Assignment 2 tutor report

	Open College of the Arts
	Tutor report

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

Overall Comments

Well done Christina, you have submitted an interesting and well thought through project.  The work is well laid out in the A4 Sketchbook with supporting work in the smaller ‘Man Made’ sketchbook and ‘my textured world’ blog.  The print work is experimental and full of colour, with evidence that you are willing to test and work through new possibilities.  

Assessment potential

I understand your aim is to go for the Textiles Degree and that you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. From the work you have shown in this assignment, and providing you commit yourself to the course, I suggest that you are likely to be successful in the assessment.

Feedback on assignment

There is evidence that you have explored with some thoroughness screen-printing.   You have made a good start to a new technique, producing work that appears to be looser than assignment 1 work with some dynamic results. The designs have been carried out on a range of fabrics with some interesting results.  There is good use of colour, a variety of shapes and evidence that you have used your sketches to create and think through the design process. 

The scaffold motif is very simple but you have used it well, exploring a wide number of colours and layouts – playing with shape and line.  You have added texture with stitch and weave, thinking about scale and placement.  The work is usefully annotated with reflective ideas and technical information.

Continue to follow the course material with diligence.  When executing the work remain thoughtful about placement and the scale of the design elements.  Be experimental, remembering not all sample pieces can be successful but in trying several ways of forming a design there is the possibility that exciting and energetic results can occur.

Sketchbooks

The drawing for this project consists of mark making and working from life and photography.  You have used a number of different mediums, occasionally on coloured papers.  There is evidence that you have taken your sketches through to the print processes and continued to develop them there.  This assignment shows you to use drawing to generate design ideas, explore a subject matter and to work out design ideas.  

I would suggest you keep pushing your drawing forward, developing and perfecting your skills in using the mediums and capturing what you see.  Look at the way others draw.  There are a number of oca films where students drawing work is shared.  There is one in last week’s oca e-bulletin of a painting student, Jereme Crow.  Look at how many times he paints the lemon until he finds the best way of expressing it. Try Googling sketchbook images and see what you come up with.  

Learning Logs or Blogs 

Your online learning log is straightforward to navigate and is updated regularly.  The blog contains information about the research you have conducted on Constructivism along side your responses to this art movement.  I can see how Constructivism has influenced your own creativity.  You could have possibly written about how this came about for you.  There is also imagery from your sketchbook and the print work you have carried out for this assignment.  Your photos could do with being clearer but I do like the way you have used the grid of images to collate and explore the work to take it forward.  

There is some very personal and relevant self-reflection about the creative process, which shows you to be articulate and self-aware.  There is analysis of the print work and how you have used drawing to solve design problems.  It is nice to see you are looking out for and capturing those serendipitous moments (blue filler and tracing paper).  There is thorough colour work in finding pleasing colour combinations from magazine snipping’s then capturing them in paint ready to use in the print work.  

Continue to write at length your experiences of working through the course material, reflecting on how things are going for you, detailing any design ideas that may occur and the ways your visual research influences your design work.

Suggested viewing/reading

Books you may find useful to enhance your drawing skills.

• Draw to Stitch: line, drawing and mark-making in textile art.  Gwen Hedley 2010. Batsford. London 
• Henry Moore textiles.  Anita Feldmen. 2008. Lund Humphries. Aldershot.
• The encyclopedia of drawing techniques.  Hazel Harrison.  2004.  Search. Tunbridge Wells.

Books you may find useful for the next assignment.

• Folding techniques for designers. From sheet to form.  Paul Jackson. 2011. Laurence King Publishing. London.
• Supersurfaces. Folding as a method of generating forms for architecture, products and fashion.  Sophia Vyzoviti. 2010. BIS Publishing. Amsterdam. 
• Folding Architecture. Spatial, structural and organizational Diagrams. 2010. BIS Publishing. Amsterdam. 

Look at magazines such as Embroidery, Selvedge and Crafts to research methods and design ideas.

