Unit X - Week 6

Single cloth Developments.

This week alongside working on my woven samples I have been experimenting with digital media as a way of creating pattern and form. My initial imagery held very strong shapes and linear qualities, but these were not what I needed for this element of my project. Using simple techniques it has been possible to create my own twill styled images with pointed elements and repetition.

I have worked to try and keep the colours as similar to my research as possible, as I feel taking away the colour at this point would ruin the overall effect. The sense of depth and intrigue that the images hold is what brings the work to life and with careful manipulation is what gives each sample/work a feeling of movement, linking back well to the optical element to my research.

I am pleased so far with the effects I have been able to achieve and I feel confident that my work is still suited to the interiors market that I have been focusing on over the last 9 months. Having the pattern able to repeat is something that is especially important for the commercial market, so with this in mind I have developed a series of digital prints, that work well as a singular image as well as a long length repeat. I have been using this development pieces as a tool to reference from this week within the weave room, looking at the proportion of colour and size of twill has enabled me to effectively choose structures that compliments each other.

Unit X - Week 5

Missoni as inspiration.

After sourcing new imagery and finding a new way of thinking in terms of pattern, this week I have been researching into designers and existing companies that work in a similar way.

Missoni are a company that specialise in fabrics for the interiors market, in the form of both woven and printed pieces. Founder Rosita believes that 'the home is alive, its constantly evolving and never finished'. It was her personal vision and ideas that have moulded the face of the company and turned it into the world renowned business it is today.

She talks about the fabrics with affection;

"Unusual, captivating fabrics; innovative, simple shapes for sophisticated settings; a feeling of artiness but with a light touch; important, seemingly simple elements that blend easily into existing environments, adding vibrancy and colour. Forms for separating and uniting, easy to move around including from indoors to outdoors or vice versa, enabling the magic atmosphere of the garden to be brought indoors."

The above selection of Missoni fabrics link in well with the images gathered last week, enabling me to feel confident about my new choices in regards to pattern and structure. It is my aim to try and in some way add the same qualities that Missoni have captured into my own work. My colour choices are, somewhat more muted, but I feel the decision to stick to a familiar palette is at this stage the right thing to do.

Below is a digitalised version of what I envisage my warp plan to be, I have strived to pick out colours according to the proportions in which they appear in my imagery, then using the proportions to create a repeated plan. The warp will be separated into 2 blocks, which through the process of sampling will be woven with different sized twills and satin/sateen's to further enhance the idea of colour blocking and layering.

Unit X - Week 4

Single cloth developments.

After looking further into the Moderica website and the notion of 'Application of colour' I stumbled upon the work of Sarah Morris, A British painter who's work uses both strong bold colours and sharp white linear edges. The proportions and composition Morris uses is something that has inspired me to add a different element to my woven pieces. The juxtaposition created gives the impression of movement and depth, qualities that I feel would add a new dimension to my work.

Proportion is a key element in how colour can be used effectively, with this in mind I began to extract my chosen colours based on how often they appear within a selected section. For the purposes of continuity I feel that it is right to continue using imagery that I have already sourced, as there are still ideas and concepts that were not fully exhausted within the last warp. The images from my visit to Spinngfields have both a strong, bold colour palette as well as sharp clean edges to work from in regards to pattern analysis.

Having spent the last 4 weeks working on 2 separate double cloths, I feel it is now the time to move onto a different challenge, my new found inspirations aiding my decision to do so. The plan is to next weave a single cloth, split between 2 separate blocks each on a pointed draft. This will enable the use of varied patterning and structures.

This week I also challenged myself to search for pattern outside of my usual 'Architectural' eye. This has helped me massively, finding pattern and structure within pavements, walls and shop shutters. Having spent so long looking at the world around me in a very linear way I have found this week exciting and although at first this self set task seemed challenging, I discovered that pattern is all around in so many different forms and guises.

As you can see the shapes that stand out are very repetitive and of chevron style. The fourth image has so far proved the most informative and I have been able to develop and plan potential patterning with this as my main source of inspiration.

