Practice Unit Evaluation

The Practice Unit for me has been very eye opening in terms of what I aim to achieve. Since the start of second year I began focusing on digital print and really forgot how much I love screen printing. Half way through this unit I decided to create a whole screen print collection from imagery I was already developing. Although this was a challenge for me I really wanted to do it and I believe this is why it was successful. I made the most of my time in the print room by prepping everything before hand; pigments, stencils, fabrics etc. This allowed me to have more time to experiment and create effective prints. In the future I won't be as quick to jump straight to digital printing, and I would really love to try the combination of both again and make it work.

I feel as though I came to quite a few stand stills with this project, and had to try a few things before finding a way forward including changing colours, deciding to incorporate screen print and developing drawings and photographs. Although not all of these took me forward each time, I definitely see this as a learning curve because I can now recognize what works for me and what might not. I also contemplated changing my concept or starting completely new drawings at a few points, however I kept reworking what I already had and trying new things. I am now happy with my outcomes and I am glad that I stuck to it and didn't disregard the work I had.

I would have liked to have done some more contextual research during this unit. I have taken inspiration from artists and while designing and from designers while shaping garments, however I feel I may have focused too much on particular inspirations rather than broadening what I am looking at. In past units I have definitely had more influences to back up my decisions which makes me regret not doing more research this time. Regardless of this, I don't think my time has been wasted but has more been occupied doing other things which hopefully will have benefited me in other ways.

One thing I wish I had done during this unit is to be more outward facing. Although I did the Braford and Michael Kidner brief's, I wish I had gone and sourced my own to participate in. I have carried on networking through my textile instagram account and also made decisions based on enhancing my portfolio, however I haven't contacted any companies or applied for internships. One of my goals for Unit X is to really get myself out there and apply for placements and enter competitions. I now feel like I am ready to do this with the back up of my second and third year work.

I haven't yet made a concrete decision on what I would like to do in Unit X, I may take elements of the Practice Unit and develop them, for example I could develop my screen prints and use them to make basic garments. Overall I believe that the Practice Unit has benefitted me in more ways than one, and although not everything has gone right or to plan the lesson in this has been finding a way around an issue.