College Work

1st Year of Art College

[artyyfarty]

Here's how the kimono looked at the exhibition. It's hard to tell from the photos but I sewed my glass pieces to the bottom of the sleeves. I couldn't put them along the hem because it was too close to the ground. But I like how it looks like this. I also sewed the corners of the collar together to help it hang better. I decided not to add the fabric manipulation flowers because the colours didn't match the kimono very well and they didn't blend in.

[artyyfarty]

Here's some photos from setting up the exhibition. I'm tying ropes to each end of the stick and tying the other ends of the ropes to the ropes that are already on the roof.

[artyyfarty]

Last details where the ribbons on the tree branches and opening the slashing lines. The ribbons came from the tree, the where pieces that had fallen off. I roughened the edges of the slashing with a wire brush just to make the lines less harsh. I pretty happy with how these turned out, the ribbons make the back feel more 3D.

[artyyfarty]

149. Put all the pieces together (including the collar) I ended up not curving the sleeves because I was struggling to put the whole thing through the machine. Especially with the black out fabric on its got very heavy. I tried it out on the stick and suspended it and I’m liking how it looks. I’ve got some rope to tie to each end of the stick and then hopefully I’ll be able to tie it to the ceiling.

[artyyfarty]

148. This is what the flowers look like now that I’ve filled them in. I’m much happier with them, they’re more eye catching and the colours look better.

[artyyfarty]

147. I’ve had my work marked so now I can continue working on my kimono. I’ve finished all the free motion embroidery flowers. I ended up doing bluebells, foxglove, bracken, irises and nettles on the main part of the kimono and trees on the sleeve sections. I don’t really like how they look from a distance, you can’t really tell they are flowers. So I’m going in to college and going to try filling in the flowers with dye.

[artyyfarty]

Evaluation

146. At the beginning of this project I didn’t anticipate how my final idea would turn out, I thought I’d end up with something a lot smaller. Looking back, I’m quite surprised that I decided to work on such a large scale as I’ve never really done anything this big before.

My primary research into different techniques and processes has informed the development of my project. I’ve managed to combine a lot of different techniques and materials thanks to this research. My secondary research hasn’t been as useful but has let me act on my ideas (research into natural dye) and let me refine my initial ideas a bit (Kubota collection).

The greatest problem that I’ve overcome during this project was the struggle I had trying to dye my kimono fabric using natural dye. I tried using natural dye four times before deciding to change to chemical dye.

I’m really pleased with the back of the kimono. This is where the hand embroidered hills and tree is. I think the colours of the background and embroidery thread work well together and I put a lot of effort into making the embroidery as neat as possible.

Weekly planning has let me use my time more efficiently and allowed me to get my thoughts in order and progress quicker than I would have without planning.

If I could do this project over again I would have spent less time trying to make the natural dye work and more time developing the design of the front part of the kimono. I would have liked to try using applique for the flowers on the kimono.

I’ve learnt a lot about myself during this project. I’ve learnt that using time management techniques such as weekly timetables helps me get my thoughts in some kind of order. This means that I can work on one thing before moving onto the next rather than trying to get everything done at the same time. I’ve also learnt that I quite like working at a large scale. It’s difficult but I enjoy it and will definitely do more of it.

I’ve taken some creative risks during this project, like when I decided to use chemical dyes. I hadn’t done much experimentation into this but decided that I needed to get my project moving along. This didn’t turn out exactly how I planned , the colours weren’t as bright but I do like how it looks.

If I had to give myself a grade I’d give myself a distinction as I think I’ve ticked every box with this project, especially problem solving and time management.

Next year I’m going to try going big scale again but maybe making garments that are more wearable. I’m not sure if I’d use Japanese themes again but I loved using natural themes and will definitely take inspiration from nature in the second year.

This has been quite a personal project for me but I hope that people who view my work will understand the beauty of the landscape that I live in. I want my work to make people appreciate nature.

[artyyfarty]

Problems with Planning

145. Unfortunately, there isn’t a finished kimono ready for assessment. This is because assembling the kimono is taking longer than I had expected or planned. I will have finished it by the summer show though.

[artyyfarty]

144. Got the two big flowers on, the bluebell and the foxglove. I don’t really like how this looks, I would have preferred the embroidery lines to be thicker. I think I’ll be happier with it when there’s more flowers on, the basting stitches have been removed and the pen lines ironed off.

[artyyfarty]

142. Been drawing flowers onto the kimono with removable ink. These will be embroidered over on the machine.

[artyyfarty]

141. In planning on having a foxglove embroidered up one part of the kimono. These flowers are very British and can be seen all over the common so they fit well with my theme.

[artyyfarty]

140. I glued some strips of naturally dyed fabric (tea) down in a rectangle shape along the base of the hills. I then machined lines diagonally along this strip. The fabric is glued to the back so it can’t be seen. I will then cut between these lines, through all but the back the layer of fabric. This will make the fabric fray. I was planning on having machine lines in a star burst shape rather than all parallel to each other. I realised that this would mean the lines of fraying would fray differently depending on how they where cut in contrast to the bias it the fabric. I thought this would look messy so I decided all the lines should be cut on the bias and so have the same amount of fraying.

[artyyfarty]

139. Sewn the strips to the front kimono with a basting stitch. These will be removed after I’ve free motioned the flowers. I should have glued these down with temporary glue, it would have saved alot of time but I was worried about it getting everywhere.

[artyyfarty]

138. Colours look good, I would have liked them to be a bit brighter but I can work with it. I think if I had left the strips in the dye longer the colours would have been better.

[artyyfarty]

137. I’ve dyed the strips with nettle, onion skin, tea and blue cabbage dyes. These should hopefully be dyed and dry by tomorrow.

[artyyfarty]

136. Found another sheet, I’ve made sure it’s 100% cotton and cut it into strips. These will be put on the front of the kimono.

[artyyfarty]

135. Chrysanthemum drawing. I might put this on the kimono, I’m just worried it might be too intricate.