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.

Locating | Unit Evaluation

The Locating Unit is the first in which we were required to produce both a Self-Initiated Brief and a Live Brief. Producing two sets of work along side each other has been really beneficial for me, and I feel I have produced better work because of it. I thought that I would become stressed and find it difficult, however if anything I have been more relaxed.

 I often get frustrated with my work because of seeing it too much or getting temporarily stuck. Sometimes I need to take a break from it or a step back in order to overcome the issues. Having another project to work on at the same time has meant that I haven't had to stop working to take a breather. When one project came to a stand still, I would work on the other until I was ready to resume both. I also think I made less mistakes because I wasn't doing things for the sake of doing something, I had more time to think about what I wanted to do. My time management has always been one of my strongest points, however I feel like having two projects has helped me improve it massively.

One of the things I feel I could have done more of is new techniques. I have developed my skills in Photoshop which is what I stated I wanted to do when I wrote my brief;  the Mirror-effect, Offset Repeat and Image Editing are a few of the things I have experimented with. However, in a way I wish I could have pushed the boundaries a little more and tried something completely new. I will definitely be pushing myself to do this is Unit X.

Nevertheless, when it comes to processes I have greatly benefited from experimenting with stand work. I find it way too easy to just copy and paste a print onto a garment in photoshop. The stand work made me really consider where the print was going and how it would look on a finalised garment. The anatomical feel to the final collection was largely due to the placements of the prints as a result of using a mannequin. I will definitely be repeating this development process in future units.

One of the learning objectives in this unit was to build networks and contacts as a career development resource. I took part in a Threadless competition and also adapted my self initiated work to fit a Bradford Textiles Association brief. As I said above I felt this was beneficial to me in terms of time management and work load.

In addition to the live briefs, I also decided to create profiles on popular social medias to get my work seen by the outside world. This has certainly been a productive and valuable process for me, as the responses have helped me gain confidence in my work. The positive feedback has enabled me to overcome the fear that people won't like my work and that it isn't good enough, as well as giving me the confidence to send my work to companies or designers.

Additionally, the career development objective pushed me to write and design a creative CV that I can send to companies or use to apply for internships and placements online. My aim is to use this to arrange some placements over summer.

Overall during this unit I think I have come out feeling like I know where I belong in the Textile Industry. Through briefly dabbling in interiors I know that fashion is the right direction for me, and I have also cemented the fact that digital printing is where my strengths lie. The self-initiated brief shows me that I am capable of setting myself useful goals and achieving them. Positive feedback from social media and also from Louise Whitaker makes me think I am ready to connect fully with the outside world and start experiencing it myself through internships and placements.

   

Intentions | Unit Evaluation

The Intentions Unit has been a huge eye-opener for me in terms of the purpose of my work. I have taken a lot of time and done a lot of research on where exactly I see my work going. For the first time I have been making decisions based on the research I have done on fashion and have taken inspiration from real designers that are already out there. Making Inspiration, Consumer and Concept boards has really helped me get my head around what I am doing and where it is going. I have made myself much more aware of what I need to be producing to target the right audience, which I hope will benefit me a lot for the rest of this year and Level 6.

I have also tried to link everything together in terms of concept. I often find it easy to get lost and stray from my original ideas into something completely unrelated. I have tried hard to back everything up and link it throughout. Although I did start with windows and stray from that into textures which in the end took over a little, I see that more as development because I became stuck with the windows concept by itself. In terms of linking my work to contextual practice, I think I have tried to find artists/designers/photographers along the way that relate to what I am doing and why I am doing it. However, I definitely could have had a few more just to make it crystal clear where all of my ideas are coming from. I've learned that I need to document this from the start so that I don't get confused trying to place them later.
When I first think about the Unit and the new processes I have tried, I feel like I haven't experimented anywhere near enough. However I then think about the fact that I have really come to terms with which processes and media work for me. I have really dedicated this unit to progressing digitally, and I have realised this is what I enjoy the most and it plays to my strengths. In a way I have learned countless Photoshop processes which I have documented in a technical file, but aren't as obvious to see when just looking at my work. Nonetheless, I feel like I should have taken a lot more risks with my drawings beforehand, as the only overtly new process I tried was paper making. In comparison to Level 4 my drawings are a lot more thought about and considered, rather than drawing for the sake of drawing.

