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.