bark

Whilst looking at autumn i decided to look at the bark of trees as they both include the same colour, brown, so i used a picture of a tree trunk and did a sample on brown paper, on red-brown fabric and then i did a bark rubbing using a graphite pencil on brown paper. i have therefore used similar colours to those i will use in my canvas and any other samples i produce.

autumn.

As we have not yet reached Autumn this year either i have had to use images taken last year . fortunately i happened to take quite a few pictures of golden leaves on the trees and leaves that had fallen on to the ground. When looking at pictures of trees in autumn it reminds me of a sunset as they share the same colours; red, orange, yellow and gold.

summer.

As we have not yet reached summer in the uk i have been unable to take many first hand photos of trees in spring and have therefore had to use knowledge of what trees look like in summer and any first hand photos i have already taken in the past. unfortunately i don't have many photos of trees in summer so when creating any extra samples i will have to use knowledge of trees in summer.

peer work.

This is a picture taken of a piece of work produced by Daniel. After looking through my sketchbook and any other external work, this is where he suggested i move on to. However i don't think this fully reflects my work and if i were to produce this myself i would create flowers instead of circles. i would also have to make it neater as i think the majority of my work is neat not messy.

blossoms.

Blossoms are vital within my sketchbook as they are thing that stand out the most, for me, in spring and therefore will become my inspiration when producing any samples and my canvas for spring. Therefore i have taken close-up photos of cherry blossoms within my grandma's garden to possibly use.

spring.

For the spring part of my sketchbook, i have used first hand photos of cherry blossom trees that i took whilst in Oxford in March. These trees remind me of Disney's Mulan and chinese calligraphy because of the thick black trunk and the dispersed pink blossoms. i will use these images for the shape of my spring canvas which reminds me of the shape of a question mark (?). however when producing the flowers for my spring canvas i will use other images of flowers for my inspiration.

Resonant Textiles

"Resonant Textiles" is an on-going collaboration between Anne Kelly and Cas Holmes that i have chosen to research. They like to use discarded items and their work is made using inspiration from personal experiences. Their main focus is that "recycled materials and waste have a history".

Anne Kelly - Anne Kelly generally works on fabric and paper using a range of techniques and in a variety of sizes. She uses recycled materials and travel and memeory are the influences for her work.

Cas Holmes - Cas Holmes is a textiles mixed media artist who like to work with found materials. Her pieces work well in both traditional and contemporary settings.

Peer assessment.

we have undertaken a peer aseessment where everyone in the class had to write a strength and an improvement for everybody elses outcome in relation to how well it fits in with their sketchbook. Mine was the canvas for summer with the hand emboidered leaves. My comments were...

*really like it, think you could maybe do 3 more in different colours so you have one for each season.

*really good, i think that you should do them for each season. add more sewing to make it fuller.

*I love the hand embroidery leaves and the texture and depth to the paint. Bigger? Longer? Size? Colour?

*I like the plan and resarch in the sketchbook. i think you could sew material leaves onto it.

*Love the simplicity. Few sketches.

I then presented it onto a page using green post-it notes cut into the shapes of leaves.

research into leaves and evergreen trees

i decided that whilst doing my winter part of my sketchbook, i would do some research into evergreen trees as they don't lose their leaves in winter. however i don't think i will use them whilst doing my final outcome as they don't really change throughout the year.

i also did some research into leaves in order to move from winter into spring in my sketchbook. at first i looked at skeleton leaves as they remind me of trees when they have no leaves and all that is left is the branches. i then looked at full green leaves as they start to appear in spring.

3D piece out of sketchbook.

to create this i used a canvas and using acrylic paint and using a straw to spread it into a tree shape. i then began to embroider leaves into the tree in different shades of green. However when i turned the canvas the other way around and held it up to the light i discovered it actually looked quite good the other way around, with one corner of the tree looking like actual leaves.
After a peer assessing with the class i think i may dirty the background of my canvas to make the tree stand out. I have also decided i will try to create 4 canvases, each for a different season, each in a different media.

Trees using straws

When thinking of how to create a winter tree, i thought back to when i was in primary school and we would add paint to the bottom of the page and use a straw to spread the paint across the page like branches without leaves on. I tried it on greaseproof paper, lined paper and fabric using water colour and it was very successful on the greaseproof paper but was completely unsuccessful on fabric. I then tried it using acrylic paint on fabric and it created a completely different shape, quite like an acacia tree in africa. I then decided to try it on a completely different background so when it snowed i created some mud and threw it into the snow to try to create the same shape.

Photo a day

I have decided to take a photo of the same tree, at the same time, every day. Eventually this will begin to show the difference in the weather throughout the year and show the difference between the seasons. Unfortunately i will only be able to do this for so long so i will have to use other photos of other trees to show Autumn.

exam unit. unit 2.

we were given the exam question and i have decided to research into the surfaces question which is; Many textile artists have explored the contrasting qualities of different surfaces. Look at appropriate examples and, using a variety of techniques and materials, develop ideas for a textile piece.
i am planning to look at how the world's surface changes througth the year and look particularly at trees in different seasons. I might also look at how global warming affects the earth's surface and will take influences from Rebecca Potts and Caroline Saxby.

the corset.

To begin with, to make the corset we had to take a pattern for a corset and modify it so it is the right shape for our corset. i shortened mine and intending to add a skirt type bottom so it looks like an empire style top.
To make each block for the bodice, we made larger samples faced them and then cut them to the required shape.
For the front panel i decided to do a weave as weaves were very successful in my sketchbook. so i died my fabric green and blue, cut it into strips and created the weave.
For the front back i decided to do couching using an organza and stitched it on using blue thread in a zig zag stitch.
For the side back panel i starterd out hand embroidering flowers using blue and green thread. i then filled in the petals using the sewing machine and sewed buttons on for the centre. then using left over dyed blue and green fabric i appliqued on some extra flowers.
For the back panel i sewed got two pieces of fabric and stuck a collection of photos of national trust properties in between and then sewed vertical lines into the top layer and then cut in between the lines.
i then got all the samples and faced them to make sure they didn't fall apart when i cut out the pattern pieces. i then cut out the pattern pieces and sewed them together.
To create a lining i recreated my corset using a plain fabric and sewed it together. i then attached it to the outer corset.
For the fastenings i got strips of my dyed fabric in blue and attached them to my corset using a longer piece of white material to fasten it together.
When i put the corset onto the mannequin with the skirt, it didn't look right. so i have now decided to make my skirt into a cape to with the corset.