Freya Burgess

[freyaburgess]

PRACTICE UNIT 

Cornish Coast

Reflecting on the progress of my work.

Spending a large portion of my time lately working digitally on the computer, to develop my ideas into repeated print designs, has confirmed that this is not an approach that I enjoy most, or a style of print that I would most like to develop further in future. I would prefer to be putting energy into developing my designs and visual ideas on paper and exploring media and processes manually, with the possibility to then take these hand created designs onto fabric through digital means in a simple translation.

[freyaburgess]

PRACTICE UNIT

Cornish Coast

Considering the audience I would like to be responding to.

I am increasingly thinking more about what I creatively value and admire. I am driven by a desire to create pieces that are cherished and looked after, that discourage superfluous material consumption, by creating a sense of attachment and satisfaction so they are enjoyed and used over a lifetime.  With this in mind, I have chosen to be working with materials and printing techniques that will support this mentality of durability and appreciation for material possessions. I will be primarily working with fabrics of fine quality – warm wool and sumptuous silk – creating designs suitable for a high end market, responding to an audience of consumers that value quality, that appreciate and are willing to invest in pieces that they trust will last a lifetime. The clothing company Brora has stood out to me and I can relate to their audience:

‘Brora is not about fast fashion. We produce beautifully made, timeless pieces from the finest yarn that are made to last; we like the idea of buying less and making sure that what you do buy is very special. Brora should be passed on and enjoyed by more than one generation and it is a luxury that we would like more people to be able to enjoy.’

 https://www.brora.co.uk/our-philosophy

I have also been looking at examples of individual practitioners that design and make their pieces, and invest care and time into the production stage of their work. Eleanor Pritchard creates beautiful, woven textiles using yarns of high quality, produced in the UK and values the expertise and history behind the mills where the pieces are traditionally woven. It is this consideration of process, the sourcing of materials, the relatively modest scale of production that makes her work, and likewise, the work of other designer-makers, of interest to me.

http://www.eleanorpritchard.com

Images 1, 2: Work by Eleanor Pritchard.

[freyaburgess]

PRACTICE UNIT

Cornish Coast

Supporting Project

I have been considering how the most logical and descriptive approach would be to clearly present and communicate my intentions for this project. I have been developing ideas for ways to lay out and present my work onto pages in the format of a book and have been thinking back to my recent trip to Amsterdam over Christmas, where I saw a great exhibition displaying the work of the graphic designer and curator, Willem Sandberg. His work, along with pieces designed by Hendrik Werkman, have sparked ideas of my own and I have been reminded of the striking layout, colours and techniques they used to create eye-catching and clear visual arrangements. I think that simplicity is a crucial element to these posters that I will bear in mind when creating my own work – using bold, brave shapes and punchy text. Further to this, I was really drawn to the work of Corita Kent and admire the layering of textural shapes and overlapping of different colours to create complex, visually interesting compositions. Seeing these has made me think that I would like to explore this style of abstract, textural work in my next project. Perhaps I could work directly onto the acetate, using oil pastels, chinagraph pencils or black acrylic to create these textural marks that I could then screen print onto fabric.

Image 1: printed work by W. Sandberg.

Image 2: poster by H. Werkman.

Image 3: poster by C. Kent.

[freyaburgess]

PRACTICE UNIT 

Cornish Coast

Finishing Final Samples

When considering the lining of my final silk samples, I wanted to create print designs with less visual complexity than the digitally printed silk and for there to be a greater focus on colour, shape and subtle surface texture. I sought for the lining fabrics to compliment the digital samples, not distract or visually compete with them, also enhancing the physical structure and weight of the pieces of silk. Underestimating the amount of time it would take to print these six lining fabrics, I finished with four that were complete which I was content with as I did not want to compromise the appearance of these pieces, simply so that I could create all six.

I worked with a combination of processes to print these samples – printing with reactive dyes, discharge printing, direct painting onto fabric and screen printing flock to finish. For each of these lining samples, I was working onto fabric that I had dyed myself. Using paper stencils, as well as painting directly onto the fabric, I applied discharge solution to selected areas of the sample in order to create white spaces that I could then print different colours back into. I chose to work in this way as I thought that if I printed colours directly onto this base dyed, pale grey, mauve colour, the printed colours would appear murky and not as intended. I sought to achieve variations of the colours and to create shapes from the overlapping areas. After printing each lining piece, I chose to apply flock, in a subtle colour, to certain screen printed areas of these fabrics to enhance their surface texture and introduce a sense of tactility to the pieces.

