Evaluation of my Influences project..

 

The first unit of level 5 already over, time is flying, overall I am very happy with how this project has gone, I feel much more content with the course, and feel like I really know what I am doing, I really feel that I have progressed from level 4 already, by starting off going into the city and getting my own primary sources and research, this gave me the best start, developing on from that I then did a good few weeks of solid drawing work, moving forward I then went on to start weaving my samples, both development and final pieces. During the two main processes of the unit, I also took part in the Photoshop workshops, along with Scott weave sessions, drawing tasks and an inspirational trip to four mills within the Lancashire area.

The main three Artists that inspired me for this unit go by the names of Barbara Rae, Richard Diebenkorn and Norma Starszakowna, the final big brand massive designer Burberry also gave me a lot of inspiration for my project, as there colour pallet of the famous design was very similar to my warp. After researching all about these artists and the style of work that they all practice in, keeping their work close to mind I then started to draw and make marks so I could start to build up a body of work to work from, for both my sampling and to develop.

The process that I felt worked best for me was when I decided to start experimenting with the different yarns and pattern ideas; by doing this, I was then able to develop my skills on a lot further throughout the rest of the unit.

At the very start of the weaving process I wound my yarn up wrong and doubled the amount of ends that I was supposed to have had, in the end this worked in my favour I was able to create samples on a much larger scale, this didn’t only allow me to work on a larger scale in the weaving area but that then pushed me on further to go much larger with my drawing and mark making work too.

By having done this, I was then able to refer back to my drawing work and link my weave samples in with my drawing work so that I could continue to broaden my skills to produce lots of different kind of work.

The part of the unit that I felt didn't work so well for me was my sketch book work, if I could do this again I would like to show a much clearer idea of what my initial ideas were, start to finish, I don’t feel confident enough that my sketch book does this. For my next project I will be working on this a lot more at the start of the project so that I have more work to work from at a later date, this project was too much of a slow process at the beginning as I didn’t start pulling things together properly and un picking the best qualities until later on.

For the 'Locating' unit I would also like to try and get onto Scott weave so that I can push not only myself but my work too much further on, I would like to set an aim for myself to create opposite work to what I have in this unit, much more defined, detailed and delicate samples by working thorough on the Scott weave programme. For my next project, I would also like to continue to work on a larger scale as I really felt that was something that I enjoyed and worked the best for me, not only with my drawing work but with my samples too.

I am very happy with how this project has gone for me overall, I feel that I have made drastic progression since level 4, and I would like to only keep pushing myself further and further to gain the best marks that I can.

Pulling everything together..

The final thing I needed to do after everything was done in the studio space was to wash my samples, both my warp and the weft have been made from wool, the majority being lambs wool, there for they would wash up very well, and for the end process feel a lot more like a fabric, which is exactly what I wanted to finalise my samples. Bathing them in lukewarm water with a drizzle of shampoo, did just the trick. After taking my samples out and leaving them to naturally dry, I straight away could see a difference to my work, the hot water and soapy liquid had made the fibres completley contract and pull together, to create a much smaller and more roushed up sample with a lot more structure, when I took my samples along to the tutoriol, Lesley made me feel very positive about the process, and made me see this much more as a happy accident, as I wasnt expecting such a dramatic change to my samples. This process worked in my favour in the end as it linked in with my drawing work a lot more, as the majority of the marks I had been making were very structual in themselves. After all of my samples had dried, been steamed and pressed, I then had to decide the best way that I was going to mount my samples, the most professional way that I could show my samples off, from my tutoriol I decided that the best way forward for me, was to double my samples up and have them on A2 white card. The images here below are two of these processes.

Lancashire Mill Trip..

19th November 2014

Today we were given the opportunity to visit a number of weaving mills all very local to manchester, in the Lancashire area.

The first one that we went to was called 'Mitchell Interflex Ltd' a county brook mill, They are Weavers of high quality fabrics for industry, furnishing, fashion, leisure and military. They produce yarns of a both very high quality and quantity such as silks, cashmere, lambs wool and a wide range of other end-uses all in a variety of compositions.

The second place that we visited was called 'William Reed Weaving' spring bank mills, Nelson,  

they manufacture a full range of medium and high tenacity, continuous filament fabrics in nylon, Polyester and Acetate, using yarns ranging from 22 dtex up to 1100 dtex. loomstate or fully finished . Out of all four places that we visited today, I probably found this one the least usefull and interesting, as it was very industry based, large batches of fabric that was used for very random things, such as hot air ballons.
 

The third place that we visited was called 'Blackburn Yarn Dyers Ltd' Grimshaw Park Dye

Works/Haslingden Rd Blackburn. They do Commission packages and beam yarn dyers of cotton and
blended yarns, utilising vat, direct, disperse, reactive and sulphur dyeing processes.