Pointers for the next assignment

• Continue to advance your skills in drawing.
• Maintain in supporting your design ideas from a wide range of visual research.
• Continue to develop your reflective and analytical skills
• Retain your good working practices

I look forward to your next assignment.

Tutor name:	Rebecca Fairley
Date	24th March 2014
Next assignment due	26th May 2014

Assignment 2 :Reflection

I took a long time over this assignment because of work pressures (which are due to finally recede at the end of April). The result was that the intensity of my engagement with the process was less than for previous assignments, and I have been very much aware that this has reduced the richness and resonance of what I have learned from it. I am sad to be moving on now, as I feel I have probably missed out, especially on finding out about contemporary artists and how they have responded to the 'man made' theme, but realise that I must move on at some point, or never finish.

Despite this relative lack of intensity, during this module I have moved from complete ignorance about screen printing to at least an understanding of what I don't know! I have much more appreciation of the beauty of some man-made things than I did, and a collection of sketchbook starting points for further exploring. I have found myself more self-directed in my explorations than I have previously been, and more able to recognise the fork in the road that I want to follow- either for aesthetic reasons or to learn new ways of doing things. And found myself valuing many of the processes I learned in the previous level 1 course- enough to want to follow them spontaneously (especially the shape/ texture/ colour exercises to finalise a piece).  I guess that's what is meant by developing your own creative process.

Looking back, what still needs attention is the way I do my exploring - I've really missed the feel of the materials in my hands during the last few months. It's been a big departure for me to beaking something so two dimensional and textureless. My style is usually much more material driven - Thomas Heatherwick my hero. This can't be right!  I'm looking forward to the next part of the course as it promises much more of that.

Notes on my design decisions for assignment 2:
I think that the decision to go with the scaffolding design was a good one, as it benefited from my having explored it more than the others in the rest of the section. I am generally pleased with how it turned out.

The size of the pattern is a little large, and could be slightly smaller. The decision to make the A3 size only a corner of a much larger piece turned out well, even though the decision was made after the rectangles exercise as opposed to being as part of it. I think making the border small enough go all the way round the A3 would have made it technically difficult for me to get the detail, and would have lost some of the visual impact it has.

I could have chosen to make a single larger image, as seen in some of the examples of constructivist art I found, but in some ways I like the way this image leads you to think about the larger piece of cloth it comes from, and the use it could be put to, and that this is more relevant to the ethos of constructivism.

The background texture does not show very well, despite being the most effective printing. This is disappointing. I had expected that it would give another layer of geometric pattern on a smaller scale, adding to the depth of the image. However, this has not happened, perhaps mostly because of the relative lack of contrast between the pink and the white background.

I am glad that I chose to pursue the red colour scheme rather than the cooler blue one once it became obvious I couldn't continue with the screen printing. I was pleased that I was able to get the colours relatively accurately.

Finally, looking back, I think the samplers with machine stitching for the straight lines over printed shapes worked nicely and have more intrinsic interest to them than plain printing. I will certainly be exploring more of this in future.

Designing assignment 2

DECIDING ON THE COMPOSITION:

First I had to choose which image to go with.
I made some little squares and had a go at various ideas.
The image from the dark hall still appeals a great deal, and my start on weaving it showed me that it has a lot of potential, but needs more work on getting the juxtapositions of colours right, so not for this time.

For the scaffolding variation I wanted something dramatic with strong contrasts, that doesn't lose the strength of the parallels that appealed in the first place. 

I tried various ideas, and the most appealing was the one with the most impact and apparent simplicity. The background has the pattern from my machine-sewn sampler.

Having decided this, I tried it out on rectangular shapes to work out which arrangement (and whether large scale design, repeat pattern or border) would be best from a composition point of view. Most of the variations had the flat quality that I associate with constructivist design. I ended up with a border, but then realised that in order to retain the features that appeal to me I would have to make the repeat larger than was possible on an A3 sized background.

I therefore decided to use the final piece as if it were the corner of a larger piece, to show the border at a good size.

