Final Piece and Unit Evaluation

I have really enjoyed unit X and feel very proud of my final piece as well as all of my samples.

I have used a variety of fabrics that reflect the bright lights and the hustle and bustle of a fairground. For the pouch for the hot water bottle I have embroidered the outline of a ferris wheel. For the fastening I have made four small rouleaux loops and sewn  buttons to secure the hot water bottle in its pouch. 

This unit I feel I have learnt lots of new embroidery skills, and techniques for patchwork and enjoyed experimenting with different fabrics and materials to get different results.
I have enjoyed working with lots of new people and using discussion to help generate and evaluate ideas. I have also found doing contextual and initial research very helpful in creating my final design and giving an overall theme to my project.
However I could have organised my time better, and could have taken more advantage of the excellent embroidery machines, although I am grateful for the inductions and look forward to using them on later projects. I also feel that an aversion to mathematics has rendered my quilt ever so slightly miss shapen, and if I were to do it again I would make sure I was working with precise measurements in order to avoid this.

Final Product Designs and Planning

At the start  of the week, having been given the task of making a hot water bottle cover, I did some contextual research on Pinterest

http://www.pinterest.com/neongirlxxx/quilting/

Finding that often hot water bottles were associated with blankets, I thought it'd be innovative to create a patchwork quilt that has a built in pouch for a hot water bottle. Because of time constraints I thought it wise to aim for a small child's quilt as I'd be hand stitching the majority of it. I decided on hexagon patchwork as I loved the look my sample so much. I used fabrics that reflected colours of the fair grounds best.
After having tacked al my hexagons I wasn't sure of the arrangement.

This is the arrangement I have now settled for secured with masking tape to make sure I can transport the arrangement without messing it up.

I also need to consider how I'm going to secure the hot water bottle into the quilt. I think a pouch with either a velcro flap or buttoned.

Even More Samples

Having received the final week of learning new techniques I feel very well equipped for the brief.

This week we learnt how to crazy patchwork, which I really enjoyed, although struggled with some of the more extravagant hand stitching. Although we were a bit restricted with materials I still quite like this sample. 

I was also inducted onto the saddle stitch machine which has a very limited function, but does imitate hand stitching excellently, meaning that you can still get a nice "hand stitched" effect that is far less time consuming.  

Finally I was also inducted onto the Pfaff machine, which has enabled me to experiment with over 80 different, very complex and intricate stitch types. I think that this machine is absolutely amazing and hope to use it again soon!

Also over Easter were told to turn our hand to either hexagon patchwork or log cabin patchwork and I was quite proud to present this sample.

Refined Samples

During Easter I had some fun making some more refined samples having done some more research on Pinterest

 http://www.pinterest.com/neongirlxxx/fair-grounds/

I decided that I quite like the colours and shapes of ferris wheels.

I thought it would be fun to make a ferris wheel out of Kantha stitching, using a vibrant, colour changing wool. I am very pleased with this sample and think this might be something I will consider using later on.

This little sample was just and experimental piece of knitting, using the wool I purchased from Liberty, to see if I could effectively recreate a ferris wheel. I was quite pleased with the result however I feel if I were to use this technique in my final piece I would be straying from the quilting skills I have learnt so far.

Quilt Museum

In the first week of Easter I went to visit the Quilt Museum in York. I really enjoyed my visit and found the work of Jannice Gunner really inspiring. I really liked her combination of techniques and colour that really made her work stad out amongst the other more traditional log cabin pieces.

I also really enjoyed the contemporary quilt exhabition which gave me lots of ideas for using different techniques to create different affects.

http://www.quiltmuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/archives/cabin-fever-log-cabin-quilts.html

London Trip

I really enjoyed our class trip to London! I found the quilt exhibition in the Somerset House not too useful as the exhibition was very denim based and so was all a bit monotone in colour for me. Although it was nice to see quilts being displayed in a gallery context instead of interior design.

However I loved visiting all the different fabric shops between Soho and China town, the variety was fantastic although a little pricey. Finally I really enjoyed having a good rummage around Liberty. I found loads of inspiring materials and it was very comforting to see the kind of job prospects the future holds.

Investigation - Samples

I have learnt a few new techniques this week which have been good fun.

I have learnt Kantha stitching, which although time consuming, I think gives a very nice effect especially when using  some of the more colourful threads. Most of the other girls in the group opted to use plain fabric to stitch into, but I felt this checkered fabric gave me a geometric advantage.

This sample is an experiment using a see through front fabric, inserting ribbons and cord and experimenting with using ribbon as thread. I love the variety of colours in this sample and the idea of using some thing a little different to sew with. 

This sample is just simple bead work, I have chosen to use a fabric that has an opaque pattern with a transparent negative pattern and decided to experiment with wadding by knitting a bright pink middle layer. The beads really remind me of the little lights that light up fairground rides and I think the two contrasting colours really work.

Refining Research

Inspired by the visit to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and other research on Belle Vue, I decided to do some drawings and collage in order to engage with colour, proportion and pattern.

I have really enjoyed using such a vibrant colour pallette. I feel this fairground topic will really let me experiment with bold uses of colour which I usually like to use. I also feel like there are plenty of exciting shapes to work with that I hope to incorperate into my work.

I've also explored some of the textures found in my photos of the costume department at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, I was absolutely fascinated by all of the costumes and the amazing combinations of  fabrics and textures used.

