Weave Samples: Unit X

I struggled with my initial weave due to my warp. Initially, I had cotton surrounding my monofilament warp, which soon turned into a disaster when it couldn’t handle the pressure of the weft. This resulted in breakages. As I continued, leaving extra weft to create a fringed edge was essential in order to stop it from snapping, which stemmed to my weaves looking very messy. I managed to get into my weaving as soon as I decided to take the cotton off, making it much more manageable and allowing it to look neater and more professional.

 

One problem that I now faced was the sliding of yarns on the monofilament warp, something which unfortunately couldn’t be helped. I resolved this in the best way I could by manually condensing the yarns. My weaves turned out much like my embroidery samples, containing the same cords and yarns so that I could truly start to build a similarity for my ‘edges’ collection.

 

I really love this sample as I have managed to use the weakness in the warp to my advantage. Where the weft is slipping on the monofilament, I have manipulated this into some of the shapes seen within my drawings, taken my photographs. Adding the extra strands of mixed yarns into the cotton weft accentuated the merging of colour, which was my main concentration.

 

 

 

In terms of finishing my weave, I have decided to keep it as one long strand as I love the blocks of colour clashes throughout, and the techniques I've used really compliment each other. In the image above, you can see that I've added part of my embroidery sample to the top edge to finish it off. This is highly relatable to the work of Luisa Cevese for Wallace and Sewell, where cut-offs have been used to form a new part for something else (in her case, bags, bibs and belts).

 

I feel that overall, I have managed this project reasonably well. I have overcome problems logically, and used some of the weaknesses to my advantage to push forward with my ideas. I feel that my time management could have been better, as I felt rushed towards the end of the project- but this was purely down to all my work coming together to look like a collection. In future, I will know to think about this beforehand, so I can plan my final ideas better. An aspect that I have loved is the use of colour, something that has not highly featured in my work throughout the whole year.

 

Embroidery Samples: Unit X

My embroidery samples mainly consist of dip dyed fabric and cording in my chosen colour palette. My initial embroidery samples (shown in a previous blog post) were the main inspiration for the shapes formed; box pleats, cording using hair-pinning and ruffles are all dominant techniques within. I feel that there is a complimentary contrast between these shapes and the linear lines. In terms of attention to creating a collection, the fabric, cottons and yarns are all reasonably the same, in order to keep a running trend throughout.

Relating to my design development drawings, I have managed to incorporate a merging of colours throughout, with the intentions of responding to the merging of memories and surrounding colours of the fairground. I also managed to portray this by using a selection of mixed yarns, twisting between contrasting colours (also used in my weave)

The layering of samples was important as I feel it gives them much more interest. Again, the dissimilarity of ruffled shapes juxtaposing the linear lines commends my latest drawings. The 3D aspect may be something I want to continue when displaying my exhibition. I’ve thought about pinning them in such a way to make them stand off the page. This would add an extra dimension to my work, and hopefully make them much more exciting to look at.

 

 

 

I can see my embroidery samples within interiors, potentially used as eccentric edges for decorative cushions, or curtain ties, much like the work of Osborne and Little (noted in a previous blog post).

Design Development: Unit X

  

 

 

 

 

My drawings started to really develop once I’d refined my colour palette, enabling me to concentrate on reflecting my work thoroughly. Linear lines are prominent; taken from my initial photographs. My drawings illustrate some of the shapes made in my photographs, with a really light and fun feel, something that I wish to portray vividly when creating my samples. Simple curved shapes also started to appear, although I don’t know how easy this will be to replicate using weave. My main focus was the merging of colours, (an aspect of my previous drawings that was a positive outcome in my tutorial with Nigel) and how this almost reflects the merging of memories and rides within a theme park surrounding. I hope to merge colours in my weave and embroidery samples using a selection of techniques, specifically the dying of fabric and cording.

 

 

 

 

Tutorial: Unit X

My group tutorial with Nigel really helped me to gather my ideas. Constructive criticism was extremely prevalent within the work that I showed; and also seeing the other girls work was enough to push me into getting back into it, giving me ideas and feeling motivated again. One aspect of my work that was picked up on was my colour palette, and how it needed to be more refined in order for me to gain a collection with similarities, which I have taken on board (as shown underneath). I feel that these colours really reflect the theme of fairground, and also complement each other really well.

 

 

Discussions also turned to design development, and talking through where I wanted to go with my visual research. I seem to have a lot of photographs, but further developing these has become a task. The visual research (as seen on a previous post) where I’d used dyes to merge colours was a prominent feature in my work, and this is now my starting point towards finalising my ideas.

As a way of addressing this problem, I reverted to dying/ painting on my new photographs with my finalised colour palette. This was a successful, informative and helpful task as it allowed to me to experiment with the merging of colours (that we'd talked about within my tutorial), whilst also juxtaposing this with the shape and lines within them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visual Research: Unit X

 

An extra set of images that I have taken at a fairground in Liverpool. I feel that these images will be able to inform my work more than my initial Blackpool photographs. Extracting colour and concentrating on the perspective lines is my main focus.

 

 

Wallace and Sewell: Unit X

Wallace and Sewell are a highly individual woven textile design studio that create eccentric and innovative fabrics. W&S are fundamentally known for their bright and colourful scarves. These struck me due to their profound linear construction, yet simple structure defiantly being taken over by mass use of colour. A range of yarn is also essential for Wallace and Sewell, demonstrating that texture plays a vital part within their designs.

‘Work is distinguished by a positive and confident use of colour and an intelligent use of yarn properties and standard weave structures, producing exclusive fabrics of discerning appeal.’- Taken from W&S personal website.

 

 

 

When scouring through the works of W&S, I found that the company had started to work with Italian accessories designer Luisa Cevese, where she used their off-cuts of fabric as decoration for her bags, bibs and belts. This concept really intrigues me, and I love how the off-cuts are being recycled into something so beautiful instead of being thrown away. This notion could be highly interesting when creating my own weaves.

 

Luisa Cevese personal website- http://riedizioni.com/

Inspirational Images: Unit X

I keep up my motivation mainly through inspirational images, and finding this inspirational wall in a place in Liverpool came as a lovely surprise. Looking carefully, it upheld many images that were well relatable to the project ‘Fairground’, and gave me that little push to carry on doing the work I was doing.