Assignment 1 - Tutor Feedback

I have to admit I did not realise how worried I was about receiving feedback on my first assignment until I received back my work and my tutor's comments.  I therefore started to read the comments with some trepidation but I am very pleased with the feedback I have received and now feel more sure of how to progress especially with presentation and how much work is expected.  I now feel more comfortable working outside the set exercises.

Points to work on from the feedback are:-

• Identify and note in my blog textile designers work that can help develop my own work.
• My tutor suggested books that could possibly inspire my sketchbook work.  I am seeking out these books and others that are similar to help me in my sketchbook work.

My tutor gave me some pointers for the next assignment and these are very helpful as once again as I had started the assignment the worry set in as to how much to do and was I interpreting the instructions correctly.  I know now that it is ok to work outside the set boundaries and to do things my own way.  I have to get the confidence to just continue to give it a go.  Am enjoying Assignment 2 already.

Sketchbook

I am continuing to work in my sketchbook.  I do try to do a few minutes a day but have not always found this possible.  It was difficult during the first few weeks of the course to get into a properly organised system of working.  This was very frustrating as I am normally a very organised person. However, I think as the weeks go on and I start to find my way I will get into a system that suits me.

Some more pages from my sketchbook.  I am trying to work in my book daily but all the best laid plans...  Of course life can get in the way and unfortunately we have had a terrible flood in the house and many rooms and furnishings have been damaged.  My workroom being one of them.  I am working out of packing cases but on the bright side I cannot do much else so hoping to get more course work done after the initial tidy up and the invasion of builders, decorators and carpet fitters.  If nothing else it will encourage me to work with what I can get my hands on easily!

In the feedback from my tutor on Assignment 1 were a few book suggestions to possibly help inspire my sketchbook work.  I have found a couple of the books and looking through them I see that I could experiment more with my art work and colour my pages more especially to carry it through to textile work.  I think I will start to use an A5 sketchbook alongside this A4 one and see how my work progresses in that size book.  I am flitting about a bit with regard to inspiration at the moment and am drawing a different subject each day.  I haven't settled on one particular theme yet but I thik this is a good thing for me at the moment and I am enjoying seeing a subject properly rather than just looking.

Assignment one - Reflection

Textiles 1 – A Creative Approach

Assignment one

Reflection

I am by nature a very organised person so that when I started this course I was sure that I would be organised in my way of working and time keeping.  I became confused as to what is expected of me, how much work I am to produce and how I am to keep a record of my work.  I was to keep a sketchbook, a learning log/blog and a theme book.  I decided to use an A4 sketchbook on a daily basis, to carry an A6 sketchbook in my bag so that I could jot down/draw when out and about or for visiting exhibitions and shows and that I would have an A4 book to use for my learning log.  After much debating I decided to keep a learning blog http://janstextilelearningblog.blogspot.co.uk/  along with sketchbooks and a notebook.  I will also keep my stitched samples in a book.

At the beginning of the mark making exercises I did not want ‘to get it wrong’.  I was quite tentative mostly because I was not sure how I should organise and record my samples.  I am pleased with the work I have done.  The exercises enabled me to relax into drawing and start to think about how they could be taken into stitch.  Although I was using different media I noticed that I began to use the water soluble materials more.  I found these easy to use and loved the way the colours mixed. I feel that I am now beginning to look for pattern and texture everywhere I go.  I realise that I must make working in a sketchbook a daily exercise and that the subject matter can be anything. 

I have always loved hand stitching and enjoyed this part of the course very much.  I began my first samples on plain fabric and quickly made the decision to colour my own fabric for the remainder of my samples.  I felt I worked much better from my drawings by colouring the fabrics and building up the texture with the stitch.  I would do a couple of my samples differently.  I feel the first sample of running stitch and backstitch could have been more organised and the sample I did of a picture of the fields that was in my sketchbook I think could have been worked differently.  I think it was too much of a straightforward interpretation of my drawing.

I feel I experimented enough within the time I had.  I would have liked to do some machine stitched samples and hope to go back and use the exercises to do this at a later date. 

