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.