MAKING THE FINAL SAMPLER:
I found a large piece of white cotton and cut it into several A3 pieces.

I drew out what I think of the poles layer first, to get the corner right. I traced one square 'block' and turned it over to give me the reflection at the corner.

TEXTURE:

Then I drew out the background texture on a piece of A3 tracing paper, keeping some of the same lines to give me something to align myself along. This background texture was based on this piece of embroidery sampler, but extended to cover the whole background of the border.

I used tracing paper as a template for the screen, painting in the negative spaces with the filler liquid (blue). Because of the tracing paper underneath it made a beautiful pattern, a little like the wave patterns on a beach.

I was anticipating that this pattern would have to be washed away before printing, but in fact the tracing paper stuck to it, meaning that the pattern stayed in some places.

An example of serendipity.

COLOUR:
Because of my own awareness of the need, and because of the comments of my tutor after assignment 1, I have deliberately done more colour work in my sketchbook than would have come naturally. One of the exercises I set myself was to spot interesting colour combinations in Vogue, and put feelings to them.

Doing this I found two colour combinations that I thought would work well with the image I was using for assignment 2.

This pink-brightred-brownypurple colour scheme was more fun, young and lively, with big contrasts. My notes show that it reminded me of 1960s images.











This skyblue- bluewhite - midbluegrey combination was very cool and like a Northern horizon, with a much narrower range of tone and was responding in a different way to the geometric pattern - more to the mechanical, inhuman aspect than to the hope and freedom aspects of it.





I did what I could to match the colours by mixing acrylic paints, to see approximately the effect of using those colour combinations with the image.

  

At this point I decided not to choose between them, and see if I could try them both out.

While the course notes suggest we could either make the print, or do a sketch of it, I was excited about the possibility of following the design through to a finished print, so was aiming to do that.





SHAPE:

The geometric lines are the most dramatic aspect of the shape. I drew them with blue gel onto the screen, and once dry, covered it in wax according to the instructions. I noticed that the new pot of wax was much thinner than the old one, and seem to need more than one coat to cover the screen properly.

Unfortunately the viscosity of it meant that it stuck to the paper underneath, and that it dried in streaks.

This photo shows the paper stuck to the back of the screen.

I decided to try printing it anyway, to see how it would turn out, and it looked like this, with dark squiggles, presumably where the layers of screen block dried differently from each other. The bars we printed well, but I couldn't use this because of the background.

I cleaned the screen and re-prepared the geometric lines, this time using only one layer of wax. The first test print was good, but subsequent ones barely printed at all. I have kept one of these in my larger sketchbook. I tried washing the paint out but it was already dry. I do not understand why this might be, other than that it was a hot day.

This is the trouble with a correspondence course - that you can only learn from what you have at home, and the CD that came with the screen printing kit, and the instructions in the course work file could not tell me what I had done to speed up the paint drying.

At this point it was obvious that the screen was ruined and it would not be possible to complete all three layers of the print. So I reverted to the idea of a sketch, using the first background texture layer I had already printed as the base of it. That is why my final sketch is on cotton.

For the scaffolding poles I painted them on with acrylic paint and a paintbrush, using the same template as I had used for the screen. This did not give the same blocky quality as screenprinting them, as the edges were more blurred and the pressure less intense and equal throughout.

For the final layer, I cut a stencil out of sticky vinyl, and sponged the paint on through it.

My final sampler for assignment 2

Trying out screen printing textures

BLEACHING:
I had seen the idea of bleaching out the dye as a way of making a pattern on fabric with a screen. I thought I would give it a try, and could perhaps use it to create texture for my assignment piece.

I sketched this pattern onto the screen, based on background patterns in the shady parts of the scaffolding.

I kept some of the lines double, and some thick, in order to find out which had the better effect.

Then, printing onto a piece of dyed (but not fixed) cotton, I used thick bleach instead of paint through the prepared screen.

The colour was bleached out very quickly. So quickly that the design spread before I could wash out the bleach.

