FMP Evaluation...

Evaluation

Originally I wanted to base my project on Tchaikovsky’s ballet, but found that it would be quite difficult to do a whole project on it as it was quite broad of a subject. I also found it difficult with the design aspect of things to do with ballet and found that getting research for this topic would be quite difficult, therefore I changed my mind.

The focus of my FMP was based on the book ‘The Language of Flowers’. My focus was to present floral beauty in a number of ways from art to fashion, from gardens to photography and from traditional to contemporary floral design. I chose this theme because daily I was inspired by the utter magnificence of floral design; I also appreciated each pattern and stunning selection of colour and variety that flowers presented. I decided I wanted to explore this amazing creation further by basing my FMP on flowers. The theme I started of with was to explore the spiritual healing and emotional aspect that flowers had to offer. I also wanted to research the meanings of flowers and how we as humans relate to them and what each flower represents in life. 

I researched this wide topic of flowers by taking plenty of primary research from gardens by taking photographs in local parks and even in my own garden. I also took photos of my clothing that included floral prints on them to show how fashion includes flowers. Other research I took was from secondary and drawing from observation, I researched into loads of flower species and artists and designers that use there talent to portray flowers in many different ways. I also drew from observation from the book ‘The Language of Flowers’ I finished each drawing of flowers in water colour. I took loads of research of the internet to research artists and designers and I also took out some books from the library on flower arranging and floral pattern design. All of this research I creatively documented it in my sketchbook. 

I developed this research by creating four moods boards full of colour and imagery based on different aspects on the topic of flowers including the book I researched. These sheets included floral wallpaper samples, images and different Medias. From these mood boards I created two visual sheets that were full of pattern and colour; I decided I wanted to design contemporary flowers to make my project slightly more quirky. From these sheets I developed three development sheets that took the pattern from my other sheets, by perfecting them even more ready for my final ideas sheets that would show my final piece ideas. This would then be turned into a screen ready for me to screen print this design onto lengths of fabric. I also created two artist/ designer research sheets based on people that most inspired my project. My design was mainly based on one of my artist research sheets William Morris. I decided I wanted to take his style further into my project by making it my own and using more contemporary colours and patterns for my screen. I took the contemporary path throughout my project rather than the traditional path just to show diversity. I also took the designs of my visual and development sheets into my tracing. My sampling was also inspired by the colours of my sheets as well. The research that I found in many floral inspired artists helped me to develop many samples such as felted flowers and knitting which I will take further when doing my final piece. Doing knitting will improve my grade in my weaving unit to get a better overall grade in my FMP. I knew I wanted to show a variety of textile processes in my exhibition by screen printing onto fabric and creating felted and knitting samples that all included flowers on them. I was influenced to go ahead with this from all the variety of processes I looked at from all these different artists and designers plus research that I undertook myself. I admire all the different people that bring there creativeness to young designers such as myself. This led me to wanting to do the same thing and this meant I would create and present a number of textile processes to present in my exhibition. 

All the patterns and colour from my floral research influenced what I was going to produce because I was inspired by the stunning detail that makes up a big part of nature. The only constraint that affected my design was money because I bought some fabric and I ran out of it pretty quick meaning that I couldn't do any trial runs before creating my final piece as the rest of my fabric was used for sampling and my business cards. I was very fortunate as a student because I didn't have anything in my life like a job that took up any of my time meaning I had plenty of time to work on my designs and ideas. Being in the print room was pretty stressful due to space and the amount of people, but as far as my other sampling went such as felting and knitting, I got them out of the way quite early in the project so that I could focus on my printed samples and printed final pieces. 