The final place that we visted was called 'Arrive Herbert Parkinson Ltd' Harvest Mill, Darwen, Lancashire. A weaver of jacquard furnishing fabrics, the Company was acquired by the John Lewis Partnership in 1953 to provide an exclusive range of soft furnishing products. With an experienced design team, and extensive flexible manufacturing facilities, Herbert Parkinson offers businesses a

full development and manufacturing service for soft furnishing products.

 

I thouroughly enjoyed going on this trip today, as it gave me a real insight into so many of the textile industry's, this then gave me a massive opportunity to gain some possible internship and work experience ideas along with the ideas of some of the things I could go into my self at the end of the three years in univercity.

This image was taken from Blackburn Yarn Dyers, two large cones of yarn, in the middle of the dying process, here you can see the yarn after it had been dyed and in the final stages of being all cleaned up ready to go onto smaller cones.

This image was also from Blackburn Yarn Dyers, transparent yarn on much smaller cones, in one of the first stages of te process of being thurilly cleaned.

This final image was taken in the William Reed mill, where here it was very muc about industrial work, as everything we saw was very much on a larger scale.

Top end Designer.. Burberry..

The 'Burberry' company is a British luxury fashion brand, distributing clothing, fashion accessories, fragrances and cosmetics.

The famous tartan pattern has become one of the most famous designs to date. Burberry is most famous for its trench coat, which was designed by founder Thomas Burberry.

The company has branded stores and franchises around the world and also sells concessions in other stores around the worls, Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales had the company made into Royal Warrants, even though Burberry's factory had to be closed in Wales.

The reason that I chose to research up on Burberry was because by looking at my drawing work the colour pallet I was frequently using was reds and cream, when I went along to my tutoriol not only Lesley but a few of my peers too, also said that straight away the first few samples that I had made looked very much like a burberry themed design.  

So when I went along to the Lancashire mill trip, and found out that they are one of the Dyers for this amazing brand it was a great insperation to me, here below are some Images of both the 'Burberry' logo its self, the yarn in the process and the yarn I had used on my loom.

My final week of drawing..

This week was also my final week That I was going to be able to get a great amount of drawing work done along side pulling together and finalising all of my weaving samples. The outcome for this week I wanted to really focus on looking at the wide range of drawing work that I had done so far, and really unpick the best qualities from my previous drawing work, amd zoom in on the most important marks from my bigger work, I wanted to re draw them and play around with colour, shading line and tone and really start to understand and link in my drawing work to my samples.

Here below are two Images I chose at random from my skecth book, both really focusing on line drawing and mark making, along side both flashes of colour and very basic black and white, I felt they both were a success as I was really able to go to my loom with my sketch book along side of me and really link my drawings in with my weave.

 

Weaving.. (week three)

This week is my third and final week that I had been able to weave on the looms, before the rotation begins all over again, There for this week it was vital that I got a lot done, but not only the quantity mattered so did the quality, I needed to really up my game and produce samples that not only reflected from my drawing work, but showed exactly what I had learnt through out the whole process, what worked best and what didnt, what colours was I going to choose from my colour pallet and how exactly I was going to narrow  down my weave ideas so that I was producing my best but also favourite work, and to finish off the whole project how was I going to go about mounting my samples.

Drawing.. week 5

This week I decided I was going to work out of my sketch book again and focus more upon developing my drawing on even further, taking my drawing and surface marks that I had done in the first few weeks of my project along side work that I had done more recently, I decided to combine both sorts of work together to show how I have continued to bring my project forward, to produce brand new compositions, using both my more bright, 'Burberry' themed colour pallet alongside the more cream, black and white colour pallet that runs along side my drawing work. This way I am starting to show the progression of where I started and where I am heading. 

The two images below are two drawings that I took and developed further, they started off as quick layering work for my sketch book that had been inspired by a day out in Manchester City, looking at the marks on a number of buildings that I saw that day. I then decided to scan the images and blow them up so that I was working on a much bigger scale outside of my sketch book, I did lots of zooming in to focus on certain areas of a building and lots of layering of media to create different kinds of surfaces that could help me being a starter point for a weave pattern that I could go away and create onto my loom. 

These two Images above I also created this week along side my other drawing work, but instead for these, I really focused on my colour pallet and based these drawings on the inspiration I found from my Artist Research.  

Weaving.. (week two)

This week I continued to do some plain weave samples, 'Simple, yet effective' to finish off the ideas I had started the previous week, instead of using the blue, mustard and red colour pallet, I decided to change things a little bit and focus on basing the colours on what my drawings look like, and colour theme that looks like most of the media that I have used, lots of oil bars, chalks, acrylic paint, pens and pencils in very dark tones, both heavy smudges and dainty lines fill my sketch book, having this by the side of me whilst weaving, really helped me to link my weaving patterns to my drawing.

