Assignment Three Tutor Feedback

	Open College of the Arts
	Tutor report

Student name	Christina Rogers	Student number	510830
Course/Module	Textiles 1: Exploring Ideas	Assignment number	Three

Overall Comments

Christina this assignment has been a pleasure to explore, you have presented the work with care and thought.  The sample pieces are experimental and reflect your exploration of the materials and your visual research.  You have included some nice sketching along with collage and photography to investigate your subject matter. The online log is interesting and easy to navigate.

Feedback on assignment 

You appear to have followed the course material in a thoughtful and active manner.  Using it to encourage your ideas and develop new skills.  Through recording your thoughts and ideas online and in your small sketchbook you have developed, sifted and sorted ideas.  This has led to some experimental and in some cases rather beautiful samples.  There is thought to placement, colour and texture.  Yet you are comfortable with risk taking and the possibility of failure.  I do like your note in the small sketchbook which says “You don’t have to do what other people think looks good!” This attitude releases you from self-consciousness and allows you freedom to explore all possibilities.

I would suggest you continue to use photography as your main source of primary research, possibly building up a library of images you can access and work from.  I really like how you projected the tunnel image on to your own belly but this piece would have been much stronger if the photograph had been your own.  Keep looking for new angles and ways of capturing what you see.

Sketchbooks 

The drawings you have sent me consist of both pencil work and collage.  Your visual skills are very competent, working both creatively and imaginatively. There is evidence that you use drawing to explore ideas developed from visual research and your own primary research.  

I would suggest you continue to draw regularly, using your research to inspire new ways of looking and recording what you see.  Don’t forget to use other mediums including stitch and paper folding to trigger ideas.

Learning Logs or Blogs 

Your Blog is well laid out with a balance of your work and research along with annotation and reflection.  The written work where you are exploring how the assignment is going is very informative and will assist you in working through your ideas.  Well done for being brave and including images of yourself.  This and your honest annotation indicate to me that you as a person are at the heart of your creativity.  Therefore you will create work that is personal, dynamic and interesting.   

I suggest you continue to discuss your work in an open manner, exploring both feelings and ideas.  I would suggest you elaborate more on your thoughts of the work designed by other people.  Try and pin point what it is that interests you.  This can be a positive or negative feeling.  It can be about shape, texture, scale, colour, placement, environment, light, etc.  Your thoughts may be about vibrancy, drabness, discomfort, shock, warmth, calmness, etc. This will encourage you to develop a language in which to discuss the visual world and therefore inform your work.

Pointers for the next assignment

• Continue to work with care and imagination when creating samples.
• Maintain an interest in other designers and makers.
• Build on your skills in drawing and sketching.
• Use photography to capture what you see and inspire your work.
• Develop your language when discussing yours and other peoples work in you Blog.

Well done Christina, I look forward to your next assignment.

Tutor name:	Rebecca Fairley
Date	5th June 2014
Next assignment due	4th August

Assignment Three: Reflection

Do you feel that your finished samples fulfilled your expectations and fully explored the topic of reveal and conceal, light and transparency?

My hope and expectation was that doing this assignment and making these samples would open my eyes to the effect of light and shadow in the world, and allow me to explore ways of expressing this and creating it myself through textile work.

The immediate effect was that I started looking and seeing these effects in the everyday, in a way that I had not seen them before. (See blog entries showing the range of photos taken early on in this module). I tried to write a list to encapsulate all the ways that light and shadow, reveal and conceal, can be used in art, but it was quickly obvious that this is too broad a subject to summarise easily.

My research into textile artists who predominantly use this aspect of materials in their work was a great pleasure for me. I wanted to use the experimental workshops to try out new techniques as much as possible, rather than sticking to ways of making things that I am already familiar with. The result was sometimes surprisingly uninteresting (eg knitting with different sized needles in Workshop 2) but mostly interesting and inspiring - giving me lots of new ideas to follow up. So many in fact that I can confidently say that no, I have not fully explored this topic. In fact, there is a life-time's intrigue ideas and challenge right here.