The only problem solving I encountered was with my screen because some of the tiny detail didn't expose properly so I painted it in myself, also sometimes when I printed my samples the screen was blocked due to the thicker permaset pigment so I had to hand paint some of the detail onto the fabric where the pigment had not gone through. Another problem was that the pigment got through the areas where the emulsion hadn't covered the screen properly leaving a big line on my prints. To solve this I placed masking tape in those areas. I decided that due to time and money I wouldn't be able to produce what I wanted to produce so I decided to go with something easier but still effective that I am happy to continue with. Experimentation that I undertook was pressed flowers, hammered flower prints, heat transfer, wet felting, knitting, weaving, needle felting, lino cut, screen printing, puff binder and batik. My experimentation that I did in the print room was firstly with puff binder but I eventually realised that puff binder doesn't work well on top of permaset pigment. This is because it sits on the fabric rather than soaking into it which is exactly what puff binder does. I didn't really know how to solve this problem other than layering the prints to disguise the mistakes but it didn't really work so I just stopped using puff binder. I wanted to carry on using permaset pigment because it’s darker or lighter in colour (especially for dark fabrics) making it look really effective. So I didn't really have a choice with the puff binder. I experimented on various materials such as calico, cotton, heavy viscose satin and devore velvet. The best result I got was from the calico just because the durability of the fabric was a lot stronger than any other material so I decided to buy two metres of heavy calico. Only problem I had with calico was that it was very hard to dye because it doesn't soak up the procion dye as quickly as cotton would meaning I had to go over it a few times to get the best result. 

If I had no time constraints I would produce a large printed piece of fabric using the same material, but because of time and print room space I didn't think this could have been possible and I would have had extra pressure do get it perfect. I would also make my final pieces very tactile by adding numerous textile techniques onto them like embroidery. Because of time I am making three printed lengths of fabric finished with wet felted flowers sewn onto them. I would have also created some smaller samples to put in frames to sell to the public. If I had plenty of extra time I think I would have experimented more by using techniques such as crochet to make a 3D bunch of flower to put up in my exhibition. However the skills I do have will compliment my final pieces perfectly. I would have done a plain sample as well as coloured samples but I didn't have any more fabric left due to money so I had to stick with the fabric that I had already dyed. Throughout this project I researched many artists and designers but the main one that stood out to me was William Morris for his amazing printed textiles. His work links with my work because he was often influenced by nature on county walks and would often draw from observation and create beautiful designs that are still popular today. William Morris has hugely influenced my work especially my tracings for my final pieces because I like how his designs are more stylised rather than traditional. All the other artists and designers have linked with my work because they all create stunning flowers using either fashion to portray them or more textile processes. Isabella Hoffmann who is a felting artist inspired my wet felted flowers idea because she creates needle felted and wet felted flowers. I decided to make my own for my knitted scarves and eventually my final pieces. 

 On my final piece I will be creating numerous samples all totally different, because I liked more than one of them; I wanted to print these samples onto larger pieces of fabric. I decided I wanted to create windows of printed fabric using shop bought frames to display them in and possibly some lose pieces of fabric to hang up. I’m still not sure of the final intention for my final piece but I guess I will know what to do and how to present them in my exhibition once they are completed. My mind changed quite a lot during this project about my end result but because I liked so many prints I just wanted a variety of final pieces/ samples to display in a creative way. All I need to do is just make the raw materials and then creativity will take place once I've started putting my exhibition up. The processes that I completed throughout this project were: wet felting, knitting, weaving, needle felting, batik, collage, puff binder, screen printing, hammered flowers, pressed flowers, sewing, heat transfer, devore, gouache painting and fine liner. All these processes were really fun to do and all gave totally different results. My favourite of these was hammered flower printing, it gave the appearance of real life painted flowers even though it was the flower petals that were hammered onto paper using there natural petal dye for the paper to soak up (water colour paper was the most effective). Also drying out flowers for my pressed flower booklet was quite effective but difficult to do because it took ages, also the laminator kept getting stuck every time I laminated the pressed flowers. The end results were stunning nevertheless. All my knitting and weaving samples went really well and didn't take long to make. However my screen printing samples went slightly wrong because some of the screen wasn't coated in emulsion and because I was rushing quite a lot I didn't put masking tape over the exposed areas. This meant that some of my samples went slightly wrong but thankfully I managed to improve them by adding different layers to the print. When it comes to my final piece I will take more time to perfect my print my washing my screens regularly and placing masking tape to where it is needed. Only thing I would change is to take better care of my samples by allowing more time on them, but apart from that I think I produced a wide variety of well presented samples. 