Unit X - Week 3

Double cloth Samples

Clear and precise. This double cloth warp has worked exactly as I had hoped. The area of research and line of enquiry has seen its way into all of my samples, building the collection into a strong and informed body of work. I have captured the elements of bold shapes and Optical views with ease and feel the samples work well, not only as a collection but as samples in their own right. 

I will take elements of this warp forward into my next developments, as I am keen to create a portfolio of work that links together and works well as a whole.

The colours are working well for me at this time, I have discovered what hues and proportions work easily together and this is helping me to make informed decisions as I currently plan my third warp. It feels like a new direction is needed at this stage, I have taken on board my research into colour representation and shape development and this is now moving me forward into areas that are looking to be exciting and of a new direction.

Unit X - Week 3

Furniture Ideas.

As part of my research element to this project I found that I was drawn to the retro, bold and modernistic furniture that popped onto the scene around the time of the Bauhaus era.

With strong lines, sharp colours and ever changing designs I found a similarity back to my own practice. Each piece, despite being of a similar nature tells a different story and fits into a different category, traits that I am trying to incorporate into each of my samples.

I wonder how well my work would sit alongside furniture of this style?

Above: Bauhaus. Furniture styles. POLYVORE LTD. [Online] [Accessed 17.03.2014] http://www.polyvore.com/bauhaus_furniture/thing?id=51575689

Unit X - Week 3

Further exploration into Optical Art and the Bauhaus.

Taking into account the ideas of blocking, layering and shape positioning I did a search to see how other artists are interpreting this information in the modern day. The blog Moderica, works to show hows colour representation can influence and affect art, arcitecture, interior design and textiles. It exlpores colour therories by looking at Sir Isaac Newtons colour wheel, matching and changing opposite colours.

'The presence of all colours produces white, the absence of colour is black'

The quote seen above, Moderica Blog, 2014 [Online] fits in well with the idea of hiding and replacing colours. When solid panels of balck are seen in my cloth, the underside will be housing each of the other colours, showing the potential and intriuge to the fullest,

Th images above are a culmination of found online images (artists unknown) that work to push the boundaries or colour and shape manipulation. The sources are shown below;

http://dicknelsoncolor.com/2013/color-relationships-2013-week-1/

http://deirdrespencer.com/blog/

http://cs.brown.edu/courses/cs092/VA10/HTML/AlbersExplanation.html

http://www.presentandcorrect.com/blog/interaction-of-colour

Unit X - Week 3

Double cloth developments.

This week has once again been spent in the weave room, developing ideas and colour pallettes. I have created my next warp, using imagery from the last unit that i felt still had some life in them. The idea of shapes overlapping and sitting next to one another led me to use an image, taken myself, in the spinningfields areas of Manchester.

The buildings within the image appear to be sat on top of one another, with the start and finish of each one unclear to see upon initial viewing. With this in mind, i opted to design for a thick double cloth warp. Top cloth of even black and white stripes, with the base cloth a combination of blues, beiges, whites and soft yellows. The idea is to create an ordered, structured cloth that has hidden areas of detail. The top cloth with provide a setting for my optical art to be shown on.

As you can see above, the two cloths fit together at 1 inch intervals, meaning each white and black section of the top cloth have a corresponding section underneath. I have designed this cloth with my target audience in mind, keen to keep the optical elements in tow, i have used colours that i feel can work together with the strong black and white without being too overbearing for the home interiors market.

Above shows different variations of the finished cloth. These show how the cloth work would if the top and bottom were to not be interchanged, I plan to randomise each sample and incorporate up to four different changes in each one.

I have begun to experiment on Photoshop to see what effects could be created, taking inspiration from previous warps and also research undertaken. The edits below show how order, repetition and randomisation could alter the look of the cloth. So far it appears that the more ordered, repeated edits work best, as they best replicate my sourced photographs and overarching concept of shape and structure.

With this being said, it will be this approach that I will be taking when I begin to weave the cloth.