By the time we got to 2020 I’d become comfortable enough to begin a new sketchbook/reflective. This post shows some of the pages form it. It was a mix of printed off photos, stitch samples, hand written text and FINALLY some sketching and drawings.
Ferns and charnia sketchbook
Scale, reflecting on scale – sketchbook flatlay
Sketchbook flatlay – layout
Flatlay before cropping out the background
Fern shapes inspired my design, as the charnia fossil was somewhat stiff
Fossils sketchbook
Frining samples
Fringing samples in sketchbook
Fringing sketchbook flatlay
Fillings design, sketchbook page flatlay
Visualisations
Website layouts
Visualisation sketchbook page
Stitch samples from February 2020
Various laser cut samples March 2020
Reflections on the Fashion Fictions activity April -May 20202
Reflecting on the Fashion Fictions workshop
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This gallery shows some of the pages, with samples photographed or scanned as flatlays. I tried to use some overlays and textiles with the pages. I love tracing paper overlays and used this a lot for planning layers in the design. (see the time-lapse video re-creating the small box layout -apologies for portrait orientation!)
My reflective journal developed before I came out of my #sketchbookwoes. I think I was comfortable with it earlier as I’d given myself permission to limit what I wrote and to use my own style. Anna Piper was really helpful in this, and I saw her reflective journal (with it’s limited space for entries) as a starting point. I eventually used my reflective and sketchbook together and mixed in samples and technical info too.
My first page of the new sketchbook/refelctive style, inspired by my trip to Calais in December 2019
Reflections on my time in the archive at the Calais Lace Museum
The machine room in the Museum of Lace and Fashion
I inserted a video into my powerpoint presentation using this sketchbook page
The streets around the museum
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I’m also considering the possibility of recording this type of thing for JC Middlebrook, and posting videos online showing some design and making process, as part of my social media marketing and promotion.
My second reflective journal, started Jan 2020
My eventual sketchbook/journal/technical file is almost full. I plan to continue using a book of this type in the future, possibly going back to a smaller one eventually. The ultimate goal of the reflective is to go back and look at it on a regular basis, to remember your reflections and continually refine your work as a result.
One of my objectives on this whole MA journey was to learn how to communicate visually. It was important to me to overcome a fear of drawing, sketchbooks and art language. I wanted to develop a visual language, and learn ways to communicate my ideas. I envisaged that I would be taught how to do those things as part of the course.
I even ventured to life drawing class! Thank you Oliver Lovley for living up to your name
The phrase ‘Just have fun with it’ began to haunt me, I felt like my rescue pup, faced with a range of toys and tennis balls, not having played with a human before. I didn’t know how to ‘play’, let alone have fun and enjoy it. I had no idea how to explore ideas on paper, in fabric or on a computer. I began my own hashtag #sketchbookwoes and dreaded drawing. But I kept trying and attended drawing workshops and life drawing classes, determined to face that fear. I found I enjoyed using ink, it had an intensity of colour that appealed, and I splashed it around with abandon, but without knowing how to take it further.
Using drawing classes to practice my skills
trying to loosen up with my ink drawings
I like the prickles on the edge of these leaves, like picot loops on lace
Ian Cutmore suggested I try drawing some of my own lace
Click on the gallery below to see some of my trials…
Textile sample January 2019
Using a drill to make marks on paper and acetate
Pierced acetate projected onto the studio wall using an OHP
Using a camera to create light and shadow
Collage with images of scaffold and humans, gave me some ideas of using human scale lace motifs
Collage with images of lace and humans, gave me some ideas of using human scale lace motifs
fake neon lights
Using the camera to capture light and ‘sketch’ with photos
my ideas for using light painting, trying to draw (note this is in January 2019) but I abandoned this style as I thought I hated drawing
a single line embroidery with thread
a sample, machine stitched making holes in acetate, trying the idea of machine made holes or net
a sample, machine stitched making holes in tracing paper, trying the idea of machine made holes or net
Close up of continuous line drawing
Laser cut samples of continuous line drawings
Developing continuous line and adding text
Developing a ‘continuous line’ style in text
My ‘Flatlay’
Other layouts during Helen Hallows’ workshop
Sample layout during Helen Hallows’ workshop
Sample layout during Helen Hallows’ workshop
Sample layout after Helen Hallows’ workshop
Another drawing exercise after Helen Hallows’ workshop
I discovered that I enjoyed continuous line drawing uring Helen Hallows’ workshop
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My poor friends listened to me with great patience as I outlined my woes, even loaning or giving me art materials to try with. Thank you Rachel and Gail for your support! Rachel and I went to a sketchbook class taught by the super-talented, patient and understanding artist Helen Hallows. We packed up our materials and papers and turned up at a fantastic eco-venue in Derbyshire. Helen turned the light on for me. She took us through various exercises to loosen up and forget that we were drawing. I tried continuous line drawing with a pen for the first time and that was it. I found had my style, my method and my medium.
