Michael Kidner

For the presentation, I've produced fabric samples so the Kidner family have something tactile alongside the other proposals. I've also created some wide-format banners which I will print if I win the commission.

  

Focussing on Michael's use of colour alongside the idea of illusion and op-art, with the combination of processes, if produced to a large scale, would be powerful within a gallery environment as they would be visible from afar and would be tactile. If the Kidner family like the idea of embroidery within the commission, I would have to produce the banners on fabric as paper would tear.

The large scale banners would be printed 2.5m long and up to 84cm wide.

   

Planning

Over the Christmas period, I developed graphic A2 screens to be printed on returning to the studio, which are more appropriate for the context of my work. Previous samples looked thrown together, so I’ve planned 6 final samples. I will screen print onto upholstery fabrics first, followed by flock, foil and digital embroidery using burmilana threads, being more selective about the colour choices and compositions on the fabrics. I’ll produce large scale embroidery designs to work with the A2 prints as previous designs were lost amongst the overpowering smaller print.

For the Michael Kidner brief, I have rekindled the idea of banners from the beginning of my self-initiated project. I want to work at large scale to produce bespoke banners that would be powerful within a gallery environment. My Photoshop work over Christmas has been concentrated on Michael’s use of colour combined with op art, then developed into large-scale designs to be pitched to the Kidner family. I will produce some fabric samples too, so they have something physical to look at.

2 Tutor Crit

Preparing for the 2-tutor critique was a little daunting. I prepared two boards for the Bradford Textiles brief which were different in style (see below). I felt quite limited with scale throughout these initial four weeks, as I was focussed on producing a sample board for submission. In future, I need to think more carefully about the scale of my sampling and 'go for it' for the next project. I'm excited to try something that I haven't done in the past and see what the results will look like.

From the crit, I plan to continue with this project for my self-initiated brief, but focus more on the scale of my samples by using screen print techniques onto large scale fabrics. This will enable me to widen my creative knowledge and would also demonstrate a more 'bespoke' feel - the original idea behind the large scale sampling. To reflect the scale I want to achieve, I created A2 drawings using collaging techniques to be translated into screens. I will leave the idea of a large scale banner to a live brief, and concentrate on fabric samples for an interior context. 

The two collages above were most successful as they depict my concept more closely. I also think the placement of the detailed pen drawing is better considered than some of my other drawings.

Sampling

Over the last couple of weeks I have developed Photoshop designs from my initial drawings of collaged 'banners' to be digitally printed. However, the outcomes of these prints were not what I wanted; the colours were too dark and the fabric choices were not right for the effect I wanted to achieve. The sublimation printer can only print onto synthetic fabrics, but I thought I would be able to achieve a closer effect to paper using this technique with the selection of fabrics on offer to me. I was also advised by the embroidery technicians that I wouldn't be able to stitch onto paper using the multi-head embroidery machine as it would tear easily, so I began experimenting with Paper Nylon and Poly Taffeta - both thin fabrics with an appearance similar to paper.

Poly Taffeta

Paper Nylon The sublimation ink absorbed better into the Poly Taffeta than the Paper Nylon – it felt to have a covering on the surface. I do think both types of fabric were effective when it came to digitally embroidering onto them; however I prefer how the thread looks on the Nylon as it appears three-dimensional.

Sizing was restricted to A4 and A3. On reflection, I would have liked to produce a larger scale sample using the sublimation printing method, similar to the paper roll I experimented with in week one of the project, which is a development I could make in future.

When it came to designing the digital embroidery, I hadn't considered the size of the sash frame which meant rescaling the designs several times. It was also difficult to line my designs up exactly with the prints, and in future I will create a reference point on the fabric if I’m stitching directly over a particular shape. Furthermore, because the sash frame extends further than the machine front, it can get stuck on the sides, which causes the design to move over the fabric. Although this was unintentional on the mustard colour sample (above), I love how the stitching adds depth to my design, and reinforces the transparency I wanted to achieve from the beginning of the project on Photoshop.

Similarly, the embroidery design below, (stitched over an original drawing), reinforces the water marks on the fabric and adds depth and texture to the flat printed design. I intend to explore this further at a later stage in the project.

I will submit an A3 sample for the Bradford Brief as I feel a larger scale sample would be inappropriate to illustrate on the boards. I plan to continue creating samples for an interior context, alongside experimenting with scale in the live brief element of the project.

Design Development

By concentrating time on developing Photoshop skills, I feel to have developed as a designer on the software, which has been rewarding. Initially, I was slightly bewildered as to how I could manipulate the images of my drawings into suitable designs for a 'bespoke banner' style wallpaper - as discussed in a previous tutorial.

After playing with the image size and scale on Photoshop, I encountered a few problems when attempting to print from the wide format printers as I was unsure of the sizing restrictions.

I want to push my abilities this year and I am really proud of the outcome; the scale, colours and concept. However, moving forward, I will sample on a smaller scale as it would be too expensive to print at such a large scale all the way through the project. For the Bradford Brief, I would need to submit something smaller, but that could have the potential to be a large scale sample.

I plan to sample onto digitally-printed fabric rather than paper to get an idea for suitable multi-head embroidery designs.

The last week has been challenging, in that the Photoshop edits took longer than expected to create and the wide format printer was a new piece of equipment for me. Next week, I will endeavour to work quicker and not be afraid to try new things: I worry too much about samples being 'perfect' first time.