Armoury Museum

Armoury Museum (5th blog post)

This week I have completed my African Artifact work, which followed on from the Summer project, so that I can make a fresh start with the Armoury Museum project, which I am really starting to enjoy.

I have done drawings inspired by the Armoury Museum, and most of them are monochrome, using black and white, so I have chosen that for my colour theme.

Also, I got so exited that I have started sampling.  I could really see the armour in knit, especially the chainmail, so I have started by developing knitted samples using different materials such as thick cord, normal yarn and fabric ripped into strips and sewn into a continuous line, to prepare it for knitting.  The normal yarn I have used is in shades of grey and the technique is from a Youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5yokI-YqqU),  the loose stitch links the different sections, and the sample is inspired by Japanese armour.  I also really like the knit with white cord for its weight and the way it moves when you hold it.  

In the next week, I need to develop more drawings and move on to use embroidery for some more samples, but I am very pleased to be doing Embroidery and Mixed Media, so that I can expand into other techniques, such as knit.   Another aim is to start my creative CV and covering letter.

Intention Blog post 4

Intention Blog post 4

This week has been quite busy with workshops as well as producing my own samples.  The Monday drawing session was good because it was all about loosening us up with drawing, within still life. After that I attended Elnaz Yazdani’s workshop on machine embroidery. Some of the techniques I had learnt last year but cording was new to me. Altogether I learnt tailor tacking, pin tucking, cording and smocking in the workshop.  I missed the slashing workshop, but I caught up on it on Youtube and tried it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaPsMLE2FQ8 .  I find this absolutely fascinating because it involves recycling which I’ve always been interested in and I want to experiment more. 

For these samples I’ve used pigment dye. I put masking tape on the fabric in parallel lines and hand painted in-between. 

I was going to throw away the masking tape afterwards, but I put the strips of peeled off masking tape together for it to create another pattern. I was really pleased with this because I learnt another technique of mark making.

Theses samples were continuing the theme of slavery museum and African artifacts and I went to another talk this week which was part of Black History Month.  It was really interesting because the talk was about a book called Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch.  In the conversation she said how people keep asking her where she is from, which is what I get.  This Summer, when I was working at the Co-op, a couple of white men asked me which country I was from.  When I said I was from India, they shook their heads and said that no, I wasn’t from there.  This I found silly and funny at the same time.  The most upsetting thing I find is when people find out where I am from they ask if I can speak the language.  When I say no, they get really cross.  I can’t keep explaining to everyone that I have been adopted and brought up by a white mother who only speaks English!  

From Wednesday this week, I have started drawing getting inspiration from the Armoury Museum.   

Intentions - Blog post 3

Intentions - Blog post 3

I went to the Royal Armouries Museum on Monday with the Uni group.  It was fascinating because I’d never been before and there were just so many things to see.  I particularly loved the Japanese Samurai armour, which I learnt was made of iron, silk, leather and bronze, from a presentation given by museum staff and from https://someinterestingfacts.net/how-was-samurai-armor-made/

This week I didn’t have a tutorial, but I’ve been experimenting and working on my samples.  From the Tuesday morning lecture given by David Nelson, we were advised on how to create a creative CV.  I have a CV that I’ve used for part time jobs in the past, but now I need to recreate another CV to include all of my artistic experience.

Last week I made some clay buttons cut out in different shapes, getting the inspiration from one of my African artifact drawings.  Since then I don’t know what to use them for, but I hope to get more inspiration to use them.

The tie dye sample hasn’t come out the way I expected.  I first dyed the fabric yellow using acid dye and then used elastic bands to make little scrunched balls to be dipped into indigo.   When it dried I was expecting for the creases to still show yellow connecting from one circle to another.  However, I’m quite happy with the outcome.  I like the colour as well because it fits in with my autumn colour theme.  I like it that they haven’t come out uniform either in colour or shape.  

I worked on Sublimation printing where I painted on to paper using sublimation ink and used the heat press for 2 minutes to transfer the design on to the synthetic fabric.  With this technique I’m always unsure of the way the samples turn out because the colours on paper are what I want, but on fabric it seems to always come out lighter, to my disappointment.  It does fit into my colour theme but just not the colours I wanted.  I need to improve on this through doing small test samples where I can experiment with mixing colours to get the outcome I intend.  

