Evaluation.

When looking back at where my work started to how my final samples came out you can hardly see a relationship but when I look back through my work as whole I can see a strong path of where my work has gone. At the beginning I felt I didn't know what way I was going which did panic me. But what it allowed me to do was have a back log of images to work from when trying to create a concept. I didn't restrict my self with what I was drawing the way I was drawing and the media I was using, I allowed my self to be as free as I could. I went to several archive visit's which I also did many drawings from the photos that's I took there. From the drawings I then went on to develop those further I became stuck for new ways to create images so I began photocopying some of my old drawings and using the photo copies to create paper to collage with. It was through this I really found my feet and went full steam ahead into my work. I soon found myself always relating back to key images that I did from the beginning which is where I soon found my concept for this work. I wanted to take on the idea of old traditional patterns like the works of William Morris for instant and create a new modernized version with brighter colours and a more abstract design. I thought about where I could see my work going and what it could be for because my main inspiration came from William Morris I wanted to look at the idea it being for interior design. near the end of my project I created some images of what in interior design it could be for, I created a couple sample that I would want to have as a trimming of a lamp shade and i think that this is where I could see my work going as a collection of bespoke lampshades. I don't think my work would appeal to everyone but I could see it sitting nicely in a modern shabby chic sort of home with lots of nick nacks and trinkets. I think the old hand made feel would appeal to them and the vintage with a twist designs. I pushed myself within this project to try out things I hadn't done before like learning the ethos and using the embellish I combined the new techniques I learned with ones I have always used like hand and machine embroidery. When sampling I had a few things that I felt didn't quite work my first embelished sample I didn't like it had thick black outlines and I felt it looked basic but I learned from this and went on to just using the embellisher to create backgrounds for other samples. If I had the chance I would have loved to have taken this further and created some lampshade using the samples I am proud of the work that I have developed through out this whole process.

Transforming drawings to samples.

Looking at my drawings as a whole i realized I felt my strengths were in my collages and I needed to be able to transfer this into my samples. I didn't want my samples to be completely alike my drawings I want to be able to just carry on with my thought process through samples as well as my drawings so that it all flowed continuously. I don't want to see a stop point, with this in mind I picked out the key features that I wanted to carry out through out my work 1. colour pallete 2. patterns 3. layering. These are the features that links my work together but I don't want it all to look the same I want to always be creating something new with different ideas. I think the two images below show what it is that I'm trying to explain.

Both these samples share something else in common I'm not happy with either of these samples. They both have very harsh lines on them with the pink and the black. The black looks like an outline which I dis like. But I also I want them to look more defined than these they're to raw and have a rushed feel.  

Taking my work further .

I often struggle with my drawings to come up with new ideas but I came up with the idea in this project when I got stuck I would go back through my work look at what I liked and develop on from that. From doing this I kept coming up with more and more interesting and even different ways too draw. Sometimes it would lead to a dead end but that's okay as well it just means I feel I have either taken it as far as I can or I simply just don't like the way its going. 

As you can see here I just kept working on it more and more then taking it into a sampled piece. 

Concept.

After visiting several archives and creating several drawings I am beginning to see where I want my work to go. I created drawings from the things that I saw at the archives I always drawn to vivid patterns, floral items and baroque (esk) styles. I then wanted to be able to combine all these factors and create my own style so I began creating collages from the drawings that I had done. I wanted to have a very layered feeling to my work with depth. I wanted my work to have all these vintage patterns that you often see with in the textile industry but add a modern twist too them by combining them all together. I took inspiration from a lot of old patterns from former student at MMU which I found in the library special collections and from artists such as William Morris. I want to take the idea of old traditional patterns and bring them into this day and age to make them modern.

Inspiration ( William Morris )

After visiting a few of the archives I really took to the work of William Morris with his floral prints and very particular style. His work links in well with the work that I produced over the summer as with out me even knowing a lot of my work was very organic with a strong influence from nature and wildlife etc. The special collections archive in the MMU library had a collection of wallpaper samples by William Morris that he would have used going door to door showing people his work and selling roles of his bespoke wallpapers. I find his work very visually pleasing I wanted to take on the fact that its very representative of what it is rather than being abstract which is similar in the way in which I work. On the other hand his work is very dated with the colours used and even the designs I wanted to his work as a strong inspiration for my own but bringing it into the present day. 

