Intentions - Print Room

I had another productive week in the print room, testing more techniques. I tested out flock and foil, which I haven’t used before. I also tested the idea of creating silhouettes with discharge dye, which I think worked successfully and I will be carrying it forward towards my final samples. I also printed my motif back into my silhouette using flock, which is another technique I will be carrying forward as I think it had a massive impact, yet is still aesthetically simple. I also tested this process including iridescent foil, (a choice I made because of the similarity between the foil and the backs of beetles and the wings of flies) However I felt that it was to bold, making the focus of the colours of the foil, which is something I would like to avoid. I want the focus to be on the motifs and the patterns I create.

This week I also continued to look for contextual research and I found a few designers that had a similar subject matter to my work. I found (Left) Laura Zindel –Bug dishes (Right top) Porter's Original Paints – beetle wallpaper (Right Bottom) ‘Day Birger et Mikkelsen’ – Cushion covers. I found all of these inspiring as I was struggling to think of many examples where insects were the subject of interiors

 

Intentions - Context and Testing

In my tutorial, I spoke to Teresa about the fact that I needed to try to decide what contextual background I saw my work fitting into. I knew that I wanted to work on interiors because it is a risk for me as I normally take my work in a fashion direction. However, I needed to expand on this in order to give myself a sense of direction, so I started to look at soft furnishings, looking at companies such as Clarke and Clarke and Matthew Williamson.

Whilst researching I found a few pieces of work that used cyanotype ( a photographic process) and whilst I don’t have access to those types of facilities I started researching and found ‘sun paper’ a paper that is readily prepared and is developed by the suns UV light. I was going to buy some of this to create some drawings, until I then discovered Inkodye, the exact same thing, but an ink suitable for fabric and available in different colours. So I bought some of this to test in the print room and these are how my samples came out.

Left (pinterest imges) Right (My inkodye tests)

 

I don’t think the test was very effective because of the lack of sunlight that day and also I found the colours a little disappointing, however I did like the silhouette shape created and so I have decided that I will try recreate this in the print workshop using clear discharge.

 

Intentions - Experimenting with print

My first week in the print room I focused on trying to experiment with as many techniques I could to see what would suit my work and what I enjoyed using. I also dyed my own fabrics up using the dye baths, to achieve the colours to match my colour palette. I also experimented with how I want my fabrics dyed and I think I have concluded (at least for now) that I want my fabrics to have a subtle tie-dye effect to them.

For my colour palette, I chose to have a limited choice of colours, focusing mainly on different shades. I chose to do this in order to set a challenge for myself as I normally have a really wide and bright colour scheme.

I started working on sheer fabrics in order to reflect my drawings, which I have done on tracing paper, with the intention of layering up different fabrics. I quickly realised I was not achieving the clean solid samples I was aiming for and so I tested on a few heavier fabrics, such as medium weight cottons. I tested out a few print techniques; for example, creating a gradient print from black to grey, overlapping my motifs in a pattern using a combination of pearl pigment and dark purple reactive dye.

Doing this week of testing was very useful because it helped me to decide what was successful and what was not. I created a list of questions, which I answered for myself as a conclusion of this week.
-Solid backgrounds or tie-dye? – Tie-dye
-Overlapping motifs or not? – Not overlapping
-One or two colours printed on each sample? – One (keep it simple)
-Where do I see my work? – Interiors
I also decided this week that I wanted to rule out blue from my colour palette to refine it more and keep it simple, because for me, having a smaller colour palette is a challenge.

Intentions - Drawing Development and Research

After visiting a number of archives, I found that none of the work we looked at was particularly inspiring me. I found that it was all completely detached from the work I had begun over the summer, which I was finding inspiring. Therefore, after talking to my tutor I discovered that books and the visit I had already made to the Manchester museum would work as my archive inspiration. From the visit to the Manchester museum I found the insects most inspiring. So from this I decided to start creating some drawings testing out different medias and colours etc. Until I had a break though in one of my drawing styles. I found that linear drawings, whilst simple, appealed to me more and I created a large collection of drawings of different plants and insects.

 

From these drawings, I stared to combine some, merging the plants with the insets, to create something new and interesting. I took my favourite ones and had them developed onto screen to use in the print room. The whole idea of combining plants and bugs reminded me of an artist I had found, Kari Herer, the work of this photographer inspired me and I guess I subconsciously got the idea from there.

intentions - inspirations workshop

Todays task of presenting and reflecting on our summer work has helped me to understand a direction that I seemed to be progressing towards subconsciously. My feedback in general was fairly positive with some helpful insight to moving forward.

Strengths of the work-  One of my group memebers identified that one of my strengths is the contrast between some of my more abstract watercolour sketches, and my detailed ink pen drawings and how they work well together to create depth.

Relationship to specialism- One member of my group commented on my leaf prints, saying that an abstract repeat pattern like that would work well when specialising this year in print. They also suggested that my work looks like the work of a future printer, based on my drawings and style.

Overall concept-  Another strength identified was my overall concept. After starting the summer exploring many nature related areas, such as plants, trees, flowers, insects, animals etc; I then developed into literally combining them (for example in these images)

Areas that need improvement- After my group had decided that the concept behind combining the animals and plants etc together was sucessful, they all agreed that an area to develop would be those style drawings. Making more combinations and experimenting more with the creations I make.

Colour- Whilst I thought I hadnt really refined my colours yet, the members of my group said that they saw a reoccurring theme behind my colours and that I was starting to be selective. With this in mind I think I will look back through my work and pick out drawings that inspire me based on colour and develop a colour palette to keep me coordinated.

Other inspirations- I had a few suggestions from my group on other practitioners or areas I could look into for inspiration. One girl suggested looking into hollographic cards, where one image changes into another, playing on the idea behind my concept, similar to my drawing combining the two tigers. Another girl suggested looking at William Morris to look at the way he turned his floral drawings into print designs. I have looked and found a couple of pieces which I found interesting, and I will now use him as one of my artist inspirations.