Locating Project Development

I have started to look at stretching, piercings, tattoo's and body art in modern life by looking at the people around me, around 90% of people i know either have a piercing or tattoo, which is very common indeed. Today i asked a group of my friends why they had there's tattoo's and piercings, they mostly agreed that it was to change there appearance - through art. this has give me the idea of 'change' how you can change your appearance. 

Manchester Museum

Today I went to Manchester Museum to look at the 'Around the World' exhibition, there i found a range of tribal dressing and weapons, i found that there was alot of beading and braiding. 

 I paticualraly was intriqued by this exhibit, it is a tribal warrior costume made up of thousands of beads, i am rather interested in the pulled threads through the beading.

I like the different red colouring on this african tribe fabric.

I am intrigued by this piece of fabric i found, the material itself is rather dull but the small strip of beading and fringing is full of possibilities and spring the idea of adding beading to my knit samples for Leutton Postle. 

Initial Ideas

My chosen Live Brief for this project is Leutton Postle as I feel it is the brief that mostly suits my area as it is for a knit brand and is fashion based which is where I feel comfortable. 

AIM: To design knitted fabric which is impactful, experimental, vibrant and eye catching 

Catching that is relatively quick to produce and/or make into garments.

REFERENCE: Tribal dressing, traditional craft techniques, child-like painting, 

Found objects.

Looking at the references 'Tribal Dressing' catches my eye, so I have started to look at tribal wear - African Tribes 

For my own Project 'Locating' I am going to take the idea of 'stretching's' and 'skin' away from the tribal theme and look at modern life and how we change our appearance (skin).

FINAL KNIT SAMPLES

Here are some of my final knit samples and mood boards, I am proud of them as a collection and think they reflect what direction I want to go with them in terms of context  

even though i have used different techniques i feel they all have the same qualities in that they all represent a 'moving escalator'. 

My Presentation Board 

RESPONSE TO PHOTOGRAPHS

I first started to pick the colour from the photographs using gouache paint, I found this helpful when it came to picking yarns - as shown in my yarn wrapping in the right hand corner. I also pulled out the patterns and shapes in the photographs which was helpful when it came to selecting techniques and types of yarn.

this is an example of me translating the shapes in the photographs into knit. On this particular sample I used the ladder technique on the domestic machine.

EDITED ESCALATOR PHOTOGRAPHS

I will know extract colours from these photographs as a base to start knitting.

CONTEXT

I am unsure as yet as which area in knit I would like to go down, my head tells me interiors but i also have an eye for fashion. In this particular project I have looked at designer Claire Ann O'Brien who specialises in high end, one off knit furniture. i would like my knit interiors to be high end and made once not mass produced, looking at my first samples I think they could be developed into One off wall pieces. 

CLAIRE ANN O'BRIEN

Claire is one of my favourite artist's, i love her work and she inspires me greatly - particularly in though this project. 

this gets me thinking about what context my work in this project fits into and where it is going and how it will turn out.

LAYERING MATERIALS

I have looked at different ways of layering materials/photographs together, I found that acetate worked well as you could see through the layers which gives an interesting effect. 

 I outlined and painted some of the figures in one of my photographs onto acetate and layered it onto one of my duplicated building pictures - this gave the effect of an escalator imprinted onto the buildings of Manchester.

This experiment didn't exactly work but I still found the process interesting and I still like the idea behind it. I started out by photocopying one of my pictures onto acetate, this didn't work as he ink was left wet on the acetate but it held the shapes. I took a photographs I had taken on Market st and lay the acetate 'ink down' onto the photograph. It turned out like this - it isn't exactly the way I wanted it but it's still interesting - and something I will learn from. 

ESCALATOR PHOTOGRAPHS

This week I took more photographs around Manchester, particularly looking at escalators and steps. 

Looking back at these photographs, they look rather dull and not as interesting as I'd hoped. I intend to edit the photographs in Photoshop and duplicate the interesting parts to make layers of texture. 

LOMOGRAPHY

As I continue to research the 'Urban Landscapes' around Manchester I came across the wall below, which I later discovered it to be a 'Lomography' wall, which I found interesting in that it is a collation (collection) of photographs layered together to create a wall of colour and excellent detail and texture. 

The pictures up close are detailed in themselves which makes the wall just as interesting up close - here is a section of the wall up close below.

I tried Lomography for myself using my own photographs - showing a different way of layering photographs together. 

I think for this experiment to work better I need to take more photographs to make the layers.

ARTIST MICHAEL AWAD

When researching urban influences I came across this artist 'Michael Awad', Awad is a photographer that collates images in urban cities together. I particularly took interest in the escalator photographs, the engravings in the escalators remind me of that I copied from my photographs of Manchester. 

'analyse and interpret an artists work of your own choice in order to develop a body of individual work of your own.'

Re-reading the brief I have chosen this artist to interpret on my journey to create a body of work of my own.

Here are some example of work on 'Escalators' by Michael Awad 

The marks from my paintings remind me of the escalator engravings, I could develop this with paint running through the engraving marks.

RESEARCH

Looking at the postcard I mind mapped what idea's ways of growing from it, after my tutorial I decided to take photographs around Manchester of points of interest - detailed landmarks/landscapes. I then cut them into snippets/strips and layered them together, taking note of the layers in the postcards. 

From these pictures I pulled out the recurring patterns/shapes and colour's.

From these patterns I particularly found the etching into the paint interesting, I intend to explore this further.



With my work taking a different direction, My brief has changed-

'Urban Influences. Artists who use the urban landscape to underpin their work are many and 
varied. Research, analyse and interpret an artists work of your own choice in order to 
develop a body of individual work of your own.'

this brief fits into the way my work is going and gives me means to develop my work further. 

THE POSTCARD

When I visited the Gallery of Costume, they had various small postcards dotted around the museum. 

This postcard interested me in particular, after a group tutorial I came out with ideas of what i could do with it. 
The layers on the postcard remind me of an apartment block or supermarket shelving. Look at order - collections - clutter. I intend to use this postcard as a starting point for my project. 

RESPONSE TO GALLERY OF COSTUME

 I responded to my photographs using Gouache & watercolour paint, oil pastels, fineliners, chalk, charcoal, graphite and biro. 

Although i like my drawings and research i fell like i'm just copying whats already been done. I have decided to break away from fashion garments and look more at the collection aspect.

TRIP TO GALLERY OF COSTUME

Today I visited the Gallery of Costume in Rusholme. They had various collections on sow which dated  back all the way to the 1700's. When walking through the museum, the patterns and colours of the fabric really stood out to me, so i began to take close up photographs to capture the detail. 

Although the pattern and colour's are all different I intend to respond to the them through various materials such as paint, chalk, oil pastel, charcoal and graphite.