L6 TIP

I have decided to participate in the Hand & Lock Embroidery brief as my first live brief. The brief is all about creating samples that demand to be touched putting texture at the fore-front and as the main means for sampling. I feel that this brief really suits my style and process of creating as I have always found texture to be an inspiring context for my work. I feel that this brief will really compliment my self directed brief as both outcomes will hopefully result in a textured body of sampling. I intend to participate in both briefs alongside each other as I feel that I will be able to learn things from each brief that could benefit the other as I go along. For the hand & lock brief, I feel that I will gather a lot of my inspiration from field research meaning that I will capture photographs and drawings from the textures that surround me. I hope that this brief will also become quite mixed media based in my sampling, especially considering as the brief asks that we c...

Context for the Brief Embroidery isn’t just meant to be seen, more often than not it demands to be touched. The textures made possible with embellishment should have the ability to deceive, confuse and fool the senses; looking coarse but feeling smooth, metallic to the eye but soft to the touch. In the trend bible Viewpoint (Issue 41) Trend watcher David Shah writes about ‘touch’ and ‘handle’ as key design imperatives for 2019. He speaks of the human desire to touch sumptuous surfaces and how designers should consider recycling old materials; re-purposed and removed from their original conception, transformed and re-imagined as something new. The Brief For the 2019 Brief the Hand & Lock Prize judges ask you to consider the texture and feel of your embroidery, to create an embellishments with a sumptuous surface that intrigues and surprises. Consider every surface and texture as your inspiration: concrete walls, woven rugs, cold steel, fake fur, old leather, f...

For my self directed brief, I want to focus on the art of protest and translating the idea of protest into my practice. I want to focus on acts of protest such as the motives that people may use as forms of disruptive protesting, such as rioting, burning things, shouting, damaging things or ruining things . I want to relate these forms of protest to the political and historical events of Northern Ireland, ranging from happenings from 'The Troubles', the recent collapse of our government, the idea of a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland due to the recent 'Brexit' talks, and also issues highlighting womens' rights, such as the right to abortion. I also want to highlight the disruptive elements of events that take place in Northern Irish culture such as 'The Twelfth of July'. I want this new body of work to reflect the juxtaposition of the beautiful aspects of Northern Ireland, and its disruptive politics, and sometimes disruptive culture, and...

Claire had a really useful session on planning our work and using the process of disruption to move our work on when we feel like we might be stuck in a period of a creative block. I found this idea of disruption really helpful for brainstorming how I might move current work on to produce something new, especially considering I intend on using my work from the 'Colour and Nature' to inspire my new body of work for my self directed brief. As established, I really enjoy the process of combining and collaging, therefore this is something I want to focus on to push my creative brainstorming for my new work. Claire talked about not being as precious with our creative process, and to consider this idea of disruption in our work, such as tearing things up to consider new compositions and almost 'destroying' it in a sense. In summary, we considered three things under 'disruption', these included: 1. Randomness 2. Systems 3. Meta Randomness  The idea that we sho...

I received some really positive and encouraging feedback from our practice presentations; I was happy to hear that my work had a flow to it, and that I had created a body of work that reflected my visual research and contexts. Originally, I had intended to leave most of this work behind and almost consider it as a finished brief, however after our presentation and the feedback that I had received I have now decided against this. My work was described as having a softness and fluidy to it, which was fantastic to hear, as I wanted to reflect such coarse imagery in a really soft and gentle light. Also, I had expressed during the presentation that I was concerned regarding my context, I was concerned that I was thinking too much like a fine artist, but I was reassured of this context. As we come to an end of this short three week brief, we are asked to decide whether we want to continue our ideas on to our next body of work or bring this part to a close. I want to use this gorgeous image...

I feel that I see my work being used as installation style pieces, or for gallery work. I have really enjoyed working on this small scale to allow me to experiment with many different processes and outcomes however I feel that if I push myself to work on a much larger scale this will bring a more obvious and greater context to my work. Working on a small scale has allowed me to focus on the finer and more intimate details of my work, but I want to push myself out of this comfort zone and onto more large scale pieces to allow my work to be visualised in an exhibition space or installation.

I decided to push the drawings that inspired the mark making for my samples, and to create some collages that would inspire further samples. These collages allowed me to consider the scale, composition and colour combinations used throughout my work. I pushed myself to churn out as many as possible so as to consider as many potential outcomes as possible. Through pursuing these collages, I have realised that I almost enjoy collaging with fabrics aswell, combining contrasting textures to create my outcomes.

