this into my own work - my spin is to add the colour explosion and a light effect. Two strikingly different artists inspiring me.

n terms of my practice, my first piece is influenced by an image of flaking rust in bold merging colours of orange, aqua and purple. I've achieved a deeper, richer colour by using direct dye on the cotton yarn and by leaving the yarn in the dye bath for a longer period of time. For the second piece it was cracked surfaces using my photographs of peeling layers of paint and textures on an old wooden sea boat in teal, blue, white and rust coming together with Welter 7 Star influences; with direct dye on worsted wool. Finally for my third piece I have been inspired by the astonishing colour combinations and patterns in Moroccan tiles. I've seen the geometric patterns in rusted metal railings along the seafront in my home town. With this final piece, I’ll use many techniques covered this year. I was planning on using acid dyes and thinner yarns such as viscose, silk and cotton.
My target market continues to be the contemporary interiors market with my designs being suitable for both upholstered and soft furnishings.

I believe that you need to touch and feel each piece of bespoke fabric; a photo wouldn't be adequate. My final pieces will be stretched over rectangular canvases as I am exploring the tension of colour and  weave these pieces. They will be displayed on a wall in a vertical ‘stripe’ of broken colour; the aim is to appreciate the colour impact from a distance as well as  being able to see the weave detail and the colour blending up close.

Post Graduation..

As my time at the Manchester School of Art is very quickly coming to an end, my degree will soon be over, I am determined that my learning will not stop there. Even though I may not be able to continue to weave again for a while I will continue to record all my inspirations until I get back to it again, with the hope of challenging myself to carry on sampling in many other different ways such as print or embroidery.
Excitingly I have a placement at Melin Tregwynt a fabulous woollen mill in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. The products they weave are sold in Liberty in London and they also weave for some renowned retailers. I’m excited to see how the process of design to creation works in practice at a successful, global and still traditional business. Their website displays product in colour collections so I’m hoping that as well as the fabulous patterns and designs they create that I will be among friends who adore colour.  

 

 

 

Portfolio..

I do believe that with a woven piece you have to be able to touch and feel each sample of fabric especially as each one is so individual, bursting with personal qualities. A printed piece of paper wouldn't adequately express each piece. The best way I felt my work would stand out the most and to fulfil its potential is to  be presented ‘in the flesh’! I will be mounting each of my designs to make each piece really stand out.

I will finally select a number of my best work to stretch over 3D canvas to display at my final degree show. A wall of vibrant colour to hopefully catch a lot of eye. Hopefully by being displayed up high you will be able to appreciate the colour impact from a distance as well as  being able to see the weave detail and the colour blending more up close.

Context..

The main market for my woven designs will be for the contemporary soft furnishings home and interior décor.

The current trend among home owners is not to be scared to display vibrant colour boldly and gladly around the home, this is something I hope my work will really highlight, the dream of catching someone's eye to the passion of my colour combinations is what excites me the most.
Ptolemy Mann influenced pieces would be perfect for bespoke upholstered collections.

A love for interior products, is always the market I aim to indicate my work towards, as I have continued to broaden my interior Portfolio, I now have something to suit most areas, from blankets, chunky throws and ideal cushion covers to upholstery and vibrant statement canvases all to brighten and personalise any home.

 

 

 

My Body of Work..

My first piece is influenced by Ptolemy Mann and inspired by a secondary image of flaking rust in bold colours of orange, turquoise and purple that become caused by naturally accruing causes, by accident the colours are merged together to create many colour opportunities for my work. I've used direct dye on the cotton yarn - involving powder colour combinations to make bespoke colours. By leaving the yarn in the dye bath longer I achieved a deeper richer colour that I decided to vary throughout my warp.

For the second piece I included highlights of the previous warp and body of work, but instead of focusing on rust and cracked surfaces this time I moved my practice forward by looking at a different type of surface, my second project of Unit X was highly influenced at cracked surfaces using my own photographs of peeling layers of paint and paths I walk of a day to day basis. Taking inspiration from Welter Seven Star's photography and textures from an old wooden sea boat in teal, blue, white and deep orange- red allowed me to make a decision for the type of woollen warp I would design next.This time I used direct dye on worsted wool.

 

 

Finally for the third section I wanted to look further again into more kinds of surfaces, looking back on the first warp from Unit X, the final sample I designed from that reminded me of something very bright, bold and vibrant like culture, one in particular more than the rest was Morocco. I was inspired by the astonishing colour combinations and patterns in moroccan tiles and flooring. The geometric patterns on the flooring can also be seen in rusted metal railings along the seafront in my home town, the very same photographs I took as inspiration of rust, I found it very interesting that even when splitting my projects up yet still basing them under the same title they all still had much in common and all relate back to the same thing.

