Evaluation
In this project. I have created a range of samples based on the constraints set by local clothing shop Moo, This was also a competition and which ever sample/s Moo decide they would like to work with the most would be produced into an avant garde garment. During the project I worked on doing my sketchbook, Mood boards, Visual sheets, Development sheets, Tracings and samples. This project has really challenged me to be more independent, experimental and manage my time better. In this evaluation I will be explaining about my research, development, influences, problems I had and about presenting my work to moo.
The research I undertook was mostly secondary research, I gathered photo's from Pinterest and specialist invertebrate sea creatures websites. I tried to gather photo's that had lot's of pattern on so that I would be able to take that research further into my visual sheets. I have five mood boards in total, to inspire me. The first mood board included pictures of invertebrate sea creatures, The second was an avant garde based mood board as the winner of this competition would have their sample produced into an avant garde garment, so I wanted this mood board to inspire me. My third mood board I created it by using photos of embellished dresses and fabric manipulation, I also used sequins and glitter to make this sheet look amazing. My fourth and fifth mood boards are based on the colour scheme for this project. Taking pictures from Pinterest I created a mood board based on monochrome fashion as one of the constraints set by Moo is that my colour scheme has to be monochrome and one contrasting colour. From the start I had no idea what my contrasting colour would be, so for my fifth mood board I created a current trends sheet, with all the colours and trends forecast for spring/summer 14 from magazine websites such as company and vogue. This sheet helped me a lot and I narrowed it down to two colours, Orange and Pink.
In my sketchbook I tried to get research that inspired me that was 'thinking outside the box.' I looked at different fashion books and photocopied each photo that reminded me of 'invertebrate sea creatures' or 'under the sea.' This often might not be something someone else relates to 'under the sea' but each person see's different things in their own way. I stuck these in my sketchbook and annotated them so you can easily see my thought process.
I then looked into designers to research to give me an idea of garments and patterns all ready out in the world. I created a sheet on this with four different designer's collections all based on 'under the sea.' It wasn't until after I created my visual sheets that I looked into designers that could influence my outlook on this project.
To develop my research into visual sheet's I looked carefully at the patterns in the pictures I had put on my mood board of invertebrate sea creatures. I took little patterns instead of bigger shapes so I could build up my visual sheet's - With the exception of the big shells that feature all way through my work, from mood boards to development sheets to my samples. My first visual sheet is very bright, I used gouache and watercolours (for the background) to create it. I used patterns and shapes to build up this visual sheet and I put a lot of shapes on it so I could develop it more, in many different ways. My second visual sheet is rather different to the first one I did, I created it by using brusho colours such as different shades of blue's, green and a bit of reddy orange. I experienced a problem with this as it came out too dark, I tried to solve this by using a paint brush and bleach to draw some patterns taken from my first visual sheet over the brusho, the bleach takes away the colour of the brusho ink and I was left with quite a nice effect. I did not feel like this was enough so I used black pen to draw over this sheet - after it had dried - and it looked quite nice, it seemed layered up and busy, which I liked. After all this I still was not happy with my second visual sheet so I incorporated some shapes and bright colours from my first visual sheet and re did them on this second more darker visual sheet and it seemed to brighten it up nicely. I still would not say this sheet is one of my strongest sheets although it was very time consuming trying to problem solve and make it better, My time management was not very good for this and I would have probably been better off creating a new sheet at the beginning when it went too dark, But I learnt from my mistake.
I then looked into designers in more depth to see if I could get some inspiration for my samples, I created 3 sheets on different designers and collections. These included Chanel, Jonathan Saunders and Cleo Ferin Mercury. All these designers inspired me and made me feel more confident about how to develop my visual sheets into development sheets. Chanel inspired me with the colour scheme of the collection I featured on my research sheet, The colours were pastel and delicate. Jonathan Saunders collection was very simple and Cleo Ferin Mercury had big bold shells on his work. I took each of these in consideration when I started to do my development sheets. Starting my development sheets was really easy, with the colour scheme being only Monochrome and one other colour it was not as time consuming as other development sheets could be as I did not need to use as much paint and colours. I decided to use patterns I had developed from my mood boards into visual sheets on my development sheet and I also decided to use the colour pink to put into my development sheets rather than orange and my research showed that pink was more forecast to trend in spring that orange was. I did my first development sheet using only 3 main shapes. These were; shells, circles (pattern found on the top of the head of a jellyfish) and dots. Once I had created this visual sheet I was happy with it as the sheet was full and interesting.
