Locating Unit Week 8

As usual, the last week of Locating has been a blur of final sampling, printing, mounting, and general frenzied finishing off.

Mouting mayhem.

My fist task of the week was screen printing some wallpaper samples. I had planned to do two or three A1 wallpaper prints. The week before, having learned to do a cut-through repeat, I made up a screen which I to use in the print room on Monday morning. Unfortunately, having not fully understood the cut-through repeat process, my screen ended up not working very well. I had cut through the motif, which made the design hard to match up when trying to align the screen. This meant that my samples were quite messy and miss-matched. Disappointed, but undeterred, I decided to go back in the print room on Wednesday. Although ultimately, my screen was not designed properly, I felt that if I worked more slowly and really considered where I placed it, I could at least get some less messy, if still miss-matched prints. The experience taught me to thoroughly practice making my repeat design on paper before committing it to screen, and to try and avoid cutting through motifs, so although it was a really frustrating thing to happen in the last week, I did learn how to do the process properly next time.

Cutting out designs in paper before designing digitally, something I need to do more of before making screens.

Doing two projects has been challenging but enjoyable. I feel that doing my self-initiated project and live brief simultaneously has been difficult and I if I could have done, I would rather have spent four weeks on one project and four weeks on the other. This became obvious to me in the last week when I was collating and reviewing all my work. I feel like I have only scratched the surface of each project and would love to take them both further. Perhaps if I hadn’t been switching between the two constantly, I would have been able to devote more intense time to each, rather than flitting between them. However, when going over my main mood board for FFF, I can see that updating this throughout the project and continually reviewing it has fed into my self-initiated project. I have been more analytical of my work during the unit, unlike in the past where I have tended to put my work away and not get it out and consider it as a body of work.

Mood board development.

A lot of this week involved finalising my digital wallpaper designs and getting them printed A1. This is another process which I hadn’t used before, and while it worked mostly well, some of the colours printed didn’t match the ones on the computer screen. This is another thing which I now know I need to leave time for so that I can resolve the issues before hand in.

I also continued sampling and developing collars for FFF this week. I made up my collar in various fabrics including calico, a stretchy linen, and synthetic materials which I then sublimated my own designs onto. This further incorporated the curves and movement theme of my research into my outcomes for my collar. I attached my 3D printed samples to my final collar, and although I need to practice stitching, as a work in progress I am pleased with it. I’m glad that I have been able to show development of fabric sampling and work on improving a relatively straightforward design, rather than trying something unachievably ambitious.

FFF collar development.

Overall, I have enjoyed the Locating unit and feel that I have learned more than in any other project. From pattern cutting to time management, this unit has given me a wealth of skills to carry forward. I can now deconstruct any garment to make a pattern and know that I need to have more distinct division of time when working on more than one project so I don’t get confused and overwhelmed. I can also design three-dimensional objects on CAD software, as well as much more. I will be sad to leave these projects behind as I feel like I could take them both a lot further but am looking forward to applying these new skills to different themes.