Evaluating Practice - Blogging Task. unit 2-project one (weave)

I started off with the idea of Shabby and Chic as my opposite theme. I really love the delicate vintage colours and texures that are used in this style. As I proceeded with my work, I wanted to move away from the common image of ‘Shabby-Chic’ and decided to focus more on the opposite qualities involved, still using similar colours. I started to place sophisticated objects in environments where you would never normally find them.

I have become a lot more experimental with colour in this project, keeping with my theme but not playing it safe. However, I need to focus more on mixing the correct colours from gouache as well as the proportion of colour within an image. I started without really looking at proportion of colour but have improved this a lot within the project and I need to remember that this is very important.

I chose weave as I have never done it before and I have really enjoyed knit and building up and cutting away layers in machine embroidery. So because I had been very constructive with my work in the last workshops, this led me to weave.

Within weave I have selected a range of materials, from fine gold machine threads, to thick grey wool yarns, to help create this feeling of contrasts and opposites in my shabby-chic theme.

At the beginning of my project I mainly focused on colours in found images, however I needed to move away from this, so started taking my own photos and taking the colours from these. I then went on to take my own images of objects in contrasting backgrounds which I feel has been a lot more successful. I was influenced by the work of Antoni Tapies, whose pieces have one area of focus on a textured background.

In weave I started with trying out a number of techniques and effects that can be achieved. Then I really focused on the colours and textures in my images and brought them into my weave. Now I am focusing as well on contrasts in textures that can be achieved with different yarns and weaving techniques.

Piece by Elana Herzag.

I want to further push my weave samples in the next project by working into the surface, taking parts away and painting on top. (Like the work of Ismini Samanidou).  I also want to deconstruct my weave like Elana Herzag (image), creating an even more shabby, built up look. I could then push this further into my next workshop and shred up bits of the weave and knit it together by hand, or by weaving back into machine knit.

In displaying my samples I want some to be separate, however with others I would like to stitch them together and rearrange parts to see what works best with a contrast.

If I could start again I would include a lot more drawing at the beginning to help refine some of my ideas on textures. I would also bring in more hand knit samples, using the colours as a new way of showing colour proportion and textures within an image.