Category Archives: ATV PART 5. BUILDING A COLLECTION

Textiles 1 Part 5 Building a collection Project 2 Building a response Developing textile concepts

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Here are today’s samples

  • Inspiration
  • Torn papers glued
  • Inspiration
  • Twisted and shaped crepe paper
  • Inspiration
  • Woven offcuts of painted watercolour paper with handmade beads from the same papers
  • Inspiration
  • Watercolour paper pricked with a darning needle from the front
  • Reverse view
  • Inspiration
  • Offcuts of painted watercolour paper cut into squares and randomly arranged as a mosaic

I particularly enjoyed the weaving and mosaic making – I like the randomness of the result which still retains much of the feel of the original inspiration. Working with watercolour paper is particularly satisfying – I like the feel of it and the way it tears and cuts. It is strong and I intend to use it for some stitch samples next.

Just been painting some watercolour paper ready to use for stitched samples

Textiles 1 Part 5 Building a collection Project 2 Building a response. More collage and textile concepts

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Feeling inspired by the colours and shapes from my drawings and collages, I produced some more painted papers and used them to cut and bond shapes to fabric.

Painted papers cut out and bonded to cotton fabric.
Pieces cut out and stitched to a cotton backing.

There are lots of ideas here but I am not sure I like the machine stitching attaching the elements. Also I should have ironed the cotton fabric first!!! I do like the arrangement though and I have lots of shapes ready to experiment further with.

Hand stitched sample which I am much happier with

Before I get too carried away with this collage work, I need to work further on developing textile concepts.

These are my first experiments.

  • Inspiration
  • Painted leaf shapes woven into painted watercolour paper
  • Inspiration
  • Twisted hand made paper
  • Inspiration
  • Strong tissue wrapped around buttons and tied
  • Inspiration
  • Strips of paper curled and glued
  • Inspiration
  • Further exploration of collage shapes with some stitching

Tempting though it is to refine these samples further I need to experiment and develop many more concepts before I move on.

Textiles 1 Part 5 Building a collection Project 2 Building a response. Collage

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Following my colour studies and fabric wraps, I decided to work on a series of paper collages. Having traced the outlines of my drawings on an iPad application called Waterlogue, I selected areas of these drawings, enlarged them, and cut out selected areas to draw around on painted papers. These were then arranged into a series of collage samples.

Selected areas from original drawings in Part 5 Project 1.
Collage showing repetition and pattern

I feel that all the collages are inspirational and give lots of ideas for stitch. I am pleased that I used papers that I have painted and printed in my colour palette, as they give me the slightly faded complex look I was going for. They remind me a bit of the collage pieces in the book ‘The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle’. Maybe I could choose him as my inspirational artist?

Textiles 1 Part 5 Building a collection Project 2 Building a response

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Identifying and presenting a colour palette

Firstly I chose the following images from which to extract a palette

Next I painted colour chips in watercolour and then in gouache.

Watercolour chips
Gouache chips

I also created yarn wraps

Single colour yarn wraps focussing on colours and tones
Multicolour yarn wraps exploring colour relationships and proportion

Textiles 1 Part 5 Building a collection Project 1 Developing visual research

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Reviewing the drawing and mark making carried out in Parts one and two it was obvious to me that there was one exercise that I have not developed at all so far and that was exercise 1.8 Portraying by drawing. The flower watercolours I did for that exercise were fluid and colourful, and I feel I want to develop this theme for the current project.

  • Work produced for exercise 1.8
Work produced for exercise 1.8
Work produced for exercise 1.8

Looking back at the feedback I received from my tutor for Exercise 1.8, it was recommended that I look at the work of Angie Lewin. Her stylised paintings and prints are absolutely beautiful and I am encouraged to try to be free with my painting and also to try some printing for my visual research.

I chose a variety of plants to observe and work from, and a few different arrangements.

Watercolour shadow painting
Watercolour observational painting
Watercolour observation painting
Watercolour shadow painting
Watercolour shadow painting
Loose watercolour painting with added pen detail
Very simple watercolour and pen
Observation in felt tip
Watercolour shadow painting with pen detail

I wanted to try some iPad drawings as they had been successful previously.

iPad drawing
iPad drawing – I really like this one

Next I made a print block using foam

  • Print block
  • Prints using print block and also direct printing from leaf
  • Prints from print block

These drawings have given me lots of ideas to work on for the next part of this project. The colours and patterns are vibrant and exciting, in particular the watercolour and print studies.

Textiles 1 Part 5 Building a collection. Initial thoughts

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‘The studio is a laboratory, not a factory. An exhibition is the result of your experiments, but the process is never-ending. So an exhibition is not a conclusion.’ (Chris Ofili)

I definitely think that my way of working is experimental and that my working space is a laboratory as opposed to a factory. I find it very difficult to make more than one of anything, so each sample has to develop or be incorporated into the next sample or finished piece.

My workroom (laboratory) is messy and has lots of things going on at once that may or may not link. Of course the downside of this approach is that I have many unfinished projects and samples. Some of these may be put away and reflected on at a future date, inspiring thoughts and ideas at that point.

I agree that an exhibition captures my thoughts up to that point in time but is never a conclusion. It may be that I will conclude a particular theme, but pieces will always be there to be revisited, inspire and also sometimes to be cut up and included in some other experiment.

Looking back at the work I have produced so far I can see that it is all work in progress, and that although some will be developed or used to inspire further work, nothing is final. I am valuing my experimental work more and more and at the end of the course I hope to use all I have learned to inform my ideas and practice for future projects.