Fashioned Canvas

Brief;

to produce artefacts that reflect the work of established artists from the methodist collection. artists include, Maggi Hamblin, Patrick Heron and John Riley.

To start the project i have created a Pinterest board and added previous artwork of all three artists. along with this i have added pictures of different more contemporary designers and there artwork. from doing this i have decided to choose Maggi's "Waves". Although i have already chose Maggi as my designer within my sketch book i have done three mood boards of the three artists. the reason i have selected Maggi as my artist to do further research into is because, i feel that her colour scheme along with the flow of the paintings would look really nice and give me lots of inspiration along with adding shape to the finish garment i am going to make.

As an extra introduction task into this project brief, using large A3 Pieces of material and paper sampled in real life form the three different artists. i only selected the two artists which were Maggi and John. using textured paint, with only the primary colours and creating our own colours i came up with two big sheets. i am very please and felt this was a good introductory task. i carried on further and added some sewing into the "John Riley" material sheet. i then created two fashion illustrations for each and added them to the sheet. i like this task and it has made me want to research further into these two artists as i feel they are more my style and type of paintings rather than the Patrick Heron paintings.

(2 Pictures)

Print

Sampling;
Today we started sampling different techniques for printing onto our plain calico material. we started by using a foam piece of material and cutting into it with different shapes and then using different colours to print it. i felt the first two sheets of material i used didn't come out very successfully, i almost felt like it looked like a child's potato pressing. but i found by printing and then adding colours and different techniques on top of the print it made it look a lot more unique and successful. on this page of my sketch book, i really like the print due to this fact.





Using some of the left over samples, i have created two skirts of different print to put on my fashion illustrations to see what the fabric looked like as a whole. although i couldn't really get a proper scaled of what the skirt would actually be like, i like the way the material creased and made different patters and flows to each skirt. this has now made my original ideas that i already have change slightly as i think it might be nice to create a smaller garment rather than a dress and maybe look at making a skirt. this is something i will look further into when i start designing more.

Fashion i

After researching further into Maggi, i have noticed that one of her most famous pictures was of a man (Max Wall) and that was created using the same kind of textured technique she used when creating her waves painting. although this will not be used within my dress i have sampled drawing a face in that kind of style just to see others way in which a print or style of painting can be used.

(Picture)



 Pointillism;

Thumb Print

Along with looking at creating texture to the plain material, i also wanted to look at other ways of colouring it. so on this page i have decided to look at using thumb printing as i like the way the paint comes out with and the texture that can be built up and created using different colours. i have done a page using all different types of blues and whites to see what the outcome would look like. although the page is 2D i like the way it looks very textures and almost 3D like due to using this technique. this is something i am going to sample further and try to incorporate it within my design.



Going back to the first sample sheets i created i have scanned them into a computer and printed out some of the textured part of the piece. using this i have created like garments for my fashion illustrations to get an idea of what the material would look like as a whole on a garment, from doing this i have decided that doing this is not an option as i don't like the outcome. from doing this i am going to make more of a textured garment with different design techniques within it to break it down and little and so it will not look so basic.

Fashion Illustration using scanned images 

Muslin Paper

the next two pages of my sketch book i have put samples of my muslin paper i have created, one of the papers has had type writing upon it, and has oats and slightly more colour, where as the second page is more basic and soft and i have stitched into it to see what the outcome looks like. i really like the way it has come out as the stitching has made it look like it is slightly quilted. i also really like the way the edges along with the stitching is rather rough and looks freed rather than being very perfect. i think from doing this task i really want my garment to have a rough look to it, and almost look unfinished. i feel that would really fit into the brief of Maggi Hambling as her paintings are very much like this.

Muslin and Gum strip

To further the sampling of the two previous pages, i have used Gum strip along with acrylic on top and muslin paper and newspaper along with stitching to create my own fabric. because this is done by using strips this would be a nice panel to add into my skirt. it has a very rustic look to it and like i said previously it looks very rough.




The last section of my sampling was making paper today. using a pulp formula and flowers, i added blue die to the mixer and created paper. i really didn't like the way this turned out and it is something i will not use within my design, but i am glad i have sampled it as it is something that could certainly be taken forward for my final design.

Hand made paper

Front view

Back and side view

After doing some final contextual studies, i have come up with my final design, of a skirt. i am going to created it using panels and different textures such as the ones i have spoken about earlier. things such as muslin paper, thumb printing and just the basic printing i did within the start of this project. here is pictures of my final designs.






Making;

One of the panels 

When making my skirt i started by doing large sheets of the different textiles techniques and without using a pattern piece (as i want this to be a very rustic finished design) and by just adding different strips of the different fabrics, i created the base of my skirt, leaving a large seam on the outside very frayed, but on some of the edges i over locked and left some of the thread hanging down to add more texture to the skirt. once i had done this with all the strips (which i create a lot more of and added more than necessary so when it was on the model it stuck out more) i then over locked the top edge so it was neater and i create a fastening on the skirt.
At first i added a zip to the skirt, but i felt it didn't really fit on the body correctly and looked like a box, so then using a craft knife i made small slits within the skirt around 3cm down from the over locking and using white and blue yarn created a belt. this made the top part of the skirt be off the body and the bottom part was gathered and really gave the skirt a lift.





Final Product;

Finished Skirt

Over Locked Edges and Tie

I am very pleased with the outcome of the skirt, although it is similar to the brief and i have included the Maggi Painting style, the different textures and patterns really gives the skirt an edge, i feel the design fits in perfectly with the style and the loose thread pulls it all together. i feel this piece of work is more a textiles piece rather than a fashion garment which i am very happy as all my previous garments within this year have been similar and this is something different and something i am happy to take forward into my final major projects, as i used and sampled with techniques that i had never done before. if i could improve this project and do it again i wouldn't change much as like i said i feel its very successful but what i would change is just making a skirt and maybe add other garments to it with a similar style. this has filled me with confidence going forward into my final major project.