It was easy to see that the double lines looked better and more scaffolding-like than the thicker ones.

This is what happened when I washed the bleach off immediately - it didn't work enough.

And this is the result of diluting the bleach 1:1 with textile medium to slow it down - it didn't bleach the dye out at all and all you can see is stained areas where it was.

After doing all that i thought it would be worth checking that you can in fact dye on top of bleached areas once the bleach is washed out.

You can.

OTHER TEXTURES:

I tried some other ways of altering the texture of screenprinted paint.
String underneath the screen made very little difference, but string above it gave loopy variations in the texture of the paint, but it was not very predictable because the string inevitably moved when I moved the squeegee over it.

Talc sprinkled on the paper was a good way to get a starry sky image.

Washing out the wax a bit, but not completely, gave a grainy texture in some places, which I rather liked.

Sprinkles of drying paint on the screen, interspersed with talc, was my favourite effect (bottom right), but not recommended if you want to reuse the screen!


WOVEN EFFECTS:

Finally today, I made a weaving, trying to explore other ways of making the parallel lines and shadowy horizontals that appeal to me about the scaffolding.

I used translucent fabric for the weft, and twisted it for some of the rows.

More scaffolding

This is what it looked like when I did the 3 layers of scaffolding with the screen I prepared earlier:

The colours were chosen to give the contrast between the eye-popping green and the soft grey of the poles. The green is close, but not quite blue enough here.

I found it difficult to judge where to put the blocks in relation to each other.  You can see that the lines are not quite aligned. and the blocks to not lead on from each other but leave a gap between.

You can just see the last block which only has 2 layers.

This was a more successful print, in that the colour was better, and the joins are less apparent.

I like the way Payne's Grey looks when diluted - a lovely subtle blue grey.

 You can see that I tried graduating the intensity of it for the left hand column, which is interesting and could be useful, but unfortunately turned out a little blotchy initially.

The pink showed through a bit more than I intended here, and I think in fact should be a little darker.

What happened to the screen:

Ah, learning by experience is so much more effective than reading other peoples' advice. 

My screen was ruined by my taking so long over this, and not being careful to add screenprinting medium every time. 

So I used the screen to make some prints:

The screen block for this print was the glue left over after I took the stencil off.
The shadows above were contact prints from the screen afterwards.
I think it looks very attractive, and the grey gives it an antique look which I could use some day.

Finally, I printed some more of the 'shadows' onto reclaimed cotton sheeting, and drew the scaffolding pole lines onto it with a sewing machine, using varied thickness and colour of thread to see which worked best.

Composition squares from all I've done so far

I don't know what the technical term may be (if there is one), but when I was doing Textiles 1: A creative approach, I found that picking out squares of images I had done for their composition was very useful in taking the process forward.

I have gone through my workbook with a couple of sizes of card squares and found these....

Of these, the ones that appeal most are....

It's the colours and light that work for this one.

Not sure how I would translate this into a screenprint.

I'm used to deciding the technique I'm going to use AFTER deciding on what it should look like, so doing it this way round is different, and I'm not sure it will work so well.

Have to work on it a bit and try some things if I choose this one.

This detail of the hallway photo in the dark appeals to me a lot, and this composition with only part of the rectangle of light at the top is interesting. I'm not at all sure how to get that blurred effect with spots of different colours using screenprinting - perhaps with literally spots of primary colours, greyed out, on different layers. Sounds a bit daunting but would be amazing if I managed it.

Rather blurry photo doesn't do it justice, but this appeals for the same reasons as the original scaffolding photo, but with the additional interest of the lines at either edge of the poles and the diagonals.

There's potential for interesting pattern repeats from rotating this around the four sides.

I'm wondering about trying out something like this in tapestry weaving. A bit like the woven pattern in the El Dorado exhibition at the British Museum.

As above, better as edging than a whole image.

This one would need less time to develop, which is a consideration now that I'm nearly at my allotted deadline.

It is dawning on me that I'm going to have to extend it. Again.