On completing the exercises and projects in Part one I realise the need for experimentation and sampling.

Exhibitions, Art Galleries and Museums

Lady Lever Art Gallery

Earlier this month I visited the Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight.  Until January 2015 there is an exhibition of some of the costumes from the ITV television programme Downton Abbey.

The exhibition consists of dresses and outfits worn during a few of the programme series.  The costumes are in small rooms on the ground floor of the museum and each room has no more than half a dozen outfits in each.  The rooms are very well lit and it is possible to stand quite close to each exhibit in order to study and photograph each one.  There are clear details next to each dress outlining when and where it was made, which series it was worn in and a brief outline of the episode.

I found all the costumes fascinating and the beadwork and embroidery exquisite.  Two dresses that particularly caught my eye were evening dresses.

The red dress below is an evening gown made of silk and silk chiffon with applied silk motifs.  It was worn in season two of Downtown Abbey which was set between 1916 and 1919. The dress is a mix of old fabrics and new fabrics.  I like the embroidered applied motifs on the vest of this dress.

The dress below is a shift style evening dress, silk underdress with a net overdress that is embellished with coloured sequins and glass beading.  The dress was made early 1920.  It is very fragile due to the weight of the beading and was reinforced by hand sewing new net onto the old net t make the dress wearable.  It was worn during a Christmas Special of Downton Abbey.

The detail of the beading on this dress is exquisite.  

Steampunk Exhibition
Greenwich Observatory

I recently visited my daughter who is living in Greenwich.  We went to look at Greenwich Observatory and quite by chance there was an exhibition by steampunk artists. The artists theme was to reinvent the quest to find longtitude at sea and the pieces of work exhibited were interesting and fun. They ranged from pieces of equipment made from all sorts of machinery to textile pieces.

The exhibition was held in Flamsteed House, one of the original buildings at Greenwich Observatory.  There was at least one exhibit in each room. The lighting was good and I was able to get close enough to each one to look closely.  Each exhibit had an explanation as to who made it and what their inspiration was.  In the final room the exhibits were in glass cases making photography slightly more difficult because of the light reflecting off the glass. However the items were still quite easy to be able to study closely.

I haven't looked at steampunk before and went into this exhibition not expecting to like it but I found it to be fun and quite a few of the exhibits caught my eye because they included fabric and embroidery.  My favourite piece was a small hat.  Lots of things attracted me to this piece - the colour, it is small so appeared delicate although it looked robustly made and most of all I liked the embroidery on it.  It is made from satin Dupion and the thread is black polyester.  It is called the Hidden Astrolabe by Trevor Wilson. 

 

 

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow

 

Whilst in Glasgow I was able to visit the Kelvingrove  Art Gallery and Museum.  This museum was built by the City of Glasgow to house the collections owned by them.  An International Exhibition was held in Kelvingrove Park in 1888 to raise funds to build the museum.  Kelvingrove is a victorian museum and the building is typical of that period. 

 

There are many different galleries ranging from Scottish Art to Creatures of the Past.  The gallery I most wanted to see was the Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style.  In this gallery were many pieces designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret.  My favourites were the gesso panel called OY, All Ye, That Walk in Willowood by Margaret Mackintosh.  This is made of painted gesso plaster on hessian with glass beads set in.  The title and subject were taken from the sonnets by Pre-Raphaelite poet Dante Gabriet Rossetti.  The panel is 1645mm by 585mm.  I particularly liked this as overall it is strong in appearance but there was a lot of delicate detail in it and I could pick out individual areas that appealed to me.  The panel captured the ghostly apparition of a bereaved man's loved one.  It focuses on the apparitions with a hint of the man in the background.

 

 

The Wassail is a panel by Charles Rennie Mackintosh that was made for the Ladies' Luncheon Room, Ingram Street Tearooms, Glasgow. The panel is made from gesso on hessian scrim, twine, glass beads, thread, mother-of-pearl and tin leaf.  The panels were hung quite high in the tearooms and were hung high up in the Museum therefore I wasn't able to get a close view of the techniques used.  The panel had to be viewed from quite an awkward angle, quite close but looking up and therefore seen from a sharp angle with much craning of the neck!  It was a little disappointing not to be able to step back to view it but lovely all the same.

