Tutor feedback to assignment two. Mixed Media for Textiles

Tutor report

 

Student name	Penelope day	Student number	515242
Course/Module	Textiles 1 Mixed media for textiles	Assignment number	2

 

Overall Comments

 

Penny you have such a positive upbeat approach to your studies it is really great to work with you. You listen calmly to my constructive criticism, think about what i am saying, understand and think positively about what needs to be done next.  You have a very mature and level headed approach to your studies.

 

I want to stay that i enjoyed looking through your work and appreciate how hard you have worked. You have a good level of skill in your handling of textiles. It looks like you have enjoyed this assignment.

 

Unfortunately you didn’t quite understand what is being asked of you in this assignment and over complicated your sample making. ( see below and as discussed)

 

Assignment feedback

 

So in our discussion today we talked mainly about how best to answer the assignment brief and what is being asked of you. These assignments are building different skills that all eventually combine in your textiles studies. Here you are asked to research and understand  artists/ designers who work with joining and wrapping. From looking at their work you can get ideas about how to approach your own joining and wrapping. The assignment is asking you to work with materials and through experimentation and repetition see how you can join and wrap in a variety of exciting and interesting ways. It is asking for a very honest approach to materials and processes. We are not trying to depict anything in particular. We are just feeling what the materials do in our hands and how they work together (or even how they don’t work together). Remember this assignment is as much about doing things that work as those that don’t . Analyse why things don’t work, maybe a yarn is too heavy so a finer one needs to be selected . Maybe there is not enough stick to tape two materials together so a thicker piece is needed or the tape needs to be overlapped. It is these simple trials and observations that we need to be working on. As you progress through the assignment your samples might become more sophisticated/ complicated but we are still fundamentally looking at the materials and processes.

 

Unfortunately your theme became too strong in this assignment and you tried to make samples based around the images. You were thinking less about the materials and process and more about what the final piece looked like. We have discussed this and you noted this yourself.

From the very start of this second assignment I came up with an idea to base all of my work around a theme ( plants and insects). I agree the brief had not suggested I should introduce a theme. I incorrectly thought that by doing so it would provide a useful framework to work within.

In response to another student’s question/comment (https://apennypiece.wordpress.com/about-2/). I have adviced another student to read and fully understand what’s being asked of us before commencing the work. If only I listened to my own advice.

Positively, in this assignment you have shown that if you are asked to work with a theme you are able to translate research into textile samples in an interesting and unique way. If you are working with a theme though do think about using fewer ideas/ images and going into more depth. So looking at just butterflies and moths and maybe what they eat/ land on would have been enough. Their bodies have a 3d form, they have a combination of curved and straight edges, also put against the leaves and twigs this would have given you more curves and edges. You really had too many ideas for this short assignment , taking each idea and creating a different sample. Instead think about taking one idea and doing iterations of it, take one idea and create 2-5 samples, repeating processes, refining, changing until you come up with the best solution.

I accept that I complicated my work with themes and I wrote far too much. I should have focussed on experimenting with materials and processes and reporting clearly on what worked and what didn’t – and explained why.

I now realise that even when I am asked to work to a theme in the future I will focus on fewer ideas, and simplify my explanations.

You presented your work beautifully and it was easy for me to look through all your samples.

 

The pages in your sketchbook were full of ideas including some skilled sample making. You have played around more with placement and scale in these samples. Your drawings of your samples especially the wrappings were very sensitive.

 

The wrapping part of the assignment worked better than the joining . I think you were more abstract here and did not trying so hard to depict what you had in a photograph. The 3d samples you sent were very beautiful to look at and handle.

I agree that the wrapping sampling worked better because, as Jenny says, they are more abstract in form. To retain focus on technique, I have now removed references to themes from my blog.

I can see you have worked with a sketchbook in a looser way. Did this help you ?

I found that by working with an ideas / mind mapping / sketchbook dedicated to the assignment helped with formulating ideas. I have had a sketchbook in the past but this workbook idea was very useful.

 

Pointers for the next assignment

 

You are still working with great enthusiasm Penny and producing some exciting skilled work. Keep going !!

 

What contemporary artists/ designers are you interested in? It would be good to start to look at this as it will help you to develop your own personal voice in regards to who you are as an artist/ designer.

I will make a big effort to hunt out more contemporary artists that are relevant to the coursework.

Make sure you are really answering the assignment brief.

I will go back to reading the brief carefully before commencing any practical work and hopefully keep in track.

 

You are going to look at how you can select out the best of the joining samples and add some new simple ones.

I have edited LOADS from the blog, editing anything with a reference of a theme. There may be one or two hints in the text of a theme because I felt they were pertinent to the sampling that was still workable and valid. I have created ten new samples and reworked three or four existing ones.
This was a valuable lesson learnt… not one I want to necessarily repeat in my future work.

Tutor name	Jenny Udale
Date	18th sept 2018
Next assignment due	10th dec  2018