Week By Week Log - Final Major Project

Week 1-

Mainly this week, I’ve been focusing on generating ideas and coming to a conclusion of what I wish to focus on. Therefore I’ve been mind mapping, producing rubbings, collecting materials, visiting places for inspiration to help spark ideas such as the Fashion and Textile Museum in London and a variety of gardens to complete observational drawings. 

The Fashion and Textile Museum featured work from Wallace Swell – who designed the interior textiles for transport in London. The designs were inspired by the environment which is London. The artists kept a sketchbook and completed observational studies from different places in London focusing on the shapes and colours. Using these studies the two created the designs in reflection to what they saw. In Barcelona I kept a very detailed travel journal of my time there. This has inspired me to look back through the book and perhaps use that trip as a starting point for my final project.

So far I think that I mainly want to focus on nature and the texture and colours of plants and natural forms within my surrounding environments. I know that this idea will gradually develop and perhaps even change but for the meantime I will be completing a lot of primary observations mainly of plants looking at their colour and shape. A possible idea that I am also exploring is looking at three contrasting environments (Cambridge, London and Barcelona) and creating textile pieces that reflect those environments. I’ve started to explore this idea already through mini sketchbooks. From my trip to Barcelona I have already compiled a sketchbook so this week I aimed to produce one for both Cambridge and London.

The drawings I have produced have been very simple using basic linear line work as when producing observational drawings I prefer to focus on capturing the shapes of the subject. Perhaps they could have been more detailed to help with further development but I made sure to take a wide range of to help with that.

At the end of this first week I feel that I have been productive with generating ideas and producing drawings although I feel that more could have been done in this first week such as looking at possible artists to help generate more ideas but I am happy with the amount of work and the quality that I have produced.  

Week 2 -

Started this week with talking to my peers about my project and ideas this helped me to think about what areas I need to focus on to start my project. They noted that perhaps I needed to complete some larger scale drawings as primarily I have stuck to just using my sketchbook so far so this week I aimed to create larger line drawings that were more detailed than those completed in my sketchbook. For the drawings I did have to use my photos that I took while visiting the places but that helped to create more detail.

This week I also started to think and explore the different processes that I may want to experiment with during the stages of development. Pintrest was a very good source of information also allowing me to keep all my ideas in one place. It’s also been a very good source for finding artists such as laser cutters and artists that work 3 dimensionally. This week I’ve been compiling these artists that I have found and have started to create a research folder which I will add to throughout this project. 

To start to inform my ideas I collected natural materials from around the grounds at the college such as grass and twigs. I began by seeing how these materials could be manipulated into different shapes which lead me to create 4 small sculptures. For each one I aimed to make these materials that would previously be over looked to be aesthetically pleasing. To achieve this I wrapped grass around twigs, winded thin bits of bark around negative spaces and I ended up being really pleased with the final outcomes. I then photographed the sculptures. I found that they created really interesting shadows when using directional lighting. The shadows themselves made for really interesting compositions and to develop my work I could use the shadows as a starting point.   I’m not sure that that this is a technique that I will be using a again but it’s opened my mind to creating sculptures as my ideas develop.

Week 3 –

This week I began by looking at the facilities that I have available to me in the college, I also spoke to staff members about my ideas and got some suggestions on materials to test out and purchase. Laser cutting acrylic and wood is something that I am interested in experimenting with. The materials that have been suggested to me are MDF and plywood, looking into the materials they are very effective materials when used with the laser cutter and they aren’t too thick to cut, making them easier to work with. I’ve also been suggested the material Calico which laser cuts very well and creates a dark brown burnt effect that sounds very interesting. Over the next few weeks I shall we experimenting with these materials.

With the help group tutorial talking about our ideas so far, I have developed the idea of just focusing on the market that we visited when in Barcelona and the three contrasting environments maybe too broad and I may not develop an effective outcome as my time is focused between three places. The idea discussed was that I use my images and drawings of the market and focus on the textures, colour and smells of the market. I should use each fruit and create small scale textile pieces focusing on the texture and colour and create my own ‘Market Stall’. This idea sounds really exciting as it allows me to use a variety of different materials. Initially I am thinking that the pieces will be very abstract and the viewer will not know what they are, but the setting of the market will make that clearer. I want to capture to need to touch and feel the vibrant fruit and vegetables at the market in my own work; I want the viewer to want to touch my work. I may also explore the idea of the viewer being able to take something away from my installation.

