First Cut exhibition!

Today I went to Manchester Art Gallery to see the First Cut exhibition and it completely blew me away! It was by far the most inspiring, intriguing and exciting exhibition I have ever been to! So much of it related to my Journeys project, so it was a shame that I didn't know about the exhibition earlier!

Every single piece in the gallery inspired me for different reasons but Sequel by Nicola Dale was one piece that linked extremely well to my journeys project. It is a felled ten foot oak tree adorned with thousands of individually cut leaves from maps and unwanted reference books. This linked with my journeys project because I concentrated on the nature that I found on my journey, and this piece incorporated both nature and journeys (maps).  When I thought more into the concept, it was also interesting how trees had been cut down to make the paper for the maps, which was being put back onto a tree as leaves for this exhibition, and then was put back into a promotional exhibition book as a printed picture, back on paper.

 

The exhibiton also allowed me to see so many artists which I have used for years as references as inspiration, but I have never had the oportunity to see their artwork before in person. These artists include Sue Blackwell, Rob Ryan, Peter Callesen, Yuken Teruya and Elisabeth Lecourt. Their work has inspired me for so long because of their delicate balance between skill and creativity; they produce art which makes me think and inspires creativity in my own work. Here are some examples of theirs from the exhibition.

Su Blackwell

Peter Callesen

Yuken Teruya

Some pieces in the Gallery inspired me because they were so clever and made you go 'wow'. Some examples are shown below.

Manabu Hangai, Wonder Forest
Using Seaweed raw hemp paper pigment and a range of recycled materials, Hangai created this piece inspired by humans interaction with nature. He created an immersive environment that the public could walk through. I loved how the branches were suspended from the ceiling, so with draughts they span gently, giving a very natural, 'outdoorsy' feel.

Justine Smith, Money Map of the World
For this piece, the artist sourced current issues of bank notes from all over the world and created a very accurate map of the world with them. It isn't like any other map, as it doesn't necessarily represent countries, or political groups, it represent economics. For example, areas of Europe all have the same note yet they are different countries, so it isnt your typical world map.

Andrea Dezsö, Living Inside Tunnel Books
These consisted of hand sew and cut paper tunnel books with interactive LED lights which I thought had a lovely effect with the shadows and light created. They represent small, handmade theatre sets with layers of paper creating three dimensional scenes. I love how such a flat media like paper can create a very 3D image, as lots of artists had done in this exhibition.

Long-Bin Chen, Twist Angel 6!
This is a life sized human figure suspended from the ceiling. The books are strung together with the spines facing up, and the carved surface is underneath. He uses 'valuable' books such as the New York phone book, which are now considered unimportant with the Internet being so readily available, and gives them a new lease of life.

The whole exhibition was so inspiring and its given me lots of inspiration for my next project; its a shame that I couldn't write about more of it! 

Evaluation of Origins unit

My first project at university has really opened my eyes to the wide range of possibilities that I can explore in the world of Textiles. I have really enjoyed print, and also exploring my theme of Journeys so thoroughly. In the first few weeks, I was looking everywhere for inspiration, taking my sketchbook on the bus, and walking home with it to make the best observations possible. I think this added a real depth to my work because I had a lot of material to work with, so I could experiment with motifs and ideas, picking and choosing the good ideas to develop onto prints and on the computer. I felt that at this stage in the project, my links between practice and research were very strong and my sketchbook told the story of how I was working. I was also impressed with how I pushed myself to think laterally. For example when I was going down the route of observing litter, I decided that the shape was too ‘ugly’ to put on a print between leaves, but I didn’t want to just neglect this idea as I wanted to explore the connection between litter and nature. Instead I looked at patterns that litter could make, such as the coffee stains of a cup, which then translated into the circles on my screen.

This print was inspired by mushroom patterns (small circles) and coffee cup ring stains (larger circles)

The zigzag lines in the background of this print were created by the jolting movements of the bus

The background pattern for this was also inspired by the pattern on mushrooms 

All of these patterns show lateral thinking and I have enjoyed pushing myself to do this as I haven't done anything like it before.