At this point in the project Moo was about to visit our class to see how we were getting on and to give us some feed back. I decided, so they could see my thought process on the colour scheme to photocopy my first visual sheet twice and in black and white, I then used a pink gouache to paint in the shells on one of these black and white sheets, and orange on the other one. This way they could see I had two colours I wanted to take through to my development sheets, although I chose pink they could have asked me to change it to orange, I just wanted them to have a choice. When they visited they were amazed with how much work I had done and gave me a few compliments, This gave me a major confidence boost and motivation with this project. The feed back they gave me wasn't too much, but they said they liked the idea of me developing the pink instead of the orange colour but they wanted me to tone it down and make it a much paler pink. So that is what I did. I created another development sheet, but this time I incorporated more patterns to make it more interesting, I also took out the dot's idea as I wanted it to stay simple. I also made sure the pink was much paler on this development sheet so they would be able to see I took their feedback on board and actually did something about it.
The constraints the client set me really affected my design and my work overall really as this is fourth project I have done specialising in textiles I seemed to have my own style of doing my work and this is bright,bold and busy but this project as it being monochrome and only one contrasting colour and I've tried to keep it simple as it could be produced into a garment. Has really taken the edge off my style of work and it's been hard to put my stamp on this project. It has been a challenge but I think I have done the best I can.
During the time I had to do my tracing was really stressful. Doing my paper version was fine and everything went ok. When it came to photocopying my tracing's to make them darker so they expose better onto the screen, as they were A2 (2 smaller pieces of tracing paper carefully taped together) It was quite a problem, I had to un-tape them and photo copy them then stick them back together, then they did not line up and the photocopier had put marks all over my tracing which would get exposed onto my screen if I did not cover them up or cut them out. Finally after about 4 times of photocopying them I got it right, with help from my tutor. I then handed them in so the technician could expose them - I had two screens, one for black and one for the pink. When it was time to go in the print room a few days later, I found out that one of my screen's had not exposed properly due to my lines been too fine, so I had to spend an hour or so re doing my tracing with a thicker pen when I should have been in the print room starting my samples, this got me really worried that I was not going to get my samples done in time but I put the effort and time in to come in all that week on my days off to get my samples done.
As the client - Moo - gave us a set of constraints to work by, one of them was that my samples had to be suitable for a summer dress. I took this into consideration when choosing my fabrics for my samples, I chose a range of fabrics so I could experiment with fabrics I had not yet worked with. The fabrics I chose were; Cottton, azeta, muslin, chiffon and habotai silk. When my screen had finally exposed properly, I could start my printing. I mixed my colours the recipes for the colours I used are on my print room blog post. My time in the print room was great. As I came in on my days off the print room was not over crowded and I found I work better in a less busy environment. I found experimenting with printing onto fabrics I had never worked with gave me more confidence and more of an idea on what I could produce for my final major project. I feel I did really well writing down technical notes and I think that came down to the print room not being as busy as I had time and more space to spread out and nothing was rushed, therefore I think my design could easily be reproduced as my technical notes are easy to follow.
The technical processes I used through out this project were screen printing, dying up fabric, devore and puff binding. When in the print room it is important to do the correct health and safety to ensure you and others around you are safe in the print room. When in the print room it is important that your hair is tied back so hair does not hair in anyone's work or your own work and so it is up out of the way when using machines such as the heat press. You must sign in encase of an emergency and gloves and aprons must be worn all the time as procion dyes can stain clothes and can irritate your skin if it come in contact with it. When using the heatpress or heat gun it is important to be careful as they are both very hot. I shall make a blog post on health and safety in the print room which will cover all the aspects of health and safety.
If I was to do this project again I do not think I would change anything as I have enjoyed doing everything I have done, Such as experimenting with different fabrics and working with a client. It has gave me an insight of what It would be like working for more clients or big companys and all though it is demanding it gives you confidence and experience.