 The one thing I would say I have done the most successfully in this unit is refining and fixing. Although I didn't take as many risks as I would have liked to I certainly made enough mistakes. I kept stepping back and thinking "Ok, what's wrong and how am I going to fix it". Mind mapping helped me a lot along with asking other people for their opinions. I learned that to be able to criticise yourself its important to be able to take criticism from other people and work on it accordingly. Overall, this unit has been a learning curve for me. I can feel myself becoming more prepared for the outside world and understanding what it will want from me. The key process for me has been refining again and again and finding solutions to what needs fixing in order to produce the best possible outcome.

PE Task

 During the sampling unit I believe that other artists and inspiration have played a huge part in the decisions I have made and the outcomes I have created. They helped me choose which directions I wanted to go in and guided my own thoughts on what I want my samples to look like and become.

My first inspiration was Karen Scott. Her main input was her theories on her work. She gave me the idea that data doesn’t have to just be numbers and figures. It can be information that comes from you. It may not be able to be read by everybody but still has as much meaning as a group of numbers. It is the interpretation that is relevant. From this I created my own doodles which relate to my mood at the time. Furthermore, her work is based on circle shaped mandalas that tell a story. Circular shapes have played a huge part in my work either being the main centre of the image or separate circles used to create a more diverse picture.

Beatriz Milhazes has also been a huge inspiration in guiding me towards my final prints. I have taken a lot of aspects from her use of colour to her arrangement of motifs. Although her work appears messy and unorganised, it is in fact quite compositional. From this I have taken composition into account throughout all of my prints. Layering is another key aspect that I have used in my work which is very similar to Milhazes. Overlapping and underlying in an effective way has been something I have had to monitor through the whole unit. Similarly to Karen Scott, she also used circular designs which again I have made use of in my samples.

Finally, in relation to the purpose of my designs I believe they could be used to decorate stationary and papers. This idea came from Paperchase. I have been a fan of Paperchase and their products since I was younger. They appeal to girls of most ages and can range from notebooks and pens to wrapping paper and purses. My designs make use of a variety of colours and in many cases are floral and could be considered as ‘pretty’. These qualities are often found on paperchase products in order to appeal to a wide age range. I think my designs would not be out of place on the front of a notebook and would be widely sellable to the public. I made two practice purses which came out successfully. 

Karen Scott

Beatriz Milhazes

Paperchase

Evaluation of Origins Unit

Origins has been a very interesting unit for me. I feel that I have vastly broadened my capabilities and my understanding of what drawing can be. At the start of the unit, I feel like I was very small-minded and not open to experimenting outside my comfort zones. However, with the tasks we’ve been set throughout I think I have become much more versatile and flexible, which I never saw myself doing.

At first, I found it difficult to incorporate my chance card drawings into my other work because my drawings were so limited. However as the unit went on and I learned to look into what drawing actually is, my drawing became more usable in Embroidery. I have begun to look at objects in various ways rather than just looking at it as a whole. This has really helped me to develop my work and come up with new and stimulating ideas.

I have found that taking one image or idea and working on it a few times gives a better outcome than making several different ideas one by one. By taking these images from my drawings, they have been turned from an object, into a sketch, into stitching on a piece of fabric. Although this final sample may not look like the original object, it has been innovated into something possibly better.

Managing time was a problem for me in the beginning. I found myself rushing to meet the weekly deadlines, which took an effect on the quality of my work. However through the unit I have developed a routine and although I don’t plan my week minute by minute, I am getting things done more comfortably. I am able to work this around a social life without getting stressed out and losing my head. This for me is quite an achievement as I normally leave everything until the last minute. Even though I still have a to-do list a few days before the deadline, I feel my more effective time management has cut this list short.

The Origins unit has made me try new things and change my opinion on what I do and don’t like. Previously I preferred to work on smaller pieces of paper and do detailed drawings. Yet because the drawing Fridays have had me working on no smaller than A3 paper, I now quite enjoy working on a bigger surface and I feel in future I will choose this myself without having to be told.

Overall, this unit has given me the skills to challenge my own preconceptions of an object, and experiment with different techniques that I may have never even considered before. Although I feel I have definitely grown a lot as a textile artist, there are still many things I have yet to try, but from now on I will take this head on rather than being closed-minded.