At the start of this section I particularly liked the research point where we looked at two internationally known textile artists. Whilst I have a reasonable book collection and know a little about quite a lot of people this was an excellent chance to probe more deeply into their work, inspirations and art process. It also gave me an opportunity to analyse what it is I personally see in their work, how I feel about it and how I interpret it.
This was an extremely useful exercise and I am resolved to keep this up and look more thoroughly into other artists work. My interest initially came from comments from my tutor, in an email of 23rd June 2012, where she directed me to artist sites as possible inspiration for my theme work. We had a short exchange of emails and I took on-board that whilst we are all so different in outlook and approach I should ensure that I widen my focus and refer to other more experienced artist sites.
Project 8.
These exercises were stimulating and with enough variety to make me want to stay there and make more and more samples!! The progression in skills suited me well and I enjoyed the process from start to finish. The initial weavings were interesting and gave some unexpected results.
Stage 2, Exercise 3 & 4 were a chance to be more independent in our work by creating structures primarily without much direction from the course manual. General guidelines were given but there was a lot of scope to work freely and I feel I was ready to do this.
I spent a substantial amount of time on my final lattice-work piece, dyeing and creating everything (except the ladybird) from scratch. It was very satisfying starting from an idea, working up the drawn plan, preparing all the components and finally assembling it into a finished piece.
Project 9.
I’ve written plenty about this weaving section as I’ve gone along and am not going to labour through it again here. I think my points have been made.
I would have liked to create a pictorial work as well as my Tribal piece but, quite honestly, I can’t face more weaving at this point. I gave the project my best effort given the limitations I am faced with.
Other.
Reading back through my blog posts on both these projects I realise that I have commented a couple of times on my preference for fabrics, threads, yarn and other materials as opposed to plastics and other re-cycled products.
Over the last few years I have read a lot of textile art books and attended many workshops concentrating on working with (or incorporating) plastic bags, cables, cassette/video tape, Tyvek, and other similarly manufactured products. They have never really grabbed my attention and many of the effects they produce aren’t what I’m looking for in my work, at this stage.
TactualTextiles 