Evaluation of practice

Evaluation 

Over the course of the practice unit I feel that my work has finally developed in the right direction through weaving experience, and that I am now able to gain the outcomes that I want. My project concept was to visually explore my experiences in Morocco through cloth, focusing particularly on the bustling busy streets and vibrant colours. I wanted my work to feature an element of embroidery, and continue to illustrate my attention to detail and pattern making.

Initially, I began the year with samples that were just too simple for my liking. I don't feel that I understood how to create the samples that I had in my mind, whereas now through practice I feel I have become much more knowledgeable. At the beginning of the project, I had not yet worked out exactly where I wanted my work to sit; I knew I was working towards high end fashion but I wasn't entirely happy with designing for menswear; I wanted to push myself further. I originally designed quite a complex warp, and in hindsight this was a mistake as I chose a warp so difficult that it reduced my weaving time greatly. I don't feel that I was able to push myself to the full extent until I had almost reached the end of my warp where I became more experimental. 

My second collection I feel went far better than the first, which was extremely unexpected as I started off a bit shaky. In the end, I chose a sensible warp, 2 60's silk, which meant that I had far more time to experiment and even learn a new technique of extra weft. Having a strong warp, meant that I allowed myself time to test a lot; and at this point in the unit that was exactly what I felt I needed the most. I was determined to practice until I got better at the extra weft before I got too bogged down in producing samples that I wasn't happy with. I found that having this time to fully experiment made a huge difference and impacted my work greatly. I did a a lot of experimentation and tester strips and I focused on this rather than on the amount of samples I was producing. In the end I feel because of this, I produced much better outcomes and in fact Less was More. 

I began the Wallace Sewell Live Project with great enthusiasm as I thought it would be fun to be able to work for a different project. It intrigued me also to work from a painting as this was a new experience for me. However, in the seven weaving days that I had left, I did find it difficult to try and get to grips with wool so quickly. I tried not to panic and allowed myself time to experiment. I wanted to use the extra weft technique again as I wanted to practice using it as much as possible in order to develop my own practice. In the end I was relatively happy with the outcomes but I would have liked to have had an extra week to develop them more. 

Overall for the Practice Unit I am pleased with my progress and am excited about developing even further through Unit X. I am really pleased that I have finally got to grips with the extra weft technique, as I feel it relates well to the kind of quality I want my future samples to have. For the next unit, I am aiming to continue to design for the high end fashion market and look at also designing some very experimental collections for haute couture. 

Outward Facing Opportunities

Competitions/Live projects 

For the Practice unit it was important to engage with outward facing projects and make connections wherever possible through live briefs and competitions. During this unit, I feel I have engaged through several aspects. My main outward facing live project was set by Wallace and Sewell in which we were given the task to design for either their interiors or scarf collections. We were asked to develop ideas through sketchbook work and sampling; finishing with three final designs. I feel that taking part in this project has enabled me to learn about the restrictions of mills and the industrial weaving process. For the Practice Unit I have also produced work for the Bradford Textile Competition, where I designed and wove a sample based on Moroccan structures on the Jacquard.  As well as this, I have also been focusing more on entering competitions for publicity, and I have entered my work into Entityy Magazine and I have submitted work for the Ian Mankin competition. Additionally, throughout this unit I have created a portfolio on Linkedin and have been working on my creative CV.

I am still hoping to be able to gain work experience/ or an internship before the end of the year, and I have recently been engaging with Dries Van Noten and designers from Joseph in the hope of gaining a placement with a fashion house in the near future.

Bradford Textile Competition

Outward Facing Project  

From left to right: Close up of jacquard woven fabric. Initial drawing for the jacquard. My chosen colour palette. A visual suggestion for the context of my work. 

As part of the Practice Unit I am taking part in another outward facing project and have designed a sample and board for the Bradford Textile competition. In order to relate it to my current project, I have designed my woven jacquard sample based on my previous drawings of shapes from Moroccan landscapes. In order to change the look of the fabric, I wanted to try blending interesting yarns that I hadn't used before such as viscose, which I put next to a mohair. I also re designed a new colour palette and displayed a visualisation for the context of my work.

Pitti Immagine Filati

Pitti 

Inspiring fashion based knitted textiles found at Pitti 

Being able to attend the yarn fair in Florence was an eye opening experience like nothing I'd ever imagined. I gained a lot of insight into the outside textile world and became accustomed to the way a trade fair works. I really enjoyed that the yarn fair was based around a fashion context, and I saw many fabrics which have influenced my thinking. Below are some of the best fabrics that I found in relation to my own practice and how I see my practice developing in the future. As you can see from the images, all of the fabrics are extremely textural. I like the idea of the fabrics looking and feeling three dimensional and being able to stand out from the body. I think this is an area that I am going to think more about when designing for high end fashion, as flat surfaces may not be as striking on the catwalk. Pitti left me thinking about lots of possibilities for future fabrics and I intend to use these surfaces as inspiration for my future weaving.

