Project Evaluation

Uni X has given me the opportunity to develop ideas from the Practice unit further in order to create a professional standard body of work for my portfolio. I have used advanced techniques on the jacquard and challenged myself on the dobby loom to produce collections of samples that reflect my visual journey. 

I have worked closely with Scotweave in order to create patterns and I have realised that this is a successful way of working for me. I enjoy the technical aspect of the programming and through out final year have gained a better knowledge of the programme and what can be achieved by using it. I am able to understand woven fabrics and their construction better which has helped me to achieve patterning myself. 

Having visited high-end boutiques on Savile Row, I have a greater knowledge of the Menswear market. Although my context hasn't changed from the Practice unit, I am more aware of the quality and finishings found in the market. This is something I have concentrated on achieving in Unit X by using silk and merino wool. Having done a vast amount of yarn research, I have a good file of yarn suppliers that I can use in the future. 

Presenting to peers and established companies in Unit X has really benefited the way I speak about my work. Having to explain ideas, developments and contexts in short periods of time has helped me to pinpoint turning points in my projects and I think this will help me when presenting my portfolio in the future. 

For the degree show, I would like to present my samples in a way that reflects my context, themes and ideas with the possibility of having a printed prototype mens jacket to accompany my samples. Innovative business cards will help to promote my work and gain a wide audience. 

I'd like my portfolio to be a working folder that I can keeping adding to in order to keep it current and fresh. I am looking forward to my placement with Dash & Miller, but I aim to gain more placements in order to broaden my knowledge and skills and to keep weaving! 

Degree Show Ideas

Presentation

As my work is mainly sample based, I would like to have a selection of samples hung or mounted in a way that represents my context. Francesca Colussi has hung her work from yarn covered blocks in order to mimic yarn wrappings, which are mounted on the wall. I think this adds weight to the top of the samples, making them look light weight and elegant. 

                                                        

                                                     1. Francesca Colussi

Another idea is to hang my samples on smart clothes hangers and have them hanging on a clothes rail in order to portray hanging suits with the finished mens jacket on a tailors dummy. I'd like my show to feel like you've stepped in to a high end boutique, similar to the boutiques on Savile Row. A minimalistic display with an urban atmosphere. 

Promotion

I will add images of my work and a statement to the Manchester School of Art website in order to promote my work and to get my work online. I think it is important to have an online presence, and I think a website is something I will build after the degree show. Adding my work to Behance and Artsthread will gain an online audience and LinkedIn will be a good platform to promote my work. Inviting established weave designers will be another good form of promotion, so I will send invitations to Dash & Miller and Dashing Tweeds. This also keeps me in touch with the companies and keeps them up to date with my work.

I will create business cards to readily give people my contact details. I would like them to instantly portray who I am and what my work is about. I think Wearhouse have really interesting business cards due to the approriate type face and the use of small wrappings of yarn to give a tactile feel and I think the way I promote my work would benefit from having a tactile element. 

                                               2. Wearhouse

Interruptions

Having looked more closely at my initial photographs, I noticed the raised dots on the metal beams which created small detail on a huge structure. They feel like interruptions in the metal work and I wanted to move away from the diamonds and chevrons in order to try and represent small circular interruptions in my samples. 

Working closely with Scotweave, I created a pattern as close to a circle as possible to weave over 30 ends. I think this gives my body of work depth and variety as although at first the shape was more oval, with testing and sampling I was able to create a circle that stood out from the vertical stripes of the warp just like the dots on the metal beams.

If I had more time, I would have liked to have developed this idea further on the jacquard in order to create a fabric that included several ideas from samples on the dobby as a culmination of this warp. 

Drawing. Colour. Pattern

The architectural photographs have influenced my pattern work. I have used the structural elements as well as the space in between to pull out shapes and begin to develop in to weave structures. I feel this has given me material in which to work and expand on to create intricate, yet bold patterns as my photographs and drawings suggest.  

Maija Louekari uses vibrant colour combinations and expressive motifs in her illustrations for print. Her work depicts the modernist mayhem of the urban centre and I feel my work relates to the statement below.

"Cities inspire me with their energy, the people, buildings, environments and phenomena." (Louekari, 2009:238)

 Her illustrations capture architectural elements but the freehand lines bring a softer element in to the sharp, jagged shapes. I have taken this approach and developed a range of drawings using free hand outlines, adding my colour palette on photoshop. I feel this helped me see patterns in a more abstract way than my pencil drawings and it let me explore colour proportion in a more experimental way.

