Rotations

Print

For my first pop-up project, I was looking at objects which remind me of my Grandparents. I made collages based on my Grandfathers chess set and then used Photoshop to make it into a print. I changed the opacity and overlapped the images to create a layered effect. I changed the colours of some of the shapes to match other colours in my colour palette. There are things about my design which I would change. For example I wouldn’t overlap the images as much because there are sections where you can only see a small amount of the design underneath, which looks a bit messy. I would also make the top half of the design more like the bottom half as I think the very large scale chess pieces contrast well against the small ones. However, I like the colours I have used and I like the overall look of the design. I entered my design in the www.betafashion.com competition, and won. My design is currently on sale in Topshop, Oxford Circus.

The screen printing part of the rotation was interesting. I didn’t realise how complex the process of making the dye and devorè chemicals would be. I had done a lot of screen printing before, but not using the light box to expose an image on the screen. I really like experimenting with this, as it allows you to do much more detailed images than using a stencil. I need to work on getting the prints to look sharper with cleaner edges. Although I don’t think the rotation actually went as well as I had hoped, I do want to specialise in Print as I think with practise with how to use the screens my work will dramatically improve. I also much preferred the digital print to the screen printing.

Stitch

I think the stitch rotation went the best for me out of all of the rotations. I think this is because stitch is where I feel more confident as I have done much more stitch in the past than anything else. I really liked my outcomes and I think I used the technique that the tutor gave me well, as I took the basic idea and pushed it much further to create something which was my own and was unique.  I was working from drawings I had done of the box for the chess board. There were a lot of regimented squares in my drawings with the look of a grid.  I thought this would be a good thing to try to incorporate into my stitch work and the paint marks in drawings lent itself well to lots of different coloured threads.

Weave

I enjoyed weave a lot more than I thought I would. Testing out the different structures to see which patterns would be created was interesting. I like using unconventional materials to create the weave. I was basing my weave on drawings I had done of fattening foods such as doughnuts and McDonalds. Because of this, I used objects like straws and plastics. The sheen on these materials linked well to the sticky icing on the doughnuts and the grease in the McDonalds. I also tried using thicker, woollier threads to link to the fluffy texture of the doughnuts.

Knit

I found it hard to get used to the knitting machines, and it took a lot of perseverance to try to create some samples which I liked. There were a few techniques which I really liked and got to grips with, such as making circles and doing the lace holes and ladders. I found it slightly frustrating when I had ideas for things I wanted to try but which I think were too complicated for what I could actually do. Knitting is also something that I think I could like once I got more used to the knitting machine. However, I do think I improved a lot throughout the week. I created a punch card design based on my drawings of waffles. Similarly to the stitch rotation, I was using a lot of squares but this was slightly more abstract.  The sample I made which I thought was the most successful was when I combined a Lycra thread with quite a thick non-stretchy thread. One side of the sample was very loose with lots of hooped threads, while the other was tight with my punch card design knitted into it. I like the contrast between the two opposite effects which you can get by using the same technique.