Final Images

Evaluation

For my final piece I designed and created a three panels which incorporated elements of my own personal family letters within it; I wanted to create panels that displayed important pieces of the letters. Some of the ideas are hidden and hard to notice unless you look closely at the piece; I like this idea, as one has to study my work to find the imagery and understand the piece. I experimented with a variety of colour schemes and chose to work with a different scheme on each panel to evoke a different sense of emotion. I used a variety a materials and techniques to make my final piece; I used acrylic transfer, stitch, sellotape transfers, bondaweb and collage. Incorporating quotes from the letters made the piece more personal. I think that using mixed media elements enhanced the quality of my work as a whole.

The outcome of my final piece was not as I expected, it was very difficult to stick to the exact ideas I had and colour schemes that I had planned, as it was hard to find materials that matched my plan. The outcomes are slightly messier than I anticipated, however I believe it still works as a selection of final outcomes. Even though my final piece is not what I had expected it to look like, I still like the final outcome due to the techniques I used and the way I attached the final piece together.

I believe that the most successful part of my project was my artists research. This is where I began to experiment with techniques that were used by the artists and I started to review and refine my own distinctive style. I began to use mixed media techniques that could be used in my final piece.  I experiment with a lot of ideas so that my final piece would be successful. I think that I was unsuccessful in the time it took for me to come up with a final outcome, I used a wide variety of artists, but lots of them repeated the same techniques I'd already used, I could've found a variety of new techniques that may of strengthened my outcomes.

If I had more time to improve my project, I would have done more research into stitch artists rather than mixed media artists, so that the stitch on my final piece was more thought out. I would also have experimented further techniques by making a smaller mock up of my final piece, I did not do this as it would have been very time consuming.

There were many small ideas and techniques that I used from all the artists that I researched which I used in my final piece, for example I took the idea of embroidery from Hens Teeth and Dottie Angel and the idea of deconstructing letters from Ines Seidel. Therefore many of the artists I researched played a role in the inspiration for my final piece.

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Final word count: 2,304

Making of my Final Piece

I first cut out the strips of calico to the size that I wanted each panel to be. I then used bondaweb to attach all of the individual patchwork fabrics to the corresponding panels, I did this so that it'd all be secure before I started adding to each piece. I began creating my wedding inspired piece by using stitch on lace to create the delicate cursive text. I then added some rust samples, and tea stained pieces of fabric that I'd made using techniques I'd used earlier in the project. The main element on this piece was the wedding arch, which I created using an acrylic transfer, then making the small lace flowers by taking strips of fabric, using a running stitch through all the pieces, then tying the ends of thread together, I really like the delicacy of the flowers.

I then started the ship inspired panel, to do this I began by using ink to ombre the fabric. I then used stitch to write out the important text. I further used another acrylic transfer, and stitched fabric on top to create a more textured effect. For the bottom of the panel I wanted it to be shredded, to do this, I cut the bottom and frayed it with scissors, then applied a thinner material behind the shreds before applying a heat gun to make it twist and burn to give the effect that I wanted.

To make the final elephant panel, I used a sellotape transfer to make the elephant, then stitched it onto the work. I stitched cursive into the piece to create the theme's inspiration. Then I intertwined some hand stitched words with thread in a similar way to a technique I'd used prior in my sketchbook. I also used hand embroidery to create flowers.

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Developing Ideas for Final Piece

As I want my final piece to be closely linked to my own letters, the emerging ideas that I had were to create panels, each inspired by different elements of the letters. I thought they'd be best in a mixed media approach, as I think that was a strong element of my sketch book and a technique I'm good at and could create really well on a larger scale.

I started my development by sketching some initial ideas for my panels, I decided that there would be three each linking to one of the three parts of the letter. My first would be linked to a quote in the letter that read "hello my juliet darling", which I've developed to look around the theme of a wedding and marriage which was highlighted in the first letter. The second being linked to a quote reading "these stupid ships, you never know what you're up to next", which I've translated to a theme of ships and sailing. The third and final panel was linked to a quote that read "hello my baby olifant", olifant being dutch for elephant, so I've linked that panel with an elephant theme.

I then experimented with colour palettes and how I was going to translate some of the smaller details on each piece, I trialled using stitch for the elephant, and created mini flowers using a technique involving running stitches. This was to make sure I was prepared for illustrating ideas in my final piece.

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Illustrated Envelopes

Looking at the work of Mou Saha, Hens Teeth and Dottie Angel, I wanted to create a mini outcome that evoked their styles. As I was looking at the idea of letters and deconstruction, I decided to create 5 mini envelopes, surrounding the ideas of post and sending letters. I started by looking at and experimenting with envelope creation, and tested out templates, scale and material use throughout.

I then started sketching what my initial ideas were for the pieces, before creating them. To create the envelopes I started with my selected templates, then cut them out of card. I then used inks and watercolours to create the base colours on each envelope. To each envelope I used a variety of different techniques, I used stitch, collage, embroidery and watercolour to create the unique outcomes. Each are inspired by a different form of sending mail; air mail, first class, snail mail, night mail and express mail. I really like the outcomes, and think they're all individual and the mixed media approach is what makes them visually strong.

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Reviewing & Refining Ideas

Thinking about my project and in regards to how I want to relate my final piece to my own visual story I decided to experiment with the idea of deconstructing and reconstructing letters. To do this I focused on three artist techniques that I enjoyed.

Ines Seidel (http://ines-seidel.de/en/) is a mixed media artist, who I was drawn to her work for her deconstruction using smaller letters. I heavily used stitch and prepared materials, as well as collage to create some samples that I think are strong and interesting visually to explore. I created a piece inspired by my visual story, which involved intertwining threads and cutting out individual letters to create a sentence taken from one of my letters. I really love the delicacy of this outcome, and the techniques used to create it.

Annie Vought (http://annievought.com) is a paper cut artist, I really liked her unique individually cut words from others handwriting, I thought it was dainty and striking. I created some paper cuts in response and really like the element of it being so personal and unique to your own writing, I used text from my own letters to create these delicate outcomes.

Ania Warzkowicz (http://www.aniawawrzkowicz.com) is an artist who focuses on working on deconstructing work through blocking out certain areas of the piece. I created samples using paper cuts and stitch and love the uniqueness and individuality of each piece of work. I really liked this technique and hope to further use it in the project.

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Looking at Typography

Within my project I thought it was important to focus on typography artists, as the basis of my work is beginning to revolve around my personal visual story involving letters and text. I focused on two artists that included text in their work.

Rosalind Wyatt (http://www.rosalindwyatt.com) is a stitch based text artist. I was drawn to the delicacy of her work, and wanted to try replicating some of her pieces. I created samples influenced by both her work, and my own visual story. I really loved the ability to create the cursive style out of the delicate threads. I think this work is very successful, and although time consuming, creates beautiful outcomes.

Mou Saha (http://collagecollagecollage.blogspot.co.uk) is a mixed media artist, who I was inspired by as she used very different mediums to create the text in her work. A main material I wanted to try was the masking fluid, to reveal text under an otherwise busy piece of work, I really like this effect and how it worked and its a technique I'd like to use further in the project. I also created some mixed media pieces using stitch as text and I think that was equally as successful.

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My Visual Story

As this project brief was Visual Stories, I looked into finding one that was personal and could inform how I work in my project. My visual story is based on letters my grandparents sent to each other when he was away working on a ship. I've highlighted some of my favourite sections, and created some small samples using quotes from the letters. I think it's an important part of my project as it will influence and inspire where my outcomes lead to.

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