Summer Project: Temporary Patterns

For my summer project, I have chosen to look at the temporary patterns created by the sea.

At the end of second year, I felt that I had been overthinking my work and overdoing it somewhat by forcing myself to try lots of different techniques without really considering outcomes. Whilst I find it really important to embrace the process of making without fixating on a particular final piece, I didn’t want to be just experimenting with endless processes for the sake of it.

With this in mind, I began the first task of evaluating my work done throughout the course so far. When it came to selecting work to inspire my latest project, I was most drawn to pieces with a subtle, blue/green colour scheme, slightly abstract designs and techniques which I have come to really enjoy over the last year including paper cutting and designing with paper, felting and embroidery. I also noticed that I was drawn to tactile objects and diverse materials, from Perspex to felt and concrete.

A few of the pieces I was most inspired by for my new project.

With these pieces chosen I set about trying to establish a theme for my new project. I was feeling stuck, but knew that I wanted to focus on the process of making to produce work which told a story and invited the viewer to interact with the materials. I also wanted to return to a simpler way of working, responding intuitively to imagery.

During a trip to the Northumberland coast, I became fascinated with the patterns left by the sea on the beach. I visited a beach with my family which we have been going to for ten years, and I was also intrigued to see the way the beach had changed in that time. Huge concrete blocks which had been concealed by sand were now visible obstructions along the seafront. It was this that inspired me to investigate temporary patterns.

Some primary research/inspiration from the beach.

Whilst on the visit, I returned to the beach several times to gather photos for primary research. I plan to study the photos and draw from them at first, then respond to them with fabric and other drawing materials, creating tactile samples as well as drawing and print work.

As my inspiration is drawn heavily from nature, I would like to focus on sustainability in design and traditional processes, especially dyeing fabric using fruit and vegetables and things gathered from nature such as berries.

At this point, I see myself working a lot with embroidery and using dissolvable fabric to create samples which flow and undulate, from which I can draw to inspire new patterns and designs.

I would also like to challenge myself to stick to a relatively subtle colour palette limited to the greens, greys, blues and sandy tones found by the sea, however I find this so hard as I am always distracted by new colours so expect to deviate somewhat!