Intentions

 Intentions 2nd blog post

During this week I have developed the theme of my inspiration in African history and artefacts; established a colour scheme and started to produce samples.

I went to a Black History Month talk in the Central Library, “How Our Schools Fail Black Children… and what we can do about it”.  The thing that caught my attention was the video playing of children drawing.   The drawings of themselves, their parents and other figures were always white and this reminded me of my childhood when I used to so the same, because people with white skin were more looked up to in India than darker people.  What interested me was that the presenter of the video said that if a child draws a figure white, it shows that they want to be white.  However, now I am very proud to be dark skinned.

Africa inspired me because I went to the Slavery Museum in Liverpool and drew artefacts that I found fascinating.  Recently I have also used a library book to get more inspiration for the drawings (Danto, Gramly et al, 1989)

As Autumn is starting and I absolutely love the natural colours - shades of yellow to brown, from light to dark green, the darkness of the branches and the lightness of the sky - I have done a yarn wrap from a picture I took in Alexandra Park recently. 

The tutorial I had on the 2^nd of October really pushed me into action because I didn’t have a colour scheme and hadn’t started on samples.  I learnt that I don’t need to make a sample looking exactly like my drawing, which was keeping me from developing samples.  As Mark explained it to me, I can pick out a detail, a shape or a pattern and develop that into samples.   This helped me into sketching ideas and producing the colour scheme.  I have started producing samples based on these ideas. 

Danto, A, Gramly, R.M, Hultgren M.L, Schildkrout, E, and Zeidler, J. (1989) ART/artifact. New York: the Center for African Art and Munich: Prestel Verlag             

Summer project review

Summer Project Review

Over the summer, the archives I visited were the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Museum, Manchester Art Gallery, the Slavery Museum in Liverpool and The Hepworth in Wakefield to get inspiration for my drawings.  I photographed in the places I visited for my inspirational file as well as getting ideas online. 

Slavery Museum

Whitworth Art Gallery

In the Hepworth I found the sculptures interesting to observe and draw. I saw work by a lot of artists but was drawn towards Barbara Hepworth’s work for its soft form.  In Manchester Museum, I particularly liked the Egyptian exhibits because of their interesting designs, including the hieroglyphics.  The Whitworth Art Gallery was interesting for its wallpaper exhibition especially the Bodies of colour breaking with patterns collection. The Slavery Museum in Liverpool was the most inspirational not just for the things that were displayed, but also for the history that I learnt. I knew the stories behind the treatment of black slaves, but it was moving to read it in detail. The sculptures that were on display, which I got inspired to draw were really impressive for their shapes, form, colour, pattern and the culture they show. 

When I broke off for the summer after my first year of the course, I thought I really wanted to go back to weaving but when I researched for my inspirational file, I decided I would rather do embroidery because I came across techniques I wanted to develop further. I haven’t done much of bead work so I want to work on that as well as fabric manipulation which I find fascinating.  

From my first tutorial I was asked what inspired me the most from my sketchbook, which would be the drawings from the Slavery Museum.  So I need to take books out from the library on Slavery or African artefacts for drawings. I also need to develop further the drawings I’ve done so far.

Reflection on Unit X

Reflection on Unit X

This brief has been interesting because I got to learn about the history of ceramics/ pottery which I wrote about in the first blog post. It has been challenging as well as fascinating to combine the style if ceramics into textiles, mainly by taking inspiration from the Japanese style Kintsugi, where pottery is mended in a way which makes it even more beautiful.

In my second blog post, I talked about mirror work, but I didn’t follow this idea further because I thought the background I was going to use was better by itself. I also didn’t use this Idea because I was quite close to the deadline and wouldn’t have had time but I’ve learnt that I should allocate plenty of time to do embroidery such as this.  However, I’ve looked at the way to do the mirror work (shisha embroidery) on Youtube and various websites as well as a book, so I’ll know it for the future.  Instead I arranged CD shards on a dark blue background which I then scanned and recoloured digitally before printing it onto fabric using sublimation printing.

I also tried pressing golden heat transfer foil onto fabric and then doing bead work in a cracked effect, which has been my theme for this unit, taking the pattern from broken crockery. Another sample, with chain stitch and French knots, was my favourite because I could see that style in a jacket or a winter skirt which was exciting, and I like the fact it has texture and pattern together.