From this group tutorial I then went and visited the market in Cambridge to strengthen my primary research. I took images of the setting of the market by also close ups on the fruit and vegetables to capture the texture of them. I produced a large amount of primary observational drawings from this visit and I found it extremely useful.

I spent the rest of the week drawing from my photographs that I took at the market. My drawings were very loose and I experimented with a range of materials but also with colour. I feel that I now have a good body of primary research to work from.

Week 4 –

I started this week off by creating mod rock casts of broccoli, pepper and an avocado and the skin of these foods looks very interesting. The broccoli was the most successful cast produced as the small details of the texture was captured very well. The casts look very delicate due to their size and you are forced to look closely at the cast, forcing you to pick it up, to see this texture. The cast that didn’t work as well was the paper. The dents on the skin weren’t picked up and the cast its self wasn’t very strong and did fall apart. However, I did like the marks left on the pepper from the mod rock. It added an interesting texture to the skin. I later painted the casts with vibrant and strong colours in reflection to how artificial the food looks when in a market situation. The colour helped the casts to stand out as they are very small. To develop this further I may take the broccoli casts and try and put the texture of the buds back onto the casts. I plan to look into this further.

To capture the texture of the fruit and vegetables I have been looking closely at my photos and still life that I bought into college. I have loosely drawn out the textures using different drawing materials such as ink and graphite to create some basic shapes. Looking closely at the food I can see that the textures and ‘designs’ of the skins are very geometric and abstract and looking at just the designs you wouldn’t know what you may be looking at which I find a really interesting concept. To get more detailed drawings of the different textures I have used tracing paper over the pictures to capture perfectly the different shapes. I have now developed the different motives that I will be working from while experimenting with different materials.

Week 5 –

I’ve started to develop these design motives that I have been creating from my images. My first material that I have been experimenting with has been paper and I’ve been creating paper stencils using these shapes cutting away the negative space. I really like the effect that stencils create as they can be layered up and, as the paper is thin, the different designs and shapes can clearly be seen. This stencil idea is defiantly something that I want to experiment with and develop further.

I’ve also experimented with using emulsion paint and ink to start creating interesting textures. Having worked with emulsion before I knew that the medium was extremely versatile and could be applied thinly but also built up to create really interesting textures. I experimented with creating different surfaces to put the emulsion on which I thought could be used to create the shapes of the skin on the fruit and vegetables. I used paper, tissue paper and sand to build up layers on which I applied the paint. I found that the tissue paper worked best when building up the layers as the moisture from the paint was socked up which created a shrunken effect to the paint leaving an interesting texture.  I found that drying the emulsion using the heat gun also created an interesting texture as it allowed the paint to crack. Overall I liked the effect that the combination of mediums created and I plan to perhaps create 3 large scale emulsion drawings using tissue paper to create the surfaces and the different shapes.

Week 6 –

Over the weekend I came to the conclusion that trying to represent each fruit and vegetable in a different way is perhaps too much work to produce in a short time frame (considering I am on week 6 already). I’ve decided to look at the two design motifs that I am most interested in, the skin of an orange and the leaves around a cauliflower. I want to focus on just these so that I can fully develop an idea rather than spreading my focus over too many things. So far my idea has changed multiple times over the last weeks but I feel that now I am developing a stronger idea.

I’ve developed these motifs into basic line drawings which I have scanned and put into Photoshop where I experimented with layering the shapes, playing with inverting the colours, the contrast and the types of lighting.  I created 8 strong digital designs that I think look extremely modern and have a lot of scope to be put into context such as interior furnishings. I do feel that the work I am producing so far is very dark as I’ve mainly just being doing line work which means my images have a monochrome colour scheme. To improve this I want to focus on making a colour pallet over the next week.

This week ended with a peer review which I found extremely motivating and helpful, I find it really helps me to talk to other members of my class so that I can get another opinion on my work and also look at their sketchbooks and ideas which helps to generate mine. Overall it was very positive yet the majority said that I am really lacking in artist research and analysis into their work. This is something that I am going to be working on coming into the next week as my artist research isn’t as strong as I would like it to be. More in depth research will help to push my ideas further.

