Final bag

Nature (Spring) Project Evaluation

     When I received the brief for this project (nature) I started to look for images and artists who produced art work, not just textile related, with the theme of nature. I looked into a weaving artist called Ellen Jackson who created weave samples with pieces of shredded paper then stuck it to a plain coloured background. I chose to look at her because she weaved with paper as appose to fabrics. I thought it would be effective for me to recreate something like her work with bits of old scrap papers including old music sheets in my sketchbook. I then looked at a felting artist called Gail Crosman Moore because she created small flowers out of felt and hand sewed small beads in the middle which i enjoyed doing on my last project and wanted to incorporate into my bag. Also I though the flowers were a good link to the nature theme. This influenced me to look at flowers in my work. I then looked at Inga Hamilton for a weaving artist. I chose to look at her work because she knitted all sorts of sea life creatures and incorporated them together in a very interesting way. Again this links again to the theme of nature. I also thought some of them looked a bit like flowers which again inspired me to look into flowers. I then looked at William Morris' work for things such as wallpaper and curtains. His work consists of very bright bold patterns with flowers and leaves. After doing research on the internet I visited the Natural History Museum in London to get some good primary research. I liked all the patterns and features on the butterflies I saw there. This swayed me to the decision to chose Spring in my work and final piece. I found a book at work with loads of close up photographs of butterflies to sketch from.
     After researching spring and different artists I did a few pages of sketches with fine liners in my sketchbook then developed these onto my mood board along with paintings using a range of media such as acrylic and water colour paints. I then developed these onto my themed sheets. I did all these with fine liners over a decorated background (masking tape & paint). I looked into various flowers and butterflies and created patterns from original fine liner sketches I drew.
     From these designs I did 3 sheets of bag ideas with the flower and butterfly I liked best from my mood board and visual sheet. For my final design I used one of the previous and changed the colours. I chose to do a slouch bag because I liked the look of it better and the butterfly i wanted to do on it looked better with this style of bag. I chose to screen print the butterfly onto a red and yellow weave I did on the loom and applique it onto the front and back of my bag. I dyed my bag red with procien dye and also screen printed small silhouettes of butterflies on the top of the strap. I decided to do free hand machine embroidery around these because the screen moved slightly making the prints a bit blurry. This neatened them up and hid the fault. My final piece related well to my theme as I looked at butterflies and bright colours which relate to spring. 
     I experimented with various coloured pigment inks through screen printing onto different fabrics such as white cotton, muslin, calico and bolsalini. I used puff binder for my screen print onto bolsalini because it is black and the white was a nice contrast. These all went well and I was very pleased with them. I also did a knitted, woven and felting sample. I chose to weave on the loom because it looked better and was quicker as I was using a thin yarn because it was better for screen printing over. I did not enjoy the felting as it was very time consuming and the final product came out distorted and not very accurate to the design I was trying to portray. If my bag was to be manufactured I think it could be easily re produced because the design was simple and easy to put together.
     If I was to do this project again I would chose different colours for my final bag. I think this because I already had an idea in my head and drawn up in my bag designs before I did any samples. Some of the colours such as yellows, pinks and blues looked a lot better against a white cotton background instead of the black I used onto a dyed red fabric. Also if I did not dye my fabric first I would have had a lot more time to concentrate on the prints, woven panels and construction on the bag as it is very time consuming dying, pressing, washing and waiting for it to drying between and at the end. However I do think the woven panels went very well as in my sample the screen print blurred and didn't look as neat. Also I used thick wool as well as thin yarn to test the screen print on. In the end it looked better on the yarn. I also liked the free hand machine embroidery of the  flowers around the base of the bag which I did differently to my design as it was very plain and I didn't consider this when designing my bags. I feel like I managed my time well with the overall project apart from the sketch book which was ongoing. I seemed to push it to the side whilst getting into the sheet work and final bag!
     I am pleased with the project as a whole but as mentioned above would have thought about sampling before creating a final bag design in order to see what looks best and fits better with the theme.

Red and yellow weave for final piece done on a loom.

Puff binder screen print sample on black borsalini.

Weave an print screen sample together using pigment inks and a loom.

Print screen sample on calico using pigment inks (turquoise 4G, pink 5BTL)

Screen print sample on muslin using pigment inks (pink 5BTL, golden yellow RF, turquoise 4G)

Screen print sample on white cotton using pigment inks (pink 5BTL, red BB, yellow golden RF)

In the process of creating a weave using a loom, ready for my final piece.

Screen print sample using pigment inks on Habotai Silk Light (red BTL)

Screen print sample using pigment inks on white cotton (pink 5BTL & turquoise 4G)

Free hand embroidery, from sample to base of bag.

Bag Pattern & cutting out pieces

Me in stages, dying 2 metres of cotton using procion dyes for my bag.

Knitting sample

Bag design sheet 1, 2 and 3. (Including final design)

Some artist research from my sketchbook

Spring visual sheets (development from mood board)

Mood board - Nature (spring inspired)

Another weave sample on a Peg Loom.

Weave samples done on a cardboard loom.

Photo's from The Natural History Museum in London for my Nature project.

Evaluation

Rachael Mrvos

Information Evaluation

     My initial ideas for this project were to collect as many bus tickets, train tickets and leaflets as possible as well as taking photos of things such as street signs. I saved all my collected items of research in a folder after going online to find secondary sources and printed them off ready to get out and start working from.