Whilst I was working on these screen printed pieces, I had a creative revelation; coming to realise that, considering the style of work I imagine to be creating, I feel restricted by the conventional way I have been practicing the process of screen printing. Having to commit to the scale of an image is a feature of this process that I found frustrating, as well as being limited to the number of images on silk screens. On reflection, this particular process would be most suitable for when I am printing developed and refined designs as I have realised that working in this way can stifle the creativity of printing as there is less room for experimentation. Therefore, I would like to work more spontaneously, directly onto fabric, by applying printing dyes to the material using paintbrushes, or other drawing tools, to avoid the constraints of screen printing. On the other hand, I still do love the visual qualities that can be achieved through screen printing – the crisp, solid shapes and fine, complex details. So perhaps I will be working with screen printing in combination with direct painting onto fabric.

Images 1, 2, 3: finished samples showing lining fabrics.

[freyaburgess]

UNIT X

Self Directed Project

Considering the audience and context. 

By placing emphasis on durability for this work I will be targeting an audience of responsible and conscious consumers that are willing to invest in long-term products. Responding to those that are not set on following trends or habitually consuming in a thoughtless manner. A specific example of an environment in which I aspire for these products to be suitably placed is in Flow Gallery – a modestly sized, gallery and shop in Notting Hill, that supports craftspeople and value hand processes. They display a considered collection of ceramics, textiles, jewellery and carved wood pieces and I hope to design and create functional textile art that would be aptly placed in this retail environment.

http://www.flowgallery.co.uk

I recently came across beautiful images of textile pieces by Claudy Jongstra and greatly admire her creative ethos regarding the environment, self sufficiency and working with natural processes. Reading about her creative practice has made me realise that I want to be putting greater consideration into choosing and sourcing materials and processes and be more aware of the implications of my practice.

http://www.claudyjongstra.com

Images 1, 2, 3: work by Claudy Jongstra

UNIT X 

Self Directed Project

Reflecting on my motives.

On reflection, my motivation to consider qualities of durability and responsible material use has been prompted by the unsustainable pace of today’s fashion and textiles industry, in which consumers, who are both the drivers and the victims, exercise an irresponsible attitude to material consumption. I intend to design tablecloths that support my desire to encourage greater appreciation for our possessions by designing them to be both physically and emotionally durable so that they are enjoyed and used over generations. This sentiment will be supported by further reading that my tutor has pointed me towards – papers from the PLATE Conference (Product Lifetimes and the Environment) that took place in Nottingham in June 2015 – a conference that sought to address the topic of the sustainability debate in the context of the circular economy, efficient use of resources, climate change and reducing waste.

http://www.plateconference.org/category/conference-2015-proceedings-papers/

UNIT X 

Self Directed Project 

Facing Outwards

Over the next few weeks as this project develops, I will be seeking to discover opportunities to exhibit the outcomes. I would like to contact independent galleries and enquire if there is a possibility that I could display my work in their space. One gallery that I am very fond of and came across a couple of summers ago in St Ives, Cornwall, is Plumbline that sell and exhibit a considered collection of craft and design led products.

http://plumblinestives.co.uk/plumblinestives.co.uk/home.html

[freyaburgess]

UNIT X 

Self Directed Project

Creating a Proposal and the Textile Society Student Bursary Application.

The immanent deadline for applications for this bursary gave me great incentive to focus on formulating a clear project statement. I considered carefully what it was I wanted to be working on for this project, what I aimed to achieve and my motives to create work of this kind. I was keen to develop onwards from my previous project and use the processes of digital printing, combined with screen printing and embroidery.

I decided that this project work would stem from my intrigue in meal tables and the experiences people have whilst sat around them. In particular, I will be focussing on Swedish cultural celebrations and traditions that will visually inspire a collection of printed tablecloths so have begun drawing from my own photographs of festive family celebrations.

Image 1: Traditional Swedish Christmas meal.

Images 2, 3: Traditional Swedish biscuits, cakes and cinnamon buns.

Image 4: Platter of Crayfish served at a traditional Crayfish Party in mid August.

[freyaburgess]

UNIT X 

Craft Fair at GK Gallery, Salford 

Friday 24th and Saturday 25th March

I responded to an advertisement from a local Gallery in Salford calling for designers to create work to sell over a weekend at a Craft Fair which presented a brilliant opportunity to develop my samples into products, choosing to use my digitally printed fabric designs from the Practice Unit to make cushions and notebooks. Preparing for the fair involved considerations over the pricing of my pieces, looking at other products available on the market, accounting for material costs and time investment, creating business cards and labelling my pieces to promote my work to those who might potentially be interested.

Images 1,2: handmade, hardback notebooks with digitally printed covers.

Images 3,4,5,6: cushions covered in my digitally printed fabric and purple velvet reverse.

[freyaburgess]

UNIT X

Reflecting on the Craft Fair.