Workshop 3: Stitched nets, grids and structures: This worked well and produced a light lacy sample with a delicate feel to it. Workshop 4: Woven structures allowed me to explore the use of holes, and the effects of using translucent yarns and reflective materials in contrast to matt or light-dense ones. Workshop 6 illuminated the challenges and pleasures of layering fabrics and yarns to explore shadow and colour effects. Bonding techniques led me to a further exploration of the relative light-blocking qualities of various materials, with sometimes surprising results. Workshop 7 Deconstructing and disintegration: I started trying out thread-pulling and heat-distressing, with some interesting outcomes. I immediately had lots of ideas to develop this further. Workshop 8: Working with inkjet printers: I only just hit the tip of this particular iceberg - there is so much potential for using this fantastic technique.

Reviewing these materials and processes made me look again at what I had done, and combine techniques to produce new effects. I felt particularly inspired by the effects from sewing onto soluble fabric, and using bonding fabric. I combined these to explore shadows and coloured layers further.

My work on these, and on the multiple uses of these ideas in fashion this season, produced conceptual ideas of masks and concealment which led to my making a woven/ shadow mask sampler.

Issues that I would like to have had time to explore further include:
More thread-pulling samples using different fabrics, and to include adding threads of different qualities by weaving them into the fabric.
How shadows change with the qualities of the light making them, and the texture and shape of what they fall on;
How colours are changed by light going through them;
Changes of pattern, or of texture, with changed direction, or intensity, or colour of light;
The size and relationships of holes as the important quality of textiles (the negative spaces);
Conceptual aspects of masking/ revealing in human beings; skin as exposure and as mask.

Since these are not things that I was consciously thinking about before, I would say that yes, making these samples has more than fulfilled my expectations of this part of the course.

How important was the choice of material in terms of determining the qualities that you achieved and how much did your choice of technique contribute to the overall results.

If someone had asked me this at the beginning of this assignment I would have expected that materials would make by far the greatest contribution. That was why I made a page comparing the translucency of a variety of materials.

This is true for some if the techniques - for example, the effect of bonding fabrics of different colours together depends very much on the qualities and colours of the fabric. And the effect of deformation of material by heat is different for each material. 

Having tried out some of the techniques, though, I can now see that different materials can produce different and sonetimes unexpected effects depending of which technique you use, and how you use the more translucent holes within and between materials. For example, results from soluble fabric techniques and from weaving loosely in the way described here, do not rely on the materials sewn to it so much as the holes left after it is finished. 

Presenting my samplers

Now the issue of how to present all these samplers to my tutor so that she can try them  up against the light. So sticking them into a sketchbook is out of the question. (Although I've sadly already done that with the first two).

I decided that they need to be able to be held together in a kind of book, but to still be removable when needed. I also like the idea of having them attached to each other by various kinds of holey or translucent fabric so that this can also be held against the light with them.

My solution is to make join pairs of samples together into strips, which can then all be held in a 'book' using a bulldog clip. Which can double as a holder when they need to be looked at.

Here are some photos I took of the strips being held up against the window together to see the effects that created. Of course there are lots of other combinations!

The last sample I made used the shadows coming through it to conceal or reveal parts of my face below. It needed to be suspended away from the face to do this, so I have mounted it and the picture of my face on the two faces of a simple frame.

Stage 5: Playing with the chosen image

Working from the photos in my sketchbook, I tried out various ways of representing the image, using some of the techniques I'd already tried, and some new ones.

I soon found that I was doing only one of the three images, which was the most interesting. This of course made the composition all wrong so I would have to think about that later.

This was my attempt to use free machine embroidery as drawing, inspired by seeing a huge Alice Kettle wall picture at Collect 2014.

This is folded muslin, fixed with PVA glue. The folded parts look more intensely white with the light in front of them, and darker with it behind.