However, in the later few weeks of the project I unfortunately relaxed with the research, which I was aware of doing, but I didn’t intend to. I ended up being in the print room or the computer room all the time and found it very hard to keep up with primary research when I felt like I was in such a flow with the ideas that I was already working with. I will definitely change my approach next time, to constantly feeding my work with primary research. I also feel as though a constant reference to galleries would have helped. At the start I frequently visited galleries but towards the end I primarily used the Internet as a source of information, rather than going to galleries. After exploring the library more towards the end of the project, I found it really useful, but for the next project I will use this as a constant source of information too, to enrich my study.

For this project I felt as though I played safe with my theme: at the start of the project I was trying to force myself to come up with exciting ideas but I decided that I should stick with what I know for the first project; nature. I am used to using natural form, but next time I'd love to find a way to push myself to produce something more exciting and challenge myself more.

Throughout the project I have tried really hard to balance my studio and workshop time with my work at home. It’s been particularly important for me because I travel into university, so I need to make sure I plan my time wisely, and although at times it's frustrating, I think the routine has really pushed me to achieve to the best of my abilities.

The end of my Journey...

Today was the deadline for the Journeys brief. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to grips with print, but I am also so relieved that my first project has finished. Here is my final display, showing my journey through the project. I can't wait to start the next project!

Digital Printing

Concluding the selection of photoshop work I have done over the project, I am sending some of my designs to be digitally printed. After last Thursday's digital session involving creating backgrounds from textured backgrounds and photos, I have really enjoyed developing my designs; before this I felt they were too plain. With the addition of the interesting backgrounds I am hoping that they will form a good set of digitally printed designs.

They are being printed on silk viscose which is smooth and thin. This should compliment my designs well due to the slightly transparent effect it will give, so the colours aren't too bold.

I would like to take the design on the bottom right into the print room and try printing on top of it, but I think that the pigment dyes are too transparent to stand out on the background. I therefore think that the photo and textured backgrounds would be good to take into the print room with the correct dyes, or if they were paler to put the pigment dyes on top of.

Last print room session

After my last day in the print room, I have tied together all of my samples to collect a good body of work. As part of today I tried to fix a few samples which I felt didn't go so well to start with. I still don't think they are fixed but I have experimented to find out what does and doesn't work.

This print was supposed to look like leaves were falling, with the gradient background and the leaves getting bigger towards the bottom. Unfortunately there were quite a few smudges on the print so I added aquaspand leaves to try and distract from this. I think if done well this concept would be effective.

As previously mentioned, this sample didnt work for many reasons, so I  decided to try and add in some darker leaves  to the background. 

This sample was done from half of another sample. After cutting it in half, I painted on a beige pigment dye for the background and added some green leaves to see what effect it would have. I think its added to the print, and I definitely prefer the coloured background to the white one. I also think it represents my colour stripe more as a sample.

 I also started two new prints which are shown below. The left sample was an experiment because I painted reactive dyes directly onto the wet fabric to see what effect it would have. I am happy with the result because I think it represents the colours in an autumn tree which is exactly the effect I wanted, for this print and my whole project. The left print was my first attempt at monoprinting on my exposed screen. As it was my first go, I wasn't too sure what to expect but I did 3 attempts using the same painted screen. The first didn't come out properly, probably because the dye wasn't wet enough or there was too much of it, but the colour that did come out was nice and strong. The next two did come out properly but the colour gradually faded. I love the monoprinting technique and wish I had more time to experiment with it.

I have loved my time in the print room, and I had lots more ideas that I didn't have the chance to develop. This included painting on an open screen because there were none available to paint on, and placing things like doilies, lace and thread under my screen before printing to see what effect it would have on my prints. This would have worked particularly well on my birds due to the density of colour. It also would have linked really well to my sketchbook as some of them were worked into with pattern when I was doing my research.

