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

Mon 8^th – Fri 12^th Jan, 2018

                In the past week I have found that for my self-initiated project I really needed some direction. For my live brief I have gone in the direction of quite regal patterns and designs, so Lesley suggested that I let my live brief influence my self-initiated brief for a new direction to go in to draw with. This has really helped me start to think about the idea of regal and what it actually is. Although I also still feel like what I’m drawing isn’t massively working with my project yet. I feel as though it doesn’t quite fit into place. Perhaps I need to look down a different area of what can be considered regal, which I may find more inspiring.

                I may be struggling with the direction since I am focusing more on what I intend to weave and thinking about my warp. I am struggling with how to translate my drawings into peg plans and deciding how, technically, this will actually work. Maybe this is due to me doing double cloth, something which I have never done before, so I can’t really picture how it will all work. Hopefully once I get on the looms everything will become much clearer and I won’t be struggling as much with how it all links together. 

Christmas Holidays

                Over Christmas I began to create both 2D and 3D drawings to try and look at texture from different perspectives. The 2D drawings were my first focus since I had planned to use these as potential digital patterns for my live brief. I first focused on just texture alone that I found around me since I was struggling to find much that was also white. Therefore I made sure that I thought about colour with the actual drawing.

                Next I wanted to try larger, 3D drawings creating my own textures. My aim was to make drawings that made you want to touch them. Since returning to Uni I have found that I was successful in my endeavour. I tried to create a variety of different textures, using a list of textured words that I had made to work from. I think a lot of the drawings were really successful in showing these words but unfortunately I don’t have much direction after this and am unsure now of where to take my drawings in relation to weaving. Because of this I feel as though my drawings still need a lot of development and refinement.