Folded Fabric

Today I've been busy in the textiles workshop testing folding and forming fabrics with starch spray. I tried a few different types of fabrics to find out which materials work best. Cotton is too thick and isn't as malleable or and silk organza has a loose weave and doesn't hold a fold It very well. The silk habati worked best as its a finer fabric so it bends while also holding the folded pattern. The process to fold the fabric took a very long time as it wasn't as easy to hold its shape unlike paper until it went under the heat press. I still want to try a moldable polyester fabric and I was also going to try a fabric with stabilizer on it. I'm really impressed with how the folded fabrics have turned out. I'd like to possibly try with the addition of print or stitch. I also want to try dying it when it's folded up to see what effect I'd get. I'm assuming it will look like a geometric tie-dye. I was recommended to look at the work of Angharad McLaren, a weaver that also forms her weaved pieces with folds similar to the ones I'm using.

 Cotton

Silk Organza

Silk Habati

Angharad McLaren

Tutorial with Kate

After panicking and being on the verge of tears from not knowing what to do with my ideas and how to start I thought best to seek out help with a tutorial. I got a tutorial with Kate to get me on the right tracks with my work. After discussing we figured that I need to get myself into the workshop and sample instead of obsessing over doing drawings. It's not that I need to be drawing with pen on paper, I need to be sampling and making with my ideas and not thinking that I need to put a tick next to "initial drawings". It was suggested that I could use some of my images to print and combine it with my idea to create folds in fabrics like I did with paper. Also that I can draw with stitch instead of with pencil. So obvious why didn't I think of it sooner.

Tutorial with James

My tutorial with James today was very insightful. He looked at my proposal and picked up on some points that I shouldn't pin myself down with my outcome and leave myself room to wiggle and explore different ways of producing my ideas instead of just making a flat quilt. My trip to the first cut exhibition could open up a range of ideas that contrast to my proposal.

I really need to develop some imagery from my images I've collected. I need to go out and draw things related to my themes. From these images I can then continue to sample. I'm going to attend a workshop with him tomorrow for drawing with images.

I will continue to research ad look at magazines like Vogue and Elle to look at current trends that relate to my themes. Apparently folds in clothing is really fashionable right now so it's a great opportunity to find some great research from fashion designers. I was recommended to look at designers like Maison Martin Margiela  and Issey miyake.

Gravity: Anna Lewis

We had an amazing lecture from jewellery maker Anna Lewis. Her work encompasses images and found items related to myths and superstition. I liked most about her work was her photography work. Even though she doesn't take the photos, she goes to great effort to find items, clothing, hair & make up, location and models to show her jewellery and display a theme or story within the imagery. This was very inspiring and I loved every image she produced. I wish I could work on such projects as of setting up the imagery for photos or film. Set designing reminds me of my foundation work where we had to create an installation. It seems very similar where I had to create this setting of a bedroom. I loved every moment of the production. After the lecture I had a short question with her in a group tutorial about what you need to consider when producing sets for photography. Not only do you have to organize the location you also have to consider the models, hair & makeup, clothes and props. It's a lot of source work, but it's the kind of work I enjoy.

Lecture with Rachel Chambers

We were lucky enough to have a visit from gallery owner and editor for craft and design magazine, Rachel Chambers. We had an amazing lecture from her where from her experience of gallery owning and maker mentoring for marketing was able to pass on some great advice and information about marketing ourselves and approaching galleries. She told us some really great ideas that we can use and apply in the future. She showed us some really good and terrible examples of some makes emails or letter to show us what not to do and to inspire some ideas in how creative we could be with our letters. This was a very resourceful morning spent. I've even used what I learnt to send some emails and letters to get some work for WBL.

50 Images, 50 Words

It's the start of a new project and like the last CP module we're starting with 50 images and words again. Last time I did this I found it much easier to collect images with a theme and an idea alongside. For this module I have chosen images that I feel show a formation of lines or squares. I really wanted to present my images and words in a way that related to the images and themes I had. I put my images into lines and created concertina folded strips of paper between the columns.

I chose these in relation to an interest I found during the 3DSP module when I was creating tucks and would like to further this into creative work. I also realized while collecting my images that I had recently been interested in the structure of folds in my last CP module with paper when I made a folded paper dress. Knowing this makes it feel good like I've found myself and my area, like I'm working on the right tracks to an area that really interests me as this is the third module this has appeared.

I'm a bit worried as to what to for sampling as I've already made a lot of related samples on my 3DSP. My plan is to look at contemporary paper folding artists and look for some inspiration.

To get the ball rolling we had group crits to present our images and ideas. I'm not sure how it went as there was a lot of 'umms' coming from me after I gave my idea. I'm really struggling to explain what I want to do but I guess once I start producing some stuff It might make better sense. I think it went okay even though it was a bit quiet as I was told my imagery was quite strong and it seemed like they were happy I had something to go with.

Making My Final Piece

With only two days left in the workshop I needed to start preparing my quilt. I dyed fabric and began printing my designs on it. With my top layer of fabric ready I stitched the patches together and tore into it on the felt machine, while also printing my text layers. With my two top fabric layers ready all that was left was to stitch them together into a quilt with wadding and a backing fabric. I also chose a special thread for quilting that gradiates in tones of green that I thought would look better than just a plain colour.