Evaluation...

My project has been about curiosities, form and creating things that are ‘robust and fragile’ in one way or another.  When I started the project, I didn't really know where it was going to go, but I wanted to experiment with more materials and processes, and colour, use more handstitch and become more fluent in my methods. 

 As I like to ‘make’ first, I thought hand processes would be best, and it is where I have been able to get my ideas together and experiment with different materials and objects, and do lots of stitching, wrapping and arranging. The workshop has  proved to be a starting point in project where I have gone on to look at meaning and forms. Through reviewing my work, I have found composition and ground are important, as well as things being linear and repetitive. So using lots of hand and machine stitch together works well as I think it has made my work more personal and interesting.

I want to go on experimenting, definitely more colour as this has come through in the latter part of this project and is something I am going to develop. I want to look at preparing surfaces with things like gesso, wax and wire, take the forms of the all stitching as well as the processes and think about the scale of them! I think I should have experimented more with scale and space so, next time, I am going to take things out into spaces, seeing how things look in different places. The kinder surprise task really helped me think about this possible experimentation- I can imagine all that bright plastic and paper turned into fabric/plaster/wire in muted colours could look quite different. So thoughtful experiment and scale is next!

 Notes, notes and more notes! I use my sketchbook a lot to document, especially as there have been a few changes in direction. I find this is as an integral part of my working as it’s easier to see what I have done and may do next; think, do drawings and little samples and notes on artists and ideas to move it along. I think my need to document everything is a little bit obsessive! I like recording everything down; I do like looking at collections and artifacts, so maybe I’m trying to make my work become my own little collection…

Looking at artists has been very helpful with drawing and making and developing content. For example, a changing point was when I looked at colour, then went on to look at Mark Rothko, it really made me think about the project in a different light; creating a feeling, so something being physically less robust or fragile, thinking about it more conceptually. This is something I really want to expand on the next part of the project.

What has really been helpful is the tutorials within workshops and tutor groups. I have found it really useful to constantly be reviewing my work and see what others are doing. I like to see if other peoples work is similar in terms of context or forms and so its really useful to find out how they are using workshops and developing their project, e.g. I realised the ‘dyefibrecloth’ workshop would be the next and best step for me! I  can always pick up something from listening to other people about their work, even if it is completely different to mine, it could just be a word or an artist, so I always keep looking and listening…