 

For my final ever collection and degree show proposal I will use many techniques covered this year to inspire my final pieces. I was planning on using acid dyes which I’ve used before when piece dying - this dye is more suitable to thinner yarns such as cotton, silk and viscose the three main choices of yarn for my final weave designs.

Inspiration..

Within my own work I've interpreted this by playing around with the amount of extra warp I have, position, arrangement, colour and dying techniques as well as placement of colour on the extra warp and ground cloth.

The other aspect that inspired me about Ptolemy Mann's work is that it covers the complete spectrum of interior design from cushions to lampshades to rugs to throws, but also includes gallery work and many shows she has exhibited at. I really do admire her composition and appreciate the fact that her work while minutely planned does have a look of happening by accident to some extent. A Ptolemy Mann collection seems chaotic yet structured - arrangement of her pieces are diverse and experimental and shouldn't really work but they really do.
Ptolemy's proportions of colour are very specifically placed while by contrast the samples that I completed were fairly accidental but her inspiration is clear.

 This then prompted me to look at many different surfaces; distressed surfaces showing many depths of texture; flaking paint revealing colourful under layers; cracks in pavements showing shadows of colour  and tile surfaces that included shape and colour, all three types of surfaces so very different but with much in common.
 

 
















As I started with a rustic surface looking closely at anything that was distressed in some way, I moved that forward by looking at the photographs of Welter seven Star whose website and photographs shows the close up of a 3D created surfaces - the majority of these are in fairly bland and one dimensional colours but they have a luminescence and texture that appealed to me. I felt I could translate this into my own work - my spin is to add the colour explosion and to adopt a third dimension.

 

Finally finishing my surface research looking at more cultural and vibrant surfaces such as floors, tiling and interior closely focusing on morocco as my main influence. Three very different types of surfaces that all have the potential of similar qualities, this is exactly what I will be exploring.  

Research..

I started to look into colourful surfaces, layering and I wanted to find colour in places other than nature. As a starter I researched ‘natural surfaces' this provided very little inspiration but took me through images of ‘colourful surfaces’ to images of ‘colourful rust’ which was much more interesting, this was where the ideas then began to form.

For my previous unit, towards the end I had started brushing and teasing to better blend the fibres, plus a little work on the embellisher. I loved the way that the colours ‘bled’ into each other and weren't as distinct. I came across the ‘colourful rust’ images and loved the way that that the rust had taken over and bled into other colours. I’d previously focused heavily on ‘natural light’ and how the light changes, reflects, colours and brightens what we see around us and I wanted to attempt to recreate that light impact in my work as well as looking closely at surfaces too.

 

I like to weave my cloth but not have that as the finished product, I like to embellish the finished article and this time I wanted to go off track slightly and experiment with a number of different materials such as flocking and foiling that would help me unpick qualities from much of my primary and secondary research. I began to research current weavers and found that Margo Selby and Wallace and Sewell were focused on structured weave.

I kept digging and came across Ptolemy Mann whose work is all about the colour, her choice of vibrant colours bleeding into one another are something I didn't only fall in love with but saw similar qualities within my own work. I think the bands of colour act like a double cloth which is why I wanted to try something different, something I hadn't tried before, extra warp, this would allow me to try out lots of different structures and processes to add variety into my portfolio. This has applied to much of practice in Unit X.

Unit X.. Surfaces..

Writing my own brief..

SURFACES.. COLOUR ANNALYSIS..

Continuing on from the Practice Unit I decided that I wanted to take Unit X into a slightly different direction. From completing the last practice unit and dissertation and giving myself a good start, with the impact of the words of Ethel Mairet I became more interested in dying my own yarns so I explored this in some depth. Previously I had been piece dying my work, I designed woven pieces in white and cream yarns all with different qualities, and both dip dyed and painted the dye onto the woven cloth. The finished product wasn't really falling short but at the same time was not quite providing the depth and vibrancy of colour that I was looking for in my work. As my sense of colour was developing and as I was exploring a wider colour palette I decided to dye the warp and the weft separately. The outcome was most definitely a more professional cloth.

By dyeing my own yarns it was only natural that I was using different yarns and experimenting with how the dye would take, I was eager to see the results and the different qualities I could achieve. I wanted to continue this for my warp in three ways using cotton, wool, viscose and silk for ground warps and extra warp for two sections of Unit X.

I have to be honest but I have been really surprised at the direction this brief has taken me.

I never thought that I would want focus on dyeing. My aim for this unit was to develop my colour palette significantly and learning about the dyeing process; experimenting with depths of colour; trying different techniques have all helped me to achieve that.

 

Evaluation of the Practice Unit..

To seek inspiration for my projects I tend to dig deep and look into my personal life: whether it’s taking a trip back home to the fresh air and beauty of my surroundings; taking photographic evidence of everything I see or just simply unpicking the favorite things in my life. Colour choice and style becomes a huge part of this, as the things I design and make become representative of me and what I feel strongly about. I like to dream and live big!
I see life in colour, pattern and texture. My work is bright and vibrant and full of possibility; my ideas link from one to another and try  I to tell a story; I like my work to become a journey. I look for  beauty in everything around me; picking the positive path reflects strongly within my work. I will continually return to this in my next unit.

