Unit x - Research

For this unit I've decided to explore in the knit are of construct, I've never gone into this area before but I've always wanted to try it so thought I would whilst I have the opportunity.

I attended a number of talks by various different people and artists. My favourite was Tileke Schwartz because she had a good energy and it was really interesting to hear about the processes of her work and how she becomes to complete a piece. She is inspired by everyday life from her cats to a conversation she's had. In some ways it feels similar to my project as I'm being inspired by the seaside and patterns made by the sea which is natural and happens everyday. 

I took lots of inspiration from the Blackpool trip, particularly the beach and sea! I liked most, the patterns that were found in the sand which was made by the waves. The sea flows in and makes imprints in the sand and creates textures and shapes. The patterns vary from ripples to crumbly effects to thick and thin lines. I've also photographed some of the debris and seaweed that the sea drags upon the shore aswell as these are interesting. I've started to produce lots of drawings to help me think how I can turn this into a knitted edge. I love the shades of golds, creams, turquoises and blues that are found at the beach. Following this I decided I needed more inspiration and more images to produce my work from. I went to Porthmadog and found a lovely beach with miles of textures and patterns found in the sand. This is what l am going to base my project on because it's what influenced me most.

  

Following my attendance to the silk museum in Macclesfield I didn't find it to be as inspirational as I thought I would. However I did pick out a variety of images that will help me, like patterns on the looms, spools, the old building etc. I did take images of lots of lace I found and thought it was similar to patterns in the sand so lve decided I may develop that further too.
 

 

 

I did find some artists that i liked in an exhibition they had on there, one in particular (photographed below) was Lesley Crowley-Bull. She produced landscapes using unusual colours with lots of lace and scraps of pretty fabrics, incorporating embroidery. I'm considering incorporating embroidery into my knitting in some way.

 



 

Following the trips I have started to make some yarn wraps to try and link different textural qualities in reference to my photographs. A task from Friday drawing day was found to be helpful, it was creating little thumbnails from photographs by picking out colours/patterns/qualities/textures. I really enjoyed doing these as I experimented a lot with different techniques and media, it allowed me to be more free and l was pleased with the outcome of them. I think they will help me when l begin to get better at knit. 

I'm going to closely look at the line qualities in the waves, sand and lace and think about how l can translate it into knit and maybe use a thick fluffy textured yarn for the rough splashing waves and then a more finer silky yarn for certain patterns in the sand which will relate to lace. Maybe I can combine different shades of one colour as the yarns interlock into each other when knitted to create the look of texture. 

At the moment I don't have many ideas for passementerie as I just want to experiment with all my ideas and see were that takes me. However in saying that I'm thinking I would like my final edges to be long and narrow as when I think of an edge that's what I think of, even though the scale doesn't necessarily have to be limited. 

I'm also unsure about context at this point aswell as l think it's too early on in the project to decide. I am leaning more towards the interior side though as oppose to fashion for example as I'm more interior based anyway. I could maybe produce an edge for a wall hanging or picture frame. If I was to lean towards the fashion side I could produce an edge for a scarf of even a strap for a top.