Fine cell work.

Fine Cell work. 

Fine cell work is a company set up to give in mates within prison the opportunity to learn a skill and to master that skill. Lady Anne who set up the organisation thought that needle point would be a good skill for the women in prisons to learn as she was always told by her mother in law that needle work had a very therapeutic quality and that was something that she wanted to pass on. Fine cell work allows the women to create bespoke pieces and for them to earn money from them I found their work through looking up luxury home items it was mainly the cushions that caught my attention. A lot of the designs are ones from very well known textile and interior designers what I like about it is knowing the fact that hand embroidery isn't a dying craft. Now we have all these machines that we programme to do our work for us, but I don't get quite the same satisfaction from it as when I do my hand embroidery. It was Fine cell work that reminded me of this and although I'm glad I know how to use machines like the ethos I want to go back to what I know and what I enjoy so I can master it as well. I have picked out the designs below as I thought the colours and the designs I think relate to the work that I'm doing right now.

   

Learning new things.

I made sure that I was pushing myself to take risks and learn skills that I hadn't used before the first thing that I learnt was using the ethos machine. You out designs into a special computer you scan images in and copy around them the machine is limited to the stitches that it can do it can only do three stitches a satin stitch, running stitch and fill stitch. I was able to stitch out two designs the first one was more of a practice one rather than a full design but my second one came out very well and was very pleased with the way it came out. 

Another new methood which I learned was to use the embelisher a very simple machine which simply pulls at the threads of the fabrics you can deconstruct and make material look work and you felt two pieces together. Below is a image where it worked really well I embelished a small section to create another surface to create a collage look. 

Begining to sample

My first sample that I did by hand looking at one of my large collage drawings I looked at the brush strokes mainly that I had used. The thickness of the black outline and then the different tones of colour in the brush strokes within the drawing. Although I feel its a very simple sample just using hand embroidery and some simple applique I really like it. But I can see where I can take this sample further.

The next sample that I did I looked at a different drawing and observed that different pencil marks that I had made zooming in onto a specific area and just observing a little area. I created the second one using machine and hand techniques. After I had finished this one the zig zag cross hatch could have been done with some wadding underneath and then it can quilt it and add some texture to it. I want to parts of these and use them on other samples in the future also I have brought in the bright pink colour that I had planned to so that's something i need to think about in the future,  

Developing Drawings.

I started to look at my drawings and think where I could take them next I began to photo copy some of my drawings and turn then into collages by layering them on top of one another and then working from that. When I went to photo copy them something strange happened when i copied the drawings that I had done using goache paint they changed colour. 

The original image that I painted was all blue and I left the the design so I was painting the actual background but when I photo copied it I came out bright pink! First of all I thought It was vile but i decided that I was going to use it in my work because I have to pay for my photo copies. I was surprised how much I liked it when I started to work with it.  I call things like this happy mistakes, what I liked about this as well is it was something that I had no control over it just happened and for a good reason. 

I combined two studies that I did of William Morris's wallpaper from the special collection archive I used the same colour that I used for the background on the original drawing of the one that turned pink. I really want to make more collages like this and develop my work further perhaps bringing even more than two images into one drawing. This drawing is very relevant as it's what I'm going to base the reset of my drawings on this colour pallet. I really like contrast of the blue on the pink. 

Inspiration / context

I came across the work of Rachel Reynold through searching online other interior textile artists I hadn't thought of where my work was heading up until this point. But recently I have found myself looking into interior design more and more I'm not entirely sure just yet where my work would fall within this area but consciously researching interior textile artist. I can see my work making a very bold impact within someones home. Through this research I came across the work of Rachel Reynold online shes a print specialist and combines her illustrate drawings into her work. She produces fabrics , wallpapers and light shades I really like her work it's something that I would defiantly want in my own home, It's really inspired me more to look more into where my work for this assignment could be used in interior design. 

Although my work isn't print based its the actual visual appearance of her work that caught my eye its very abstract combined with very vivid prints. The seconde image reminds me of deformed tree brachnes reaching around the light shade. These two images have given me the idea that I can turn some of my larger drawings into smaller repetitive patterns that I can then over lay on top with other images.