Live Brief

We have now started our next brief; this is a live brief where we will be working with real customers where they give us our inspiration and tasks to do.

Our choice is between too companies, Moo, who is a fashion designer working with leather, they want us to create a design for a lining of a bag. If they like our final design, they will use it on a special edition bag for the spring 2013 collection. They would like us to research into the ethos of their company and try and create a piece which will fit in well with all the other items that they sell in their shop.

Our other choice is a free-lance interior designer; we will be creating a fabric to cover a chair and a window seat. The chosen design will be put into a large grade 2 listed building. She would like us to research into Charles Rennie mackintosh and his wife for ideas for our designs

I have chosen to do the interior design project as I feel this would most benefit my future plans for my education.

My Evaluation

This project has been all about nature. For the last 7 weeks we have had to produce, a sketchbook, visual sheets, mood boards, design sheets and a bag all to do with nature, and a season of our choice. I have enjoyed this project and although there have been some ups and downs and things I would change I do believe that I have really got my teeth into this project and you can see that in the quality of my work.
   For the first week of our project we had a full week of observational drawing, I believe this gave us a good chance to practice drawing from real life instead of our imagination or a photograph, although some people didn’t enjoy it, I though it gave us a good experience. You could also class drawing from real life a good way to research nature as we were so close to it for a week. Other ways that I also did research were primary and secondary. Because my chosen season was autumn, I have been lucky that we are in autumn at the minute, as I have been able to collect a lot of primary research throughout the project. My main source of primary research though, came from a day trip to Cawthorne Park; here I took many pictures of all things nature, including animals, rivers and trees.
   My secondary research was also quite simple to find, I looked through books and on the internet. Quite a lot of designers and artist’s incorporate nature into their work quite often so luckily I found a lot of nice artist research that fit well with my project.
   I picked autumn as my chosen season for a few reasons, first of all when I think of autumn, I think of the bright, rich colours that come along with it, the warm reds and the golden yellows, and I really wanted to incorporate them into my work. Also as I have said, we are in autumn at the minute and so as soon as my teacher told us to pick a season I knew if I picked autumn I could gather a lot of primary research.
   After I had collected my research I used it all as inspiration for my tree, for example, I had seen a picture of a hedgehog in autumn, on the internet which I really liked, so I stated drawing the hedgehog on my visual sheets. I then found an artist who drew autumn animals for children’s books and I really liked his work, so I took his work as inspiration and drew a hedgehog in a childlike way on my bag.
   Looking back at my project I would say if anything, the one thing that I slacked on was my experimentation. I did do the basic sampling of weaving, knitting and felting, but when it got to going into the workshop and experimenting with colours, textiles and patterns I didn’t do anywhere near as much as I should have done. Unfortunately I was so busy making sure I was up to date with everything else that my experimentation just got put the back of my mind. Also I was in a rush to get my bag finished and so I just wanted to test out my ideas that I had for my bag to make sure they worked. I think the problem that I had really comes down to my time management, I didn’t realise how short of a time period 7 weeks really was until I got down to the last week and a half and I was rushing to get everything finished.
   My chosen artist who gave me a lot of inspiration for the style of my bag and a man call Brian Wildsmith. He is an illustrator for children’s books and I just love his work. It is so colourful and bright, full of autumnal colours. Also his work isn’t perfect, it looks quite scribbly and childlike and very simplistic, no shading and not that much detail. So I did my own interpretation of his work and drew a hedgehog in a simple, childlike way and made that into a screen print to put onto my bag.
   We had two choices for the design of our bag, a slouch bag, or a tote bag. I decided to do a tote bag for a very simple reason; I believe it would be used more. I would have liked to use my bag as a bag to take to college although I later found out that we wouldn’t be able to have our bag for at least a year. But I thought that the simple design would be more practical for day-to-day life.
   I believe that my bag design would easily be able to be manufactured in a large quantity, as it is only a simple design and made 90% out of cotton it would be cheap and easy to mass reproduce. I would say this is also a good reason why it was good to pick a tote bag to make.
   I would say that my bag design looked a lot like my final design, I stuck to the colour scheme   and did my pattern the exact same as what it was on my design sheet. There was only one thing that I had to change on my bag that was different to my final design, this was my handle. On my final design, I had planned to weave it, 240cm of it but when it had taken me just over 2 hours to do around 20cm I realised that I didn’t have time to do it, if I had anticipated how long it would have taken me to weave that much I would have started a long time before I did, but me and my tutor came up with the idea to plat my handles instead. And in hindsight my handles are now a lot stronger than they would have been if I had woven them. I also believe that they look better than the weaving would have done too.
   Overall I think my project went well, I managed to hand everything in on the deadline, with no missing pieces of work and I would say all my work that I handed in was to a very high standard too although I wouldn’t say that I got to that point without a few things going wrong.
   My first major problem that went wrong was when I was dying my fabric for my bag, I had just finished dying all my fabric in light colours including yellow and orange when unfortunately someone got navy blue dye on my work, as my work was so wet the blue ran as well. I tried fixing it the best I could by rinsing it straight away under cold water trying to get the dark blue dye out, thankfully I did but unfortunately it took some of my light coloured dye out at the same time. To fix this second problem I just made sure that I came in extra early on the next class lesson so I could re-dye my fabric.
   As I wrote about earlier I also had a problem with my handles when starting to construct my bag, I thankfully fixed this problem though and actually came out with a better outcome than I was originally going to anyway.
   I would say my main problem of this project has been my time management, although I haven’t been slacking and not working on what I should have been, I think I have just been a little too relaxed in my thinking, and didn’t realise just how short of time, 7 weeks actually was. Until it got down to the last two weeks of this project I haven’t been stressing as much as should have been.
   So no I don’t think I have handled my time management well for this project, so I need to bear in mind for the next project just how little time I have to do everything and work as hard and fast as I can to make sure I get everything done.
   Overall I am happy with this project, I have enjoyed the last 7 weeks as I would say I have learnt many new skills and overcome quite a few problem, yet still I have handed in a project to a high standard without missing any deadlines, if I did this project again I would change my time management. But like I said, I am extremely happy with my overall outcome.