Week 7-

This week has been a massive turning point for me as I am now gradually becoming more confident with my ideas and what I would like to produce. The stencilling idea is something that I really want to push with my work therefore this week I dedicated to experimenting with different materials to make these stencils.

So far I feel that my work is very contemporary as my main focus has been on using a monochrome colour pallet. I feel that I have gravitated towards this scheme as my main focus has been on the design and structure of my shapes. I do like this concept as the viewers focus won’t be on colour which detracts further away from the idea that my designs have been based on the skins of fruit and vegetables. This makes my work more abstract which I like. However I don’t want my work to look boring and be overlooked.

Therefore, I started the week off by looking into colour.

Using the paint dropper tool in Photoshop I looked at the different tones and colours that were in my images that I took from the market in Barcelona and Cambridge. I then used acrylic paint to develop this pallet further. I now have a colour pallet to work with for my designs. The colours that I have chosen are muted and not extremely vibrant which I believe will allow the focus to still be on the shape and structure. I added some colour to the digital designs that I produced on Photoshop. I found that the colours I have used work better with the more grey scale designs.

To contextualise these designs that I have created I have created a range of cushion designs using Photoshop. I am really happy with how these designs have turned out. The lighter designs that I created have defiantly been the more successful designs in comparison to the darker backgrounds although I do like them with some injection of colour. Taking the grey background cushions I have developed two designs that I want create cushions from. I’m really excited by the prospect of creating the cushions as it will show that my abstract designs can be used in everyday life. Currently I am looking into ways that I can print my designs onto the fabric and the most effective way to do so would be using Screen Printing. I need to look into this further before I come to a final idea.

Developing my stencil idea, I firstly have experimented with the hot glue gun. I created the motifs that I have drawn with the glue and created small scale sculptures. This was inspired by me previously creating small scale sculptures out of natural materials within the first week of this project. Like those sculptures these glue stencils created extremely interesting shadows which looked nothing like the glue. The shapes created were very abstract. The light also picked up the different transparent qualities of the glue which I think adds to the pictures. The thicker areas don’t allow light through and you can also see the bubbles within parts of the glue which. When editing the photos I was able to increase the darkness of the shadows which made the look even more abstract.

This week I wanted to start with my laser cutting samples, so to start I created illustrator files in which I created different motifs to work from, each one using geometric shapes. I started by experimenting with wood (MDF and ply). Through the sampling I found that MDF was the most successful as the plywood was too thick and the laser didn’t cut completely through the wood. Although I did like the burnt surface that it created as the deep brown compliments the colour of the wood. I’m going to purchase some 3mm MDF and laser cut some of my designs into it. Like the paper stencils, I want to layer up my designs to create interesting compositions.

The next materials I experimented with were acrylic (3mm and 5mm). The 3mm acrylic worked best as, like the wood, some of the parts of the design didn’t go through completely which only left an etched pattern. In comparison to the wood, I feel that the more detailed designs work better (the more simple designs for the wood) due to the qualities and thickness of the acrylic. When layering up my designs I like how to contrasting colours make the designs more visible. I have purchased 3 different colours of A3 3mm acrylic sheets (orange, green and white). The colours chosen reflect the skin of which the fruit or veg I was looking at and then the white I thought would break up the colour nicely.

Going into next week I shall be creating my final illustrator files to decide on stencil designs for both materials.

I also began to make progress with making the cushions. I began by sourcing materials (canvas bags, pillow cases and cushion inserts). I plan to print my designs onto the canvas, and screen printing seems to be the most effective way of doing that. The different forms of screen printing I have looked into are using chemicals to put my designs onto screens and creating stencils. I think the best process to use for screen printing out be creating stencils as with the photographic screens, I would have to have a lot of screens for each layer. Creating the stencils is more time consuming but will be a lot easier.

Week 8 –

To develop my stencil idea, I have experimented with clay.  With the clay I aimed to cut out shapes taken from my observational drawings of the cabbages shape. I mainly took inspiration from Gaudi’s clay tiles as he was mainly inspired by natural forms and the designs and shapes he used were very simple.  Before I got the clay fired I really liked how there was an interesting texture left on the clay from the newspaper that it was placed onto as only parts of the design was covered in it. It will be interesting to see if that texture is still visible once fired. To put the clay into the kiln I placed it on top of some newspaper and I really liked the layered effect and being able to see the image underneath. This has inspired me to experiment with layering my stencils over images and my drawings.

