Final evaluation

Final Evaluation.

For this project my inspiration has come from the seascape. However, to begin I decided that academic research was initially needed. So I started off by researching Patrick Heron, Sean Scully and Richard Diebenkorn. These artists all incorporate colour as their main feature to create abstracted landscapes, which is similar to what I wanted to do as colour would be the depicting component in my work. I produced my own responses to try and gain inspiration as a starting point to my work. I created stitch samples in response to Scully’s work which seemed to be quite effective; I liked the idea of combining various fabrics together using hand stitch. This academic research was very valuable as it prompted me to start looking into colour and how the right combination of colour can achieve a brilliant result whereas the wrong combination could create an unpleasant effect. I also looked into textile artists such as Jan Beanley and Jean Little John. They work by expressing abstracted landscapes through stitch and embroidery. I thought it would be beneficial to research these two people to gain inspiration from their work to put towards my final piece. Their work inspired and directed me towards gathering some more research into machine stitch and hand stitch as I decided I hadn’t explore this area to its full potential. By doing this I gained knowledge into pleating, smocking and couching which I wouldn’t have discovered if it wasn’t for the initial research into textile artists.  In the end I decided to use only smocking and pleating in my final pieces as they were aesthetically more desirable than couching, also as I was under a restricted time limited I decided not to use couching as this consumed a lot more working hours than the other techniques.

I generated primary/imagery research at the start by producing my own responses to my initial artist research. I looked into painting, collaging and stitching which allowed me to decide on the colours I might like to use in my later work. During development I researched into embellishing and hand stitch producing small samples featuring these methods. I looked at ways of strengthening the samples to make them more robust and able to hold a form; At this point I was still working on the initial ideas of my project proposal which stated I would like to produce a body ornamented piece made from material seascape. However, as my work developed I decided it would be much more effective and aesthetically exciting to create a variety of material seascapes to showcase in the exhibition and have these displayed on the walls. I decided these seascapes would be showcased by one being displayed on a mannequin and various photographs on a life model. However, as I didn’t realise I would change my idea until later on in the project I continued to research PVC, wax and wire. I melted plastic on the samples enabling them to stiffen; I used the heat press for this technique. Weaving coloured wire throughout the samples seemed to be the most effective method and one which I would have used if it wasn’t for my slight change of idea half way through. I then collected primary research from wales of the seascape at different stages of the day, focusing mainly on the sun setting. By doing this I was able to achieve truthful colours instead of taking inaccurate colours of the seascape out of my own imagination. From this I produced a range of colour pallets using different media such as water colour, pastels, acrylic paint and dye. I decided that after finding this research I needed to look into a diverse range of fabrics so I produced a sample book filled with the materials I had collected from charity shops and inexpensive fabric shops. Dying these materials following the colour pallets I had created allowed me to select various colours and materials which I thought were most effective. The colour pallets worked really well and I was pleased with this research as it helped me develop investigations into colour samples.   I decided to go with more subtle colours in order to create more sophisticated and refined outcomes.

My proposal states that I was planning on experimenting with card and paper however these are areas that I didn’t explore as I decided at the start of the project that I just wanted to create seascapes out of fabrics. I chose to work with a diverse range of materials to achieve different textures and qualities to enhance the visual aspects of my material seascapes. I choose to use fabric as it’s an easy and inexpensive material to obtain; therefore I encountered no problems in the production of my final piece regarding the materials needed. However, I did encounter difficulties when it came to embellishing the fabrics. The embellishing needles were so delicate I found it very difficult not to snap them whilst joining fabrics together. I tried to resolve this by only using very thin materials on the machine and to proceed cautiously yet the majority still managed to snap. This was my only concern when producing my final pieces, the needles needed were expensive, fourteen pounds a barrel, and then there was the waiting period for them to be delivered. This set me back on the construction of my work but I whilst I was waiting I found other important things to occupy my time such as sketch book work or pinning together other compositions. I had to adapt my ideas slightly due to this set back as I wasn’t able to embellish the seascapes as much as I had originally planned, I had to rely more on stitch to hold the compositions together.

Overall I feel my final piece is successful. By creating more than one seascape, when they are displayed together, it has produced a much more interesting outcome. I feel like my technical skills have developed vastly during this project as my smocking, pleating and stitch (machine and hand) have become much more refined and polished. I made sure that each composition was formed to the best of my ability.

My project has slightly moved in a different direction to what I had originally anticipated. I initially planned to make the body as much of a feature as the work itself. However, I have made the main focus of the exhibition the material seascapes and only displayed four photographs of the work presented on the body as ornamentation.  I have also used a mannequin to showcase this. I decided half way through the project that by creating lots of smaller seascapes it would make the overall show much more exciting. Yet this is only a slight change to the plan so I didn’t veer off my action plan too much. Up to week 5 I stuck to my plan then researched the textile artists mentioned before, Jan Beanley and Jean little john, which inspired me to continue experimentation leading me to having the idea of producing a range of varied seascapes. However because I veered off my action plan I made sure I wrote in the amendments column the changes I had made and the reasons for them.

During this project I feel like I have been motivated to work to the best of my ability to obtain the best mark I could. I think my motivation and ambition was high each day starting from my initial research and experimentation all the way through to the final piece and setting up the show. I always try to achieve the mind-set that if I work hard each day I’ll feel stress free and satisfied when the project comes to an end.

If I was to develop my work given a longer time period I would create garments instead of just pieces which could just simply be placed anywhere on the body. I would have liked to take these garments back to the original place of inspiration and have a photo-shoot using various models to present the body ornamentation.