Summer Project Evaluation

I challenged myself to experiment with brighter, bolder colours, because I have a tendency to only use a neutral colour palette. I initiated this by photographing the flowers in my garden, as they had flamboyant colours. I found their textures and patterns interesting, which inspired me to focus on incorporating stitch. I struggle to identify multiple colours, so I extracted colours using the eye-dropper tool, and also pixelated my floral images in Adobe Photoshop. I found this helpful to inform painting my colour proportions and achieving accurate colour in comparison to my previous work.

I attended the MMU Degree Show where I discovered Emily Murphy, whose work related to mine in terms of floral aesthetics. My extracted colour palette related to Jennifer Duckett’s and I was fond of her composition. I found Alexandra Jordan’s marbling technique and multi-head embroidery interesting and something I could potentially explore.

I recognised that I had an array of flowers, which flowed into one another colour-wise. Certain drawings were influenced by Megan Jean Mole, as I focused on mark-making. I produced a large amount of drawings, achieving different results; I found that the acrylic paint enabled me to create rich texture and mark making, whilst the inks created interesting results as they bled, and the pencils gave control, so that I could accurately capture pattern.

My drawings

I had originally planned to create passementerie structured weaves incorporating embroidery techniques, hence my translation of colour and yarn, however, I agreed with my tutors that embroidery was the most appropriate area to specialise in, as I found weaving too restrictive. This will be challenging because I specialised in weave during level 5 and will need to be inducted on the embroidery machines, however, in embroidery I will be able to achieve small-scale, delicate and detailed outcomes that would have been difficult in weave.

I found further inspiration for my project whilst attending my Uncle’s funeral, when I realised flowers could have symbolic meanings and represent different occasions in life. I had originally planned to produce a table-runner for special event décor, but since my switch to embroidery, I can focus on intricate jewellery pieces. I found Heidi Leeming’s drawings unusual and inspiring to illustrate the placement of my potential wearables. Alexandra Jordan’s physical wearable application was also helpful.