Taking on board the tutor’s comments from Assignment Two, with the sketchbook work for this assignment, I considered in particular:

  • Scale and how the work could be worked in different sizes for different effects
  • Potential for development of the sketches
  • Ideas for building on earlier assignments
  • Critical analysis of the success or otherwise of the pieces and how they might be adapted/re-worked to exploit the best aspects

I started the assignment with a mind map to pull out some ideas of processes and materials I might try. I added to these as new ideas came to mind:

Moulding from a surface

I was particularly inspired by the soft form relief paste moulding from the vase. The moulding from the vase base created good strong shapes that would be well-suited to translation into stitch, felting, folding, quilting/applique or alternative moulding media.It shares some of the exciting properties of the folding exercises from assignment one with the appearance of the underside of an umbrella, fungus/mushroom

There is good scope for scaling up this motif, using it alone or as the basis for a repeating pattern, perhaps in print onto fabric. It also has good properties for interpretation in mono-print or collatype and may be something I take forward in the next assignment.

Drawing media (pen, inktense pencil, watercolour, pencil, inktense block).

A few ideas stemming from these sketches:

Moulding paste also featured in what I felt was one of my more successful samples, specifically the spiral stamp into relief paste on hand-dyed muslin.

Drawing media – Inktense pencil

I worked up designs based on repeating the motif, re-arranging into geometric and random patterns, building motifs within a larger motif. I also used the camera as a frame to isolate areas of the image for future work. These could be used with photo-manipulation to produce a print fabric, for stitching into, cording/couching, felting (needle or wet-felting), quilting/applique. They could also be adapted into a knitting stitch motif for knit designs.

I experimented with a number of different media:

The glue gun is interesting and may have scope for use in printing. However, it is hard to control and colour is limited to clear. Definition, if smooth lines are required, is poor.

The pizza base was quite fun but I suspect some paint and print media would dissolve the polystyrene! It is also rather soft and may not hold the imprint. It does illustrate the scope for an effective, much larger scale piece.

A third sample from the moulding paste was very striking but initially not as obvious to translate into a future project. However, having sketched the sample and considered it in light of the drawings, I could see potential for developing the sample into series of knit stitches.

I’m working on a selection of ideas for using these two samples:

These were some knit samples I worked up to play with the spiral and honeycomb ideas:

Of the other pieces, the pva moulding round a bowl has definite future potential. These were a couple of ideas that I would like to explore further, experimenting more with materials, size and possibly trying alternatives to the pva:

The casting samples were less enjoyable and less satisfactory. These were some of the ideas I considered, some of which I wasn’t able to test but may come back to: