Urban

The theme for the printmaking elective is urban and before we started we had to have photos which we felt related to the urban theme. The theme is quite broad so before I started taking new photos I looked through old photos on my laptop to help me chose the direction I wanted to go with the project.

I found these photos which were taken at a theme park, I liked the shapes and forms they create. There is also a sense of movement in these photos so I am going to try and take more photos which represent movement in urban space.

Printmaking

So my second elective this semester is printmaking. I can tell its going to be a lot different to fashion which I have been doing for the past two weeks but I cant wait to get started!

Knitting

Tea, biscuits and an evening of knitting at my granny's house I think I've got it, I can't believe it took until now for me to learn how to knit. We had a day of knitting in collage and I loved it, not only did we get to knit but we also learned how to create and make our own unique yarns out of things such as t-shirts, bed sheets, a good way to recycle!

Here are a few knitted swatches I made.

Eco Dye Yarn (berries & teabags)

Colour Study

After choosing the two shapes to use I scanned them in the photocopier, I enlarged, reduced and re-sized to change the scale my shape so I had lots to play around with. I had lots of different sizes of my shape. I cut lots of them out on brown paper and then the fun started, I took the shapes and began placing them on the mannequin. Here is some of the results!

Shapes

So I started looking back at some of the work I did in semester one, looking for a piece that contains lots of shapes...interesting shapes I can incorporate and use during my fashion elective.

I think this wire drawing is perfect and I'm sure I will be able to pull some interesting shapes from it.

I scanned the wire drawing and enlarged it so I could see the shapes more clearly.

 These are the shapes I chose to use.

Fashion

The craziness of fashion has begun! Its hard work, I'll admit that but I'm loving it! Its challenging me to be more creative and think outside the box which is definitely important in the world of fashion. 

Taking a Wire for a Walk

I got two rolls of wire, one red and one black. I decided to try and visually represent my movement from one space to another. I started my journey at my house with the red wire and walked to my grandparents which is nearby, every 3 steps I unraveled a piece of the wire, as I unraveled it I began to shape the wire creating a 3D form. It began to take a sphere like form as I shaped it (shape wasn't intentional). On the way back I repeated the process only this time using the black wire, I added to the red wire continuing to create this 3D form of my movement. The wire itself represents the journey, movement and the traces left behind on my walk. The way the wires tangle and intertwine to me represent crossing paths, and overlapping on areas taken during each journey.

Drawing Box Drawings

So here are some of the drawings produced by the drawing box. They don't look very clear here and I don't feel you can appreciate them fully by looking at these photos but I put them up anyway. Each line represents a movement within the box, each movement leaving a mark or trace, I took particular notice how lines crossed and overlap just like our movement we may be crossing paths or journeys we have previously taken or cross paths with other people throughout our lives.

Drawing Box

I designed another device/instrument to produce drawings which visually record movement within a space and the traces and marks the movement leaves in a space. The drawing instrument itself was easy to make. I got a sweet tin and sprayed it black to cover up the product design as it doesn't relate to the project, I am using the tin because of its cylindrical shape.

This is the sprayed black tin.

To make the piece that creates the drawing I took out the ink tubes from a green, black, red and blue biro. I taped the ink tubes to the inside of a roll of tape so that the tip of the pen meets the rim of the roll of tape (I used a roll of tape again because of its shape).

I then places this into the tin on top of a circular piece of paper that lines the base of the tin. I closed the box so the cylinder shape with the attached pens was enclosed inside. I then began to move the box so the pens moved around visually recording the movement I was making.

I will post some of the drawings shortly.

Roll of Movement

I bought a roll of white paper to create my next work on, this piece is explores people movement through space.

I used the pen and string technique which i had used previously but now on a larger scale.

I pinned the end of the roll to the top of my space in the studio and let it drop to the ground, the roll is filled with these movement drawings but the roll at the end has concealed some of the drawing.

Each part of the drawing represents movement through spaces and the marks and traces left behind caused by this movement, there are parts of the drawing that overlaps more than other places, the crowed/busy areas represent places we visit more often then others therefore leaving more marks and traces behind.

Leaving the roll at the end was done purposely because i feel that it represents the ongoing, how we will continue to move through spaces leaving behind traces and marks of our lives. 

Printing

So I found a small metal plate in a pile of scraps in college that was about to be thrown out so I took it thinking I could use it for something. I used my drawing apparatus again this time over the metal plate, the drawing looked great but the ink just rubbed off so easily. I decided to scratch the design into the surface (or etch which I later found out was the correct term for what I was doing.) I was told by my tutor that I should print it in the print room. Printing the small plate was a long process but it was worth it, I really enjoyed spending time in the print room and learning the steps involved to produce my etching print.

Here is the metal plate I etched into, etching each line individually made me take notice of every little mark and line even more, a drawing which had taken about two or three minutes to draw using the drawing apparatus took me nearly 2 hours to etch on this metal plate. 

This is how it turned out, I was very pleased with the outcome and the detail involved int his etching print however because at the beginning I didn't really know it was going to be an etch, the metal plate I found was quite uneven in size therefore if I was to do another etching I would use a proper shaped metal plate not one that is damaged and ready to be thrown out.

I enjoyed making the last video so I decided to attempt another video, this time I am going to try and capture the step by step process of creating a drawing with my drawing apparatus. After every few marks I photographed the page in which my drawing was being produced, I compiled all the pictures and made a video, I took a while to do so hopefully it was worth it and you enjoy watching!

Again the quality of this is disappointing, but still quite happy with the result! 

The video helped me notice and appreciate each mark and how it all came together to create a drawing