project reflection

The first thing I think through Folk Project is that even though this project wasn't very long, I feel I took a very long and winding way until I produce the final pieces. From my geometrical and abstruct designs no one would see that I started with figure sketching . Indeed, this was a suprise for myself too to have got the result which looks quite Mexcan folk art which I was initially inspired by. In that sense, my long journey was successful and I am happy with it, and the design process blog is helpful to reflect it.
Taking notes and thoughts on my own work on weekly bases is a simple thing but great to do in terms of time management, and that made me not to repeat the same mistake. Also recording photos is helpful as visual information of what I have done each week.
Over all, design process project gave me an opportunity to analyse my own work and to look at process not only outcomes. This was similar experience to keeping journal but less personal, and it gave me a critical viewpoint.

here's my final design for a rug :)

cushions...

stripes

This week, I've been working on much simpler design than before. When the design was on a laptop screen, it looked quite boring, and I was worried about it. However, the simple design worked well on fabric, and I actually enjoyed translating the lines to embroidery and discovering cozy—at least for me— texture. An interesting thing is that my designs often go wrong and look awful when I'm making samples, and I hate this, but they look okay by the time it's all done. Contrastingly, the outcome sometimes turns very bad although it looked fine until finishing. The fact made me realised the importance of planing and technical sampling, and consideration to material. 

Interms of visualisation, I've been anxious about it as my visualisation for the last project wasn't attractive at all. I often procrastinate this stage, and tend to do it in last minutes, but visualisation is actually the thing audience usually look first, and it gives them the impression of the whole collection. If I make bad visualisation again, it means that I would waste all efforts on my samples. Yes, let's do it as soon as possible and as nice as possible. 

nearly there

After having fun with sample making for last two weeks, I am stuck again.

Rug design which is necessary for this project has't been clear in my mind and I tried not to see the fact but this is the time to face it. I decided to go back to drawing so that I can develop simple and manufacturable designs, and I think this was the right choice. Drawing from completed design is challenging but it doesn't have a risk of taking me far away from the other designs, so it's actually not a bad idea to do it at this point.

Another problem is the complexity of my design. Although it is important to look at details, simple repeats and big scales need to be considered especially for interior products. Now I've got four completed final samples which are pretty much complex, so I want another half of the collection simpler than those.

the third sample—in progress 

Quality of fabric is significant for simple design because if you use fabric which looks cheap, it affects very much. Luckily I got a big square of beautiful lime green velvet for £1 from Mandors, so I am using this a lot.

So much to do in two weeks before the deadline, but I want to enjoy the madness.

sample making

This week has been the busiest so far, but is not very bad. I think I never get tired by embroidering.

After finishing the first one, I started making the second, third and forth ones at the same time. My second sample was supposed to be a huge one as I was thinking of stitching repeated patterns which are 30 centimetres big each. I didn't think it's unrealisable but it was obviously time consuming work, so I decided to stop working on it, and to concentrate on the other two. Here are my samples.

all hand embroidered, almost finished

hand cross stitch and machine fringe stitch

On Tuesday, I had my tutorial with Susan. She told me to use more different type/colour of background fabric, because I had been using black cotton only. This made me to think about material over, and my sample production slowed down again but that was worth it.

In terms of stitches, the technical file from the last year is really helpful, so that I choose the most relevant technique for my designs. 

Hopefully next week is going to be more productive one.