My project was called ‘natural vs. man made’, in this project
I was asked to explore aspects of both nature and man-made. We did this by
producing a sketchbook of research and art work, sheet work that develops my
research into design ideas; I then used this design to print a one meter
wallpaper sample.
To gather my primary research for man made I took a train to
Leeds where I took pictures of the church and other interesting buildings and
objects, I also used picture I had already took in the past. To gather my
primary research for nature I went on a walk into the woods and took picture of
the plants and landscape of the woods, again I also used past picture I had
already taken.
After researching both nature and man made, I choose to focus
my theme on nature. I choose to focus on nature because I felt that there was
more to work with in nature, because everything comes from something natural,
also there is more pattern and shape in nature.
After doing my research and deciding my theme I started
developing it by producing A3 sheets of research. The first sheet I did was a
mood board, this is where I put all me research on a sheet together. I then
developed these into visual sheets where I took parts of my research that I
liked and changed them into my own design theme, this is also where I got my
colour theme from and where I decided that I was going to focus on winter as a sub theme. From these I produced a design idea which I then turned into a
tracing for a screen that I would use to print my wall paper.
To accompany the project I did workshops in knitting,
weaving and felting. Knitting, I think was the easiest for me to do because I
already knew how to do the basics. I then did weaving, we started off on a peg
loom, I enjoyed the peg loom because it was something new and I also found it
too be quite easy. After the peg loom I then used the loom to produce a weave,
I preferred this loom because I felt it made a nicer, more compact weave. I
also did wet felting, I found this to be very time consuming, I then used a wet
felting piece I had produced and needle felted onto it and really enjoyed it.
In this project I experimented on my samples with batik and
puff binder, I also went on to use puff binder on my final print. During my print
room experience in this project I
encountered a few problems, the main one was that my screen had not exposed
properly, but I overcame this but going over the print again with a paint brush
and the pigment to fill in the gaps where the screen hadn’t printed properly.
After producing my samples in the print room I had a design
meeting with my class where I was put into a group of three where the other two
people in my group evaluated my prints and chose which one they felt was the
strongest print, this was then then print I was to produce as my final 1 meter
print.
To do my final print I firstly prepped my background and
then used the two screens I had to print onto the background. The two screens
were different layers of my design; this enabled me to have more than one part
to my design, in different colours.
Overall I think when went well was that I was able to
overcome my problems I had in the print room. Also I found that I really
enjoyed doing my sketchbook because of this entire thing I got to explore
within my theme. I feel that the workshops were also very successful in that I
think my overall outcome in doing things I haven’t done before was good.
Overall I think I used my time well, but I would have liked
to develop my sketchbook a bit better. And I am overall pleased with my final
print and the outcome of this project.