 

There were not many costumes and textiles in the museum. What there was were exhibited behind glass but very well lit enabling fine detail to be seen.  There was an embroidered muslin dress 1806-1810 with a blue silk pelisse from 1825.  The pelisse was a fashion from France. It was an outer garment that covered the garments underneath that were made from very fine light fabric. The dress was made from fine cotton muslin with tiny white embroidered flowers embroidered all over it.  Fine cotton muslin was an important industry in the west of Scotland.  I liked the style of the sleeve on the pelisse.

 

 

Thinking back on my visit to Kelvingrove Museum I feel I have moved on a step in observing.  I feel less self-concious than I have done before about working in a sketchbook in public making notes and doing quick sketches.  I am beginning to feel much more comfortable visiting museums and art galleries.  I have started to look more closely taking my time and asking myelf more questions about a piece rather than looking but not seeing properly.  I am starting to think about who made a piece of work and how, what with and the circumstances in which they did this.  I can see how by studying a piece of art it can lead to many questions which can then lead into other avenues.  I am beginning to wish for a lot more hours in the day!

 

I have to menton a treat that added to the enjoyment of my day at Kelvingrove.  High on a balcony in the entrance hall is an organ that was built in 1901 for the Glasgow International Exhibition.  It has undergone restoration twice.  Organ recitals are an important part of Kelvingrove and there are free recitals daily given by one of a team of 60 organists.  I thoroughly enjoyed sitting and listening to classical tunes, to 'a teddy bears' picnic' and to a fabulous tango whilst taking in the fantastic architecture and atmosphere of the lovely entrance hall.

 

 

Project 2 - Developing Your Marks

I was really excited about getting to this part of the course.  I love hand and machine stitching.

I decided to stick to hand stitching for doing the samples but if I have time I will do some machine stitched samples from some of my mark making examples.

Again, I did a lot of deliberating instead of getting on with it. Once I started though it was a very enjoyable exercise and good to get back to basics and see what different stitches and threads can do.

Can you begin to see the relationship between stitching and drawing?

Yes I can.  Threads and yarns can be manipulated by stitch easily onto a background to echo the marks made by pencils, crayons or paints. Textures can be built up with stitch as one can build up a texture by using different painting media.

Were you able to choose stitches which expressed the marks and lines of your drawings?

I began by choosing running stitch and backstitch on plain fabrics. A lot of the marks and lines I had made were able to be interpreted by these stitches.

Did you choose the right source material to work from?

At first I found it difficult to choose drawings and a stitch.  I decided to gather together different threads and yarns within a red colour scheme.  This made it easier for me to decide.  I worked from my pencil marks. 

Do you think your sample works well irrespective of the drawing?  Or is your sample merely a good interpretation of your drawing?

I find these two questions quite difficult to answer.  I was pleased with my sample and thought it had worked well.  However, when asked is it merely a good interpretation of my drawing looking at the sample again I have to say I think it is merely a good interpretation of my drawing.  I think this is possibly because of the way I have coloured the background.  I painted bondaweb and when dry fused it to the cotton fabric.  It is very much like the pieces I did in my sketchbook in watersoluble crayons and tissue paper.

Which do you prefer - working with stitch to create textures or working with yarns to make textures?  Which worked best for you and why?

I think the two go very much together.  I love to stitch also getting a lot of pleasure from choosing the yarns to do the stitch with.  It is lovely when using a yarn that at first sight is not suitable to do the chosen stitch with and unexpectedly you get a lovely texture appearing.

The sample on the below was done in raised chainband so that I could get a very textured look.  The drawing I took it from is one I did from a picture of tree bark.  I decided to do the stitched sample in a different colour to the drawing because I chose the threads and yarns to go with the background fabric I was using.  I have found that I prefer not to work on plain fabric and had coloured a piece of calico with fabric dyes and let the colours merge together. 

