To an end

It's over. The first lap of the year comes to an end as we wrap up our first project of the course to ready ourselves for our first assessment. I have finally finished everything, my stuffed sketchbook, knitting book, collection of large concept boards, pretty much everything apart from this blog post of course, till I type my last full stop to end this project but to only await the next blog post introducing my next project. 

I had fun looking into a more personal side of identity of myself this time as I'm used to playing it safe however I feel I have explored something new and that I have explored the title well. Each week itself has been a mini challenge, pushing us to remember all these different ways and techniques which was a good way to help us deal with quick-paced pressure, bouncing from one subject to another; I have definitely enjoyed it and like to think I succeeded in every week. If I'm honest my biggest challenge has been trying to keep this blog live and well as my goldfish memory found it hard to remember to post which meant I usually left it too late most times, however once I did post everything usually came running back.

I have seriously loved taking part in each week and learning things which were alien to me eight weeks ago and the fact that I am now a few steps closer to knowing all I want to know about textiles excites me. It has been a wild experience and I really can't wait for our next project and title to get stuck into. 

Wrap me with your camera

The location of my shoot was always prepared as I knew I wanted to shoot outside St. Thomas' Hospital, opposite the cardiology department on the embankment. This was the perfect location since its where me and my family get our heart scan check ups every year, as well as the genetics department. But despite the personal links, the actual location has some great photographic points such as the gridded exterior and minimalist pillars surrounding the hospital. Around the corner their are also metal stairs on which add character to the large hospital.

The shoot overall was a fun experience as I managed to express the vulnerability and harshness I wanted as a whole with the background, garment and model even if we did get only 15 minutes to shoot as we were told it was against patient confidentiality to photograph on the hospital 'grounds'. Lucky enough I had the photos that I needed and was positive enough to proceed with the little amount of photos I managed to snap. 

The two successful photos chosen for my A1 board:

Caught in a moving caption

When we were told we could either create a photo shoot or video to represent our final piece I was looking forward to the challenge of producing both. I wanted to create a short film which sums up my project and personality rather than showing a garment which could be seen in a creatively directed photo shoot. 

This video is a representation of me and my feelings of still being too young and not ready to deal with the chance and possibility of having my fathers heart failure gene. My connection with putting the flower together is my acceptance with the course of nature and that not everything can be stopped. But the snippets of myself show that we cant have control over everything like emotions.

Just make make create

After a long think and scribble, my ideas eventually formed into a final piece; two final pieces to be specific.

Having one strong vision to print onto a jumper from the start of coming up with a final plan I immediately got to working. I chose to go ahead with one of my prints that I previously designed during print week on Photoshop; a print made up of cut up heart pieces from the heart I drew at the beginning of this project. At first I had the hopes of actually knitting a jumper to print onto but the concept was too adventurous as I only have a weeks experience on the knitting machine and magically making a jumper is not so easy, however I instead went on a hunt for a poly fibred jumper to heat-press my print onto. It wasn't easy but once found I headed straight to the prototyping room the next day to print my black and white pattern. Naturally I first sampled the prints on knit fabric however it wasn't very successful as the press flattened the knit which also meant the print wasn't very distinctive either. However after many samples with different knit fabrics and print sizes I finally managed to print onto my jumper by enlarging the print slightly to make it more recognizable which was a success however instead of black the print transferred as an off green which was a shame; but since my theme and intention throughout this project has been black and white, the photo shoot also was planned to be black and white also therefore saving me from my colour dysfunction problem.  The process was interesting and quicker than I thought as I wanted to get everything finished so I would have a clear mindset and enough time to edit and plan my photo shoot, video and sketchbook.

Since I had my jumper all finished and had the hopes of knitting I decided that I wanted to go ahead and knit an extremely long scarf with cable knit to represent dna and genetics which I had the vision of my model being wrapped and twisted in for the shoot. That morning I got to working from 11am in the morning soldiering on till 11pm that same night. I went 10 hours straight knitting to get this long scarf finished which to me payed off as it gave me the opportunity to teach myself how to fix up my mistakes.

