Evaluation

When I first got the brief of Fun Fairs for the summer project my initial ideas were to visit Theme Parks, Circus’s, Fun Fairs and the seaside in doing this I would be collecting primary research of flyers, tickets and taking my own photographs to use within my sketch book, the things I had taken photos of had to inspire me when doing my sketch book, on some of the items I collected I decided to continue the image or draw the image some I just stuck in my book and collaged around them, I also searched the internet and books to find images of Fun Fairs this also linked in to being my secondary research. By doing all this over the summer it meant I should have had a full sketch book all with interesting, tactile pages however I don’t feel I managed my time to the best of my ability as my book was only half full which then meant I had more work to do during college time as well as working on other work we had been given I feel I have now learnt from this and next time would definitely manage my time wiser by doing a page every one to two days.  

       I chose to research Manish Arora and Gianni Versace I chose to use the Fun Fair theme collections these designers had produced for example Manish Arora produced The Carousel Dress in 2009 along with other garments that incorporated bright colours, circus elephants and heavy pattern these items of clothing were very useful as they showed what colours went together even though these were more costume clothing, I then went on to researching Gianni Versace who had also been producing Circus themed collections throughout many years however Versace’s collections were much more wearable rather than being costume clothing, they still had the typical Versace designs including the ‘Greek Pattern’ included on one of the shirts and scarves I chose to look at, these designs were much more simple but I felt a lot more helpful when designing samples and leading on to my final piece.

       When creating my two visual sheets and two mood boards my sketch book work helped a lot, the colours I had used influenced some aspects of my mood boards and visual sheets, I chose to do one of my mood boards in a vintage carnival and the other one in a colourful modern day theme park, then when creating my visual sheets I would take inspiration from to create my tracing to go towards my final piece and many samples that had to be produced, the first visual sheet I produced I took inspiration from both of my mood boards using the images what were on the board and re-creating them by drawing them in full colour and the second visual sheet I based mostly on shapes and colour that I found within the images showing just part of the original image. Once these had been produced we had to create a tracing combining all our ideas from the sheet work on to the tracing image, we started by creating a ‘perfect square’ and trimming off the excess paper using the guillotine the images used had to have thick black lines and included dots and cross hatching to create texture so the images didn’t look flat and boring, we then had to photo copy the image onto tracing paper this will then be transferred onto a screen ready for screen printing. Once this process had been completed I was then able to produce samples before deciding which I wanted to use as my final piece, this included dying up fabrics to produce different backgrounds to be screen printed onto, as well as doing screen printing I also learnt how to do puff binder and realised the screen had to be washed extremely well after using this printing process as it blocked the screen very easily, I feel the samples I created were all to a good standard and helped me out when deciding which I wanted to recreate and use as a final piece.

       When I first went on the sewing machines I was looking forward to learning more about how to use them as I had already had experience with using them, in the first lesson I had to follow lines that had been printed onto paper this was to show how straight my lines were and learning how to go round corners easier. I then came to sewing lines on a piece of calico using all of the different stitches that the machine was capable of. I then had a lesson on ‘free machining’ which included stretching a piece of fabric over a hoop, removing the sewing machine foot and guiding the fabric around using the hoop only this created a free flowing pattern, my first attempt didn’t go very well as I had never tried this technique before, the second time I had a go at ‘free machining’ we used the layer and burn technique which including bonding two pieces of fabric together using ‘Bondaweb’ free machining a design and then burning the edges with a heat gun this would then create a ruching effect around the design, I felt I was quite good at this technique and I was happy with what I ended up producing. Overall I enjoy using the sewing machines using both the free machining technique and the normal technique, the only thing that irritates me with both techniques is the amount of times the thread snaps and having to re thread it all up again. My experiences in the print room were overall really good, I enjoy being in there mixing colours and discovering new techniques I may not have used in my first year of college, finding out what colours go well together and what methods of printing look good together is also a excellent learning process.

       Although most of the textile processes I really enjoy there are also some I am not too fond of, I really dislike using the batik technique as I feel the end product doesn’t look neat or to a good standard, I’m also not a great fan of Devore as the designs aren’t as clear as I would like, although I do prefer them once the fabric has been dyed up I feel the designs just end up looking all mashed together and not being visibly clear of what they are. I would probably say puff binder is my favourite technique to use, this is the first time I have used this technique as I didn’t learn how to use this last year, I really like what kind of image it creates once it is puffed up using the heat gun as it gives a tactile 3D effect to sections of my designs it is also an easy technique very similar to screen printing but gives better and more interesting effects.

I feel I have managed my time wisely as now by the end of the project I have everything produced that I needed and a little bit more that I believe are all to a high standard, I have also really enjoyed the project at first I thought it was hard as I didn't have many ideas but now we have come to the end I feel much more confident about it and happy with everything I have produced and wouldn't change anything about my final piece as a whole. My final piece below is a combination of dyed fabric, screen printing, puff binder and sewing (both free machining and ordinary sew) I am extremely happy with how this has turned out.