Last week I was gathering materials to use as samples for my screen printings. The base of the design is grey so I started to experiment with dying the fabrics to get the ideal colour. I started by dying a piece of fabric for 45 minutes (the timing suggested on the packet) this colour was far too dark therefore I then dyed a different piece of fabric for 5, 10, 15 and then 30 minutes. The best result that I found was dying the fabric for 5 minutes, yes the result is very light but after another 5 minutes (10) the colour is very patchy.  

Developing from my laser cut designs and inspiration from artists that I have looked at I experimented with laser cutting calico. Firstly I experimented with different settings for power and speed 60-75 only etched parts of the fabric so I increased the speed to 75-3 which etched and also cut out parts of the calico. I really like the effect that laser cutting the calico gives. I like how only some parts of the fabric have been cut away then some only partly so parts hang off the fabric. I don’t think that calico really reflects the rigid shape and hard texture of the cabbage so I don’t think that I will be experimenting with calico any further but I do like the effect that it gives.

The next material I decided to experiment with was felt. Structurally, felt is stiffer and keeps its shape therefore I felt the fabric resembles cabbage more than calico. I experimented with cutting detailed small designs into the felt and then larger cut out sections to see what worked best with the felt. I found that the larger laser cut designs worked better with the felt in comparison. 

I then went on to utilise the laser cut wood and acrylic pieces from laser cut samples that I had previously created. Combining the wood with the acrylic creates contrasting textures. The geometric squares that I made look really interesting layered over the top of my images and laser cut acrylic. These squares would add an interesting element to my stencil design breaking up the shapes.

I finished off the week by completing my sample fabrics for screen printing. I experimented with 5 samples (3 different fabrics then 2 colours of which were dyed) the material that I intended used for this process didn’t work as well as I intended to. Due to the quality of the material it shrunk when dying and then became very difficult to iron which meant that the overall effect wasn’t very successful and it didn’t look as good. The best material that I experimented with was of a higher cotton percentage. Moving forward I will be purchasing a fabric that is of a higher cotton percentage in the hope that is dyes a lot better.

Week 9 –

This week I have decided to start experimenting further with printing. Using the scraps left from my laser cutting I created block prints reflecting the shape of the cabbage. To create the prints I used a mixture of printing ink and black acrylic paint and I found that the black acrylic paint worked a lot better than the printing ink as the paint left an interesting texture. Some parts paint didn’t get picked up when being pressed and left this ‘bleeding’ effect. I found the best technique was to thinly apply the paint to the blocks and press using a roller as it created a more faint/outline design.

To develop the prints I then experimented with the surface that I printed onto. The best fabric I found worked best was a thin calico and then a white shirt. I like how the colour was picked up and created this powdered effect. I also found that curtain liner worked extremely well as it made the print look out of focus. This layered up with a plain white piece created a really interesting composition.

I then took the prints to Photoshop and experimented with layering up the prints changing the opacity, filters and adding colour to the compositions. Due to the different textures created from the paint combined with the surfaces when it came to the digital edits, each is very unique. Similar to a lot of my other work for this project, negative space is still very much apparent within the prints.

Currently I don’t know how I will take these prints further within my work. 

Inspired by Sagrada Familia Catherdral in Barcelona, I experimented with positioning my stencils to create shadows just like how the pillars created shapes on the floor. I layered up my stencils making some flat and others slightly tilted and used 2 directional lights to cast onto my compositions. I really like the shapes that were cast layered up with the hard wood stencils; it adds some sensitivity to this hard material and also adds some depth to the composition. To create a similar effect with my final stencil composition I could layer up the wood using small cut pieces underneath to add layers to something that would be extremely flat. I will look into this further.

Week 9 -

For this week I wanted to experiment with different ways that I could capture the shapes of the cabbage leaf. As I have experimented with mod rock previously in this project I decided to experiment with using plaster to create some small scale plaster casts. The casts I produced are extremely fragile and they break very easily into small pieces which makes them very difficult to work with. With the ones that weren’t too broken to use I created small scale mosaics out of the casts arranging the different shapes to create my own plaster leaf of the cabbage. I really like the pale colour of the casts which complements my work as mainly I have been focusing on shapes rather than the colour. The neutral tone also detracts from what the objects are making my work more abstract. I may experiment with making the casts thicker, if I choose to push the casts further, as it may possibly make them less breakable.