Creating these two final pieces meant I had more options for my final decisions which would conclude my project. I had extreme fun producing these two in the mediums I most enjoyed experimenting within. Next step photo shoot.

Nearing the end of the first lap.

Now that we have finished our fashion rotation we are now hit with the pressure of creating a final piece led from our project from over the past two months. It has been a wild and tiring past couple of weeks, and changing each week can definitely test your sense of organisation and commitment as no week can be classed as an 'easy' week; but I could easily pick my favourites from the bunch, that being print and knit.

Since print and knit were my favoured weeks I know I want to interweave these two mediums for my final piece to create a substantial outcome which represents my project and theme of identity clearly. Throughout my project I have been closely looking into hearts and genetics linking to my fathers illness which is something I am eager to include; and since my prints from the digital print week are formed of my heart illustration, I want to use them in some way whether through digital print or a physical accessory.  One thing I have had in mind was printing on to knit to combine different aspects of textiles into a single piece but I am not sure on whether to create my own knit of to simply put together different recycled knits to represent recycled genetics. 

I have two weeks left until the deadline and I'm confident with my project to lead me towards a substantial idea to build upon, hopefully combining all my ideas into one successful piece. I already have some idea's of where to shoot my piece, its just a matter of figuring out what my final outcome will be.

Knitting you away

Along with digital print this was also a week that I much looked forward too, to actually get physically involved with making and creating something with texture and dimension. Knit has always been something that intrigued me and when we got introduced to the machine I couldn't wait to get stuck in.

\We started off with basic row knits which wasnt as easy as it looked as we had to pull out the needles for each row hoping it wont get stuck, but once the clamps were applied everything seemed to go smoothly and soon enough we go the hang of it.

Every hour we learnt a new technique; cable, weave, drop stitch, polka dots ect all as difficult as they look but somehow me and my partner Ronan managed to get the hang of most of the techniques breezing by each time and enjoying it as we went which was super. Finding each of the steps fun instantly led me to believe that I was definitely more into textiles over fashion design which was a perfect eye opener.

For me this was the most rewarding week in that I learnt to use a new piece of equipment and along with it learnt many many different techniques; and even taught myself to fix problems and faults whilst I went along which meant my confidence was at a high during the last day. I felt I didn't struggle at all this week because of how much I enjoyed doing knitwear, it usually meant my positive attitude reflected on the knits I made. But I do have to mention that if there is a difficult part it has to be packing the machine up, it's like a metal jungle.

Digi-digi-digital print.

Being someone who has always been attracted to colours and prints, digital print week was the one I most looked forward to! The concept and process of prints and textiles excites me; and using Photoshop is something I love love love to experiment with as I love the basis of creating something totally new out of a single image, and learning new tools to progress is always a plus. So learning and creating prints based on our family history was a fun and rewarding personal experiment.

We started by learning the basics of crating print patterns as we learnt how do create patterns which repeat as well as drop repeat and using different tools such as cloning and how to control layers on Photoshop. At first, even though I've used Photoshop in the past I found it difficult to catch up as we were learning one thing after the other, which definitely challenged me memory wise as I couldn't note steps down but eventually once done I managed to get the hang of the new tools. 

With some pre-prepared Photoshop edited hearts I created some prints using the new pattern tools which was a great part of the learning process because we were finally able to create original prints. I used the tools to clone, chop, merge, distort and filter the prints in various crazy ways which kept on developing my ideas and patterns which eventually led me to a wild bunch of prints which had connections to different parts of me; genetics, family and background. I chose these three different sectors to keep the patterns totally different with unusual outcomes that relate to me but also with the mutual theme of grey-scale throughout which keeps a sense of cohesion within the prints as well as with my sketchbook.  

For the final print collection I presented it on a basic jumper design mixing and matching the prints to keep it interesting. Because I believe I'm more of a textiles/print person I usually tend to keep the shape of my garments simple but relevant to focus on what is most interesting to me; textile and print.  I honestly really enjoyed this week and can joyfully say that this has been my favourite week so far, but there's still knitting next week so we'll have to see how that goes first then I can honestly decide; although it'll probably be a very close shave.