On reflection, I realise that producing cushions is more lucrative than notebooks. Despite the material cost of the cushions being marginally higher, the labour intensity was far less, and the price that I could set for them was far higher than the notebooks, making them a much more profitable product. It would therefore be wise to focus on developing the cushions and following discussions with fellow makers, potential ideas were suggested and advice offered as to how these could progress. One idea was to digitally print the designs onto cotton velvet, to further enhance their appearance and tactility.

Taking part in the fair was certainly worthwhile as I gained experience of organising a stall on a small scale, got a sense from other makers (some of whom were graduates of the Textiles course) of the challenges I could face after graduating and gained advice from them as to how they have sustained their creative practice. It was also rewarding to sell my products and after spending time amongst the other makers, we all appreciated the benefit of being able to discuss our creative ideas and plans with other like-minded people and felt motivated to continue and develop on from this fair. I was pleased that the gallery requested to hold onto my unsold cushions and notebooks as they wanted to display and stock them in their gallery shop.

Image 1: my products on display.

Image 2: me with my products.

Image 3: fellow makers exhibiting and selling at the fair.

[freyaburgess]

UNIT X

Collaborative Project

Looking beyond my practice

Researching practitioners that work with the medium of felt, I came across Maxine Sutton, who designs and makes printed and embroidered textile pieces from her studio and shop in Margate. Her practice exemplifies an appealing professional career that I can aspire to. It would be ideal to be designing and making products at a modest scale, creating limited numbers of each design and selling in your own shop where there is also studio space.

http://maxinesutton.com

[freyaburgess]

UNIT X

Collaborative Project

Looking beyond my practice

Likewise, I am fond of the beautiful products designed by Donna Wilson and admire her responsible and conscientious approach to working by hand and supporting craftspeople in the UK. I am inspired by her creative journey and the success she’s met in establishing her own business and developing and expanding her company over her relatively short career since beginning. I am also drawn to the impression her work and website convey – a friendly, cheerful and approachable image – one that implies she really loves what she does. This joviality creates a more appealing image of the company and I think we should bear this in mind when designing our pieces as we want to demonstrate our enjoyment and enthusiasm for our work through the visual and tactile nature of our materials and express this further through the supporting work that we will create, in the form of a project statement and visualisations.

https://www.donnawilson.com

Image: Donna Wilson’s knitted soft toys/cushions.

UNIT X

Collaborative Project

Reconsidering the Context

Following a discussion with my brother about this project, during which I explained what we were developing and the outcome we were working towards, I reconsidered whether the conclusion of creating upholstered seating cushions would be the most logical and imaginative response to our initial stimulus. Together, we thought about alternative outcomes – perhaps a more suitable and satisfying outcome would be a collection of picnic blankets or other outdoor products, like raincoats? This could be a more natural response to our inspiration, considering the outdoor context of our trip.

[freyaburgess]

UNIT X 

Collaborative Project

Reflecting on our progress so far, I realise that it has been positive to work alongside someone else who has equal ambition and energy for the project. This enthusiasm was particularly valuable when creating our painted visual responses. We felt less self-conscious and anxious of our painting as we shared the responsibility for the piece’s appearance.

Having created large scale paintings over a few days, we then looked back at them in daylight to reflect on which qualities, marks and media we thought were most visually appealing. Despite being most pleased with the more complex, densely marked paintings whilst creating them, on reflection, we observed that the blank areas of paper left between some of the marks in other paintings created more of a striking composition. After having worked solely with acrylic paint to begin with, we then added to the paintings by rubbing oil pastels and coloured crayons over the textural paint marks which, on reflection, enhanced the paintings by highlighting and exaggerating their textural relief.

Image 1, 2, 3: details of scanned paintings.

Image 4: photograph of painting, showing textural surface relief.

[freyaburgess]

UNIT X

Collaborative Project

Comparing digitally printed fabrics to original paintings on paper.

Wanting to assess the clarity of image and precision of colour of the paintings digitally printed onto fabric, we printed small samples of sections of these paintings to scale. Comparing the printed fabric to the original paintings was disappointing as the print appeared flat due to the diminished variation in tone and reduced detail in the finer marks. We will therefore be developing more paintings that focus on qualities that translated most strikingly and also by digitally altering the paintings to hopefully enhance their appearance on fabric. 

Images 1, 3, 5: scans of original paintings on paper.

Images 2, 4, 6: corresponding scans of digitally printed paintings on cotton canvas.