I would say I managed my time well, At the beginning of the project I felt like I was not doing so well, but nearer the end of the project I realised I had actually done a lot of work and I had also put my effort and time in to do my samples and this reassured me that I actually have put my all into this project and I am really happy with the outcome.
After the project had ended, I presented all my work in front of Moo, My tutor and the whole of my class, even though the thought of this terrified me once I got to the front of the class it all seemed natural to me. I explained my work from the beginning, explaining my thought process all the way through from my mood boards, visual sheets, development sheets and samples. They seemed impressed with my work and I was proud of my presentation. At the end of everyone's presentation Moo decided two winners that they would like to work with to produce an avant garde garment, sadly I was not chosen but I were were very happy for my class mates that did. Everyone's work was amazing.
I am happy with my project overall, I feel my strengths for this project was experimenting with different fabrics and presenting my work as I feel I did well at that. To improve this project I could have put more effort into my sketchbook and into my second development sheet, But that is something I can take forward and make sure I do for my final major project. Overall I am really happy with that I have done and I have really enjoyed working for Moo designs. I am now looking forward to doing my final major project.
Thankyou for reading
To develop my research into visual sheet's I looked carefully at the patterns in the pictures I had put on my mood board of invertebrate sea creatures. I took little patterns instead of bigger shapes so I could build up my visual sheet's - With the exception of the big shells that feature all way through my work, from mood boards to development sheets to my samples. My first visual sheet is very bright, I used gouache and watercolours (for the background) to create it. I used patterns and shapes to build up this visual sheet and I put a lot of shapes on it so I could develop it more, in many different ways. My second visual sheet is rather different to the first one I did, I created it by using brusho colours such as different shades of blue's, green and a bit of reddy orange. I experienced a problem with this as it came out too dark, I tried to solve this by using a paint brush and bleach to draw some patterns taken from my first visual sheet over the brusho, the bleach takes away the colour of the brusho ink and I was left with quite a nice effect. I did not feel like this was enough so I used black pen to draw over this sheet - after it had dried - and it looked quite nice, it seemed layered up and busy, which I liked. After all this I still was not happy with my second visual sheet so I incorporated some shapes and bright colours from my first visual sheet and re did them on this second more darker visual sheet and it seemed to brighten it up nicely. I still would not say this sheet is one of my strongest sheets although it was very time consuming trying to problem solve and make it better, My time management was not very good for this and I would have probably been better off creating a new sheet at the beginning when it went too dark, But I learnt from my mistake.
I then looked into designers in more depth to see if I could get some inspiration for my samples, I created 3 sheets on different designers and collections. These included Chanel, Jonathan Saunders and Cleo Ferin Mercury. All these designers inspired me and made me feel more confident about how to develop my visual sheets into development sheets. Chanel inspired me with the colour scheme of the collection I featured on my research sheet, The colours were pastel and delicate. Jonathan Saunders collection was very simple and Cleo Ferin Mercury had big bold shells on his work. I took each of these in consideration when I started to do my development sheets. Starting my development sheets was really easy, with the colour scheme being only Monochrome and one other colour it was not as time consuming as other development sheets could be as I did not need to use as much paint and colours. I decided to use patterns I had developed from my mood boards into visual sheets on my development sheet and I also decided to use the colour pink to put into my development sheets rather than orange and my research showed that pink was more forecast to trend in spring that orange was. I did my first development sheet using only 3 main shapes. These were; shells, circles (pattern found on the top of the head of a jellyfish) and dots. Once I had created this visual sheet I was happy with it as the sheet was full and interesting.
At this point in the project Moo was about to visit our class to see how we were getting on and to give us some feed back. I decided, so they could see my thought process on the colour scheme to photocopy my first visual sheet twice and in black and white, I then used a pink gouache to paint in the shells on one of these black and white sheets, and orange on the other one. This way they could see I had two colours I wanted to take through to my development sheets, although I chose pink they could have asked me to change it to orange, I just wanted them to have a choice. When they visited they were amazed with how much work I had done and gave me a few compliments, This gave me a major confidence boost and motivation with this project. The feed back they gave me wasn't too much, but they said they liked the idea of me developing the pink instead of the orange colour but they wanted me to tone it down and make it a much paler pink. So that is what I did. I created another development sheet, but this time I incorporated more patterns to make it more interesting, I also took out the dot's idea as I wanted it to stay simple. I also made sure the pink was much paler on this development sheet so they would be able to see I took their feedback on board and actually did something about it.