     I didn’t attend any galleries or exhibitions for this project as there was nothing local which related to the theme. I did however go out and take photos in Scarborough of signs on boats, bin signs and food price lists. I searched the internet for photos from Google images and Google for artists my tutor suggested. I collected magazines from the Tattoo shop I work in to cut out the contents page and price lists etc. I saved magazines I got free from shops such as Republic to use the prices and information which was about the clothes etc. As well as this I saved tags from clothes and labels from food tins and newspapers.

I did a couple of pages a week for my sketchbook in the summer, and managed to get quite a lot done, however I didn’t like my idea for making my own and started again a couple of weeks into being back at college, costing me valuable time and giving me extra work to catch up on. When I’d caught up I managed my time well and got the tasks done on time and to my best quality

     I looked at the artist Dawn Dupree who is a textile artist. I chose to look at her because she did a certain piece on a pillow with a television on it. . I copied the image using fine liners over a painted background in my sketchbook and visual sheet. I also looked at Sean Martin because a piece of her work was a book created with loads of little pieces of fabric covered in text sewn together. I re-created her work by sticking small squares of newsprint together in a similar way. However I did not like her work very much because it was plain and very simple. As well as these I looked at Vicky Olfield because she did a piece based on nature but the background was music notes which contain information. I really liked the nature theme in that work therefore recreated it in my sketchbook and on my visual sheet using acrylic paints for the robin and printed off music notes on acetate and layered that over the top. I researched information from the artist Barry Goodman because he used prints to create cars and buses and I looked at the license plates.

     For my repeat tracings I firstly used designs from my sketchbook and visual sheets then went onto putting new things I haven’t used in my work yet such as clothes tags, shop symbols and the Olympic rings. I did this to fill in small spaces and for fresh ideas and a change from what I’d been doing for a while in my sketchbook. I did a lot of thin lines which I regretted after as they didn’t all show up on my screen.

     My experiences with the sewing machines have been all positive. I already knew how to use one including threading it up, changing spool colours and using the different dials for different stitches, but I was unfamiliar with the machines at college and I’ve problem solved for myself without asking for help. Near the end of the project when I was finishing my final piece the machine I was on wasn’t doing embroidery correctly, causing me to have to get another machine out and set it up, which was time consuming but worked out in the end.

     Firstly on the machines I did a basic sample including the different stitches on the machine I chose. Due to there not being many varieties on my machine, I changed the colour twice, including my spool, and repeated the same ones. Secondly I practiced free hand embroidery. I did messy simple flowers for my first attempt to get the hand of it and a feel for how to move the hoop around without putting my fingers inside. This went well and I got the sample finished in time.  I also did a layer burn and stitch sample with the machines. This included ironing bondaweb to several sheets of organza and place this is a hoop ready to do free hand embroidery onto before applying heat with the heat gun, causing the fabric to scrunch up and burn. I enjoyed this so much I did a second sample to attach to a space on my second visual sheet of a tin of baked beans.

I did a sample for heat transfer using a page out of my sketchbook and printed it onto calico because my page was a mixture of browns and beige's. The colours went well and I was pleased with the end result. Firstly in the printing room I had a few practices screen printing with Yellow 2G and Orange OL pigment inks onto carbon paper. The inks leaked a bit and smudged on the paper but the final result was still nice. Following I did an A3 sample to practice matching my screen up to create a repeat pattern by eye. I used the colours Green B, Red BB and Orange OL (pigment inks) lined up above my screen to see what it looked like. I did this sample onto white cotton to ensure the colours showed up as bright as they could. I liked the result of this as the colours merged together in certain parts and made a nice effect. I did samples with devore paste after this. Firstly I dyed my sheet of velvet devore with procion dyes. (Green Mx2B, Blue MxR) then pressed when dried under the heat press before washing to get rid of the access dye before screen printing with devore paste. This was difficult to match the repeat pattern up by eye as the devore paste is clear, so I did a4 and a5 samples in this. After I did some puff binder samples. I dyed some muslin with procion dyes, (Red MxG, Yellow Mx3R) then pressed when dry under the heat press to lock the colour into the fabric. Then I washed it to remove the access dyes and left to dry again. I used plain white buff binder for my first samples then used a dark blue one another student from my group made for my extended sample and final piece. I appliqued a piece of muslin with puff binder screen printed onto it onto my final piece. Then I added some free hand machine embroidery over the top of some of the patterns in silver/white cotton. Then added some varied sized clear beads onto my final piece by hand.

     The process I enjoyed the most was screen printing with puff binder and free hand embroidery over my designs after. I think this looked the best and worked out the best, apart from the coloured puff binder I mixed, which didn’t come out as dark as I liked so I only applied hear to a section of that part. I didn’t enjoy using devore paste onto the devore velvet  as it didn’t work out well and the final result didn’t show up enough. If I were to do these again I would experiment with more colours I’d mixed myself. I only had chance to mix my own pigment inks when the black was running low and made more.

     After starting my sketchbook again I managed my time well and completed the tasks given in college on time, if I had outstanding work I took it home and completed it ready for next time. I also tried to do extra samples and use a fabric no one else had to be different and try gain extra marks.

     I am satisfied with my overall project especially my Tec file and final piece, however I do wish I had don’t my sketch book to my best quality the first time instead of starting again and taking up time I didn’t have to waste. 

 Techniques Used:

. Procion dyes

.Pigment inks

. Screen Print

.Puff Binder

. Free Hand Machine Embroidery

. Hand sewn beading