Two tutor critique

During the two-tutor critique it was interesting to see other students work both in knit and print and hearing about their concepts and direction of their work helped me to think more about where I want to take my work. It was also helpful to have the advice of another tutor who does not know my work as it sparked some new ideas.

I feel I could have communicated my ideas more clearly during the presentation. I sometimes find it difficult to remember everything I want to explain when going through samples and my work, with just notes to guide me. I noticed that the print students had prepared power point presentations and I think this could be something that would help with communication, to prepare a few simple slides that order my thoughts and make connections between my concept and samples. I was also impressed with how professional the presentations looked.

The feedback was positive though; I was pleased that my collection of samples worked well together as this is something I am never sure of. There is plenty of room for development of my ideas, which we discussed and now I know I am along the right lines I feel more confident to push myself further with technique and colour.

We also talked about how I might move my work into garments, thinking about deconstructing and reconstructing existing garments to play with the idea of dress and traditional menswear associations. I need to work on fashion illustrations and the technical side of garment construction, as well, to communicate my ideas fully and with a professional finish.

Four

I have moved the project along quite a way this week as I have been working on a final collection of samples. The advice from my tutorial was to push techniques further and be more extreme with scale and yarn selection, particularly to reflect the menswear context I am aiming for.

Using what I have learnt in the trims and finishing workshops I have been thinking about my samples as edges or trims of garments and sections of detail. I feel this has helped with the composition of each sample and think it has provided some good starting points to develop throughout the year.

A new technique I have discovered is the embellisher, which allowed me to create the felted edges in the sample below. I like the simplicity of it and the heaviness that can be achieved.

I also worked on refining my lace insert idea, adding metallic foil to the lace has helped it blend in more and gives a more organic feel. There is still a lot of room for development with this technique and I am interested to explore it further during the next part of the project.

(dudied v-neck with lace insert)

 Overall I am pleased with the final outcomes, I feel I could have developed and refined them more, but I am happy with how they work together as a collection and I feel this aspect of my work has progressed from last year.

Three

I went in to this weeks tutorial still feeling like I was going round in circles a bit. I had a lot of ideas but wasn’t sure quite how to realise them.

We discussed a range of different sample ideas and from the tutorial I felt much more confident to get on with knitting and test out my ideas.

I am quite pleased with the results of this sample, which I washed so the wool would felt. I would be interested to increase the contrast in density and play with the composition of the ladders.

I have been exploring different ways of creating holes and spaces in my knit. For the sample below I used a method of casting off and increasing stitches. I then experimented with embellishing lace to create an infill layer. This has good potential but I need to refine it much more to fit in with the aesthetic of my project. 

I wanted to play with the idea of removal and addition of colour so dyed up some yarn and bleached it out in sections. 

The worn looking effect thats achieved fits nicely with my concept and I quite like this way of working, adding the colour detail after knitting.

Two

It was highlighted to me in my tutorial that I haven’t really moved my work forward since last week, I think I have been trying to look at a too broader range of inspiration and so will focus on just one aspect of my concept for this four week project.

Whilst I was presenting my sketchbook work, the words ‘subtraction’ and ‘marks left’ were suggested in response. I built a new, more focused mind map to reflect these ideas and have been working more on manipulations of drawings to direct my work.

I have also developed a colour pallete to work from. I decided to keep the tones quite neutral with flashes of read and orange to reflect a lot of the work in my sketchbook and as I want to focus on techniques, I think too much colour would be distracting at this stage. As I am working to a menswear context for this project I have also kept this in mind when developing my colours.

(colour ideas)

Playing with destructive processes to knit samples, I began a few experimental samples. I like the effects of both of the samples below and can work on refining techniques to achieve a higher quality aesthetic to them. 

(Painted mock rib)

(burnt knit)

One_ PDP tutorial

This week began with my PDP tutorial, in which we discussed my summer work, where I want to go with it and how to develop it.

Following Laura's advice I have reviewed my summer work, picking out key pieces in order to refine my ideas and start to give my work more direction. I also made more of my photography in my sketchbook as this is a strong point and by dissecting my photos and drawings I can work towards the sampling stage. 

I have also begun to look at context seriously. Over summer I became interested in the potential of menswear. Highlighted in my tutorial was whether I would be making garments, this is something I would like to explore but is quite daunting as I have not attempted anything like this before. With the technical support on offer and the fashion workshops it is something I am excited to work on though.

Over this week I have began to gather a range of contextual research of some of the things I find inspiring and have tried to begin to find a niche I could work within. The more high-end and conceptual fashion is where I see my work fitting best and I am drawn to exploring unconventional forms of dress. I think I need to start knitting and see how my work progresses naturally. I don’t want to define my work too much at this stage although I am aware of the need to consider audience when designing/ making.