Upon reflection, I have ditched the idea of working with only sustainable fabrics as I found that working with a range of fabrics would allow me to push my experiments further. To begin with I chose natural fabrics based on their texture and weight, considering which could be easily manipulated, dyed, collaged and transformed into something different, and also fabrics that would be suitable for tapestries or installation style pieces. In the end, I settled for linen, voile, felt, scrim and linen scrim and began dying them according to my finalised colour palettes, using the direct dyes. My intentions for the use of these natural fabrics was to begin some fabric manipulation style samples into my work, and to focus on the use of machine work in my practice. I wanted to ensure that I chose fabrics that were suitable for layering and almost collaging with; focusing on combining and creating grounds to work on. Furthermore, I also wanted to focus on creating a body of digital prints th...

Once I had completed selecting and dying my fabrics, I began considering ways in which I could begin translating the textures of the Northern Irish coast onto fabric. I have always enjoyed using the baby lock embellisher to pull other fabrics through onto each other, creating interesting textures, resulting in almost a new fabric. I began experimenting with the embellisher, pulling scrim through onto linen, and also putting voile through the embellisher which resulted in a really exciting outcome as it totally changed the aesthetic of this once soft, 'airy' fabric into something quite harsh and coarse. Furthermore, I began incorporating machine stitch into my work, using the domestic sewing machines; this was a really successful method for adding further texture and colours into my work. I also experimented with how heat may totally change the appearance of a fabric, running it through the embellisher and then into the heat press to allow it to hold creases, tears, wears and ...

At the beginning of a new project, I always find it inspiring to begin defining a working colour palette, however as my work develops I never limit myself to these colours. As colour also plays a significant role for this brief I wanted to ensure that a defined use of colour was present in my work. I began creating a range of colour palettes that I could work from, before limiting myself to a final three which I will attach to this post. I enjoy colour playing a defining role in my work and using it to inspire my prints, and methods of fabric dying. I also wanted to ensure that the colours I chose really reflected the natural beauty of the coast.

After I have accumulated a colour palette from any photographs I may have captured for a project, I next turn to drawing and mark-making to build a body of inspiration for a new project. Studying artists such as Alice Kettle, Hannah Woodman, Helen Terry and Anselm Kiefer, I wanted to use these artists' processes as inspiration for my own means of creating. All of these artists create very textured, mixed media based pieces through their work, whether it's through painting, textiles or embroidery. For my own visual research I began by painting, considering how I might make a mark and the tools I would use to produce these works.

As the context for my project is based in Northern Ireland, I was originally concerned that it may be difficult for me to gather a decent body of contextual and visual research as I don't often travel home. Over the Summer months I had some ideas surrounding the work I wanted to produce for my third year and I knew that I wanted the culture of Northern Ireland and Ireland to have a significant influences on this body of work. Therefore in preparation for this, I ensured that when I travelled home to visit family and friends that I dedicated some time to collecting a body of visual research to ensure that I had some of my own personal research; however in saying this I was concerned of how I would gather research as my project developed. To overcome this worry of not being able to gather an extensive amount of research, I decided to call out on social media for anyone that might have any photographs, journals, news paper clippings or information that might help me to gather visual...

My Brief For this brief, I have began to explore the beauty and colour that lies within Irish, in particular Northern Irish, coastal lines and landscapes. I intend to create a body of work exploring the texture that lies within these forms, and respond to this by attempting to translate these textures onto paper and fabric. I have created a number of colour palettes to work from, inspired by my visual research of the Northern Irish coast; I intend to take these colour palettes into the print room and begin dying fabrics such as linen and scrim to begin some experimental sampling. I want to experiment with different methods of creating texture, that I may then develop further throughout the year and use in the next on-coming projects as grounds for new work.

My Brief For this brief, I have began to explore the beauty and colour that lies within Irish, in particular Northern Irish, coastal lines and landscapes. I intend to create a body of work exploring the texture that lies within these forms, and respond to this by attempting to translate these textures onto paper and fabric. I have created a number of colour palettes to work from, inspired by my visual research of the Northern Irish coast; I intend to take these colour palettes into the print room and begin dying fabrics such as linen and scrim to begin some experimental sampling. I want to experiment with different methods of creating texture, that I may then develop further throughout the year and use in the next on-coming projects as grounds for new work.

For the colour and nature brief, I have decided to focus on the colour and textures found within the Northern Irish coast. I want to respond to this brief, by creating a body of work inspired by a series of images that I will collect, which reflect the beauty of the coast line. Through mixed media, and mark-making techniques, I hope to create a series of drawings, paintings and samples inspired by the textures found upon the rocks and grooves reflected within my images. I find that I am often intrigued by material sampling and fabric manipulation; I adore experimenting with multiple forms of media in order to produce my work. I also enjoy working within a refined colour palette, and this is something I hope will visually flow throughout my work within this brief. Drawing this inspiration from the coastline, I want to focus upon techniques that will allow me to recreate these textures upon fabric. I hope that these next three weeks will be extremely experimental and push me to...