 

As well as the emulsion paint technique discussed in the second blog post, I tried using flour paste as a resist.  I left it to dry overnight before applying acrylic paint which I rinsed off after about a minute, giving a beautiful cracked effect.

Again, as I’ve reflected on group work in the previous blogs, I am still in two minds.  In one way I like working by myself as I can make my own mind about what I want to do such as choosing a theme and the colour palette whereas working in a group has positive and negative aspects. On the positive side, everyone contributes to development of ideas and if I felt lost I could get help from my team members.

In my group there are two students from embroidery and mixed media, two printers, one knit and one weave, so it has been very interesting to work with each other as we all produce different outcomes.  After the Origins Unit, I chose embroidery because I had done it before and I thought I wanted to follow a more familiar path.  Weave was my second choice, but I really wish I had chosen it first.  I feel drawn to it very much because I like the outcome.  For next year, if it is possible, I would love to continue with weave.  

At the end, as a group, we all brought in our work to see what went well on a display board for the exhibition at the Manchester Craft and Design Centre.  As well as picking out our favourites, we had to keep in mind that they needed to flow with the work of other team members.  I think our work comes together very well, especially because we have used the same theme and the same colour palette.  I was really worried how it was all going to come out, because we could have each gone our separate ways, but we have managed to stay together.  I am very pleased with the outcome of all our work put together. 

The title of the exhibition was ‘Endangered Craft’ and it included the work of second year as well as first year students.  It was very interesting to see the work of groups of students from other courses, such as film, 3D design and interactive arts, all responding to an endangered craft. 

Manchester Metropolitan University (2018) Manchester School of Art, Unit X Festival [online] http://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/unitx/festival2018/ [Accessed 10/05/2018]

Unit X Mid-point review

Unit X Mid-point review

Following the initial research phase on ceramics and pottery, I have done more primary and secondary research connected to my work.  My group and I had decided to concentrate on cracked pottery ideas, taking colour inspiration from lichen and I have developed a colour yarn wrap following the picture below.

As a development of this theme, I painted two layers of emulsion paint onto cotton fabric and let it dry over the weekend.  I then cracked the fabric using my fingers, with control, so I could get the lines where I wanted.  I dipped it into indigo dye for 10-15 minutes.  I tried washing the emulsion paint off, so I could see the cracks on just the fabric, but the dye seemed to have taken over the whole fabric, so I left the emulsion paint on and let it dry.  I realised if I wanted the emulsion paint off my fabric leaving only the pattern of cracks, I should have used the paint on both sides.   However, I am glad I left the emulsion paint on because it gives an interesting texture.

In another development, I recycled some CDs by cutting them up into small shards and stuck them onto a blue background paper as an experiment for my sketch book.  I liked the effect it gave against the dark background and I would like to develop this further into a fabric design. I wasn’t sure I could use CDs, but my tutor picked it up from my book, so I am experimenting with different sized pieces of CDs and broken crockery on different textile backgrounds.  I have researched shisha embroidery (mirror-work technique) (Morrell, 1995) which I am going to use to fasten the pieces.  This is a technique which is widely used in India and I quite like the thought of looking at my background. 

Recently, I have dyed fabric in indigo and sewn on top of it using the tailor tacking technique and the next stage of this is going to be pieces of CD sewn on.   I like the grassy natural effect that comes from the tailor tacking, which links to the lichen, especially as I have used yellow from my colour palette.  

At first, I was hesitant about group work, because I like to think on my own.  However, it is good sometimes, because if you are lost, you can ask a group member to help or sort it out in a group meeting.  I still wouldn’t want to do this all the time, but I like it for a change.  At first, we were confused, but now we all get along very well, and the work is going smoothly.

The things that interest me are of nature, so I have looked at the books Heaven and Earth (Roucoux and Malin, 2004) and The Earth from the Air (Arthus-Bertrand, 2001) which have some magnificent pictures such as landscapes from the air and images through the microscope.  I have taken inspiration from these books as, for instance, pictures of the earth from above connect with the patterns of broken pottery.

Arthus-Bertrand, Y. (2001) The Earth from the Air 365 Days. London: Thames and Hudson.

Morrell, A (1995) Techniques of Indian Embroidery.  London: Batsford.

Roucoux, K and Malin, D. (2004) Heaven and Earth: Unseen by the Naked Eye. London: Phaidon Press Limited.