What made me think that any new job would be less demanding that the old one?! (It is, once I'm used to it, but that takes time).

 I think this could look very interesting if I used different colours as well as different tones.

Again needs sketchbook work to develop it further before using it.

Could look interesting as a repeat pattern or border.

This one gives me a good feeling that it could turn into something great.

I like the layered look like peeling paint. But it is probably more suitable for applique or something else.

The extra random bits of pattern and variations in the paint and texture that turn up with screenprinting (at least the way I do it!) are interesting and these lines seem to accentuate these effects.

This square has lots of interest and contrast and some texture. I could enjoy working with it.

This last one is appealing, but actually rather simple and therefore not so itneresting to work with.

Constructivism

Alexander Rochencko (1891-1950) Cover for El Lissitsky's book 'The isms of Art' 1921

Doing this sketchbook exploration of scaffolding has been reminding me of constructivist images I have seen, like the one above, so I thought it was worth looking into the movement in a bit more detail than I have before.

Constructivism was an artistic movement in Russia which started just before the Revolution, but flourished after it with the full support of the Bolsheviks. It followed artistic experiments in other countries such as cubism, futurism, and suprematism in Russia. It contributed to many important subsequent movements in European art in the 20th Century including Kandinski and the Bauhaus in Germany.

The principle of the constructivists was that art was to have a social role. 'Tatlin's dream...is that the spiritual revolution of his creativity should act as directly and powerfully on actual everyday life as does the political revolution.' This quote, and much of my understanding of the constructivists, is from a PhD thesis by Wendy Bark (1995) Constructivist costume, textile and theatre design 1917-1934; a study of contructivism set in the social, cultural, political and historical context of post-revolutionary Russia' http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5130/. 

Model of Tatlin's 'Monument to the Third International 1920
This building, which was intended to be larger than the Eiffel Tower, and contain 3 blocks inside to house a political centre, was never built. It was not designed with engineering principles in mind, but a much more artistic vision with the spiral being a visual representation of the 'revolution'.
The model of this tower exhibited in the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2011 was my introduction to Constructivism, and the accompanying exhibition of architecture inspired me with the excitement of the architects starting afresh. It reminded me of the way dress designers in the 1960s starting making very geometric designs and bright strong colours (and for some of the same reasons), and led to the exploration outlined in this blog.

Many sources quote Tatlin's idea as "Not the old, not the new, but the necessary", which to modern Western ears sounds as if he were trying to make the purely functional, a sort of anti-Art. Whereas in fact, he argued against the 'tyranny of forms born by technology without the participation of artists.'. According to the website Cabinet//Tatlin, or, Ruinophilia, his own slogans, 'Art into Life' and 'Art into Technology!', are not only about putting art in the service of life, but about 'opening the horizons of the imagination' to making art itself the medium of social revolution. He is quoted as having believed that his artistic movement was in some way a necessary precursor of the Bolshevic revolution.

A corner detail of a residential block in the Narkomfin development, 1931.
An experiment in communal housing. Photo by MA Ilyin/ Schusev State Museum of Architecture
www.theguardian.com

Marxism encompasses the idea that 'the environment determines consciousness'. It isn't surprising, therefore, that many of Tatlin's followers happily became propagandists for the new regime with their 'contempt for literary and artistic idols and passion for formal innovation'.

This movement followed a period of revitalising of the folk crafts and an increase in prestige for the applied arts in Russia, for example through the journal Mir Iskusstva. And this background can be traced through into Tatlin's respect for the qualities of the materials he used, and the introduction of unusual materials into art works, the legacy of which can be traced through 20th century sculpture.

Self portrait of Alexander Rodchenko 1933 showing his wish to show images from all sides at once, as if walking round a sculpture.
taken from www.camilacarril.blogger.com.br

Other committed Constructivists include Alexander Rochenko; his wife Varvara Stepanova (1989-1924), and Liupov Popova (1889-1924).