I am really looking forward to learning the techniques to help turn this research into some interesting samples.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Blackpool Pleasure Beach opened in 1896, founded by William G Bean. Having survived financial hardships such as the 'package holiday' that took away their custom, Blackpool Pleasure Beach is still a successful fairground today.
Although they still have their oldest ride from 1904, they are constantly updating their rollercoasters in order to maintain a modern and thrilling park. For example the 'Thrill-o-matic' is a new Wallace and Gromit ride in the all new Nickelodeon Kid's Park.
The photographs I have chosen show my appreciation for the composition, signs for rides and patterns found in the fairground.

Black Pool Pleasure Beach - Costume Archive

Being given the chance to see the Blackpool Pleasure Beach Costume Archive was an amazing opportunity and provided plenty of inspiration for colour combinations and extravagance that I may want to use in my work.
The archive holds over 10000 costumes made for circus performers, ice skaters and burlesque shows held in Blackpool but also worldwide. There were some incredible one off costumes made to order, alongside mass produced costumes for shows. Within all the costumes there was a fantastic use of colour, feathers, sequins and ribbons.
We also got to see the workshop where the costumes were made and it held the most brilliant collection of fabrics, lace, beads, and much more.

Belle Vue Archive and Exhibition Visit

I found many interesting items at the Chetham Library Archive that tell us a lot of interesting information about Belle Vue.

These are some images advertising the zoo. Belle Vue originally opened as a Zoo with gardens until the 1920s when it was turned into a fairground. The zoo was a massive attraction, displaying lots of unnusual animals that people in the 1800s wouldn't otherwise get much chance of seeing. Unfortunately, the way they treated animals was without sentiment or care, often purchasing animals only for the season. This meant that animals had very short life span, the oldest being a chimp called Consul who lived to five years of age before dying and being replaced by Consul II.

Belle-Vue was also home to an elephant who was walked all the way from Edinburgh to Manchester to avoid it suffering cramped conditions in a train carriage.

PE Task 2

During this unit I feel like I have really discovered how important the context of my work really is. Doing contextual research has helped inform my choices of fabric, the scale of my work and the way it is constructed.

One of the first artists I looked at was Nani Marquina. I feel I can relate to her work because of her use of weaving and a yarn that is made up of shapes. Although she only really had one piece that I feel is particularly relevant to my work, it really helped my visualise some ideas that I had only previously been able to create in paper. After discovering Nani Marquina was the first time I'd also really considered interior design as a context, previously thinking more along the lines of fashion.

 

My second artist, Art Sign Interiors, I felt that I could relate to, gave me a much stronger understanding of what kind of audience I was creating my work for. I felt I was really interested by the way multiples could be used in interior design, and it was nice to see the way art sign interiors explored these. However I still felt a little bit lost due to 'interiors' encompassing such a large range of products. Although I quite liked the wall hanging sample, it felt a bit too much like creating a final piece rather than samples, also this was a rare opportunity to work on a larger scale, which I did enjoy but felt was time consuming and expensive to pursue on the laser cutter. 

Which brings me to my third artist, Rag Art Studio. Discovering rag-rugging artists really helped me to narrow down my field of work, and the kind of samples I was
wanting to produce. Finding this context allowed me to efficiently use my time on the laser cutter, and provided an excellent basis to present my 3D yarn on. This was particularly helpful because I was struggling to find an appropriate material to weave into. I am glad I was inspired to do some rag-rugging because I also prefer the more 3D effect created by the rag-rugging as opposed to the wall hanging and love the way multiples are used to make textured surface. 

At first I found it quite hard to do contextual research, stuck in the mindset that I needed to find artists that used superstition in certain contexts. After realising that it was more to do audience I felt a lot more comfortable finding artists and using them to inspire my work. I really feel having this experience will really help in my future units, and will encourage me to experiment with different contexts to find out which I prefer as well as considering all the possibilities for my work.

Feeling Confident in Context

Having used my final laser cutting session to make more 3D yarn I felt a bit stuck about what kind of material I wanted to weave through. So I did some more contextual research and took a great interest in rag-rugs.

This is a rug I found particularly inspiring by Rag Art Studios. I feel I can translate the way the shapes of the flowers are arranged directly to my superstitious 3D yarn. Also relating to my work the way the rugs, although generally of a flat nature, have a very 3D element about them. I also feel that they make a good use of multiples to create a very nice textures.

This is the work of Jenny Salton which I liked.

 I felt this really confirmed my earlier thoughts of making fabrics for interior design and helped inform my choices of fabric. It has definitely helped me progress my work, knowing who my audience is, and I am now very excited about producing my own samples. 

Feeling Inspired

After messing about with paper models I produced something I was very pleased with, and once shown to peers and tutors, I feel like it has really brought all my ideas together and I'm now working on creating samples that I'm really excited about!

So now I'm experimenting with using superstitious objects such as magpies, black cats, clovers etc. as yarn. I then intend to experiment with different materials to create my warp and use my laser cut yarn as the weft to weave new fabrics. I am really glad I have discovered this way to sample because I really enjoy weaving and feel like that is where my strengths lie, and the laser cutter and 3D printer will really help to produce some textured and interesting woven fabrics.

This is an artist I have found who makes rugs using a similar technique I intend to use:

http://www.dwell.com/how-they-make-it/article/little-field-flowers