Final Outcome Images

Evaluation

My final outcome is a long, floor length, wrap around body accessory/garment. It starts at the shoulder and twists around the chest, waist and hips before trailing onto the floor. The whole piece is covered in lots of flower shapes of varying sizes, and it has a simple white on white colour palette. I was originally going to add colour to the garment once I  had finished constructing it, however, once I had actually completed all of the flowers and stitch work, I decided against the idea as I felt that the white on white colour palette had lots of impact on its own. I felt that if I did add colour, in the form of ink splatters like I had originally planned to, the garment would lose some of its impact.  

The base of the garment is made from clear PVC, and the flowers that are stitched in place all over it are made from white net and clear PVC. I stitched into the little flowers using white thread, and kept my stitch lighter on the PVC flowers than on the net ones to add some contrast. I chose to use white net, as I like the way you can build up heavy layers with it. I wanted my final piece to have masses of the flowers, with really bulky, built up areas, and this could be most successfully achieved with net due to its coarse, sturdy structure. I used PVC for some of the flowers for some contrast in texture, and I like how the shiny material catches the light, and I thought this would work well with the matte quality of the net. For the base of the garment, I chose PVC simply because it wouldn't be seen in the end product. My use of materials could be improved by using a wider range of fabrics for my flowers. For example, I could have created some flowers out of white organza and maybe even vanishing muslin. At the start, I did think about adding some vanishing muslin flowers, however with the amount of water soluble material would need to fill such a large space, it would have ended up making this a hugely expensive project.

Personally, I feel that my final outcome has been a huge success and I am really happy with how it turned out. I am especially pleased with how the heavier, built up areas look, and I feel that this is what makes my outcome look so significant. I also feel that the long, floor length quality to my outcome makes it more impressive than it would be if it simply finished at the waist, and this is one of the things I like most about it. The white on white look is also something that pleases me about my outcome, as I feel that I achieved a high impact effect while using such a simple colour palette, and that makes me proud.

I feel that the most successful part of my project was how I managed to tie in research from way back at the start of my project, into my final outcome. I feel that this knits the whole project together, and helps it to flow smoothly from start to finish when looking back at my work. An example of this is my inspiration from Yellena James, an artist I looked at near the start of my project, who massively impacted my eventual final outcome and helped me to settle on a floral theme.

The least successful part of my project would be my indecisiveness. Finally settling on an idea for my outcome was not easy for me, and I changed my mind at multiple points in the project about where I wanted to take it. For example, there were times that I wanted to have a scientific context to my outcome, in the form of Petri-dishes. There were other times that I wanted to go down a more traditional route and create canvases for my outcome. It was a while until I finally settled on a fashion based outcome, but I feel that my outcome was all the more successful as a result of this indecision, because once I'd settled on it, I knew for sure that it was what I wanted to do.

If I were to start the project again, I would probably be more open to following through with all of my ideas. Since I am also a Textiles student, I found myself at some points in the project shying away from stitch based work as I felt that I wanted a clear distinction between the two subjects. However, as the project went on I realised that my strengths lie with stitch based work, and that's when I opened up to the idea of a fashion outcome. If I were to have accepted this from the start, I may not have been so indecisive.

During the course of the project, I looked at many artists including; Ernst Haeckel, Anna Sebestova, Melissa Bolger, Chad Wasser, Laura Bell, Yellena James, Mary Button Durell, Karen Margolis, Crystal Wagner, Judith Hammond, Alan Bur Johnson, Amanda Brown, Klari Reis, Leisa Rich, Amanda McCavour and Helen Whitworth. The most influential of these artists were Anna Sebestova, Yellena James, and Helen Whitworth. Anna Sebestova and Yellena James inspired my floral shapes, which hold elements from both artists work, particularly Yellena's. These were the artists that helped me to decide on a floral based concept for my outcome. Helen Whitworth was the artist who finally helped me to settle on a fashion based outcome, with her floral, textiles jewellery. Without the work of these artists to inspire me, I feel that deciding on a theme for my outcome would have been even more difficult for me.

Word Count: 961

Designing And Creating My Final Outcome

I had a lot of indecision whilst thinking of ideas for my final outcome. I changed my mind a lot, and had planned to make many different outcomes before I finally chose one that I was happy with. My initial idea was to extend my petri dish idea, and create lots of petri dish outcomes using different techniques. I would have made some with the PVA glue method I have explored in the past, some similar to those I made that were inspired by Chad Wasser, with PVC and hanging threads, and some stitch based petri dishes with heavy embroidery. However, this idea soon was replaced with a more textiles based outcome idea, which came to me when studying Leisa Rich. I combined the ideas from both Liesa Rich and an artist I looked at early on in the project, Yellena James. I created a canvas, the inky, bright background of which was inspired by the surface built work of Leisa Rich. Onto the canvas, I stitched a selection of flowers influenced by Yellena James, some made from net, others from PVC, and even Vanishing Muslin.

After creating this piece, I thought that I would create many more of them as my outcome. This was a turning point in the project, because I knew I wanted to stick with the machine embroidered flowers idea, however, I did not use them in the canvas context that I had originally planned. After discovering the work of Helen Whitworth, I decided that I wanted to create a wrap-around garment, not unlike Helen’s work. I would use my flower idea, and create a long, floor length body piece created completely out of the flowers I have stitched. Even whilst making my outcome, my ideas changed again. Rather than using ink to colour my outcome at the end, like I originally planned, I finally settled on leaving the flowers white. I felt that the pure, white on white appearance had a lot of impact on its own, impact that I thought might be lost if I did add colour.

I feel that although my indecisiveness caused me some stress nearing the end of the project, I think that it was worth it as my final outcome is one that I am hugely proud of, and I don’t think I would have been so happy with it if I had chosen to follow through with some of my other ideas.

Word Count: 404

Refining My Ideas

I decided that I would like to explore a more textiles-based route, and looked into creating a garment inspired by the decayed appearance of some of the artist’s work that I looked into. For example, I looked into artists such as Karen Margolis (http://karenmargolisart.com/), who’s burnt, layered work inspired me greatly, as I discovered that burning into fabric such as organza can have a brilliant effect in adding a ‘broken-down’ appearance to my work.

The most influential artist that I looked at, however, was Judith Hammond (https://judithhammond14.wordpress.com/). Judith uses plastic bags as her fabric, melting and stitching into the plastic to create some beautiful garments. I used this concept in my own work, and began to iron pieces of plastic carrier bags together between two sheets of grease-proof paper. Once layered up enough, this created a sturdy material that could be stitched into. I used mostly Sainsbury’s carrier bags, and their orange colour gave my work a coral-like effect. 

My experimentation with plastic carrier bags eventually led me to create a bralette. I used clear PVC for my base, and melted Sainsbury’s bags to create the cups, and to add decoration to the rest of the piece. I stitched into the bags in small areas, which I then cut out and hand stitched in place on the bralette, using beads to decorate them. I also added a combination of gold and silver foil to add some shine to the work. To make the edges of the garment more interesting, I used a burning tool to melt away at the PVC, inspired by the way Karen Margolis has burned areas in her own work. I also burned away some of the areas of the plastic bag parts, adding to the decayed look. I feel like the garment looks like something from under the sea, as it reminds me greatly of coral.

Word Count: 310