Varvara Stepanova 1923 in sports clothes she designed to be functional yet attractive, deliberately moving away from fashions
designed in Paris in a bourgeois capitalist culture.

Textile design was thought to be a particularly good way to communicate socialist principles to the masses, who might otherwise have little exposure to them. The design process was effectively restricted to 5 centres after the revolution. Designs were expected to avoid over luxuriousness or bourgeois   sentimentality, and this can be seen in the use of flat colour, and the lack of embroidery or rich fabrics. 

Popova's Painterly Architechtonics 1918-19
Photo: State museum of contemporary art copied from Guardian website, which comments: 'It is a strange idea, both arrogant and naive, that compositions in oil paint might shape cities.'

Rodchenko collage 1919
From max.mmlc.northwestern.educ/

Rodchenko cover for Marietta Shaginan's 'Novyi byt and Art' 1923

How I respond to these images and ideas:

While I am not a communist, I can definitely relate to the idea that design of environment can have an important effect on the ideas you have. And while it is naive to think that you could teach socialism to the masses by the design of textiles, or by making a play, its scenery and its costumes in one coherent whole, it is an idealistic hope that appeals to me.

I am enough of a socialist to want everyone to feel able to be part of the same human race, and not excluded from the hub of things by distribution of wealth or accident of birth. I have some sympathy for the idea that pastel colours and prettiness is middle-class sentimentality, which can make being a crafty middle-aged white woman rather an uncomfortable place for me at times. 

What do I see in this style of art? It's all very flat - even the architecture! With very little in the way of textural variation, except where the photographs bring it in. The colours are clear and strong and simple. The lines are strong and their interest is in their relationship to each other. The mood is positive, forward-looking, hopeful and excited about the possibilities.

And rightly so, at least in artistic terms, in view of the huge influence these ideas have had on art and architecture in the following century. 

I think that is what I like most about this style - that feeling that creativity is being given its freedom and art might even lead to a better society for everyone.

Paper dress, Dispo (Meyersohn & Silverstein Ltd), 1967, London.
From Victoria and Albert Museum no. T.181-1986
An example of a 1960s dress design which gave me a similar feeling of hope and creative freedom.

Scaffolding

When I first started doing textile art with OCA I went around taking lots of photos of things, and this was one of them, enlarged and printed out.

What I liked about it was the combination of curves and straight lines, regular irregularity,
and the amazing shapes the shadows make on the netting.
Which is a strange colour - I don't know why I  say that - perhaps it will come to me.
And the edge, with its pattern of parallel lines.

I worked on it in my 'coursework' sketchbook, looking at the different parts of the design separately.

This pink tissue is cut to reflect the darker parts of the shadowing. I found it difficult to cut this pattern accurately with scissors and I think in future I might try with a craft-knife. It turned out rather less repetitive and geometrical and sharp than I hoped.

It's pink because I found that if I then covered it with blue tissue it would make a dark grey like the actual colour of the shadows.

Here it is with the blue on top.
The edge is scalloped like it is in the photo.

And here are both layers covered in tracing paper, on which I have traced the pattern of the poles.

The planks are reinforced by black strips of paper under the tracing paper.

I like the way the tracing paper changes the colour  underneath just as if it were adding some white to it. I particularly like the poles sticking out at the edge and how the eye is drawn to it because of the greater contrast of the detail there against the paler background.

I was very pleased with this try, and decided to use it prepare a print of all 3 layers, so I could experiment with different ways of making a pattern with screen printing.

So, this is my much more accurate tracing of the shadows and light areas than I managed with the pink tissue.

Doing this made me more aware of the repeats and alignments than I had been, and it became more interesting to me as a result.

Sometimes I think there's no point in doing things over again in a different way, and then something like this happens.

This one is the scaffolding taken out of the rest. It shows how like tartan these lines look on their own and made me think about what the differences are between the scaffolding image and tartan. IE the lines are not at 90 degrees to each other. There are some extra vertical lines which emphasise this. The colours between the lines are not geometrical blocks but complex with curved shapes. And the edge is completely different - lighter and more aggressive at the same time. 