My Bag

So after a 7 week project it had now come down to making my bag. I had picked my designs and what I was going to do on it.

FRONT/BACK
   The front and back of my bag are the same; I have dyed a piece of white cotton with procien dyes, to create the look of a sunset in autumnal colours. I then screen printed hedgehogs walking around my bag with discharge paste. To add extra detail to the bag I also embroidered into every other hedgehog on the front and back of my bag.

SIDES/BOTTOM
   For the sides and bottom of my bag I have got a repeated pattern going all the ways around of leaves, it is quite a simplistic pattern but I think this adds to the character of the bag.
   To do this pattern I dyed white cotton with a watered down yellow procien dye, I then printed with discharge paste my leaves in autumn colours.

HANDLES
   I had a problem with my handles! I had planned to weave my handles, 240cm of it, but I didn’t anticipate how long it would actually take to do this, and when it had taken me almost 2 hours to do around 20cm of it I decided that I wouldn’t have time to weave my handles. So instead I decided to plat them. Which I am actually very happy with, and in hindsight my platted handles would have been a lot stronger than my woven ones anyway.

Samples in the Workshop

If anything in this project I feel I have let myself down with the samples in the workshop, I would say this is because of my time management that my sampling and experimentation has just been pushed to the back of my mind. Unfortunately I only managed to do around 7 or 8 samples for this project which really isn’t enough at all.
   Although, I am happy with the samples that I have done. I made two screens for this project, one as a background colour or my pictures and the other to add details to my pictures that I have created. My screen prints are of a hedgehog and a leaf.
   I will use this downfall in my project as learning curve for my next project and make sure I give enough time to do the recommended amount of samples, which is over 50 and I will make sure I work on my time management.

Primary Research

   For this project my friend and Iwent on a trip to a local park, where we took photos of all things nature. We spent a full day there taking pictures of small scale this like grass and leaves to large scale thing like the landscape of the park and the river.

These are just a few of the pictures that we took…

Experimentation- knitting

It wasn’t too hard for me to learn how to knit as I already had a rough idea of how to do it, our teach put a video on for us to watch on how to knit which made it easier for us too as if any of us got stuck, we could just revert back to watching the video.

   If anything made it hard for me to knit, it was the fact that I had quite large knitting needles to knit with, which although I liked the effect it gave to my knitting, it kept dropping stiches because of the size of my needles.
   But I would say I took a positive out of knitting as I will now know how to knit for the rest of my life which I would say is a very good skill to have.