[Edit – additional 2020 -I’ve developed a continous writing style, and in later posts you’ll see how I’ve pushed that further into picots (edges loops) and brides (joins between motifs).]
I’d kept some pages from British Vogue 1996, a shoot by British photographer Nick Knight, using high contrast, saturated colour and very dark shadows. In another of his shoots for Vogue from 2004, ‘Shimmer’, shadow is used as a frame for the model. (Click on the gallery for my comments)
This image has been in my workspace since I began my MA. I love the darkness and shadow, the texture in the beaded lace and the saturated jewel colours. From Nick Knight’s photoshoot for Vogue 1996
This image has been in my workspace since I began my MA. I love the darkness and shadow, richness in the satin and saturated jewel colours. From Nick Knight’s photoshoot for Vogue 1996
This image has been on my workspace wall since I began my MA. I loved the way that the model peeked out from the shadow. From Nick Knight’s ‘shimmer’ photoshoot for Vogue 2004
From Nick Knight’s Shimmer photoshoot for Vogue 1998
Nick Knight for Commes de Garcons, love how the shadow creates the texture of the fabric
Nick Knight ‘Knights of Knightsbridge’ in London, my photo taken Oct 2019
I loved the way that the black was so saturated, and the colours were so rich as a result. I liked that the darkness was used as a prop in the ‘Shimmer’ photoshoot. I tried to use this technique to photograph some samples. I didn’t go much further with the idea of photography in this style, but the depth of shadows and the jewel colour palette has informed the entire project.
I’d kept some pages from British Vogue 1996, a shoot by British photographer Nick Knight, using high contrast, saturated colour and very dark shadows. In another of his shoots for Vogue from 2004, ‘Shimmer’, shadow is used as a frame for the model. This has informed a way of photographing textile samples and highlighting parts of a sample.
Nick Knight: images from Vogue 1996
Alongside the use of darkness/light I am interested in ‘dark’ motifs or design themes such as skulls/bones or perhaps something shocking or unexpected in lace. See Jason Holroyd’s use of industrial motif in his laser cut lace designs ‘Missing Industry’ and ‘Class Dismissed’. See also the communist inspired designs of lace designer William Hallam Pegg held in the NTU lace archive.
Jason Holroyd ‘Class Dismissed’ 2012
Along with my other keywords:
Translucent
Negative space
Embellished layers
Encrusted
Darkness is the most important.
Real darkness can be difficult to find, especially in urban spaces, and particularly in places inhabited by the masses. In fact, darkness could be described as a luxury. ‘Darkness is a luxury not granted to Britain’s Council Estates’ (Sloane 2016).
Bright light will hide that which has a lower light level, which can only be seen through darkness. How many of us have been camping and gone outside in the middle of the night to answer the call, only to have our breath taken away by the amount and brightness of the stars? Dark Sky Parks have become a necessity for those wanting to see more than the largest and brightest of stars. According to Falchi et al (2016) 99% of the population of Europe and the US live with night-time light pollution.
Darkness can be as necessary as light for revealing texture. When items are lit from behind for example, the texture or real properties of the material will be difficult to perceive. Turn off the backlight and more can be seen. This can have a philosophical meaning too. In the discussion ‘Dark retreats and sensory deprivation’ Tenzin Wangyal describes Buddhist theory of how removing expectation of external light during a dark retreat, you see more of the ‘internal light’ of your soul.
Similarly, we can see how phosphorescent items are hidden until ‘normal’ light frequency is removed, leaving only the phosphors ‘glowing’ in the dark. Of course, this is a visual effect only. The phosphors glow all the time, we just cannot perceive them until the light conditions allow.
Do galleries find it challenging to exhibit items requiring darkness, resorting to displaying them behind a wall or curtain in order to exclude the light? Can the work hold the darkness within required to reveal hidden elements?
Jayne Childs: 2018 MA textile sample
Pieces are usually illuminated in the direction of the viewer’s gaze, if they are lit from the back the detail can be lost. Could this effect be exploited to draw the viewer in to examine one detail, only to reveal another? What happens if intricate items are lit from behind instead? Or if the light is withdrawn as the viewer approaches. What does the darkness, or lack of light, reveal? I will explore layering to create shadow, hide or reveal texture and add richness to the design. Translucent fabrics can add sheen without weight and bring lightness to the design.