This one us of the two tracings superimposed, which I did to make sense of the placement of the shapes before cutting them out of sticky backed vinyl. (Below)

The idea of this is to add paler sections to allow the background colour to show through, leaving 'shadows' elsewhere.

This one shows the vinyl stencil and tracing taped to the screen. As you can see I decided to give the multiple screen a try despite some misgivings, partly because of just wanting to make something!

Trying out different pressures and papers:

Since I didn't have a teacher handy, I started by trying out different pressures on the squeedgee when printing.

This shows what happens when I didn't press hard enough - not enough paint got onto the paper.

The one that was the most even and therefore gave the clearest edges was the one that I pressed hardest on.

These were done on rougher, more absorbent paper.

The light pressure one came out more textured. Again the higher pressure gave a better result.

I tried setting them next to each other to see how making use of the negative space would work out - it looks interesting, and I could use it.

However the bottom right one shows what happens when there isn't enough paint - again interesting but not very reproduceable! Instructions with the acrylic paint indicate that as well as being mixed with other colours (eg white in this case), it could be diluted with water. This is me trying this out, and printing on cardboard from a cereal packet as one step more rough and absorbent than the last paper. 

Watering it down was successful only up to a point. After that it got bubbly, which looks interesting but again not very controllable.

The printing worked OK on this cardboard, but not as well as the previous paper.

On the left is my try at printing on brown parcel paper. The paint didn't 'take' as well, and you can see places where it leaked through under the tape I used to make the stencil. (Also above).

Not sure what to do about this as the glue was loosened during washing of previous paint off the screen.



Experimenting with the shadows stencil:

This is what it looks like when I overlap the shadow stencil so that it repeats.

Again, I learn the importance of marking where the repeat comes on the frame. This one worked reasonably well, not perfect.

It could work as a border.

I'm not sure about the sqare tops to those triangles and the right edge looks messy and unintentional.  The printing itself worked well. The colour of this photo is not correct. Printing this, I realised that I had got the colours the wrong way round for these experiments, if I was going to use them all the way through the process until the final 3 layered print. But I carried on with this colour for these bits of the experimenting.



This is where I tried repeating on a diagonal.

Keeping it aligned was much more difficult for this one. I think I'm going to have to work out how to do this better.

Overall, the pattern isn't so appealing. The rows of triangle and leaf patterns would work better if they were more evenly spaced, I think.

On the right is the effect of using just two rows of the leaf pattern.
 It turned out pretty. And reminded me of the regular floral patterns in February 2014 Vogue. Another possibility for a border, or for an all-over pattern.

This red one is a sample I made of the basic 'shadows' stencil on red background, not least to see if there is any effect of the background colour on the surface paint (which it does, but perhaps not enough to use like tissue paper).

The high contrast makes it pop which I find attractive and reflects that aspect of the scaffolding netting.


At this point I printed out some repeats on cotton fabric that I could work on with the sewing machine (which I'll talk about in another post).







Experimenting with the scaffolding lines stencil:

I mucked around with the scaffolding parallel lines stencil on various papers and combinations.

This one appeals because of the way the clay came through onto the paper in places (perhaps because it was still slightly damp), giving the lines some definition, and how some of the broader lines have only printed in some places leaving white spaces in parts.

I also like the collection of dots in the middle which are there I think because of the way the clay dried.

This one on grey packing paper, which is very soft and perhaps more able to take the paint, gives more detail and complexity. I tried aligning the parallels in some places and not in others to get an idea of how both would look.

Below is what it looks like on top of the background colour. I am a little disappointed about the lines coming off the edge as I particularly like the way that looks in the photo and it hasn't worked so well with the stencil. Perhaps because the lines are broken?

So, after all this I haven't yet produced a 3 layered print as planned. The trying things out took over. I still want to do that, and also to do some machine sewing experiments using these patterns. And the next thing after that will be sampling bits of all these images to work further on them.