Georgina's Textile Blog

Second year 'Textile Practice' student at The University of Huddersfield. Specialising in Weave.

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Layer Masks

 This is similar to layering but you can blend the photographs together. The quality of the images improves drastically when your own photographs are used- these are not my images. 

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Made a Mandala-styled design today in CAD. A few little hiccups later and we have a not very accurate but ‘unique’ design. 

16/02 notes. 

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Notes on Illustrator 

Using Illustrator to create the letters of the alphabet.

To create a new brush: 

create marks > select all marks > brush library > new brush > art brush > ok 

To create a pattern: 

Select object > object dropdown menu> pattern > make 

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Tim Noble and Sue Webster

Look how amazing this is!! 

Artist’s Tim Noble and Sue Webster create what looks like a pile of rubbish but when light shines upon it from the correct angle it produces something very unexpected.

The concept of this is really inspiring. It literally makes you think about rubbish in a whole new light. It’s like a metaphor for recycling- that moment when you find out your pencil is made from 15 plastic bottles and wonder how that could possibly be true. Rubbish can simply be a big heap of mess but with a little patience, time and effort it can be transformed into something rather fascinating.

This piece is called “Dirty White Trash (with Gulls)” and “is made from the remains of everything the artists needed to survive for the six months it took them to complete the sculpture.” (Harness, J. 2012) 

I became really interested in Noble and Webster and so I took to Google and found their website. 

They look cool. 

Their picture is the two of them dressed in leather jackets and looking very nonchalantly away from the camera. The picture alongside their greeting box with the words “Welcome Motherfuckers” makes me feel like I should probably quit while I’m ahead. 

After scrolling through their “Artwerks” with raised eyebrows and cheshire cat grins and also a couple of glances over my shoulder, I’m completely amazed. 

The piece above ‘BLACK NARCISSUS, 2006′ has to be my favourite. The juxtaposition of ‘stone-faced, serious head cast’ and ‘a jumble of cocks and fingers transforming into a two-faced shadow’ is quite simply fantastic. 

I love them.

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Photographer: Ben Von Wong

Website Source: http://www.upcyclethat.com/mermaids-hate-plastic/6719/

Von Wong created these stunning photographs to help spread awareness of the damaging effect plastic has on our seas and environment.

“By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea”. Just let that sink in.

The photographs are stunning; the rich colours, the textures are all really unique. And I think by involving mermaids increases the emotional impact.

Mermaids are these beautiful creatures, derived from myth, legends and bedside stories. They are feminine, delicate and pure. And then here they are, strewn upon beaches and drowning in their own sea. But it is no longer their sea.

It is our sea.

The sea, once their home, becomes their prison. Their plastic captive that doesn’t care for nature or a goodnight’s sleep.

It is more important than ever that we think about our everyday lives and how they affect life around us.

Simple and easy changes can amount to a great deal  of good.

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LAYERING

In today’s CAD lesson, we learnt the basics of layering imagery. 

You first need to open the images you want to use, in my case it was a black chair in a white room and the sketch wallpaper. 

This is a very simple way of getting an image onto the background. Firstly, Select the wall by using the magic wand tool and clicking on the wall. ‘Shift’ to add to the selection. 

Press ‘Q’ to enter ‘mask mode’ which should highlight the image you are not covering in red. 

Use the regular paint brushes to add or subtract from the mask. 

Brushes: Black: reveals. White: conceals. 

Press Q to take you back to marching ants and inverse your selection. (select > inverse or shft+cmd+i)

Copy and paste image.

Find, copy and paste your chosen image to place into your current canvas. 

Move the new layer in-between the background and the foreground image.

You can alter the effects (drop down ‘normal’ menu above layers) to make the images more realistic. 

VOILA. 

Hopefully this makes sense. 

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Great exhibition at The Whitechapel Gallery. These are 2 of Manal Al Dowayan's ceramic Doves from her collection of 200. The 200 Doves were hung motionless from the ceiling. The birds wear prints of official stamps and travel documents for women granted by their husbands. Dowayan writes "when it comes to travel, all these women are treated like a flock of suspended Doves". #thewhitechapelgallery #art #ManalAlDowayan #suspendedtogether #women #travel #doves #ceramics (at Whitechapel Gallery)

[artssake]

Carding Wool

[ayanefujioka]

woven (and combined technique) sample collection inspired by primary forest in Yakushima, Japan. All yarns except embroidery threads are hand dyed or painted.

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Inspiration. 

These weaves look so at one with nature. They’re so peaceful. 

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Archives

We had a lecture called ‘thinking the future through the past’ by Dr. Rowan Bailey and honestly, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it. I thought we would be talking about organising brown envelopes and tatty books. But I was pleasantly surprised and learnt I should not be so presumptuous.

One of the most interesting concepts Rowan Bailey explained to use was that ‘in the present, the things we think are valuable or not valuable will change as time passes’ and she introduced us to the artist: Dietor Roth. Roth collected waste that people had discarded or he found and placed them all in a plastic wallet each. 