I like the way this works, and the contrast between the stiffness of the glued fabric, and the softness of the curves and translucency, and would like to try more of this in future.

At this point I realised that the book about folding that I ordered, as recommended by my tutor, has not yet arrived, so it will be too late for me to use for this assignment. Which is a shame.

This was rather less successful, an attempt to make the shadow shape using patterned black fabric and black machine 'drawing'. Part of the problem is that machine stitching has to stop somewhere, and the thread is visible behind. Also that the pattern needs to be purposeful in the image, or it just gets in the way of visual understanding.








I decided to try a combination of the soluble fabric and layering techniques to create an image of all three shapes like the glasses photo. I tried to use the texture of the bondaweb to give more interest to the background, and a more densely woven fabric to give contrast between the shapes and background. I wanted to make this one very white. This is what it looks like with the light from the front and from the back.



















Finally, I had a go doing something similar with colour.

What I wanted to capture, if I could, was the quality of light that was in the original photograph - that light that shows you used a flash in a dark place.

I also wanted to capture something of the feel of the mysterious striped coat from Martin Margiella.

For this I again used yellow organza in several layers, and bondaweb, but this time I used strips of it rather than a whole sheet. I made the shape/ background contrast using a piece cut from an old kimono dressing gown with some flower pattern in the central part. I sewed pale yellow lines in topstitching to indicate the patterns within the shape.

This is also interesting to look at, and I think that it does
capture  the strange specific glow of light that  wanted it to.

Then I printed off a photo I had taken of regular metal fenceposts onto extravorganza, and superimposed this on the image.

This is what it looked like with the light in front (left) and the light behind it (right). The one on the left allows the details of colour and translucency variations, and the sewn lines, to be seen. The other one is more threatening somehow.



This is interesting, and I think the most successful of the samples I've made, and I would like to explore this more with different kinds of bars in front of different kinds of images.




As usual, the ideas start coming more when the deadline approaches.

Weaving in progress, with shadow.

The final weaving piece as a mask
This didn't work as the shadows were not
visible on the face photo at this distance. 

The final weaving sample with shadows

Weaving piece (without shadows), showing how it is intended to be part of a larger piece
with more interesting composition

Stage 4: Choosing an image

I got to this part of the course work and realise that this is where I should have put my photographs and other visual research rather than earlier. 

Looking through them again, these are the ones that I would most like to do more with at this point in the process:

Because of the light.
I would love to be able to capture the
quality of light in the dark like this.
But the rest of it isn't really appropriate for this exercise.

This image has texture, pattern, and that quality of light.
The composition isn't very good though - it needs something more interesting going on shape-wise.

So, this is what it looks like when I have
cropped and straightened the image from
the original photo.
This has shapes, patterns, textures and colour
- enough to work on for the rest of this assignment.

Stage 3: Reviewing materials and processes

Looking at the samples in combination:

Lovely translucent effect, like seeing seaweed through water.

The brown and white discs through the knitting holes makes the rest of the background look foggy by contrast. The fluffier grey knitting is intensified and mysterious, creating a barrier, where the string loops take the eye through them to the background instead.

A similar thing happens here, with the eye being drawn through the key hole and blocked by the horizontal woven bamboo yarn.

The subtle green on the right adds atmosphere but not depth, while the pink gives perspective.

The distorted weave is made more organic-looking by the loose ends.

This combination creates a lovely flimsy translucency, which I did not expect because of the physical nature of the weaving sample.

The darker vertical stripes actually seem to intensify the details and contrasts of the underlying weaving, rather surprisingly. 

I like the way the folds in the cotton give a graduated change in translucency in this one. And the contrast between this and the simple but wriggling lines in front.

Not the most evocative though.

Looking at the way the lines cross, and the effects their crossing has on the translucency.

At one level it looks boring as a tablecloth, and at another, could be used to make something magical.

Worth exploring more.

The gutta pattern comes through the layers of organza like a watermark.