Experimentation- Felting

   I would probably say that out of all our samples that we learned, felting was my least favourite. Felting takes around 30 minutes to do but feels like a lifetime.
   First of all you have to get some white sheep wool. You lay it flat in thin layers on the table, after that you can then start adding colour to it. You lay colour sheep wool over the white layer to create your image. After you have made you picture, you then lay a piece of fishnet over your wool. You have to drench your wool with water. Once your wool is soaked, you can then start rolling it. You need to roll it 4 times, for four minutes each time, turning it 90 degrees after each 4minute roll.
   Once you have rolled your wool for around 16 minutes you should have made felt. You then need to dip it in boiling water for one minute so all the fibres of the wool stick together. It then needs 24 hours to dry.
   The reason I don’t like felting is because, one it is very tiring to create, and two, I don’t really like the end result as you can’t really get it very neat.

Experimentation-Weaving

Cardboard Loom


Today we got taught a new technique, we got shown how to weave. First of all we used a cardboard loom, which is just a small A5 piece of cardboard with teeth cut out of it at the top so you can thread yarn around it to create a weft,(you can also use bigger pieces of cardboard if you wish). You then weave in and out of the yarn to create the weave. With a cardboard loom, you cut the wool or material you are weaving with at the end of each row. I don’t really like my cardboard loom as I don’t like the effect it gives when you cut the wool off at the end of each row as I feel it looks messy.


Peg Loom

The next sample that we did was weaving on a peg loom. I much preferred this sample to the cardboard loom as it looked a lot neater. To create a weave on a cardboard loom, you first have to make your loom, you thread some cotton through a small hole in the bottom of the pegs and then place the pegs into a holder provided. You then weave in and out of the pegs. When you have finished, take the pegs out of the holder, tie all the cotton together, and there you go. One peg loom!


Extended sample


I also did an extended sample in weaving; I did this on a machine called the ‘loom’. I found this process so much faster and simpler than the other weaving techniques, and in my opinion it looks a lot nicer as well. I may consider using this technique on my bag.

Nature

   We have started a new brief! For this project, the theme is nature; we will be creating a sketching to do with everything nature. We will be learning new techniques such as felting, knitting and weaving and our final outcome will be to create a bag with at least one woven panel.
   This project will last 6 weeks and will have a week whilst we are on holiday to complete all our work. At the minute I am quite excited to get on with my project and hopefully I will face no serious problems throughout my project. I will tell you all about my project and the goings on throughout it when I next blog.

Evaluation For 'Too Much Information'