At the time, all that he was doing was collecting rubbish. Waste people found pretty grim, but now, when you see a cigarette packet from the 1970′s we’re full of surprise and curiosity.  Time undoubtedly adds value to even the strangest of things. That doesn’t necessarily mean monetary value as much as worth, the object seem to become worthy of their plastic wallets and folders. The have stories and elements of history that persuade people to forget they were simply rubbish back then and promote them into an object of worth. 

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Stunning painting by Leonid Afremov.

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How can Textiles Ecology impact my practice of making?

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The girl guide Changi quilt

The Changi quilt, was stitched in a Japanese military camp 1942.

Life in the camp was difficult and often monotonous, so prisoners Elizabeth Ennis and Trudie van Roode set up a ‘Girl guide’ group to help the younger members cope with this. The women and children had been separated from their husbands/fathers upon entry to the camp so a women named, Ethel Mulvany, had the idea to create a patchwork quilt covered in coded messages that would be sent to the men. 

Materials were incredibly sparse so the girls would have had to be incredibly resourceful -using whatever they could find; Threads from the seams of their clothing and sharpening needles on the concrete floor. 

Not only did this quilt offer the girls an ounce of freedom from the camp, it provided many men with the knowledge their loved ones had survived.

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Fine Cell Work

Fine Cell Work is a charity that trains over 400 prisoners in 29 prisons across Britain in needlework. They create cushions, bags, patchwork quilts and pictures which are then sold so they receive an income whilst completing their prison sentence. 

This idea belonged to a women named Lady Ann Tree (1927), who became a prison visitor at the age of 22 and also an inspector of prisons. She noticed the benefits of inmates learning a creative skill to pass their time and reduce boredom which she deemed ‘corrosive’ (and we can all agree with that). Lady Ann Tree was a keen embroiderer and began her aim that she would teach reforms needlework, who would then create beautiful work that would be sold and an income would be generated. 

This naturally had many obstacles, one being there was a law against inmates receiving an income whilst serving a prison sentence however, through friends and perseverance this was repealed and her mission began. 

Lady Ann Tree and many others noticed and took advantage of the naturally calming action of embroidery and applied it into a situation that was not/ is not a particularly pleasant situation. She also claimed that through craftwork, reformers could do just that, reform- they could learn about themselves and begin to feel part of the world they were barred away from. 

http://www.finecellwork.co.uk/

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Communally/historically/socially created textiles. 1.

http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/Index.htm

I was having difficultly researching examples of these methods so I stopped and thought to myself ‘what historical textiles do I know that were produced by loads of people’ and my brain leaped to quite an obvious answer, ‘The Bayeux Tapestry’. And although, there are no suggestions that the embroidery was done to enhance the wellbeing of the women embroiderers, it is a famous historical piece of textiles that was done collaboratively to depict the story of William the Conqueror and Harold, The earl of Wessex. 

The Bayeux Tapestry’s origins remain uncertain but guessed that it was commissioned by Williams’ half-brother. Many women would have spent weeks creating this work and many more have spent recreating the tapestry and now, men and women continue to work to restore this famous piece so it lasts another 900 years. 

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Data and Research Methods

When researching a certain topic it is crucial to include data. Data, facts, figures, statistics are all vital to producing a convincing and viable argument- let’s face it, without the previous elements, your argument stands ZERO chance of making a lasting impression. 

Then, analysing this data is even more important than including the data. If you include but do not analyse- it is pointless, if you analyse but do not include - it is confusing and questionable. 

Research Methods? 

I’ve chosen to research the topic ‘Textile Ecology’ and more specific ‘Cotton Agriculture’. Therefore the research methods I choose have to be appropriate to my topic so that the data created not only makes sense but also emphasises my arguments. 

There are many different research methods you can use, such as: 

Interviews

Workshops

Secondary research 

Comparative studies

Sampling

Observing 

To name a few. 

I think three interesting research methods that i potentially could use in my research would be Interviewing different people associated with cotton agriculture, definitely secondary research and I think thirdly, sampling would be an interesting way to look at the practicalities of cotton agriculture- what is the visible differences of organic cotton, Genetically modified cotton seeds etc...

I would gain a lot of primary information from interviewing a variety of people employed in the agriculture of cotton -ranging from the producers in third world countries and the producers in countries like the US and comparing the information received to the consumers who buy the cotton products and investigate why they purchase or do not purchase certain products. Also, this method would allow me to observe the conditions and process of the cotton industry as to interview these people I would need to be there myself. Furthermore, that opportunity would allow me to put my research into context consequently balancing out my viewpoints and enhancing my research.

I think it’s very important to include references and information gained from other secondary sources such as archives/books etc. because as my tutors say, we are not born with all this knowledge, we learn and gain it from someone/where else therefore, to not include secondary research would be foolishly missing out on a plethora of information that could sway your statements dramatically. 

Thirdly, using sampling to aid your research is not only bringing a practical element to your research, but it allows the reader as well as yourself to investigate and see first hand the similarities and differences that appear from doing things one way, then another. This would be a really beneficial way to express your opinion at the same time as strengthening it. 

[himalayev]

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This digital art is awesome! Quite trippy but really interesting how the colours blend and move together like a flowing river. 

Could I replicate this in a weave? Maybe use metallic yarns that alter in different lights and movement.