My A2 Level Textiles and Fashion

1940s+ 50's – WW2 – Project Evaluation

In this unit I explored my family history in the 40's and 50's to design my narrative skirt. I experimented with cyanotypes, inkodyes, citrasolv, and digital sublimation to bring these old family portraits to life onto material. My narrative skirt was about my dad’s family history (my dad’s grandparents) and what their job titles were in the war. I used inkodye and digital sublimation on different materials to appliqué these images onto an army green polycotton. I thought this combination worked well with the theme as the army green resembles the war uniform and the brown colour of the images gives them a vintage effect. On the front of the skirt I had the family images and on the back of the skirt directly behind each image was the story of that particular image. Louise Richardson really inspired me for this project with her narrative dress as the photos are presented in a very unique way. Then I looked at 1940's food packaging, looking at the typography and the colours. I experimented with quilting and applique with the different food packets to show the colours that were used. My apron was inspired by 1940s coca cola packaging as I thought it is a timeless classic packet that is still around today so I could connect with it. I explored different drink bottles but I thought the vibrancy of the coca cola would work best. I used screen printing to print this design onto my apron. I used the classic coca cola red for the base cotton material and onto printed my design. I thought it was interesting that the 1940's coca cola colours were so different to what it is now but the text is exactly the same! I printed this horizontally all over my apron in lines so that it would give a strong effect of my print. I really enjoyed this project and the result. I explored soft sculpture artists such as Holly Levell, Lucy Sparrow, and Megan Whitmarsh who create packaging inspired sculptures out of felt. For my final piece for this project I had to create three soft sculptures, one cultural, one contemporary, and one vintage. Each 1:1, 1:2, and 1:4. For my cultural I chose Reeces pieces which I was going to scale at 1:2. I chose this because for my sculptures I wanted to keep the theme as sweets throughout, and Reeces is a famous American brand. I really liked the vibrant colours and the text so I thought this would be interesting to make. My next sculpture which was contemporary, I made this at 1:4, which was a big sculpture as it was 42 inches length and 18 inches wide. I made my giant pillow to be a rainbow drops packet. Rainbow drops are a very common sweet for the UK and I have personally grown up having this sweet! I thought the colours would be very enjoyable to create and a very fun and creative idea. My last sculpture was my vintage 1:1 sweet packet. I made a vintage Rolo packet as I wanted a vintage product that I could relate with to make it more enjoyable but till had a vintage look. So I explored vintage sweets that I have heard of and I found that the vintage Rolo packet looked thee best. For the final piece I made a felted corset which I wanted to incorporate with my giant rainbow drops pillow. As my pillow was exactly the same as the pocket itself I thought I would see what I could do to make the corset like the packet but now exactly the same, by adding the rainbow around the sides of the corset and then add the text onto the front panel. I think this worked really well as it was just enough to make the two match without being identical. Though this unit I also experimented with weaving and also knitting, finding colours and patterns that worked well together, this made me explore more with how the two play a massive role together in creating the fabric. For my final piece for this unit I wanted it to tie into the original WW2 theme. As my theme was “The History of Domesticity in the 1940's and 50's” I wanted to show women’s role that they played throughout this time through a piece of clothing. I wanted to make a coat which wasn’t too famine to show women’s strength that they had play taking on the men’s roles in the workplace and the struggle they had throughout this time to stand up and do what they wanted in their careers as women. My inspiration for this piece was the propaganda poster “We Can Do It.” I think this is a good image that shows what women had to do in the war and stick together to do what the men couldn't and I used screen printing to print my designs. I really enjoyed learning new techniques in this unit such as weaving, knitting, screen printing, Inkodyes,Cyanotpes, and Citrasolv, as it has opened my mind up to more ways of creating my work in the future.

“Indian Influences” Project evaluation

I chose Indian Influences as my theme for my exam unit as I was really interested in exploring the colours and pattern of Indian culture. India uses bold and detailed pattern in everything they do and I really wanted to explore this deeper. I looked at Indian designers such as Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Ritu Kumar, Manish Arora and also designers who aren't of Indian Heritage but are inspired by the culture and also the colours of the Kolkata Markets such as Karl Lagerfeld, Dries Van Noten, and Kerry Cassil.

I first looked at the Indian art of woodblock printing and the detailed design and skill that goes into making them. I looked at the famous mandala designs and what they mean in the Indian culture. I then lazercut two mandala designs onto woodblocks to see how they would turn out. I first thought to dye the background fabric of my samples to give more a traditional Indian colour as the background to my prints. This worked very well and I was very happy with the result of these samples. I also then designed my own Indian inspired designs to be cut onto the woodblock which also was successful. I looked at some more designers, Tarum Tahilani and Naaem Khan, who both work with beautiful colour and embroidery long dresses and skirts. I explored sublimation where I drew a lot of traditional Indian pieces such as elephants or the Hamsa hand and I also was looking at the patterns that were in all of these pieces. One of my main focuses throughout this unit was colour and using tie dye. Tie Dye and shibori is often used in Indian culture and so I experimented with different ways of creating the shibori and tie dye effect using colours and using objects that wouldn't expose the colour in the dying process. I really enjoyed this process and I knew I wanted to incorporate this into my final piece as I loved the end results of my samples.

All the Indian artists I looked at throughout this unit all used beautiful embroidery and are highly embellished through their pieces to show India. I wanted to look at Indian embroidery as I know this was a vital addition to Indian designs. I used shisha stitches, appliqué, sequins and beading in my samples. I also incorporated flowers either in the background material or the appliqué as a lot of Indian embroidery includes flowers which adds to the beauty of their work. Manish Arora shows some digitally prints in his Indian cultured work which inspired me to experiment with digital sublimation. I chose some really vibrant and traditional Indian images to work with. I sublimated them onto different weight materials to see whether that would also change the outcome. The lightweight material worked the best as I found the image was clearer and you couldn't see the fabric underneath the image. Digital sublimation worked very well and was a possible technique to use for my final piece. I then looked through my samples and thought my first woodblock samples were the most successful and I decided to work with this idea for my piece.

I re-looked at the designers I had research and knew I was inspired by the “Bollywood” inspired skirts. I loved the prints, the colours, and also the embellishments that were on the skirts and I wanted to recreate this look. For my final piece I have created a floor – length skirt that I cold water dyed using Procyon dyes. My colour pallet was very traditional using two different greens, orange, red and yellows covering the skirt to give a very bold tie dye effect. In the Bollywood skirts the prints are not covering the skirts they are either on the hemline of the skirt of half, or in lines through the skirt. I then used my first original woodblock to print the pattern in lines throughout the skirt, this way the skirt is not too busy, and both the dye and the print can be appreciated. I then embellished some of the prints and around the skirt to give some traditional Indian embroidery. I really enjoyed exploring the culture of India and I think my final piece successfully gives a true likeness of traditional Indian culture.

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