Chanel and Missoni have also influenced my work. The bold, oversized patterns from Channel and the combinations of patterns with vibrant colours from Missoni are elements that I would like to use in my samples. Researching in to Mens knitwear has shown me how established designers combine these elements successfully to produce stunning garments. I think I will need to consider proportion of pattern and colour carefully as one or the other could dominate, giving an unbalanced sample.

Louekari, M. (2009) Textile Designers at the Cutting Edge. London. Laurence King Publishing Ltd.

1. Louekari, M. (2004) Vapaa Pudotus. [Online Image] [Accessed on 21st May 2014] <http://www.maijalouekari.com/textile.php>

2. Chanel. (2013) Singapore. [Online Image] [Accessed on 21st May 2014]

<http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/2014RST-CHANEL/>

3. Missoni. (2012) Spring/Summer 2011. [Online Image] [Accessed on 21st May 2014] 

<http://www.knitting-bee.com/knitting-news/knitting-in-fashion>

Colour Palette Development

In order to move my sampling and development work forwards, I looked at a collection of images I took at Salford Quays, focussing on the colour of the architecture affected by the sun setting as well as the structural elements. I feel the bright, vibrant colours lead on well from my previous colour palette featuring similar shades and brights. This will create a new collection of contemporary samples, featuring elements, ideas and themes from my previous warp. I want to continue creating fabrics with a sense of energy and vibrancy, creating atmosphere, based on urban landscape for the menswear market.

I will work with merino wool again as I think it created a soft luxurious fabric suitable for my intended context. With this warp, I would like to develop the patterning I started with the first warp I produced at the beginning of Unit X. In order to make these samples a culmination of Unit X work, I have decided to do a stripy warp with a brocade. Using a brocade will lift the overall appeal of the fabric, giving further visual interest and more patterning opportunities. I had intended to use silk again for the brocade for its bright, shiny qualities and overall finish, but the fluorescent orange I tried to dye came out as a dark peach shade. In order to save time and money, I decided to use a bright orange viscose embroidery yarn, as I felt the strength of colour was more important than the type of yarn itself. 

Digital Print

Having thought about collaborating with a fashion designer towards the end of the practice unit, I felt this was a good time to combine my own skills with the skills of others to produce a garment that represents my context for the degree show. I feel lucky to have a family friend who is a tailor, showing that making contacts is very important, and the collaboration should be off a high standard and quality. 

Trying to have a large piece of my fabric woven would cost too much money and time due to the detailed pattern and complicated colour and threading, therefore I have decided to digitally print my fabric in order to represent a woven cloth for a smaller price. Although it is quite late on in the year to experiment with a new media, I think it will portray my intended outcome and context well, as it is to be printed on a thick cotton. 

In order to put my fabric in to repeat I had to scan in different sections and piece it together on Photoshop, although this proved difficult as the stripes on the fabric itself were not quite straight, meaning the repeat didn't fit together. This is the downfall of hand weaving over digital, as more mistakes can be made. In this case, the beating of the yarn was not equal across the fabric, which I think is something I need to take more care of with my next samples. 

Having looked at the samples from Dashing Tweeds, I have a better idea of the size of checks that are in the current menswear market. I thought there may have been a set size, but from measuring a selection of samples, it showed that the smaller the pattern the smaller the check. I decided on an 8cm x 8cm sized check as this would show more pattern when tailored and makes the printed fabric different to the original woven sample.

I sampled my pattern 6 times, changing the hue, saturation, levels, brightness and contrast on each to see how they would appear when digitally printed as the original scan was quite dark. The test pieces helped me to decide on colour and although I thought the colours on the original scanned image would come out very dark, it happened to make the brighter colours appear brighter with the dark colours complimenting this. 

The Jacquard

For this session on the jacquard I wanted to produce quite a graphic sample that would contrast with my checked warp, but also fit in the collection by keeping the colour palette constant. I took the shapes created by light from my photographs and made printing blocks with foam in order to experiment with the repeat pattern of shape and to try colour proportion.

I created an image with the intention of including 2 extra weft colours, but after adding the patterns in on Scotweave, it showed that they overlapped, creating sections of the fabric that would be more elongated than others due to the number of weft colours for that particular section. In order to overcome this, I edited my image and simplified it by only incorporating 1 extra weft colour and this made weaving the image much simpler. 

The pattern elongated due to the extra weft, but next time I will reduce the height of the image, so the extra wefts bring the pattern to the correct size, although this may take some sampling to get right. I would like to try using 2 or more extra wefts in order to gain more colour changes across the fabric, and I think a smaller pattern would show this off even more.

The top sample is the original over complicated design, with the simplified design underneath.

I feel I have a better understanding of how to use Scotweave effectively for the jacquard having had to change my image multiple times, and I can see how the jacquard is used to a greater potential in industry.