I need to begin making my final stencil towards the end of next week so I began to think about the placement of my stencils and how I want the overall composition to look. Layering up the stencils to have as much negative space as possible I feel would be the most effective as it would work best with the shadows. At this point I am yet to laser cut my acrylic stencils. I plan to have those stencils central and then the wood coming out away from them. These stencils I also plan to combine with my laser cut wooden squares with images underneath and my laser cut felt. These stencils combined with the shadows I think will make a really modern composition; it will look abstract and visually interesting. The stencil will be my main final piece alongside the cushions (also inspired by the shapes in a cabbage leaf) that I will begin making within the next two weeks.

Week 10-

After talking to my peers in a group tutorial I have started to explore the idea of creating a sculpture. At the start of the process I did test the idea with making small scale sculptures using natural materials I found within my college grounds. I feel that creating a sculpture may help to push my ideas/grade further therefore making my project a lot stronger and more thought out. We discussed the ideas of using paper/incorporating images of my work into the sculpture but also the use of wood and plastic. The idea of creating large cabbages sounds very interesting although I do want them to be abstract and not clear as to what they are.

Starting off with this idea I created small scale paper maquettes out of the image that I have been looking at as a basis for my work. Cutting holes into the shapes and weaving them together created these abstract linear designs. I like how effortlessly they look and how the different negative spaces and shapes blend into one linear shape.

I need to think about how practical this idea is/how I can develop it. I need to consider how this would work out doors due to the weather.

Week 11-

For the contextualisation aspect of my project I have decided to create cushions from my digital designs in response to my observational drawings of the shape and texture of an orange and the cabbage. Through peer reviews and group tutorials I became aware of the importance keeping designs modern and more innovative and not always to go for the most obvious outcome. Therefore I began the week by re thinking the shape of my cushions by looking back through my sketchbooks and deciding on a more abstract shape. I decided on a 6 sided shape from a segment of the cabbage. This shape will make my cushion design more interesting therefore pushing my work further.

As this shape is more complicated than an average square cushion I made a mock up design so that I could get my head around the shapes needed to construct the cushion. I didn’t want to go straight into making the cushion using the fabric that I dyed just incase I made a mistake.

Week 12-

This week I continued making the final cushions.

Week 13-

This week my main focus has been collecting the materials I need for my wall stencil and constructing it. I needed a material to stick my stencil to. I’m aware that placing it onto wood will be extremely heavy but sticking these stencils onto a material like mount card would just look too flimsy and not as professional. I therefore went ahead and purchased a wooden board to stick my composition onto. I need to think about how I will present this board for my exhibition as we aren’t allowed to drill holes into the exhibition boards which does make hanging my heavy final piece very difficult.

From previous weeks I have experimented with layering my stencils to create shadows inspired by the pillars in the Sagrada Familia Catherdral in Barcelona which was designed by Gaudi. To create this effect and looking back on previous composition designs I layered up the stencils using small pieces of cut wood. I painted them white using emulsion along with the board to help the different layers blend together. I also experimented with using different shades of wood stain. Staining the wood I thought would make the colour more interesting therefore showing that I have thought about all the aspects of my design.

As I want to consider lighting for my final stencil, once constructing the stencil I proceeded to take images of it with the use of directional lights. As the church is quite dark inside, I think the use of warm lighting will work best and accompany the atmosphere and setting very well (in comparison to a bright white light. I need to look into purchasing the lights.

Week 14-

For this final week my main focus is completing all of my work and also finding a final outcome for my sculpture idea as so far I have found this very difficult to come up with an effective design. I have also used this week to mock up my idea through drawing and photoshop.

To hang my stencil I had to consider the weight and the most effective way for it to be hung (as we aren’t able to make holes in the exhibition boards. Mocking up designs I came up with the solution of creating a wooden ‘hat’ to slot ontop of the exhibition board in which I will be able to screw my hooks in to hold it up. I found this would be the most effective and strongest solution.