The constraints the client set me really affected my design and my work overall really as this is fourth project I have done specialising in textiles I seemed to have my own style of doing my work and this is bright,bold and busy but this project as it being monochrome and only one contrasting colour and I've tried to keep it simple as it could be produced into a garment. Has really taken the edge off my style of work and it's been hard to put my stamp on this project. It has been a challenge but I think I have done the best I can.
During the time I had to do my tracing was really stressful. Doing my paper version was fine and everything went ok. When it came to photocopying my tracing's to make them darker so they expose better onto the screen, as they were A2 (2 smaller pieces of tracing paper carefully taped together) It was quite a problem, I had to un-tape them and photo copy them then stick them back together, then they did not line up and the photocopier had put marks all over my tracing which would get exposed onto my screen if I did not cover them up or cut them out. Finally after about 4 times of photocopying them I got it right, with help from my tutor. I then handed them in so the technician could expose them - I had two screens, one for black and one for the pink. When it was time to go in the print room a few days later, I found out that one of my screen's had not exposed properly due to my lines been too fine, so I had to spend an hour or so re doing my tracing with a thicker pen when I should have been in the print room starting my samples, this got me really worried that I was not going to get my samples done in time but I put the effort and time in to come in all that week on my days off to get my samples done.
As the client - Moo - gave us a set of constraints to work by, one of them was that my samples had to be suitable for a summer dress. I took this into consideration when choosing my fabrics for my samples, I chose a range of fabrics so I could experiment with fabrics I had not yet worked with. The fabrics I chose were; Cottton, azeta, muslin, chiffon and habotai silk. When my screen had finally exposed properly, I could start my printing. I mixed my colours the recipes for the colours I used are on my print room blog post. My time in the print room was great. As I came in on my days off the print room was not over crowded and I found I work better in a less busy environment. I found experimenting with printing onto fabrics I had never worked with gave me more confidence and more of an idea on what I could produce for my final major project. I feel I did really well writing down technical notes and I think that came down to the print room not being as busy as I had time and more space to spread out and nothing was rushed, therefore I think my design could easily be reproduced as my technical notes are easy to follow.
The technical processes I used through out this project were screen printing, dying up fabric, devore and puff binding. When in the print room it is important to do the correct health and safety to ensure you and others around you are safe in the print room. When in the print room it is important that your hair is tied back so hair does not hair in anyone's work or your own work and so it is up out of the way when using machines such as the heat press. You must sign in encase of an emergency and gloves and aprons must be worn all the time as procion dyes can stain clothes and can irritate your skin if it come in contact with it. When using the heatpress or heat gun it is important to be careful as they are both very hot. I shall make a blog post on health and safety in the print room which will cover all the aspects of health and safety.
If I was to do this project again I do not think I would change anything as I have enjoyed doing everything I have done, Such as experimenting with different fabrics and working with a client. It has gave me an insight of what It would be like working for more clients or big companys and all though it is demanding it gives you confidence and experience.
I would say I managed my time well, At the beginning of the project I felt like I was not doing so well, but nearer the end of the project I realised I had actually done a lot of work and I had also put my effort and time in to do my samples and this reassured me that I actually have put my all into this project and I am really happy with the outcome.
After the project had ended, I presented all my work in front of Moo, My tutor and the whole of my class, even though the thought of this terrified me once I got to the front of the class it all seemed natural to me. I explained my work from the beginning, explaining my thought process all the way through from my mood boards, visual sheets, development sheets and samples. They seemed impressed with my work and I was proud of my presentation. At the end of everyone's presentation Moo decided two winners that they would like to work with to produce an avant garde garment, sadly I was not chosen but I were were very happy for my class mates that did. Everyone's work was amazing.
I am happy with my project overall, I feel my strengths for this project was experimenting with different fabrics and presenting my work as I feel I did well at that. To improve this project I could have put more effort into my sketchbook and into my second development sheet, But that is something I can take forward and make sure I do for my final major project. Overall I am really happy with that I have done and I have really enjoyed working for Moo designs. I am now looking forward to doing my final major project.
Thankyou for reading
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