I focused on one drawing imp articular this week, and decided I was going to unpick the colours that stood out from that piece of work, and create a weave composition to go along side my drawing.

The second part of the week after having a tutorial with Lesley, I wanted to move away from plain weave and focus more on trying to create patterns onto my warp, designs that linked in more with my drawing work, I thought a good way to create these kind of techniques for my samples would also be to experiment with different kinds of yarn, ones that are already dyed with a pattern on, ones that are thicker, such as mohair and wool, and ones that are much thinner like cotton and plastic, metal and copper yarns, these would also give another completely different finish to my samples. 

Here below are two examples of where I started off.   

Drawing week 4..

This week I focused on pulling together work from the very start of the unit and much more recent work, I started unpicking exactly where my strongest points of the project were, I also took insperation from my artist research and decided to develop some of the work I had done at an earlier stage of the project and push them on further.

 I then decided to take work that I had in my sketch book and blow what I had up bigger to show a different kind of approach to my work. By doing this I felt it showed a clear point on how I was trying to broaden my ideas and push my developing points on further so that my project continued to move on forward.

I wanted to really highlight and link my thoughts and ideas together, so who ever would be marking my work at the end of the unit would no exactly where I was getting my ideas and insperation from and the direction that I was heading in so I can link my drawing work in with my weaving work.

Lets start weaving.. (Week one)

This week I started weaving onto my loom, inter locking my yarn through my weft onto my warp, I have started off by weaving basic plain weave, using my colour pallet carefully so that it links in with my development work, the best way I felt that I could show a clear connection is to keep my skecth book along side of me through out my weaving process.

The three pictures here below are two of my first samples, very basic plain weave to start me off has

turned out much better than I thought, I was concerned it was going to too basic and not look like much is going on, but I feel the complete oposite, very happy with the start that I have made.

Having my skecth book along side of me allowed me to make sure that I had the right kind of proportions for each of the yarns, and the patterns that I was going by had some relation to my drawing work.

After taking a second glance at my first few samples, not only myself but my fellow peers and tutor also noticed that my work was very similar to the well known brand 'Burberry' my choice of warp colours can especially highlight the reason why I can back this suggestion up, here is a picture of the 'Burberry' brand below, I Will be keeping this idea close to mind, to see if in the future the success of my work can be such as big as theres.

Setting up my loom..

Here are some snaps of the progress and work that goes into setting up the warp for a loom, in this particular stage of the cycle, I unfortunaley for myself made a mistake when winding up my yarn, I doubled the amount of ends that I had, so ended up with a warp that was double the amount and length that it should be, so with mine being extra big, it also meant that this stage of the proccess took me longer, but with an eye for weaving, this didnt cause me any major problems, and only gave me the opportunity to work bigger, not only with my drawing and development work but now my weaving samples too, this was a challange that I couldnt wait to start.

I chose a red and cream lambswool yarn for my warp, so that I had the combination of a subtle yarn with a splash of a much more statement and bright yarn.

The pictures below show the process of threading up my loom, each thread of yarn carefully being pulled through the eye of the needle, and the yarn being wound onto the loom once everything was threaded up correctly.

More Artist Research..

Richard Debocorn

This week I decided to research an artsist called Richard Debocorn, An Artist that Lesley told me about in a tutoriol this week. I went away from this tutoriol feeling very inspired, feeling like I knew exactly what to do, where I needed to get the help from and who was going to inspire me to produce more work this week. After researching all about Richard Debocorn, I found him very inspiring because this artist had so many different kinds of art work, that he produced for his own practice.

This gave me lots of ideas and insperation for my own work.

The three images below are three pieces of his work that I found were the most likely to help inspire me when it comes down to my own practice, all so very different, but with a unique stamp that Richard had created this work.

I found myself really relating to his type of practice not only because of his choice of colour, that was very similar to my own but his mark making and choice of media all very similar to my own.

Drawing week 3..

This week, I decided to take things to the next level, and go one step bigger with all my drawings, I didnt only decide that I was going to draw onto bigger paper, but I decided I was going to go that little bit further again, and use a wide range of different media, to create the kind of large scale style work that I had in mind. To do this I used materials, fabric, pens, paint, oil pastles, chalk, pencils, glue and a wide range of different sticky tapes to create a lot of different kinds of surface's.

I flicked through my skecth book, and picked out the bits that I liked best from my own work, alongside having my tutoriols and feedback from lesley, both helping me decide what worked best for me, these decisions then went on to help me create larger scale work for my project using only the best marks that were expressing my idea of intensions so that I could later use my drawings to inspire my weaving samples.