Weeks 5 and 6

Over the last fortnight I feel as thought my work for the floral geometry project has started to become a lot more cohesive. I have focused in more on the 'floral' side by choosing to look in more depth at lichen and growths on trees. I felt a bit hindered by the more obvious interpretations of the floral part of the brief, and have found that studying plant forms such as lichen and fungi, as opposed to literal representations of flowers has allowed me to explore colour and form in a more expressive and abstract way.

 

Watercolour painting inspired by lichen.

 Focusing on lichen in particular has led me to quite a muted colour palette with hints of more vibrant colours. for example, I have been using a lot of greys, browns and blues, interspersed with pops of more vibrant red/burgundy shades which I think has brought more interest to my colour scheme.

 

Lichen drawing in ink.

My colour scheme.

 

Using natural, earthy colours has led me to be more considerate about my use of fabrics and processes. I'm really keen to use lots of hands on, traditional methods in my work, and am also interested in sustainable design. With this in mind, I have been dyeing my own wool and fabrics which is something I was nervous about doing before this unit. The dye workshops have been extremely beneficial in making me less anxious about trying out new techniques and just giving them a go to see what happens.

 

Dyeing wool to felt with.

This week I have started felting which I absolutely love. The combination of traditional method and natural fibres really appeals to me and I don't mind that it can take quite a long time to get a sample which isn't that big. What's important to me is the human involvement required to make the felted samples, which gives them all a bespoke feel. Felting is one of my favourite processes because I find it fascinating how the unspun wool fibres can be bound together by rubbing using just soap and water.

 

First felted samples.

The group feedback session definitely helped me to have a much more productive fortnight than the weeks previous had been. Something I was lacking was a research file to help tie together my work and keep me on the right thread. I had been feeling a bit all over the place, not knowing what ideas to pursue and which to leave behind. Collating a file with all my research imagery and some digital design developments I feel has had a strong impact on my productivity and work output.

 

I also feel that I have started to take more risks and be more experimental recently. Instead of just screen printing with pigment dye straight onto a white fabric, I have tried mono-printing, transfer printing with disperse dyes, knitting samples and felting. I feel encouraged by this sudden increase in confidence, and hope to develop my work in the last two weeks with printing techniques such as discharge printing, mono-printing onto textured paper, laser cutting to name a few.

 

Ultimately, I feel that this project has started to come together over the last two weeks and I'm now at a stage where I feel confident enough to try something new and see what happens, without worrying about creating something 'perfect'. I'm definitely going to be placing more importance on quality over quantity for the remainder of the project too, and I'll do this by planning my samples carefully before I go in the print room, now that I have had plenty of time to experiment.