The distortions of the melted net add a magical, dewy quality to the printed image, making me think of holes in the barrier between us and something unknowable. 

Finally, the wriggly lines and lace seem to be made for this, adding nicely to the messy illusion.

The combination of sewn lines and layers of fabric is one I would like to explore further. 

Stage 2: Knitting and weaving with holes

I started by knitting a piece with different sized knitting needles. The smallest were standard size 11, the largest were my daughter's drum sticks. This is what I made. 

I was rather disappointed by the subtlety of the differences, especially given that it had been quite difficult to knit. I wasn't sure if that was a result of using thick wool, so I changed yarn a couple of times and the result was more obvious with the thinner less compressable yarn. 

Then I tried weaving. I decided to use stripes of fishing line (microfilament) which has a pale green tint on the reel and using a flash, but is quite transparent in normal daylight, alternating with more standard warp yarn. This gave me a variety of options of combinations, so I only had to do one sampler to work out several different effects.

This gives an idea of how it is easily possible to introduce gaps in the weaving.

I have always liked the way the texture of the tapestry is apparent through the shadows, as in the grey area of this one.

This photo below shows two translucent areas - the ribbon, with a striped texture of its own and little in the way of shadowing.

And the tapestry-weave part with wet-looking highlights and shadow-texture. It allows much more of the background to be visible.

The ends of the microfilament won't conform by tucking in, and so make an intrinsic part of the outcome of using this yarn.

Anniken (see earlier blog) and Parniczky (Craft & Design magazine March/April 2014) both weave with this very skillfully and effectively.

As this section also seems to be about light, and reflection as well as refraction, I included some silver foil in the weaving to try it out.

This was an interesting idea but doesn't work well here. Perhaps using silky or plastic yarns would  be more effective.

I saw that the weaving sample was interesting, but rather colourless on its own.This was me trying to mask the weaving with translucent coloured poly organza.

This adds some depth and colour to it, and makes the microfilament less visible, so that the blocks of weaving and cotton yarn look as if suspended. This had some potential for developing it further. 

The photo on the left is the same combination but lit from in front, showing how much reflection pattern there is from the organza.

On the right is the combination of the weaving with a more tightly woven organza (with holes for curtain rails), showing that it disguises the microfilaments even more, and making me think that its not always a case of 'the filmier the better'.

Stage 2: Using soluble fabric

I have tried dissovable fabric once before, in an earlier module of this course, and found it rather difficult and the results disappointing. I had some ideas about why this might be, and was glad of the opportunity to try again, this time with some instructions.

First I did some sketchbook work to make a design that would be lacy, but with the elements linked as recommended in the course work.

I decided from this sketch that the curved dark lines were better with the spirals

I started by machine stitching little zigzags in the spiral pattern.

Then I added curved strips of semi-translucent fabrics and lace,
fixing them on with another layer of stitching in the spirals.
You need at least two layers of stitching because otherwise
it unravells when you dissolve the fabric.

After dissolving, the shapes were floppier, and looked more organic.
This is the finished sample seen superimposed on the grey circles from the
last blog entry. There is a hole in the middle where the design elements were not thoroughly linked.

What I have learned from this:
It doesn't take much practice to get a better result from this soluble fabric.
Walking foot on the machine helps a lot.
It doesn't need very hot water, or much rubbing either, so it's ok to use quite flimsy fabrics and yarns.
It would be difficult to get a very precise result. At least until I'm getting better at it!
The fine plastic netting I used (wrapping net from our christmas tree) gives a lovely shiny messy result and looks wet, like seaweed.

What to try next:
Try it over other images, textures and patterns, with the light in front and behind.
Try it with different colours and intensities of the design elements.

Stage 2: Working with translucent fabrics

The most obvious thing to do with translucent fabric is to make patterns using different numbers of layers of it.

