Evaluation

                Trying to achieve an outcome that doesn’t come naturally to me has been a struggle. I purposefully chose a lack of colour with a strong drive on texture to try and challenge myself to broaden my understanding of weave. In my opinion I have not managed to create the standard of work that was possible, but have achieved what I set out to at the beginning of the unit.

                Working with white has been more challenging than I initially anticipated. I expected to not have to think about colour very much, but found myself spending lots of time looking into different tones/shades and how that may impact the aesthetic of a sample. Although it may seem limited, the colour white is much broader than I thought. Working with white alone was difficult and slightly restricting so I expanded into more of a monochrome palette to achieve contrast. This allowed for more development in my samples and crisp shapes.

                Mohair was a big aspect in my work. Initially through first and second hand research, I found myself drawn to softer things and wanted to therefore expand on that more. A combination of mohair and wool allowed me to create a soft texture and surface; recreating the sensory aspect that I developed with some of my 3D drawings. If I had more time I would have liked to experiment with flocking onto my samples to reimagine the idea of 3D drawing.

                Working on two projects at once has, so far, been the most challenging thing I’ve done. I found myself really struggling with juggling the two, mostly in terms of time management.  The issues I’ve had have been due to my own organisation problems and partly to do with perhaps trying to take on too much at once i.e. working with a concept unfamiliar to me. Although I have been able to distinguish where the issues lay, it will take time for me to correct the mistakes in the future.  With this in mind, having the John Lewis brief alongside my self-initiated was almost a blessing. My design plans for the live brief were much more to my taste and what I naturally gravitate towards. Having both project on the go allowed me to almost merge them together, to create designs similar to what I know best but also have the ability to develop certain areas in terms of texture.

                I have learnt a lot from this unit about how I work, what I like and don’t like, and how I can improve as a designer. I most definitely lean towards squares and blocks which I will work with more and try to develop in the future in an exciting and innovative way. I would also like to revisit colour in a new project. Although I have enjoyed working with white I have missed playing with different colour combinations and think this is one of my strengths. 

Mon 12^th – Fri 16^th Feb, 2018

     This week was a struggle. I panicked that I didn’t have enough work for my self-initiated brief. Not only that but I didn’t know where to even begin. I found it really hard to pull myself out of this rut but eventually managed it by talking to various people who helped me see what I had to work with. After testing, sampling and doing lots of primary and secondary research, by Wednesday I had created lots more samples that I was quite proud of. I feel as though they reflect my research well. Although I veered off slightly from my initial intentions, I believe that I have met my brief and made samples that show motif design, texture and a well-developed understanding of the colour white. On reflection, the reason I had these issues was due to my own time management problems which came with having two projects at once. Now I have learnt from this I will apply the changes in the next unit. 

Mon 5^th – Fri 9^th Feb, 2018

     I cut off the loom early this week so that I could have a proper look at everything I had attempted so far. I knew that I had tried lots of different things and that none of it would really be cohesive, so by looking at everything together I could use what I’ve already made to try and create a collection. This worked really well for me as I was able to Photoshop elements of my samples together to create ideas for new ones. It also allowed me to see what I liked and worked and what didn’t. To my surprise I much prefer the samples with squares as opposed to motifs. This is something I want to carry forward  with the rest of my designs as I think it works the best, but it also links well to my research from Florence; which has heavily influenced my work since.

Mon 29^th Jan – Fri 2^nd Feb, 2018

                My main task this week was to make a good start with my weaving. The first half of the week was taken up with threading up my loom. After that I focused most of my time on creating peg plans from my drawings. I found this a very confusing task at first. Learning how double cloth works is a more difficult task than I had imagined. However, I am having a lot of fun experimenting on the loom and wrapping my head around the technical side of things. I have been able to recreate a lot of the shapes from my drawings on my loom and am pleased with the outcomes I am getting.

                When initially making my warps I had to swap my white yarn for a cream one which I was very unsure of. However having begun weaving I am finding that the cream is giving me a much more regal look than I had expected to get. 

Mon 22^nd – Sat 27^th Jan, 2017

                Throughout this week I spent most of my time in Florence; leading up to this I was making my warp. During this process there were a few changes that had to be made which caused things to take a little longer than I had anticipated.

                On Wednesday I travelled to Florence in preparation for Pitti Filati on the Friday. The entire trip was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. Florence was incredibly inspiring, both in general and in terms of my projects. There were a lot of things in the environment that linked to my regal starting points, but I also found the landscapes and buildings really beautiful. Although they aren’t necessarily regal I still think they are things I would like to use. In addition to this, I think I’ll be able to turn my drawings into more regal patterns which will be good for my live brief. 

Mon 15^th – Fri 19^th Jan, 2018

     To give myself more direction for my warp/weaving choices, I tried to focus more on my drawing to take elements from this to feed into my weaving decisions. While deciding on what to have for my warp I needed to focus on yarn quality that could be pulled from the textures in my drawings. I found this really difficult to do at first since I still think like a printer. Therefore finding things in my work to move forward with, that aren’t obvious, is really difficult; for me to connect. Baring this in mind I think I have made good, strong connections with my choice of yarn and why I chose it; considering things like touch, delicacy and colour.

                In addition to using drawings for warp choices, I have also been using them to influence what my samples might look like. In turn this affected my threading choices. Although still difficult due to how I think with my work, I have tried to simplify my earlier more intricate drawings to create something that could be transferred into weave. I feel as though adding in this extra step in the drawing process makes it easier for me to visualise what a woven sample could look like. This is something I intend to do more of throughout the project.

                I have had a better week in terms of drawings this week but still feel like I need more first-hand research. I feel as though I have been holding out for Florence since I know I will get lots of good stuff to work from there; but this has slightly hindered me in the progress I could have been making. Perhaps this is just me overthinking things, but I also didn’t want to draw things that weren’t relevant just for the sake of saying I’ve been drawing. After the Florence trip I hope to have lots more stuff to draw and work from to influence my samples, once I begin to weave.

                The John Lewis brief I feel has been slightly neglected this week. I have been so focused on my warp, which although needs to be done, has taken over most of my time. Therefore next week I hope to work more on my boards and what other separate direction I can maybe take with my live brief; or what my influence my self-initiated one. 

Colour Swatches - Shades of White