Assignment 5 - Further reflections

My tutor asked me to expand a bit on my reflections of the work in assignment 5, she included some questions that may provide a useful starting point:

What are your thoughts on this body of work; blurred photo, drawings, colour palettes, collage and textile sample conclusion?  What did you learn about the design process? How did the drawing work affect your thinking?  Where did your ideas come from and how did you respond to them?  Was the final outcome what you expected, not just in regard to techniques but also in its aesthetic? 

I am relatively happy about the work I did in my ‘tree’ theme book, which contains various scribbely drawings, photographs of trees, both ‘straight’ and more experimental, responses to colour in mixes, some wool wraps and collages. (I had also included a sections on rugs used in interiors to show that the notion of the heavy woven cloth for interiors is still valid – although I did not look at where these things are made, they are more likely made in India and China to keep costs low; raising questions of tradition, fair trading and what happens with tapestry weaving in the West when such imports become more common) .

I was fundamentally inspired by the texts by Herman Hesse in a small book called ‘Trees’ – Bäume (in German) which contains some beautiful passages on his responses to trees and nature (see this post). I am interested in nature and natural things and the way we as a human race are affecting nature so dramatically. To contain the work I wanted to work on the tree theme, working in tapestry. 

My work is mainly experimental. I like to play with materials and with the technology of the camera and so some of the work in the theme books reflects this. I am not sure the drawing work directly influences what I do. I need to learn to look and so to draw more, but in fact when working with process the main point is the materials and the technique as starting points, although for the final pieces it was the photographs that directed the colour choices. You don’t always know where you are going with the work when responding to materials, but in the case of assignment 10 I knew I had limited time, I had decided to contain the work by using tapestry technique and used photographs to lead the colour decisions. 

Overall I believe I have already spoken of my inspiration (the theme book, the pictures) in various posts, but I might need to comment a bit on the final impressions of the pieces. Both the green piece and the flower piece are separate works with their own individual integrity. They are contained by their sides, although the green sample is more open and experimental in its expression, as it was a test-run of a technique I had only seen worked by others. The colours work well together and the green sample shows that using a coloured warp will help create interest both from the weaving and its structure. The final sample works as a sample and reflect my intended experiment with pulling the warp to tighten the weft, and it has resulted in something, which if mounted on a dark background, might even be seen as a final piece.

The blue sample with the flowers also works quite well. Again, it is a sample to try out sewing with the silk strips, and seeing how the smoothness of the silk against the textured woven background creates a sense of interest and tension that evokes the lightness of the petals against the hard ground on the photographs. Of the two samples this is the ‘pretty’ one, the flowers evoking white flowers in general, whilst the green sample is an abstracted sense of the green in leaves, just as the photograph indicated.

I enjoy photographing and considering colour. I do not necessarily contain the final piece in my head before it is made, althouh I sometimes do, and so the final sample may look incomplete as its function is to practice and work through thoughts. In both cases I think this has worked well, and I am content that they stand alone, each an expression of a particular mood, ‘Spring’ and ‘Summer’, density of leaves, lightness of petals, trees as element sof growth and change, affected by the seasons, the weather and how we see them.

Tex 1 - Assignment 5 - Theme book continued

I have tried to keep the theme book going while I was working on the tapestries. It now has sections on rugs in interiors, examples of trees and landscape painting, and a bit of art work I have been working, including colour matching and mixing exercises. 

Here are some examples of the contents:

 

 On the theme of gothic architexture as vertical 'tree'-like structures

 

Photographs and colour mixing tests

 Preparation for the spring-inspired tapestry piece, photographs and colour mixing

 A couple of scribbled flowers

Another page of the book looking at trees growing in a churchyard

I have quite liked working in the book, and will probably continue having a theme book running alongside my other workbooks. The tree theme has not yet been exhausted and there is plenty more to do on it. However I am running out of time on this project so will be submitting a book that has not yet been fully filled.

The 3rd and final piece I am developing as part of assignment 5 is the book cover for the theme book. This is not really the final piece, but more an addition to the theme book. I have used some phorographs from a beech wood, and a sketch I drew up based on one of these:

And here is the project in progress; I have been laying out strips of opaque fabric over some transparent, shiny organza, laid onto a dyed blue base fabric:

I sewed some suggestions of leaves onto the base and have placed the brown 'trunks' over them. I am planning more of these leaf suggestions, however first I need to do something about the trunks, which have only just been attached using automatic stitching from my machine:

So, this is clearly work in progress, and needs a lot more work to it, I am just hoping that I get it done in time - my course is coming to and end in February! You can see some cotton base fabrics, a bit of furnishing fabric (tree trunks) and organza to reflect light. Hopefully this enables some subtle contrasts in matt and shiny to lie close together to add interest to the surface.

I am reasonably satisfied with the final book cover. It fits well, the embroidery is not too thick and its looks good enough:

In sewing the 'tree' elements and 'leaf' details the fabric pulled together in places. I had ironed on some vilene on the back, but did not use a frame and so there was a bit of unintentional 'pleating'. However in the end these creases along the width of the piece have worked well, as they add to the texture, add some shadow effects and three-dimensionality to the surface. As the thing scrunched up I had to attach a 'frame to add to the size of it, and used some dyed cotton in a colour I hadn't really liked. The brown fits in with the tree theme, so that also has worked reasonably.

I used a lot of different green coloured threads (8 or more) and a slightly lower number of browns and green for the tree trunks (6 or a few more), a couple of areas had loose silk and other threads scattered and attached with stitchery to suggest more dense foliage. I like the idea of using the stitching both as line and as mass colouring and I used this across the applied fabrics. The pictures don't show the work off properly, it looks pale in the bright light, but is actually quite rich and glowing from the colours and organzas. 

