Blog 2 Whitworth Threads
Plato’s Disco, a stained glass installation designed by
David Bachelor, is what Matty Hall and I are inspired by from the Whitworth Art
Gallery. It is a beautiful permanent
installation that is hung from the ceiling over a staircase, which has a
natural light coming through. This gives
different effects as the colourful, geometrical installation rotates. For the mid-unit presentation that was held
at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Matty and I had to present our work to a member
of staff and my tutors. Matty and I were not planning to collaborate at first,
because there had been so many changes to the group that I thought it would too
complicated to find a joint direction.
However, after talking to my tutors I was encouraged that we could
combine glass work and textile together.
We are collaborating to make jewellery. Matty is going to produce glass pendants
which I can then incorporate into jewellery with textiles. I have taken my colour inspiration from all
around The Whitworth and colour, as well as shapes and form, from Plato’s
Disco. The first necklace I produced
looked as I intended, but the texture was too rough on the skin because I had singed
the organza fabric shapes with a candle flame to stop the edges fraying. From the mid-unit review I learnt that the
material I wanted to use can be cut using a laser cutter. I used bought beads for the spacing
in-between the geometrically cut fabric pieces which I like and will use again
together with Matty’s work. I have now laser
cut four different coloured organza fabrics and these have a much smoother
finish, so I hope they won’t be rough on the skin. I had to design the shapes I wanted on
Illustrator and then set the laser cutting software to repeat the squares and
diamond shapes, it was very exciting to see the cutting process.
I have produced a lot of drawings of design ideas and from
them we’ll mainly concentrate on earrings and necklaces because these are more
commonly sold as sets.
I need to do more research on fastenings for necklaces,
especially an option for extension or reduction in length so there will be more
than one choice in wearing. As it is
getting close to the end of the project, I need to start putting things
together. The plan is to get the glass
pendants by the end of this week from Matty so I can put all the pieces
together to make the final products. As
part of the project we, as a group, have to produce a 1 minute video which can
include talking about our inspiration in front of Plato’s Disco or showing our
work in progress. We will have one week
after the Easter holidays to finalise our project.