[freyaburgess]

UNIT X 

Collaborative Project

Commencing

Deciding to begin a collaborative project was made after recognising that both Heather, a student specialising in knit, and I, shared an enthusiasm for visual abstraction and a desire to work with felted material. We were both keen to combine the skills we had developed in our specialist areas, learning new techniques from one another, to explore the fascinating possibilities presented by felt as the material’s construction, tactility and qualities of warmth and strength captured our imaginations. We hoped that by working together we could be more innovative and efficient and create more unusual work, that independently, we would not have the time or skillset to create. We were initially keen to design fabrics suitable for interior, upholstery fabrics.

Wanting to escape the hectic and polluted city scene and seek the peace and tranquillity of the countryside, we took a day trip to the Lake District. We hoped that the natural environment would energise us and provide a valuable source of inspiration for our work. We visually recorded the scenery through sketching and photography, aiming to capture the force of the elements, translating them into expressive visual responses.

[freyaburgess]

UNIT X 

Collaborative Project

Abstract Expressionism

The work of the abstract expressionists has been influential to this project. We admire the confidence of mark making; their bold sweeping gestural strikes, visual textures and energy that the work conveys. We responded to the visual material gathered from the Lakes, creating layers of large scale, textural marks in a purposefully free and direct style. We wished to then translate these paintings onto fabric through digital printing to replicate the qualities of the painting onto fabric which we would like to work with alongside felt.

Image: Joan Mitchell. Untitled. 1961. oil paint. 228.6 x 205.7 cm

[freyaburgess]

UNIT X

Collaborative Project

Sampling

We have been experimenting with knitting lambswool to create thick, durable felt and will be testing screen printing onto the felt to introduce visual imagery, as well as dyeing the pieces. We are also interested to explore introducing surface relief to translate the textures and natural surfaces that we observed and have experimented with embossing and embroidering the felt.

The outcome after first attempting to emboss the felt was very exciting as the wooden pieces left a noticeable impression in the felt. However, on reflection, the embossing was not as crisp as I aimed for. I then considered how I could create a more dramatic relief, thinking that perhaps the felt would benefit from being embossed whilst it was still damp, after being soaked in water for a while, to allow the fabric to soften and take up the form of wooden pieces as it dried, under the heat press. This was more successful and improved on the first trial.

Image 1: second attempt at embossing felt.

Image 2: first attempt.

[freyaburgess]

Work Placement Correspondence and Considering my Creative Practice after Graduation

I have been considering possibilities for what I shall do after completing the course and have decided at this stage not to pursue the possibility of applying for a Masters course, as I presently feel unsure which specific techniques and ideas I would like to focus on and explore in greater depth.

I know that I will definitely continue to work independently, setting myself projects to design prints and continue experimenting with materials and processes.

I am continuing to search for work placements that could be of value to my practice so have been in correspondence with a number of textile designers and companies. I applied for a work placement with a printed textile company in London, Kellergordon, and have organised to spend a month with them later this year. I am hoping to have the opportunity to gain thorough practical, screen-printing practice in the studio to develop the skills that I have learnt throughout this course.

Having been in contact with the Design Team at Seasalt, the women’s clothing company based in Cornwall, inquiring whether they had a placement opportunity, they contacted me again towards the end of last year alerting me to a position that had arisen as a Print Design Intern. In response to this, I collated and edited my work into a digital portfolio and submitted my application. But due to various date changes and indecision over when they wanted the intern to begin their position, they decided to prioritise graduates who were able to join them on a full time basis from January this year – a period of time that I could not commit to, so unfortunately was not able to be shortlisted for an interview. I was however, encouraged to apply for their next position which is expected later this year!

In addition, having been in correspondence with the printed textile designer based in Brighton, Imogen Heath, since early last year, regarding potential work experience, she contacted me again in January letting me know that she was now taking on graduates for work placements for three months. In response, I sent her a digital copy of my portfolio and will be arranging a day to visit her studio in Brighton over the Easter break so that I can meet her and present my work.

[freyaburgess]

Manchester School of Art - Degree Show

The paper prints that were exhibited at Manchester School of Art Degree Show were inspiring to see and in particular, the work of Anthony Cross stood out. His etchings displayed the beautiful qualities that can be achieved through this process – the softness of the image and the monotone palette.

Seeing these prints made me consider exploring paper printing this year and then going on to transfer the imagery from paper onto fabric by digital means. A similar softness of image could be created even with a pencil drawing that could likewise be translated onto fabric by digital print and I am keen to see the results.

In addition, the work of Bryony Dawson, a Foundation student, reminded me of my fondness of monoprinting and has prompted me to explore this technique in my own work. As with drawings and etchings, the monoprints could be printed onto fabric digitally which is an exciting possibility and I would love to see what can be created through this process and through combining these prints with other imagery in collages.

Images 1 and 2: Anthony Cross

Image 3: Bryony Dawson