I have submitted the work now, two days before the deadline for final submission of the whole course, and thin the book cover probably took a bit longer to make than I expected.

The cover folded over the book is held together by two strands of machine stitched cord. Closed together like this the tree theme is obscurred a bit by the framing fabric. I still think the verticality of the trunk theme continues though.

Textile 1 - Assignment 5 - A Piece of your own - Final reflections

Can you see a continuous thread of development from your original drawings and samples to the final designs? 

Of the two samples the first is the most spontaneous and impressionistic of the designs and follow in the same vein as my method of loosely photographing leaves and trees. I am quite satisfied that this way of working allowed for free choices of colour, with some determination of what would sit where, and trying out a new technique. In that way the final piece was really a sample, but I decided some time last year that I would make beautiful samples as much as possible, as partial samples lacking coherence leaves one a bit dissatisfied; and so in that way I think this piece was satisfactory.

The aim of the second sample was to be a more finished item. It was designed from a photograph I had altered, of magnolia flowers in the spring, where the pixels had been turned more blue than they could ever have been in reality. From these I selected various blends and placed areas of colour across the surface of the work. I knew this would become a background surface, so the designing was again fairly improvised, but the placement of coloured areas was much more controlled than the green sample had been. Choosing how the petals would be rendered took some thought and trying out. In the end I think this also worked as I could add petals and move them if they didn't quite fit.

The book cover is not really part of the final submission but has ended up being quite  substantial piece of work, so I am not how this fits in. It is machine embroidered so not a 'constructed textile'. It was good to make it, I wanted to try to make a book with properly sewn together sections and that has worked well as it proved itself as the theme book. I also like the size of the book and the final cover in its whole. I am less convinced when the book is folded up, although the cover does suggest something a bit precious lies within.

Do you feel you made the right decisions at each stage of the design process? If not, what changes would you make? 

The green sample would probably have benefitted from a bit more control of the greens I chose. For example, I could have chosen shades and tones of similar greens and yellows as in the photographs, but to be honest, I wanted a stronger contrast than just tonal variations, so I am not worried about the final selection.

I had a two month break from this work as I had exams to study for, for work. These types of breaks cut the creative continuity that I need to create a consistent piece of work. However, despite the break I had decided some time ago, when I was photographing trees and leaves, that I would have a go at the three dimensional technique and I think that was the right thing to do.

In terms of the second piece I in the end chose a different image to work on from what I had originally intended due to shortage of time. I worked directly from the photograph of the magnolia and a landscape from the early 20th century. I laid these on a table and then brought yarns across to the pictures and blended against the colours in the pictures. Then once the work was in progress I continued to blend, matching against the original colour selections, but here the design of the tapestry then changed to be one of weighing the balance of browns and blues, darker and lighter shades across the surface of the piece. Occasionally I had to undo certain areas if they became too dominant, created an imbalance or something was missing. I tried a few additional techniques such as wrapping over a single warp and in short sections across three warps, and I like how these break the surface up a bit and create a different texture to the weave. And I have to say, that I love the tapestry weaving process for the way the weave progresses, and when a certain amount has been built up I find myself stroking the surface, pulling at the edges and warps to adjust the width, checking the back and so on, I do enjoy the making and the materials and how these elements make a new thing.

If I had had more time I would have done more drawing work. I still haven't fully worked out how I figure-in drawing as part of my design technique. I like finding pictures of art from the history of art, painting, textile art and so on, and looking at the way for example landscape is rendered. I think that is very important to the way I look at colour and how I would like to think about my selection of techniques - this research seems to build up over time, some sort of inner pictures of what I would like to work on grow and intertwine, and they are then triggered when I look and feel materials for projects. I also thought that I might start using a felting machine and making small samples using that, as well as support these by wet felting and embroidery to enhance the design of the tapestries. That is, using these textile techniques in the design process before I start a piece. This is something I have just started working on - felting/fusing a black sample and then putting out a variety of black yarns and a certain pale minty greens on a table where I can walk past it and consider how this might work. This is then supplemented by looking at textile art on the web and in books, 1970s fibre art, embroidery by Junko Oki (I have just discovered and am absolutely fascinated by).

Were you able to interpret your ideas well within the techniques and materials you chose to work with? 

I am happy with the choices of materials. Wool, silk and linen are all natural materials and using second-hand or stash materials in the main, mean that I did not have to go out and purposefully buy new materials.

I have probably covered the answer to this question in the above answer.

How successful is your final design in terms of being inventive within the medium and coherent as a whole?

The first, green, sample was a test of a technique I had seen, but never woven before. It was new to me, but as it really was something Fiona Hutchinson uses I cannot claim to have invented it, although using greens and shades of brown to represent dappled light in leaves that was my take on it.

On the other hand I think that my use of fabric as suggesting petals on the Stellata piece was quite inventive, and had its roots in embroidery rather than weaving, as I think tapestry weavers in the traditional vein will normally seek suggestions in the weave structure rather than embellishing the surface.

In both cases the pieces are coherent, although placed next to each other they probably would not be seen as part of a meaningful series.

I have thought a bit about 'voice' in art. I look at some work and think how neat and precise some people's work are. Or some re-interpret similar themes many times over in similar techniques and seem never to tire of these, or others again work spatially, conceptually with esoteric themes (although I am tiring of the concepts of memory in textiles, this really has become a bit of a cliche of itself in some works I have seen - this will be seen as a bit philistine I know). Being a novice I think my 'voice' is just starting to develop. I think that in the end my work will have a certain heft that I have seen in some fibre art that uses heavier materials. In a way I am disappointed about that, I would love to be able to make small, fine stuff, but it simply is not part of my language and may never become so. I just need to accept whatever comes through the design developments I work on in the end.