Monday 31 March 2008

Knit Design

Well, here I am again, I thought I would let you see that since I left college with my textile training behind me I have been trying all sorts of things. For a while I was busy being a mother to a young baby, (he is now nearly 14) During this time I did a lot of knitting and so it was a natural thing for me to try to design some things. I was recommended to a company who bought designs and I did try very hard to come up with things which would be very different, I sent off for some lovely yarns from the shetland Isles and the first of these images is knitted from these plus some hand dyed/spun kid mohair (blackberry). This one was meant to be for a Jacket and obviously the theme was Autumn, it was drawn out on Graph paper first; This wasn't accepted because although they liked the colour and design the materials they said were too heavy.

This one is knitted from a combination of ordinary yarn and some of my own plied experiments. I also added some felt on to this one. The design was meant to be for a short sleeved jumper for Christmas; Obviously when you make these designs you add as much as you can because it is just supposed to be a swatch. Some of the image/design would perhaps be put on the reverse.



Here are a couple of detailed
pictures.




I can't remember why this design was rejected but it was, so that was the end of
my efforts as a knit designer.

Sunday 30 March 2008

Hard Work this blogging!


Well, I have just spent most of the day trying to get to grips with customising my blog but right in the middle AOL decided to have one of their regular blips, lost the lot and had to start again Grrrrr!

Still not happy with the design or layout so if there is anyone out there who can help me then please get in touch, I hate using the set templates, they just don't do what I want them to.

I have just finished taking photos of a lot of work. Some is from way back, some is from a little while ago and some is very recent. Now all I have to do is figure out how to put them into this blog.

I think what I will do is this: I will write a blog next to show a little of where I have been in terms of my creative journey. I will try to remember what was going on at the time when I made the work. Perhaps then anyone reading this will be able to see some sort of progression, I hope!


So lets see to introduce this journey, not right from the beginning but some of the way along in terms of the pictures I have taken I will show a picture first of a piece of work that was a breakthrough for me at the time. I did not like working small although this piece is about 18 inches square. I had left college and was hoping to get involved at the time with a co-operative of artists which I did for a short while.


This was small in relation to the work I had completed for my degree show which was 7ft x 5ft and was a 3 dimensional sculpture. I will not show this piece as it is no longer in my possession, I left it on permanent loan at a school where I worked later on in my career.


Well, I had been looking at Mola work having studied the textiles of South America, I marvelled at the work these people could do and it occured to me that felt could work very well under material as it doesn't fray. So carrying on with the theme I had worked on in college I made a 2 dimensional piece named the "Tree of Life". As I said it was a turning point for me as it was to encourage me to make Art on a smaller less ambitious scale.


Well, that's it for today, my family have to eat. I will be adding more in a sort of chronology so pop back soon when you have time.