Tutorial: Anna Lewis

Anna Lewis gave me some interesting suggestions in my tutorial. With my problem using woven materials and that they are fraying she told me that when using synthetic fabrics if I were to cut them on the laser cutter the heat would melt the plastic content and seal the edges. This is another process for me to try.  

She gave me a list of suppliers of materials for which I should look at. Also recommending that I could look at Tyvek as a material, apparently it’s a mix between plastic and paper where it will have the qualities of paper but does not tear and can be stitched, folded, cut and dyed. She was insistent on me trying leather and helpful with with how I should handle the leather and the types of needles I would need to sew into leather and that I possibly need thinner leather to create a crisp fold.

Formative

Today I had my formative assessment on my current project. We discussed that I need to strongly progress with sampling. For my sampling I need to consider a range of materials. So far I've found problems looking at regular woven materials. As I want to use strips of fabric using ways of fixing the edges through over locking or folding will make it look poor and scruffy. It was suggested to me to use ribbon like materials where the edges of the woven material are woven within the sides. However I think ribbon like materials that I've seen looks a bit tacky and unappealing. I need to find a non-woven fabric meaning there is no weft for it to fray. I've been considering materials like leather and pvc. After talking to the textile tutors and doing some exploring it would be better to work in a plastic material. I can try a range of different plastic materials. I've struggled to find any decent suppliers online for pvc. It has been recommended to look at a shop in London. This shop is said to have a bigger range of plastic materials and are of a high fashion quality. To explore these types of fabrics I would have to make a special trip to London to go to the shop to purchase plastic materials for me to use.

Tutorial: Lisa Porch

I had a tutorial with Lisa Porch, we began by looking at my artist research. She was able to distinguish between my choices of folded forms and strips of shape. We discussed the progression of samples that I could take with my project. By looking at my artist research we brainstormed some ideas for samples to make. We focused on samples that involved using strips of patterns and combining them into a finished piece. I'm going to look at fabric manipulation books and see how they can transform strips into shapes and form. I’m going to look at Ruth Singer's fabric manipulation book focuses on ribbon folding. I will return to Paul Jackson’s folding techniques for paper and enquire how I can translate these techniques into a fabric like material. We briefly discussed materials as I was unsure about how to handle leather. I'm not scared to use it now as I am aware that I can leave the edges clean cut and seams out.

Artist Research

I've spent a week looking at artists that use both repetition of line and form that apply it to the body in an adorning manner. I specifically chose these artists because I believe they show similar themes to my own that I am trying to achieve. I've focused on applications that are on the upper half of the body that sit or hang on the shoulders. By looking at these artist's and their work it will inform my own samples and how I could apply my ideas/samples to the body. I began my research looking at Bea Szenfeld, specifically one of her items where she had created a long string of formed paper and wrapped it around the wearer's neck creating a statement piece by it being so large. From looking through the range of images I had collected I can find two types of styles within my choices. The first is that they use folds to create form from one flat piece and the second is that they use repeated patterns in long strips to create the piece. All of the artists I've looked at fall into either of these groups but all using different materials and in different ways. I have them all collected in a pinterest folder.

Bea Szenfeld

Op Art Line Drawings

The patterns of line drawings i did influenced me to try drawing with lines on illustrator. I can get a crisper line and a greater contrast between black and white. Again each line drawing influenced the next line drawing showing progression of my pattern making. I noticed that some of these drawings showed signs of Optical illusions, much like Op Art. I looked at Op Art and Bridget Riley's work as found a similar style. Some Op Art uses only black and white as the contrast between the two colours is greater than any other, allowing the illusion to be visually stronger. I found out that my Op drawings are similar to periodic structure Op Art. Periodic structures are defined by a function that repeats the same values at regular intervals, as the variable increase and decrease uniformly.

 

Line Patterns

After drawing from the building I wanted to make my own drawings of line and looking at the patterns that can be made with multiple lines. Each drawing inspired the next drawing. I'm interested to see what these might look like or inspire on a computer with a crisper line. I think some of these drawings can show a different type of image when looked at and concentrated on differently.

Initial Drawing of Architecture

For this new project I have started by looking at architecture again. I've found images online of architecture that I liked showing repetition of line in the structure of the buildings/architecture. I have drew from these images showing the repeating lines and form. These drawings are the starting point of my process and by exploring these through drawing I can imagine different patterns that can be found. 

New Project

For my new project I am going to continue to manipulate fabric in a similar way to my last project with folds and repetition of lines. However I am not going to be looking at making fitted clothing and am going to focus on making adorning items that hang from the body. I am going to explore variations of my previous samples considering different scale and materials.