I believe I managed my time really well and have produced a lot of work to a good standard. I have helped myself improve my time by creating tasks and goals for each day of the week to keep me on track (time management and diary), I also took advice from peer assessment by creating a questionnaire for my friends about my FMP progress. I believe I have done most of the things I intended to do with plenty of time even though I was a bit lost at the beginning of the project because it was an independent brief. I have learnt to work more independently only asking for help and advice when needed. This also really helped me develop confidence for the rest of my project. I believe I used by blog effectively because I did mini evaluations on each piece of work throughout my project making it easier for my FMP evaluation. It has also given me confidence with my work by showing the public what I can do. Even though due to time I haven’t been blogging throughout my project leaving it to the last few weeks, I still managed to write about all my work just in time for hand in date. Blogging about my work is really useful for my future and I will definitely continue to blog about every piece of work I ever do. 

I am 100% satisfied with my overall project because I have done most things and more that I set out to do. It has stretched my skills and abilities and taught me new things about my creativity that I never knew before. I have loved doing this project because as adults it has given us the freedom to show off our individuality and style in whatever topic we desire. Basing my project on flowers was both amazing and fun because I am so passionate about our surroundings that we most often take for granted. I hope throughout this project I have showed off natures design by taking something that is so extraordinary and putting a creative modern twist on it. 

My strengths were with knitting and felting, I became addicted to these techniques as I have found a love for them which I will continue to do in the future. My weaknesses were screen printing purely because I rushed to get a lot done without concentrating on obvious mistakes that could have been easily avoided. However I think I have a strong screen print design (tracing) and I will definitely take my time when it comes to my final pieces. Only thing that I could have done better to improve this project would be to spend more time on my printed samples to get them to a perfect standard. Apart from that I think I've done everything else to the best of my ability. I have done everything I had set out to do from my proposal such as experimenting with the presentation of flowers in a variety of ways and to make my project really colourful. The only things I struggled doing was embroidery due to the size of the fabric and time keeping, and also needle felting and weaving because I found it really boring and lost interest quite quickly. However I still created two small samples just to show I had tried it. Originally I was going to create loads of needle felted samples but I found that the felt wasn't really securely attached and because I wanted something quite strong and stable for my final pieces I tried making wet felted flowers sewn on to fabric. This technique looked so much more creative and would last. I handled the huge amount of work by setting myself challenges for each week. On some weeks it wouldn't go to plan but I always managed to complete everything for when it was needed. I kept a weekly diary and took some breaks so that I didn't freak out, although some weeks I was more stressed than others. Even though I wished I kept blogging all the way through my project I still managed to evaluate everything before doing my big evaluation which helped a lot. I feel I was more organised in this project because it was totally up to me what I was going to produce. There wasn't a lot of pressure because being an independent project it meant that I was my only competition and the good grades were my goal. 

If I was to do it all again I wouldn't change anything because the amount of work I have produced has shocked me because I didn't think I had it in me to push myself that far. I believe I have produced a really good, well presented project that hopefully the public will appreciate when I have it on display. I am proud of myself and my creative abilities and can 100 % say that this has been a roller coaster of emotions. However I have always managed to pull it out of the bag and produce an excellent project that I am proud of. For my exhibition I will hopefully be making three large printed samples with felted flowers stitched onto them and five small A5 samples to present in frames. I am unsure at the moment how everything will be presented but I definitely want to show my printed baby clothes and my knitting and felted pieces for my display.