 
My objective with this project was to ‘find myself’ and to figure out my textile purpose. I also wanted to try out a wide variety of new techniques to stretch and test myself. The title of the ‘Practice’ unit has been very close to mind since I first began in September. My range of new techniques include the following: 

 

•    Reconstructing my warp (I.e. tying in different yarn to give my sampling a different quality)

 

•    Piece acid dying to my woven sampling in the Dye Lab

 

•    Discharge printing to woven sampling in the Print Room

 

•    The Tufting Embroidery Machine

 

•    Flocking and layering to my sampling

 

•    Iron on transfer samples

 

•    Digital Printing

 

•    A much wider variety of yarn testing

 

•    Structure testing when on the loom 

 

•    Distorting my sampling when off the loom, by brushing, teasing and embellishing. 

 

Not all of these skills have been the success that I had hoped and the picture in my mind’s eye of the direction I saw my work going did not always go to plan. Learning new processes has been fun and exciting and have all played a massive part in the final outcome of this unit.

 
My Self-Initiated samples are my least favourite out of my four submissions. I found that I didn’t appreciate how long each process would take for me to complete, and my time management became a little tricky - clearly this is a stepping stone on the learning curve for me. I’ve learnt much about where I want the final part of my degree to go and I will be replacing my piece dying with a much tidier process of dying and will keep both my warp and my weft separate allowing me to weave much stronger sampling. As I’ve fallen In love with much of my ‘artist research’  I will carry on using their influence to inspire me in the future.

 
The outcome of this unit is that I have dramatically improved my art direction skills as well as beginning to realise my potential and direction of where I could go next. Interior Design is still my aspiration as all my projects are suited to this industry. I’ve learnt that heavy structures aren’t for me, and simple yet effective designs will be my way forward.

 

Micheal Kidner- Week four..

Very Pleased with my outcome for this project, in my opinion the most successful out of the Practice Unit. My Collection of samples are tailored for high end upholstery specifically for Chair Coverings.

 

 

Micheal Kidner- Week Three..

My cotton warp is just the base of my designs. With a clear structure to my ideas, using only three main colours, I created a large collection of samples focusing on four structures; plain, satin, sateen and floating weaves. I quickly found that the satin and sateen structure were working best, and as I wasn’t dying this collection, I wanted to keep a clear theme that would run through the Practice unit. This is something that I could develop on into my next unit. I thought that tying in my ends would be the perfect example, as this was a newly developed skill that I really enjoyed putting into practice. As I began to weave and experiment with my designs, an unplanned pattern began to form. The tension may have been a bit too tight, and the weave pulled together to create what reminded me of a cactus form. This really interested me and was something that I decided to develop within the unit, as well as the more structured samples.

 

 

Micheal Kidner- Week Two..

As the design to Michael Kidner’s print is very block structured, it was vital that both my drawing and my sampling reflected this. I started off by cutting out square and rectangle shapes from coloured card that linked with my colour palette. I then placed them into different compositions working on proportion and scale. This then led to a clear direction of what structures I wanted to do when I was on the loom, as well as a clearer idea of what was working and what wasn’t working so well. The sampling was very different to my usual designs but ones that I found I really enjoyed, maybe more than all my previous projects. I think this could be a way forward for my work in the future. 

Before going onto the loom I wanted to do some thorough artist research, here I came across Claude Monet, I found much inspiration from his colour palette and soft style of his piece “Water Lilies" dabbled style of painting and casual brush strokes give a relaxed and loose feel to the piece. Monet inspired me to brand new ideas from yarn choices, i.e with soft qualities like mohair and more colour inspiration.

Micheal Kidner- Week One..

Every project that has made up the Practice unit has been inspired by one of my own photographs taken last Summer. The image I selected for ‘Micheal Kidner' was more toned down than the three previous ones, but perfectly related to the chosen Kidner painting I had been studying. This image was the beginning of where I saw my work going; When I stripped down the colours from my photograph, I found that they were very similar to the Kidner painting, What I thought would be a more toned down colour palette proved me wrong as my work really started to come alive when I began to put it all together.

 

 

Dash and Miller- Week Four..

In addition to my small, intricate collection of samples, I created an A3 body of work alongside an on
going developing sketch book; the story of my journey from start to finish. Here I portrayed my colour palette and media, as well as my drawing and mark making skills, unpicking my thoughts and ideas behind my weaving and artist research. The rich tones of colour make up the base of my work, with layers of gold glittered sparkles on top, the same as my woven designs, adding a new dimension to my work.

 

 

 

My Small Collection of Samples will be tailored for high end Interior specifically suited to edging and boarders of Interior Décor.