Group Tutorial

This week I attended my first group tutorial, although there were only three of us who turned up to the tutorial it worked to our advantage as we had a little more time for Alex to advise us. I was a bit hesitant to go to the tutorial as I feel like the amount of work that I have done is not sufficient.  However we did discus the work that I had done so far and Alex thought it would be a good idea to start looking into more ornate structures within architecture. He also said it would be best if I started looking into more colours. Although I will start looking deeper into ornate architecture I must make sure there is a strong element of originality and a contemporary feel still within the work.

Personally I am still feeling very uninspired by the project and the work I have done. However whenever I am feeling uninspired I feel that the best thing for me to do is to do a bit more research! So for the past 2 hours I have been sat in the library looking for a book that Alex suggested 'The Grammar of Ornament', unfortunately I was unable to find this book but still took time to look through other books around the same subject on the shelves where it should have been.

So the main points that I have taken from this tutorial are:

• Research further
• Add more colour
• Experiment more with drawing
• DO MORE WORK
• Make a detailed plan for the week ahead and stick to it

Space, Design and Architecture

Last year I felt that all of the lectures were quite boring and lacked direction and I tended to avoid them along side the seminars which I admit was a very silly thing to do and I do regret that from last year. So this year I attended my first lecture which was based around my chosen subject of 'Space, Design and Architecture'. I was surprised when I really enjoyed the lecture. We discussed the concept of 'The Place of Home', and 'Place and Space in Modern Domestic Environment'. We also went into a deeper feminist approach to the word home and what it represents, discussing the idea that men were more involved in the design of the home, were as women were more involved in what the space was designed for in the 1950's.

The reading we had to prepare for the lecture was a piece named 'Pram Town' which made for some interesting reading. I am intrigued in the subject and when we got to discuss this in our seminar it made me look at 'home' as more of a concept as apposed to a place. I feel that this lecture gave me a much more conceptual view of space, and I will look closer into this along side my Urban Influences brief for a more conceptual and contemporary outcome rather than a literal 'urban' fashion based collection.

Tutorial with Alex

This year I wanted to focus on Textiles Design for Fashion, however on my return to uni, the outlay of the course has changed slightly. This is now not offered as a pathway to follow and is instead more integrated within each other pathway that is available to study. Therefore I have been put into a Print orientated group. However I feel that this is a positive thing as it allows me to explore other areas of textiles and gives me some freedom within the course. So this year my tutor is Alex. Today I had my first one on one tutorial with him about the work that I had done over the summer, he seems really nice and he has gave me some great advice from the tutorial. He agrees that I should look into the Urban Influences brief and has suggested joining the Urban Sketchers Group to help me get out sketching in the city and seeing the other styles of the other artists that go out and draw also.

As I visited Egypt over the summer I have used this as my main focus in my sketchbook so far and I love the colours that I have captured here. The images bring out a sense of warmth and truly reflect the research too. Something I have learnt from this brief is to not dive straight into digital work. I need to develop my drawings further first and explore where these can take me. I have a bad habit of just repeating a motif and being satisfied, but this year I need to push myself as far as possible and really create something that I can be proud of.

PE Lecture

In todays lecture we were given our Professionalism and Employability brief, which has really scared me! Although our hand in is far away it is important for me to start to think about the outcome of this already. I have learnt from my mistakes from last year by leaving everything till last minute. My hopes this year are to carry on with the project along side my other projects in the year. I want the outcome of the PE brief to be similar to a zine. As I want to enter the fashion world I am trying to focus all of my work towards a fashion outcome.

The emphasis on the lecture was also to start taking more chances and take risks within our work. This lecture has motivated me to start 'thinking outside the box' although I hate that saying it is true that in my second year I need to push things to another level. My work needs to be of a better quality and needs to be my main focus. Throughout the year I am going to revert back to the notes that I made in this lecture and remind myself to TAKE RISKS!

Back to Uni

So it has been the first week back to uni and it is all systems go. We have been given five different briefs to choose from - Mobile Habitats, Visions of Sound, Future Past, Tomorrow Culture and Urban Influences. I have read through all of the briefs and have narrowed it down to two. Mobile Habitats and Urban Influences. I feel that out of them all the Urban Influences brief would be best suited to me as it would link well with the imagery and research I have gathered over the summer, also the CP2 choice that I chose before summer intergrates well into this subject also as I chose 'Space, Design and Architecture'.

I feel that the Urban Influences brief is definitely more suited to my style of work and I will now begin to go out into Manchester and collect primary research. I will use this research to begin my initial drawings.

Roma!

For my 21st birthday I was surprised with a trip to Rome wish I thought would be a great opportunity to get some last minute sources of inspiration for the upcoming term. The architecture in the city is stunning and I turned into quite the tourist snapping photographs left, right and centre as it was all so beautiful!

These images are going to be some of the lead inspirations throughout my next project. The ornate structures within the architecture will take focus as I add a contemporary twist.

Summer Brief

Over the summer we were given a brief to keep a record of any cultural activity we were involved in, and to also keep track of different artists who influence us or work in the same way to ourselves. These artists did not have to be specifically textiles artists as we have been encouraged to explore all creative paths to seek inspiration.

My main focus this summer has been collecting visual information and inspiration. I have visited Sharm El Sheik in Egypt and Rome over the summer and have mainly sourced imagery from these places. The architecture in these cities have inspired me throughout the summer and I have enjoyed working from these images and developing the research further to show in my first tutorial back to uni.

Egypt was such an exciting bustling place to be and there was constantly something going on. The amount of design and print that I saw was amazing and really got me excited to start my second year at uni. What I loved most was the use of colour here, which I usually tend to stay away from, however this has allowed me to gain knowledge in how exciting colour can be and that I should jump straight in!

The images that I have chosen to upload here are examples of the mood I would like to create within my upcoming work with the new project at uni. I feel that they warm and exotic with a fun feel to them with the use of colour.