I had kept some filmy grey fabric that had been used as a luxurious wrapping for a bunch of flowers for mother's day. I don't know what it's made of but it has an unusually crisp texture for something almost transparent.

I cut circles in it and overlaid them, holding them up to the light.

 At this first stage, i was using tape to keep the circles attached, which adds it's own shadow to the image.

The illusion of texture is interesting, like wood or water, from the reflective qualities of the fabric.

The darker line down the left hand side is the edge of the building outside the window.

The deepest shadow is where the fabric circle folded on itself.

The lightest arcs are where the holes overlap. Against the light like this you can't tell which are holes and which are fabric other than by the lack of texture in the holes.

Not sure how I can use this.

I used silver grey fabric this time. I wondered how it would work with very white lacy fabric.

This is what it looked like against white.
 Some hint of texture and lines, but not much interest or contrast.

And here against the window onto my garden. The detail's clear. the colour is slightly less white but there's enough light  coming through.

I then tried distorting it with heat.

Difficult to get the distortion without breaking the fabric altogether (hence the holes.

The swirliness of the distortions is appealing.
Not very controllable - would take a lot of practice.
Interesting the way three dimensions show in the variations of shadow.


This takes away the clean flatness, but replaces it with hills and valleys.




Putting it against white background again, the whole thing looks darker, and the hills and valleys are less pretty and more dark and menacing.













Trying variations:

I fixed two layers together by ironing a strip of hem fix along the middle. This gives a slight dardening of the shadow, and an interesting texture.

The photo looks out of focus (or more out of focus than it actually is) because of the irregular reflectiveness of the fabric, and the staggered holes.

This was made the same way, but using circles of less translucent fabric to contrast with the grey.
Light shining from the front.

Light shining from behind, with a background of decking. The light coming from behind reveals the lacyness of the bottom circle, which is not visible at all when lit from in front (above). And the overlaps of the lower circles also. But the upper circles don't really show so sharply at all at this intensity of light.

You can see how much diffusion of light there is from the fabric itself by the waves at  the top right hand corner.

It would be good to be able to capture that in some way.

Also there is a question in my mind about whether you could make use of the difference of appearance in different light intensitites. Good for a window dressing or lampshade perhaps?




Using shadows and translucent fabrics:
I have used silk painting in the past, and wondered whether the gutta you use to contain the silk paint would increase the amount of light going through the silk. And whether you could get a stained glass effect by shining light through painted silk.

I had also been looking at the way the twilight sky glows behind trees along the road, and wondered if I could somehow capture that contrast between the dark dark trees, and the glowing colours.

As you can see I wasn't at all successful in that!

But when I shone a light through it,
the shadow image was sharp and clear,
and alsmot completely colourless!

Finally, I came round to working with bondaweb. I wasn't sure what image to pick, so I went to my reflection photos, and cropped off one pane of a window reflection which looked promising.

 The aspects of this image I like, and was hoping to capture, are the subtle colours, including the odd colour of the background; the double images that I assume come from light reflecting off both the front and the back of the glass; and the loopy lines.

This photo doesn't really do justice to the glowingness of the light in real life, and I was hoping to increase that too - not asking much!

This is what it looked like when I had laid out a collage of fabric pieces, and yarns on the pale pink base fabric.

You can see some unspun wool and some cut outs of green organza to give the subtle colour changes to the background.

I wanted the whole thing to be translucent, like the window, so used fabrics which did not block the light completely.

I tested out all the colours against the top yellow layer to ensure that the combined colours would end up more subtle and bright.

This is what it looks like with yellow organza ironed onto the front of it.

The bondaweb for this one was in a whole sheet the size of the sample, so that the whole thing has a similar texture to it.

I'm pleased (and surprised) with how well it turned out, and produced most of the effects I wanted from it. It could be a bit more 'mysterious' in the background, rather than bright, and there were some technical difficulties getting the yarn to lie parallel to itself (but these could be overcome). It has more of a sweeping looping look to it than the pattern on the window, and I like that.