London: Mapping The Makers Project Evaluation
The London: Mapping The Makers project was concerned with devising your own brief by researching into an artist of your choice from an area of london.
"London has been a creative powerhouse for centuries; the home of writers, artists, designers and architects influential across the world. This project is about the connections between the physical city, its streets and spaces, and the individuals who played such an important part in creating it. Where did they, or do they work and live? How can those streets be made part of a new creative journey? is about the reasons and meanings behind appearances; the ideas and events London: Mapping the Makers that influence the appearance of architecture, design and art. Your creative work will grow out of research into –
1. The ideas and influences on the work of two individuals within the same geographical area.
2. The history of that area.
3. The visual character of the area (observational drawing and photography)."
To start the project, I picked my artist, British textile designer Anna Maria Garthwaite (1688 - 1763) who lived in Spitalfields, London. She was an English textile designer known for creating intricate and colourful designs for hand-woven silk fabrics in the 18th Century in London. I started to research into the history of her life, before writing a contextual study based around her work and working as a designer in the 18th century. I picked her because I liked her intricate and detailed designers, even though it is very different to my work, I liked the way she used bright and bold colours in floral designs to make them eye catching and interesting to look at. I was also intrigued by the Spitalfields area, as I researched into the area more to find it played a huge part in textiles trading.
It was really interesting learning how a professional worked in the 18th century compared to today. Her life also interested me because I plan to go on to do a Textile Design degree at university. In the contextual study, I looked at a range of her designs, all very different. I then looked up her blue plaque, as her house is still in Spitalfields.
This led me to start researching into her Spitalfields house, which I found was only open once a year although I managed to find images of it online. It was really interesting to see the views that she would've seen out of her house, as well as the interiors of the house. After initially researching into Garthwaite, I took a trip to Spitalfields to explore the area, and take pictures and do some observational sketches. I have found observational sketches to be very useful in my projects as they help me get more of an idea about a certain area of object, helping me develop my ideas more easily. I was really inspired by the archictecture in the Brick Lane area, mixing the 18th century houses with modern glass sky scrapers and business buildings. I really liked how bold the shapes and lines in the archictecture were around the area, and took a lot of photos to record in my sketchbook and my blog.
As a response to my photos, I started to play around with collage and mixing different photos together to start thinking about ideas before writing my brief. I also had a few observational drawings from my trip. I then started to think about writing my brief. Writing a brief was a completely new task to do for my art, although I enjoyed it as it allowed me to have the freedom to choose anything I wanted to do. I decided to design a series of Textile prints which could be used as upholstery fabric for chairs in an upcoming new boutique hotel in the Spitalfields area. I decided to choose textile design as it is an area I really enjoy working in as well as my artist being a textile designer.
After writing my brief, I started to experiment more with the Brick Lane area. I searched online for old 18th century maps of East London. I printed off large copies and started tracing off lines from the maps to see if there were interesting patterns and shapes to help spark ideas for my textile prints. I researched into artist/ illustrator Allison Rae who created map like drawings with lines which I think worked well. I like researching into artists I think will link well with my projects as it helps me gain ideas and inspiration. I then started to experiment more with bolder shapes from the archictecture in Spitalfields. I started cutting out shapeswith paper and scanning them in repeat to play around with patterns and mirror images. Experimentation is an important part of brainstorming ideas as it allows me to explore different outcomes which I may have not thought of. I developed my initial cut out ideas by putting them onto photoshop and playing around with inverts.
As I had initially researched into Garthwaites work, I started to look more closely at her work, doing a couple of studies. I also looked at some floral fabrics I had found, to look at other fabrics similar to her work. Looking at other peoples work helps me develop my ideas. Although I liked her work because of the detail and colour, I decided that I didn't really want to create a floral fabric as I was inspired so much by the bold shapes in the architecture. This led me to start developing some of my initial ideas further starting with my maps. I started to use photoshop to add colour into the map lines I had traced off, I thought they were particularly effective and could work well as a textile fabric. I experimented with a number of different colours including purples, pinks and blues. I also put the lines in mirrors to see what effect that would have. Doing more projects in art has allowed me to build on my photoshop skills which I can now use to help develop and improve ideas. I then started to research into artists. I looked into three textile designers - Alexander Henry, because of his use of flowers - although with much more bold and abstract shapes, Ashley Goldberg because of her bold shapes and striking layouts and Tamasyn Gambell because of her geometric prints. I created responses to all three artists by using collage and paper to recreate the bold prints and colours. In response to Alexander Henry, I used ink and tissue paper to re-create his floral designs. This led me to start experimenting with ink and tissue paper collage, using shapes and ideas from the Spitalfields area. I created to pieces both based on shapes and archictecture from Brick Lane. I then went on to think more about the brief and how I would create textile designs that were suitable for a boutique hotel. I started to create colour ways from my Spitalfields photographs to link colour with the area. I also researched into current boutique hotels in London to see what was already out there. In a number of my projects, I have used colour ways as a start to creating an idea.
This led me to create my six initial ideas. All my ideas had come from previous experimentation at the beginning of the project. One idea in particular - Initial Idea Three was one of my Alexander Henry Collage responses, in which I developed further to create my fourth initial idea. I used photoshop to seperate the layers of the collage to create a more simplified repeat pattern based on the repeptitive windows in the houses in Spitalfields. I then went onto develop my three favourite ideas, which I thought would work the best as textile designs. In my first developed idea, I used the collage in photoshop to play around with colour, using the colourways I had created from my photos, I then started to experiment with layout and how big or small I wanted the print. I also edited the print into situ to see what it could look like as a finished product. In my second and third developed ideas, I also played around with colour - the main colours being plums and olive greens which were common colours I found in my photos. Many of the designs reminded me of 1950's textiles. I then went onto present my three developed ideas at interim review. Interim review was useful to gain feedback so I would be able to create a suitable print. People said that they liked all three of my designs as they were very simple yet effective and connected. Although this was the case, most people said that the first developed idea was their favourite. I thought this print would work the best for interior fabrics so started to develop it further for a final outcome.
I started thinking about how I would be able to screen print my final idea. To make it suitable for screen I used tracing paper to draw over the top of my designs to make sure that the shapes matched up and it was all be in line. This was the first time that I used more than one screen to screen print an idea. I used photoshop to seperate out each shape and invert it to black to be put onto screen. I then printed it onto acetate ready to be put onto screen. During designing my print for screen, I also started looking into digital printing. I used one of my developed ideas as a basis and started to create simplistic ideas taken from layers of my original design. I then had them digitally printed. I was really pleased with the outcome of my digital prints, as they looked professional and looked good as a fabric. I used these as the prints to go alongside my main hand printed design as they complimented each other. I then started to print my final idea. I moved the screens across the fabric each time to keep it in repeat, as well as mixing my own colours matching with my photoshop version. It was very challenging to mix the colours to the exact right shade as I found the green to print out more yellow. Because of this, I overprinted it with a darker colour to try and correct the yellow.
After finishing my prints, I presented them on a board with the fabrics in situ shown on a chair for the boutique hotel brief. I am very pleased with the outcome of this project, as it has allowed me to create my own brief and work in an area I enjoy. I am very pleased with both my screen-printed fabric and my digital prints as they both look professional and would work well as an upholstery fabric. Although I had difficulty with colour mixing in my printing, it has taught me how to overcome design problems which will help me in the future in professional practice. I have used my blog throughout this project to help present and develop my ideas.