   Over the last 15 weeks we have been doing a project called 'Too Much Information', in this project we have had to collect and research all things to do with information, including primary and secondary research, drawings, photographs and much more.
   At the beginning of the project we were given the task to document all our findings in a sketchbook of our choice, I did this in a black A4 sketchbook, I collected things such as bus tickets, receipts, and sweet wrappers and did things with them such as, use them as backgrounds, make a collage out of them and draw them. I would say I did a decent amount in my sketchbook as when it came to the end of our project I had nearly filled the book.
   So throughout this project I have used many different methods of research, I have collected primary research by ,as I have said before, collecting bus ticket etc. And going on a trip to Scarborough and taking photographs of all things information. I have also collect secondary information by doing research on the Internet of artists, photocopying pages out of books and printing pictures off of the computer.
   Over the summer I do think I did a fair amount off work, all though I didn't start the project till later on than I should have done, I do think I caught up with the amount of work I should have done earlier on. I think my work was to a high standard and I tried to vary my work so I wasn't boring. I could have probably done more through the summer holidays but I am quite happy with the amount of work that I did.
   Throughout the project we were asked to do artist/designer research. I researched two artist, my first artist was Bansky, a graffiti artist. I chose Banksy because I think he is a very current artist, he uses information in his work and I feel that I could relate to his work. The other artist that I researched was a lady called Holly Levell. This was a girl who studied textiles in university and recently is making things out of felt in the shape of well known branded products, e.g. Colgate toothpaste or Hobnob biscuits I really liked her work because it was very original and rather fun and quirky.
   After we got back to college, we then had to carry on with the rest of our project, so after having around 15 weeks on our sketchbook it was time to move on, we were told to create two visual sheets. I quite like my visual sheets, I feel they linked on from my sketchbook well, I think they were very full and had no negative space on them I would say they also gave me a lot of inspiration for our next task, which was our tracing. This was my first tracing I had ever done, so baring this in mind i believe I did a good job, it was very full, and I would say it all linked together nicely, I got all my ideas of what to put on it from my visual sheet and my sketchbook, so again, it linked all my project together. Our next step in the process of this brief was our experimentation, I learnt quite a few new processes that I had never done before including Devore, and puff binder. I think I did quite well with all these, I will use all the processes I learnt again and to say it was my first time of doing these processes I think my outcomes were quite good although if I have one downfall, I feel I didn't do as many as I could have with the amount of time that we had in the print room, so next project I will be sure to work on my time management in the print room.
   As I have already said, this was the first time I had ever done a tracing before, when our teacher was telling us how to make one, I will be honest, I found it a little daunting, as I thought it looked very complicated, but once I got started on it, I think I managed pretty well. It took me around 3/4 hours to complete it but I think the time I spent on it showed as I feel it was to quite a high standard, especially to say it was my first ever tracing. Looking back on it now, I think my line quality could have been better than it was, as when it was put onto the screen, not all of the lines came through as some were too thin, also I stuck magazine clippings onto my tracing, which I thought looked good, but unfortunately the writing was too small and didn't come out on my screen, so I now know for the future not to do that, and it also give me a rough idea of how small the image or writing can be before it doesn't show up on the screen. But overall I like my tracing.
   In this project we have been taught how to use the sewing machines, I have had passed experience on sewing machines so I had a vague idea of what I was doing, but now it has come to the end of the project I am pleased to say I am much more confident about using the sewing machines. we have been taught all the health and safety for using a sewing machine, including, always having your hair tied up, and never use electronic devices or anything else that could distract your attention from the machine. We have been taught, how to set up/ shut down the sewing machines, how to use the stitch selector on them, how to change the stitch and use it, and how use Free machine. I would say I did well on the sewing machine, I didn't come across any serious issues and I feel that over all I am quite confidant at using them. I have defiantly because more confidant too.
   Through this project we have had the chance to do a lot of experimentation in the print room. I would say I did quite well with this, although I didn't do as much as I would have liked to, so next project   need to work on my time management skills when I am in the print room. But, saying that I did get a few samples of experimentation done, I did quite a few puff binder samples, I really like the effect puff binder gives, I think this is because it gives it more of a 3D, tactile look to it, instead of just a print. I experimented with puff binder by adding pigment dye to it to make it coloured, and then later sewing into it too.
   Another experimentation I did was devore. I had never used devore before so I learnt a new skill in the process of doing it. We did this process on three specialist fabrics, Devore silk, Devore velvet and Azeta. Devore is a process which eats away at the man-made fibres, so when you print it, it takes away the fabric when you put the devore paste. I do quite like this process and I think it looks quite goo but unfortunately I wouldn't say it works too well for me , so maybe in the next project I could try it again and hopes it works better for me.
Another experimentation sample we did was a technique call 'stitch and burn', with this you get a few pieces of material and stick them together with wonderwebb, you then stitch into them on the free machining on the sewing machines. after you have finished sewing, you then burn it with a heat gun. To be honest I didn't really like this sample as I thought it looked quite messy and so probably wont use it in the future, although it was still a good learning curve and I did learn a new still and technique.
   I would say my favourite process of this project was the puff binder as I really like the texture that it adds to the work, and to say how simple it is to do, I really like the end product. My least favourite is, as i have just said, stitch and burn because I didn't like the final outcome, I didn't think it looked neat and I didn't really like my sample, depending on what you want you work to look like or what the theme is, I imagine it can look really good, but unfortunately I didn't like it in this project.
   For my final piece I did an A3 piece of cotton, which I then dyed with a multitude of colours with procian dye, I then did a repeat pattern in puff binder onto it, and then worked into it with free machining, overall I think it went quite well although I did come across a few problems, first of all, my screen got blocked and the pattern didn't come out as well as I had hoped, to sort this I scrubbed my screen and made sure I had got out all the previous inks and dyes I had used on it before and the carefully went back over the pattern again, thankfully this worked. My second problem that I encountered was the fact that my dye wasn't as bright as it was on the sample that I did, unfortunately I don't know why this happened as I pressed the cotton on the heat press at 180 degrees for 18 seconds as you should to keep the dye locked in, so unfortunately I couldn't do anything about this. But like I said, as I whole I do like my final piece, I think you can tell that I have worked hard on it, and to say that it is the first repeat patter tracing that I have done, I think I did quite a good job.
   Throughout the project I do feel that I managed my time pretty well, I do think that I did a decent amount of work for everything, although like I have said before, the only thing iIdon't think I did enough of is my experimentation samples in the print room, so next project, I will be sure to plan in advance enough time in the print room. But apart from that I feel my time management was up to scratch.
   Overall, this hasn't been my favourite project, and because of that I do feel you can see that in my work, but I have tried my best throughout the project, I have hit all deadlines and I would say I have finished the project with a final piece of quite a high standard.