Reactive dyes

After experimenting with Pigment dyes for the past few weeks I have decided to try an alternative method; reactive dyes. I have found them much harder to mix because of the more complicated processes, but I like the fact that they don't sit on top of the fabric, so therefore you can't feel the dye. 

I am happy with the sample above, however the underneath sample had problems with the dye seeping into the surrounding fabric. I thoroughly washed it, yet the dye still spread and left yellow circles on my fabric. I think it was due to the thickness of the cotton, which was as thick as denim.

At the moment I still prefer working with pigment dyes but when I get used to the processes I think reactive dyes will suit my style of working more as I prefer working on thinner fabrics where the pigment cant be felt.

Aquaspand samples

Throughout this week I have been experimenting with aquaspand, or puff binder. The first experiment I did was not successful which put me off slightly. When I printed, I covered the wet elements with paper to prevent them smudging and transferring to other parts of the print. However, with aquaspand it simply removed the binder meaning it didn't puff up when heated. A leaf from this print is shown below.

Finding this out, I found it hard to try out complex designs because it was too time consuming. In the sample below the binder puffed really well and didn't crinkle the fabric. For the middle birds I added a hint of green pigment to see what effect it would have. I think the addition of green showed a bit, but next time I might add more to make a stronger contrast.

The next sample was a similar idea however it was done on a basket weave fabric which introduced a very interesting texture to the puff binder.

This sample was done on a much finer fabric and the Aquaspand added to the pattern that I had printed in the background

Dyeing

Yesterday I dyed my first fabrics in preparation for a session in the print room tomorrow. I used reactive dyes and the fabrics were old bits and pieces that I found around my house. The samples below were created using an old pillow case.

I experimented with 2 colours, a brown and an orangey red, to see what different results I got.

The samples below were done on an old thin curtain/blind.

After using reactive dyes in the print room on monday, I knew that the dye wouldn't stay on this fabric very well, as my other sample washed out. But I wanted to see if they would take some colour to give a pale background. After leaving them in the dye baths for about 5 minutes this worked, and I am happy with the results. 

Peer review

So far this week I have been putting up my work in preparation for a peer review this morning. I found the process really interesting, both looking at other peoples work and getting feedback on my own. The feedback on my work was as follows:

• Strong development - mood board and mark making are very good
• Very thorough work
• Used colour palette very strongly
• Research is original
• Strong fabric design - good quality work/samples
• Maybe experiment with a few more colours in colour stripe and translate into prints
• Exciting digital prints but they don't feel as connected to my original work as my screen prints

I found this feedback very valuable; it was nice to know that I was on the right lines but it also pointed out some facts that I wasn't aware of, such as the connection of my digital prints to my original work. I will definitely be developing my digital prints, concentrating on linking them back to my work more, for the rest of this week.

Putting up my work also highlighted to myself which areas of my work I needed to develop. I feel that I need some stronger designs on photoshop, and I also need some samples of screen printed fabrics that contain a higher density of colour. I will therefore dye the backgrounds of some of my fabrics this week, ready for printing.

Print room: episode 2!

Yesterday was my second day in the print room and I produced a few more prints. I also managed to mix some more colours to compliment my work, and I used a binder called aquaspand which makes the fabric puffy. I tried out different techniques and used my initiative to think of ways to help me when screen printing, such as using a hard spatula rather than a big squeegee for small areas, and using masking tape and paper to make masking my screen off easier.

One technique I tried, shown in the background of the left picture, involved painting my binder straight onto the fabric to colour it, rather than using a blank screen or dying.

On the samples below, the white, small leaves and birds are done with aquaspand which has a 3D texture. I found it quite hard to work with as you have to leave each motif to dry between prints otherwise some of the aquaspand comes off so it doesnt puff up. This is what happened on the leaf sample below, as I covered each leaf with paper between prints, which just took off the aquaspand.

I'm quite happy with the selection of fabrics that I have produced, and next week I would like to try printing onto fabrics that I've dyed myself and also using reactive dyes.