Saturday 23rd May 2015

Today, i kept ploughing through my sampling again, working with colour a my experimentation with machine stitch. 

I took the opportunity, although there wasn't much free time after my course, to sit down and plough through a bit of everything just to bulk it up a little bit a create a few new ideas ready to begin creating my final outcome/sample on Monday. 

This included lots of machine stitching, working in to my pre-created print work and designs, to give them colour and texture.

This did included quite a bit of work onto paper, stitching into paper. The next step is to move it into different materials and fabric tomorrow to experiment further and develop these samples drawings into sampling. 

Tomorrow evening, prepare fabrics, print and stitch. Then machine stitch into them to great a small set of samples.

Friday 22nd May 2015

Today i finally, with one week to go, managed to managed to finish presenting my netted samples in my display file, with a drawing/diagram, the experimental sample and an evaluative annotation which reflects on my work so far and how to take it further throughout the sketchbook. This is such a weight off my shoulders, i feel so much more relaxed right now. Not to say that i don't have a lot to do, but i do feel happier about where i am right now, heading into the last week 

I need to work hard over the next couple of days, before making a finish or more resolved, brought together and informed sample(s) starting Monday. 

My hope is to get the industrial beach focused project finished and resolved by next Friday,but i think that the work based around the decorative architecture, will be a work in progress, along with the continuation of my lesson planning. Post uni i still want to carry on with my textile practice even though i am going into teaching, more as a hobby or a spare time thing. This work will be a starting point for my practice!

Tuesday 19th May 2015

Sorting everything out takes a lot longer than you would realise!!! I have had a busy day today, working  in the morning, then ploughing through presentation of my netted samples in my sketchbook. This took a lot longer than i anticipated, creating a drawing, writing a reflective annotation and tacking all the samples down. As of today i am about half way though, but i am impressed at how it is looking. I will continue to work on this, hopefully finishing it soon, just working on it in the evenings though, so i have enough time to carry on with my other work. I need to get back on that sewing machine and pick up a paintbrush too. I have a lot to do over the next week and a half, but all the hard work will be worth it in the end!!

Monday 18th May 2015

Today i had the whole day to crack on with my work, so yet again i set up the kitchen table into my little stations and worked through creating lots of work. I had anticipated getting a lot done today, with most of the day to myself, but as i am nearing the end of my sampling for the netted project of work, the last few samples took up quite a bit of my time, working with wire and melting. This meant that the majority of the day was spent on those two, which did make me feel a little down hearted, but now to think that sketchbook is nearly finished, and the amount of effort i put into those samples!!!!!!! Tomorrow, i want to try to get as much of the netted sketchbook presented as possible, to get that out of the way before returning to my trusty sewing machine for some more sampling.

Friday 15th May 2015

As usual on a Friday, i went to my local Primary school today to help out in a year 1/2 mixed class. Normally this would mean that I take most of the day out of uni, but now i only have 2 WEEKS until hand in, I wanted to make the most of any spare time I have left.

I still wanted to go in, it gives me a nice change, but I still wanted to work.
It was almost like this day was planned out to match this, as I was in charge, for a great deal of the day of leading a block printing workshop project with small groups of children. I enjoyed this so much! The children first tied up a piece of cotton and dip dyed it in brusho dye, to create a tie dye effect. Whilst this was drying, the children created two stencils to use to do their block printing, one out of polystyrene and the other, like a collagrapgh print, using matches to create a shape. the children then used a rolled to help apply the paint to their stencils before pressing them down onto their now dry dyed piece of cotton. This was amazing fun and we got so much done, definitely a valuable experience which directly relates to this textile project!!!

Over lunch, I had a great quiet opportunity to catch up on this PDP blog and think about how best to focus my efforts, thinking that the sampling i obviously a point which I need to continue working on. In the afternoon the children had some 'activity time' so gave me a chance to have an hour off before going home and cracking on with some more work.

When I got home, after buying some straws to use in my more experimental work, I began some hardcore uni work, working further with my netted sampling. I brought the straws with the intention of beginning to combine these with the netting to add bright colours. I decided to combine them with the wire netting as I thought, they would probably be able to handle the melting process better. I started of by creating a piece of wire-work with straws threaded through, before melting it in the oven. The oven was to hot and the straws near melted off, leaving chunks of plastic behind. Based on this, I then created another piece of wire-work which I woven straws in and out of, all in the same direction. When I melted this one, it worked better, but the straws started to curl at the ends, so I think perhaps the iron may work better. This is in my plan for tomorrow, creating another piece combining the straws and wire and melting by hand with the iron. There will be more control over the heating and melting process in this case.

Thursday 14th May 2015

Today, I had another  day of uni work planned, with hardly any distractions. After my successful day yesterday, I felt ready to tackle my work head and accomplish a lot. 

Again, after yesterday, my plan was to continue with my netted sampling, working through my plan of samples to fill up my A3 wallet file with samples which show a development of ideas throughout the project, building up and experimenting. 

I had fun creating experimental samples which played with wire working and experimenting with knot structures. Instead of using the usual, common knot, I used a square knot to begin creating some samples. I was also able to begin dying some of my string I have been using, in order to transform my samples into more colourful pieces which reflected my bright and bold colour scheming efforts. 

As well as the knotted side of my work, I was also able today, to fix my sewing machine. After being broken for the last few days, i took it apart, gave it a clean and it was up and working again. This meant that I was also able to carry on with my stitched sampling, working through some experimental pattern creation from some earlier drawings of the ceiling at the Tate Modern. I hope to build on this further tomorrow, creating a much larger piece of stitched paper before hoping to translate into fabric. 

By the evening, I was exhausted!! But I carried on a began to start presenting all the samples I have been creating over the last couple of days. These will be accompanied with short annotations which will describe what ii have created, what I have used and how I could experiment further. My hope is that this will show some development of ideas, but also the idea of reflection, embedding it into my work, rather that making it a completely separate thing. 

Ideas for tomorrow...

Complete weave through netting and experiment with the addition of stitch.

Create the netted structure through stitching.

Carry on creating abstract shaping from polystyrene plates.

Presentation of sampling.

This is alongside my day at the primary school 😊 

Wednesday 13th May 2015

A full day of uni work is what I have had today, and it has made me feel so much better about my position leading up to the last two weeks! I managed to achieve so much, even though my sewing machine is still broken, across the board and to make everything better it was a sunny day! 

I took the opportunity today to sit down and go through the samples I have already begun to create in relation to my netting and knotting, and plan out all the samples which I will do next. This contains a list of about 15 more samples, so I am going to be very busy over the next couple of days. I want to make sure that there is a progression, a development throughout the sample range, starting with the simple knotting, moving on to experimenting with materials, combining other textile techniques and adding lot of vibrant colours. These I hope to continue working on over the next couple of days to create a fuller sample book.

I did manage to create a good bunch of these samples today, beginning to bring in different materials and experiment further with the wire working and combinations of techniques. 

I also began creating my sketchbooks which begin to experiment with colour in both of the mini projects, starting off with two larger collages, with images which will influence my colour palette. I think these sketchbooks will contain a lot of photocopying, focusing on colour and pattern experimenting with drawing further, rather than sticking with the same motifs.

Work for tomorrow...

Continue with netted sampling!!