Evaluation of Locating

I have found this unit quite challenging in a number of ways. I found the time frames of the live brief were quite tight and the turn around from beginning to end was at a much quicker pace than what I am used to working at. This has however, taught me to work to a high standard at a high rate and I feel that this is good preparation for the future.

Working to a live brief for knitwear label, Leutton Postle, was also a challenge. As a brand, they work using bright colours, contrasting texture and in a very expressive way. This is very different to the way that I usually work and this immediately put me outside of my comfort zone. With a different way of working and a very small amount of time to create my samples, I felt as though I was floundering a little.

When it came to the crit, I felt even more disheartened. The criticism that I did receive did not seem to be constructive and there were no comments on how the samples could be improved. This made it difficult to extract some things that I felt personally went well and worked to carry through to my personal project.

I decided eventually that I liked the blend of textures and unusual combinations of fabrics and yarns and that this was something that could be refined and developed for the upcoming personal project.

By this point, time again appeared to be working against me and I felt rushed and began panicking. I did eventually begin work on my personal project, focussing on bones as a starting point. Visiting the musuem for research was an interesting experience and I did learn that trips like those must be booked in advance, organisation is vital.

 I feel that my photographs from this part of the project are a particularly strong aspect of my work. I think capturing the detail was important and they have filtered through into the sampling process. Developing these photographs further, I also found the microscope images to be really strong too.

The photographs allowed me to venture into the hidden aesthetic of bones. It allowed me to see the irregular surface and edges of the bones, as well as extract marks and colours that I felt were the most beautiful from the photographs and that I would like to work with and develop them into knitting samples.

 

The short amount of time that was left for sampling has taught me that I can produce a large volume of work in a short amount of time. I have struggled at times, however I have still made time to experiment and try new things.

 

If I was to do this unit again, I would most definitely try and develop my samples as garment shapes, in order to see how they would look if they were used for their intended purpose. I also want to work on my garment construction skills as this is something that I find interesting.

 





Overall, my samples have turned out quite well. There was an element of designing on the spot involved. This was due to a small amount of time given for sampling, however this has surprisingly produced some lovely things. I have experimented with technique, blending yarn and colour and I think that they work well. I am more pleased with my efforts and keeping my head above water, even when I felt like I was struggling with time management.

 

 

Visualisations of context

 I decided that the best way to attempt showing my samples in their intended context would be to photograph the samples pinned to a mannequin.

I was slightly apprehensive about trying to manipulate my samples into shapes that represented my samples in the way that I wanted them to look. I tried out several combinations with each of the samples but only decided that a small number of these worked.

I am pleased with the samples themselves, however I feel that these visualisations may work better if the samples were created more with the body in mind and were created in the shapes of blocks so that the intended use of the sample could be visually realised.



I spoke to Sue after taking the photographs and discussing the difficulties of pinning them to a mannequin in a shape that is not appropriate. She understood the difficulties that I had and suggested that in the future it may be better to work using the blocks to shape the samples. She informed me that she worked to an 8th scale (creating samples to the 8th of the intended size) as she did when she was a freelance knitwear designer. It all makes perfect sense now and I feel that the next unit will be a good oppertunity to explore silhouette further and to also brush up on my shaping skills to create sleeves, front panels etc.

 Although I do not feel that these photographs work as well as they could, I feel that the samples would work well in a fashion context, if they were given the shapes that they needed in order to hang beautifully on the body.

Final samples

Due to time constraints, I only had time to knit with the intent of using them as final samples. I decided to really pay attention to detail and experimentation throughout and felt that this should be a consistent feature throughout the collection of samples.

The image (left) shows a sample that I created by using the pockets technique on the dubied. Rather than knitting the entire sample with pockets, I decided to experiment and transferred some sections to the back bed, knitted the whole sample as double bed, therefore creating some areas with pockets (which I stuffed with mohair) and some areas knitted with floats instead of pockets. I was so pleased that the sample worked as it was a stab in the dark and an experiment. I think the overall look of this particular sample is one of the strongest that I produced.

I also created a sample that involved transferring stitches to the back bed and pushing the needles out of action, creating areas of large ladders/floats. This was a particularly time consuming and tedious sample to complete as you had to knit each row very slowly and cautiously to ensure that the feeder was introducing the yarn to the needles where it should be. That being said, I am really pleased with the outcome. The shimmery black yarn contrasts well with the cream/pink main yarn.

 The structural yet free moving nature of the technique creates a soft/strong looking fabric.

I have also featured closer photographs of samples that I also felt worked the best. I had used techniques such as dropstitch to create an irregular shape to some of my samples. I also feel that the reversible circles technique (used on both above images) creates an interesting surface, representing the texture of the bones photographs well.

Identifying colour and mood

 

I took this part of the project to identify the colour palette of my collection. I had extracted this from my photographs and practical work and decided to work with cream tones, khaki, deep rich browns and blacks. I felt that this would work well, particularly if I chose yarns that were a spectrum of textures that could intereact with one and other.

I also put together a mood/story board that indicates my main images of inspiration. I think that the clean and minimalistic format of the boards works and looks professional. They are clear, consise and yet I feel they say what they need to say about my project.

Fernan Federici

Federici is first and foremost a scientist and leader in his field. I, however was more interested in his beautiful photographs that have been taken down a microscope.

In a very similar way to my own photographs, he has revealed a realm of hidden beauty by zooming in close to things such as bacteria.

The beautiful photographs reveal an apparent drawn element to bacterial matter and plant roots. The hidden colours are also something to be noted. The image above reveals an entire spectrum from rusty orange to icy blues.

Microscope photography.

I decided that I wanted to look more closely at bones under a microscope, to pick up on hidden detail that could be identified and applied to my samples.

I saved some bones from a chicken carcass and inspected them under the microscope and photographed down the lens of the device.

I love these images and think that they reveal a different and unexpected aesthetic to what you would usually assume of bones. I love the ridges and textural surface that cannot be seen by the naked eye. I'm not as keen on the colours however and I feel that I might be more inclined to use the lighter tones that can be found in the photographs. See sketchbook for more images.

Museum photographs

Waiting for my appointment time to photograph the human remains collection at the musuem was a little frustrating and at times I felt that the research aspect of my project were really suffering. I'll know in the future that I need to pre-organise my visit well in advance, in order to get my research sooner.

Sally, who organised my appointment also informed me that they have a wide collection of other objects of interest, such as crystals, taxidermy, fossils. This could be useful for future projects, so it was a good connection to have made.

I was left with a collection of human bones by the museum curator. I basically had free reign with the bones and was even allowed to handle them. I did (at times) feel some pangs of uneasiness when I considered that I'm actually holding human bones, however I needed to just take the photographs. The image, above, is of detail found on several areas of most of the bones that I was presented with. I love the spongy, irregular texture, something not typically associated with bones. I also think the placement of the texture is really interesting and something that could be considered when sampling.

 

 

This second image also shows some details that I found interesting. The irregular, wavy lines that appear to be cracks are in fact the bones that are separated at birth and fuse together as you progress through to adulthood. I found the marks organic and beautiful. The rest of the images can be found in my sketchbook.