Locating - Visual Research

Throughout the first two weeks of this project I have visited Manchester Museum to gather images from their Siberia Exhibition including full size animal and human skeletons. From these images I have concentrated on developing a series of drawings based around the concept of 'Anatomy'. They have a graphic, linear quality to them as well as abstract shapes so they could be translated effectively onto the Ethos Software and Multi-head as well as the possibility of laser cutting parts or engraving them. The colours I've used in my drawings are relatively subtle, although some are more brightly coloured, but within a colour palette that suits the idea of 'Anatomy' - reds and blues (like veins) and oranges and whites (like bones). I have manipulated some of the drawings in Photoshop to enhance the best bits of the selected drawings and merge elements together to create new drawings.

The edit above appears as though the hand is squeezing the heart and the lungs are being pushed out the side. It was a bit of a 'happy accident', but I like the mix of abstract smudges in the background with the graphic lines in front. I think if I was to use the same visual research for the 'Engineering Embroidery' brief I would have to make the shapes more abstract so they would be suitable for the high-end car interior market - my focus over Christmas. The colours would also have to be subtler or cover less fabric to be appropriate for the market.

I intend to develop the concept of 'Anatomy' into designs for the Multi-Head machine that become more abstract compositions so I could also use the ideas for the live brief 'Engineering Embroidery' as samples to fit in a high-end car interior. After discussions in my tutorial, I now intend to create more drawings using acetate so I can really explore the idea of human AND animal anatomy merged together (similar to the frog skeleton image above) - this will be my focus for the Christmas break.

Visual Merchandising Context

Last week I focussed on researching further into the context of my work by looking at a Visual Merchandising book which included shop window displays - as costume and set design both could fall under this catagory (due to the presence of body and interior space). 

There were four images that I found particularly interesting and different from things I have seen in the past.

The spinning fair ground ride above was in Fortnum and Mason, London, and attracts people's attention because of its movement. Movement, in such a space, makes people want to look in the window as it is unusual to see.

The heads of these mannequins have been replaced with silk flowers for Topshop's Spring/Summer window display and give a fresh connotation. Personally,it makes me think that they will be selling floral garments in the store, or clothes with a summery design.

Selfridges' Christmas window display had several fir trees with lights and decorations rather than the typical winter scene with snow. Because the background is so busy, the mannequins have been kept simple so they balance each other out.

This life-sized giraffe was used in a Louis Vuitton window to both display the accessories and to create an unusual visual effect - it almost forces people to look into the window as it is not a usual occurrence in merchandising.

With my work being of a sculptural and three-dimensional nature, I feel that it would be suited on the body and in a space as a background - the giraffe and the floral heads are sculptural, which draw people in and makes people remember the store, meaning that they are likely to talk about it to friends, creating more business for the store.

Passimentrie - Final Developed Samples

This week I have been working on developing different samples which demonstrate different ways of creating a sculptural, yet manipulated piece of fabric. 

I decided it would be beneficial to my project to cut up some of the giant grey rouleaux in order to develop it directly into several embroidered samples. Some of the better samples that evolved through the week are shown below. I left a large proportion of the giant rouleaux intact so that it didn't ruin the dramatic effect of it.

 I used different machine embroidery techniques such as Pin-Tucking, Taylor-Tacking, Cording and the Reed Pleater in order to develop the above samples.

I researched textile artists that use translucent materials to create structures and came across Jan Garside and Caroline Broadhead, whose pieces (seen above respectively), gave me an insight into a possible context for my work. My pieces could be part of a sleeve for fashion or could simply be a piece of material, for example.

In order to channel my thoughts, I chose some words to focus my mind which were reflective of the twisted reed pleater sample in my previous post and gathered images of the fairground scene. These were: Spring, Twist, Contort and Compress. I believe the samples that I have developed over the week are reflective of these words as well as being reflective of the colour palettes I originally depicted from the visit to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and the Belle Vue archive visit.

Below are some of the other samples that I have developed with those words in mind.  

I initially thought about ways of manipulating translucent fabrics such as silk organza, so I looked at a fabric manipulation book by Ruth Singer which inspired me to use box pleating and pressing the fabric to contort it (see above images). I chose to use velvet as it has a pile and would spiral quite easily when made into a rouleaux and would role itself round naturally if I left it. 

Throughout this project I have found certain aspects challenging as the majority of techniques were new to me. However, I feel that I have gained an insight into the world of weave, through the use of looms and different yarns and also through the reed pleater which allows woven but embroidered samples. I would say that I have enjoyed the project but I have found it easier to use embroidery techniques rather than the weave techniques I learned earlier on in the project. The range of samples I have created throughout the project depict the fun and the dark side of the fairground through the colour palette I have used. I feel that I could have been more innovative with drawing references and looked at more images in the first few weeks in order to kick start some of the ideas that I had later on in the project.

Daksha Patel Drawing Workshop

Daksha Patel is an artist that works in unusual ways and is inspired by the human body - one of her pieces 'Fat Drawing' depicts a brain which has been drawn using fat in order to make the drawing translucent. 

She arranged a collection in the centre of a table which incorporated lots of different objects. She wanted the group to find links between objects that interested us and draw them, with linking words alongside them. 

I used mark making techniques to draw moss, a bird's wing, a ram's skull, a barnacle and a pinecone. The link I found between the items was that they are all natural objects. They all degrade over time and decay also.

From the workshop I learned that an archive collection can look random and thrown together, however if you look closely you can create links between the items in order to find deeper meaning.

The Language of Process Exhibition Visit

While visiting the exhibition I found one piece of particular interest - 'Earthbowl' by Fluid Forms (2008), who are an Austrian company that allow their customers to design their own products. They are able to do this through the use of Google-Maps and NASA satellites which the customer uses to select an area of the world that interests them which can be translated into individual customised designs such as a fruit bowl or a wall-hanging, for example. The products are made out of laminated walnut and maple plywood which, when cut using a CNC Router (a computer controlled shaping machine), are hand sanded, oiled and polished to finish the product professionally. The CNC Router technique creates contour lines on the plywood which reflect the gradient of the earth. I find this and the texture of the piece particularly inspiring and I feel the piece links to my work through the use of the Earth as data and how it changes through time. This links to my project because I have concentrated so far on how natural objects change through time such as flowers decaying and how the rings within a tree trunk determine how old the tree is which is what the piece reminds me of (see image below).