Experimentation... Devore

   So this is Devore, to do this process you have to use fabric that is especially made for this process, so this material is called Devore Velvet. i like this outcome and to make this I had to... I used devore paste on my sreen and pressed it onto the velet, i had to wait a few minutes until the devore had dried and then wash it. Devore Velvet is a man-made material, so when you paste the devore paste onto it, it etas away at the man-made fibres and only leaves the natural ones left. After the paste has dried, you then wash you material under the tap to get rid of all the man-made fibres that are coming out. whilst the fabric is still wet, you dye it, I died mine with a multitude of procien dyes, you then wait until you dye has dried and predd it under the heat press at 180 degrees for 18 seconds. after I did this, i then added detail by sewing into my work on the sewing machine with free-machining, i really like this technique and although it is quite time consuming i think the end result is worth it.













   This is another devore sample, this time it is on a fabric called azeta, which is like a cotton sort of material and is a specialised material for using devore. With this sample i did the same as the other one i printed my pattern with devore paste, waited for it to dry for around 5 minutes, and then washed it under the tap. I left this sample white as i liked how it lookes clean and fresh. I dont think this sample turned out very well, as you cant my pattern fully and i dont think it very clear.








Experimentation... Puffbinder

I like this sample, first of all I died it with procien dyes, after they had dried i then pressed it on the heat press at 180 degrees for 18 seconds to set the dye, after that, I then printed with my screen onto my fabric with black pigment dye, after i had waited for that to dry, i worked back into it for experimentation with puffbinder, i really like the effect this gave the piece, and i may use this technique in the future.

This is my second sample. For this I did the same as before, dying the white cotton with procien dyes and then setting it with the heat press, but then after instead of printing onto it with black pigment ink, i added black pigment ink to puffbinder to make it darker, and then printed with my screen and puffbinder, to give the puffbiner the raised up effect, you then have to blow the ink with a heat gun, this then raises the puffbinder up. 

My Screen Printing And Experimentation

  

My repeated pattern

So the picture on the left hand side is my repeated pattern, we had to make it a3 size, so that's what I did. We had to incorporate all different types of information and make it link to our books and our visual sheets. As you can see, i inlucded things like, music notes, a clock and logos from food wrappers, i even stuck on some cuttings from a magazine.
   After we made our repeat pattern we handed it in to our teacher so she could put it on a screen. When the pattern was on the screen, we could then start screen printing.
   To screen print, you need a screen, a piece of material underneath the screen and a squeegee, which if like a long wooden handel that you paste the paint on with. I will now show you some of the samples i made with my screen.










Visual Sheets

So, I am going to write a brief blog about our visual sheets, as you know we have been set our brief with the theme of information, as we are already all up and running with our sketchbooks we were then set the next task of creating two visual sheets full of information, they had to include drawings and sketches, bits and pieces that were stuck on and tactile pieces to make the sheets interesting and unique. I am going to be honest, I struggled with mine as I lost track a bit with the theme, I felt like we had to have a theme on our sheets, e.g. Graffiti or fashion. But once my tutor put me straight and reassured me that we already had a theme of information,I think I got back on the right track. Unlike some people, I didn't really stick to a colour theme and I tried to incorporate all colours so that when it came to doing my final piece I wasn't stuck to only being able to use one or two colours. Anyway I'll keep it short and sweet, I hope you like my visual sheets, and I will write again soon with the progress of this project.

Introduction of the brief/ Scarborough trip

    So, our first brief of this year was set around 15 weeks ago, a long time ago? Yes, but it was a summer project to do over the holidays and i'm afraid to say we all slacked a little bit, and didnt complete our sketchbook to the best of our ability.
   our brief was to complete a sketchbook with the theme being information, we had to draw and sketch, collage, lick and stick and collect primary and secondary research all about information. Athough i believe i did do a decent amount of work, admittedly i didnt collect any primary research.
   so when we got back to college, with the quick thinking of our tutor (after a telling off, of course), she arranged for us to go on a trip to sunny Scarborough. Here we had to collect primary research of all sorts for our sketchbook. I collected everything i could find from maps and cinema listings from the tourist information centre, to photographs of singposts and slot machines.And although it may sound silly, going there gave me a lot of insparation, because i dont think you realise until you're looking just how important information is, and how much it is used in day-to-day life.
   so when we got back to college we had a little bit more time given to bring our sketchbooks up to scratch, 15 weeks in i think i can finally say that i am getting into the brief, and i will post and update everyone soon on how the rest of my projects turns out!