Posts

Image
 Final body of work: I am very happy with my final body of work. I have managed to create three unique wall hangings, two that are patchwork and one that is my own silhouette. One main goal I had for this project was to work on a bigger scale, my previous work has always been on the smaller side so I felt the need to challenge myself during these last few months at college and I think that doing this has been a successful development within my work. I think that the first two images obviously work very well together, there are repeating images on each piece, they have the same boarders around each cyanotype and they have both been sewn together to create a patchwork look. When looking at the cyanotypes I have notices that there seems to be some fluctuation in the vibrancy of the blue tones with some being lighter and slightly more transparent and others having this vivid dark blue creating the image. While unintentional, I quite like the effect that this has it differentiates each ...
Image
Time plan:
 Bibliography: 'The Backrooms' image sourced from 'The Mid Press Reader Available at: [ https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/backrooms-and-the-rise-of-the-institutional-gothic/ ] Nick Frank: 'Interiors and exteriors II' ' Life book 4 life' Available at [ https://www.nickfrank.de/en/portfolio ] Hannah Lamb: 'Material Touch' '[de]constructed cloth' Available at [ https://www.hannahlamb.co.uk/home-gallery ] Alun Kirby: 'Photographic memory' Available at  https://alunkirby.com/portfolio-2/photographic-memory/ Salvador Dali: 'Persistence of memory' Available at:  https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79018 'The Hallucinogenic Toreador' Available at:  https://thedali.org/dalis-masterwork-a-closer-look/
 Final evaluation: Exploring the subconscious For my FMP I wanted to explore themes of the subconscious and dream while also incorporating sub themes of surrealism and liminal spaces. looking at the subconscious and dreams is something that is important to me as they often influence my work and life and through this project I believed that I could not only understand my own art practice, and influences better but also myself. to begin this project I knew that I wanted to work with Cyanotypes again, this is a process and medium that I have come to love and understand more thoroughly. I believe that this is the medium that I am the most experienced and skilled with and knowing this I decided to take this and use this for my final project. Through some experimentation I found that I wanted to take on the challenge of working with fabric rather than mixed media paper, I believed that this could take my work forwards to the next level and showcase that I am able to adapt ...
Image
 Measuring and cutting dowl I needed something to use to hang up my wall hangings and also weight the bottom of them dowel. I decided to buy some down to do this. I had to get two different sizes to do this due to one of the loops being smaller that all of the others. I took my wall hangings with me to B&Q so that I could test them while I was there and reduce that chance of me choosing the wrong size.  I then measured out the length that I wanted, I decided to leave about 4 inches of dowel overhanging on either side of the fabric and this would give me enough space to add and attachment to hang each piece. I used a hand saw to cut each piece of dowel down to size which was a fairly simple process, and I put the dowel in each loop to test that they fit properly which the did. 
Image
 Full silhouette Cyanotype: For the next step I needed to make a full body silhouette Cyanotype. I previously practiced with my hands and this experiment was successful. I then attempted to do one with some old mixture but this unfortunately didn't turn out well. Learning from theses experiments I decided to make sure that the Cyanotype mixture I used was freshly made and to paint the whole sheet of calico on in one evening instead of spreading it out over multiple days.  I then left it overnight to dry properly and mid afternoon the next day I found a sunny area in my back garden to put it out and lay on it. I made sure that the grass was freshly cut and I lay out some blankets to try and give myself as flat a base as possible and stayed there for about 30 minuets.  to wash it off I places the calico on to of a clothes horse and placed it in the shower and the way I was able to rinse the fabric properly. Last time I only held it up with my own hands and I found that the ...
Image
 Pinning, tacking and using a sewing machine: When sewing my practice wall hanging I quickly found out how little I knew about sewing and sewing machines, I found the machines hard to navigate and I never knew what to do when something went wrong. To try and improve as much as I could with the short amount of time that I had left on this project I decided to take a short sewing course, during this course I was taught about the different features on the machine, how to choose the right stitch, different techniques and how to reverse stitch to make sure my work doesn't fall apart. I found this course incredibly helpful and even ended up buying a sewing machine while I was there for me to use at home.  During my practice sewing I made the mistake of not pinning or tacking any of my fabric together and not taking any measurements of where the stithies would go. As a result, I ended up with an incredibly messy and unfinished wall hanging. The seams were coming apart and none of the...