I feel I experimented enough within the time I had.  Hand stitching can of course take quite a lot of time to do.  I like this as it gives me time to think about how the piece of work is developing and what I could do next.  I didn't feel inhibited when working the samples as I had made the decision at the beginning of the exercise to work in the way I liked, for example colouring the background fabric.

I have decided to keep my samples on separate sheets of card and will make a book that I can add them to.

Do you prefer to work from a drawing or by playing with materials and yarns to create effects? 

 

I seem to have answered this question in the one above.  I do like playing with materials to create different textures but I would like to develop so that I look more to my drawing for design and then sampling from that.  I suppose a nice balance would be the way to go.

I have done machine embroidery before but would have liked to have done some samples.  I hope to go back and do some to add to my sample book at a later date.  Although I am happy with the samples I have done I think I would do the first samples (running and backstitch) in a more organised way. 



 

Part 1 Project 1 Making Marks

 

It is quite some time since I did any marking making like this.  At first I realised I was very tense about doing the exercise.  I got myself thinking too deeply as to how I should organise and present the drawings instead of just doing it.  After I had completed a couple of sheets I felt I was becoming more relaxed and really started to enjoy playing with the different media I had collected together.
It really was just a question of me getting down to it!

Have you ever thought about drawing in this way before?

I did City & Guilds Embroidery which I completed in 1999.  I had done mark making in this way during that course but had not done drawing like this since then.

Were you able to be inventive about the range of marks you made?

I was quite apprehensive at the start of these exercises and had a strong desire 'not to do it wrong'.  I think I became more inventive with the range of marks I made as I did more.  I felt quite rigid in my work at first and tended to stick to using media with which I was familiar and felt comfortable with such as watersoluble pencils and crayons.  As time went on I started to look for different media and this in turn helped me to try different techniques such as resits and collage.

Did you explore a wide range of media?

I feel I have explored a wide range of media and think the possibilities are endless.  I think I would like to explore resists more.

Are you pleased with what you have done?  Will it help you to approach drawing more confidently?

I am pleased with what I have done.  I was apprehensive at the beginning of the exercises and I can see from my first pages of mark making that I was timid in my approach to the work.  On looking through the exercises I have done I am pleased that I have obviously relaxed and I can honestly say it was a pleasure each time I started working.

Which exercise did you most enjoy?  Why?

I particularly enjoyed Exercise 1 in Stage 3 'Using marks to create surface textures'.  I liked working from a visual source rather than just making marks out of my head.  During this exercise I found it easier to utilise different media to represent the texture of the image.

Which media did you most enoy working with?  Why?

I like working with watersoluble media.  I found I kept turning to Inktense pencils and Kohi-noor dyes.  I like the way they can be made to look quite vibrant but can be mixed to look muted and work well with many other media such as wax.  This gave a lovely textured look.  I like using them on torn paper that has been applied to a backgound paper  I especially like torn watercolour paper as this has a visible grain and gives a good texture.

What other forms of mark making could you try?

I could try more printing using found objects and objects from around the home.  I would also like to experiment with resists.

How will these exercises enrich your textile work in the future?

These exercises have helped me to relax into my drawing again and to really look and not just see something.  It has started to give me confidence to try samples and not to be bothered or frustrated if they do not work.  The exercises have enabled me to see texture as well as pattern.  Using different media to do mark making will help me to take any ideas I have through to stitch and to manipulate fabric as a background.  It has helped me to understand the need for experimentation and sampling.

A Creative Approach

Welcome to my learning blog. I will be keeping this blog as a work towards a BA (Hons)Textile Degree with the Open College of the Arts. 

The first course I am taking is A Creative Approach.  Here I will be blogging my progress through the course along with anything of interest and inspiration to me. 

It was after much deliberation that I decided to keep my learning log as a learning blog and hope that you will enjoy following my blog as I take this exciting journey.

By doing this course I am hoping that it will:-

• Help structure the way I work.
• Broaden my experience towards designing textiles.
• Help me to make working in a sketchbook become part of my daily life.
• Give me the confidence to develop designing using a variety of techniques and media.
• Broaden my knowledge and interest in artists and textile artists.