RCA MA Graduates

Inspiring Collections/Processes/Concepts

I am interested in Luise Martin's knitted collections due to the inspiring surfaces she creates using structural qualities. In my own work, I would like to be able to create samples with structural surfaces similarly to the images seen below. Luise designs for high end womenswear, which is another reason I find her work interesting. Imagining the fabric on the body. 

I have found Julia Skliarova's work to be extremely influential. Julia's context is for high end fashion similarly to my own. The reason I find such interest in Julia's work is due to her interesting yarn choices as she works mostly by blending different weights of yarn on the jacquard. Her fabrics are further exaggerated by playing with contrasting properties such as stretch nylon and leather, or linen and crepe yarns, which result in samples looking three dimensional. It is this concept of play to introduce new ideas which appeals to me the most and is something I am looking forward to experimenting with further in Unit X. 

I wanted to write about Hana Mitsui's work because I found her concept so intriguing and it made me want to immediately try out the process. Hanna's concept is all about recycling and taking yarns from garments which have effectively been thrown away. She then redesigns new structures and re weaves the yarns in different combinations to completely re create fabrics. Additionally, I like Hanna's work  because it is targeting ethical awareness in the fashion world, which is something I want to later continue to study in depth when I go on to do my own MA. 

Left and top middle: Luise Martin knitted textiles, Bottom middle: Julia Skliarova Jacquard Woven textiles, Top right and bottom right: Hana Mitsui Woven Textiles

Collection | Three

Wallace Sewell Wool Collection

For my Wallace Sewell collection, I have composed my samples similarly to the composure of the painting I chose; by creating busy structures for the decorative edges of the scarf, mimicking the middle part of the painting. Like the outer calmer parts of the painting, I followed suit by  designing the middle section of my scarves with fewer colours and patterns running through them.

Close up of reversible samples

Designing for scarves meant that for the first time I had to think about reversibility; the scarf had to look good on both sides. This meant that when planning and designing on scotweave I had to be particularly cautious with my extra weft patterning, making sure that the back of the scarf had no loose floats or mess. Using extra weft, I was able to make a thick warm scarf with a bit of weight to it.

As I have never used wool before, I found the finishing process much more fun than the fabrics that I have previously made. I enjoyed testing the washing temperatures and finding out what the samples felt like after each wash; I also learnt how easy it is to over wash wool.
Whilst at the Wallace Sewell studio, we learnt that they take great pride in finishing their scarves and collections off to the best quality, and so I continued to finish my samples off by brushing, steaming and pressing them, as well as pearling the edges.
Below are two of my final designs, after the finishing processes have been completed and the edges pearled.

Suggestions of possible scarf designs 

Wallace Sewell

Live Project Brief

After our visit to the Wallace & Sewell studio in London, we were set a live project to design and sample for a Wallace Sewell collection of either scarves or interiors. Wallace Sewell have a reputation based on their use of vibrant colour and are famous for their scarf designs. Similarly to how Wallace & Sewell design, we were given the task of beginning our projects by first choosing a painting. One painting stuck in my mind, which was Victoria Horkan's Butterfly.  

I began working by drawing out shapes and structures from my chosen painting, I mostly looked at the soft nature of the brush strokes, and the shapes of the wings. I was interested in developing different structures to go with the circular shapes that I found, as well as looking at the fragmented lines and wings on the butterfly. I tested several colour combinations through gouache stripes and yarn wrappings, and I eventually developed my palette of 12 colours. Our brief restricted us to picking 12 colours only through the weft. I designed my warp based on a Knoll 2 17's Lambswool and I wanted to weave at 28 ends per inch in order to give my scarf a weighty comfortable feel. 

Victoria Horkan Butterfly Series 1 and 2. Development Drawings 

In terms of context, I have chosen to base my scarf designs on Wallace Sewell's Diffusion range, which is a range aimed at the lower end of the market in terms of price. I wanted to design for this collection in mind as I like the way the middle of the scarves remain relatively plain, whilst the edges are decorative and fun. The diffusion range is priced from £49 upwards and Wallace Sewell sell these scarves to clients such as Anthropologie. 

Wallace Sewell's Diffusion Range