Diploma Module 2 Costing Materials, Recording Time, Health and Safety, Storage of Work and Authentication or Work

Costing Materials

Art /printing materials                                        £
Golden retarder                                                   11.99
Acrylic paint*                                                     10.00
Golden fluid acrylic paints                                 20.00
Pentel brush pen                                                    7.45
Koh-i-Noor palette                                                4.50                 
PVA and Pritt                                                         6.00
Graphite aquarelles                                                8.86
Paraffin wax pellets                                               7.00

Paper and sketchbooks
Sketchbook - square                                               5.00
Layout paper                                                           3.00
Tracing Paper                                                          4.05
A3 sketchbooks                                                       6.50
Abaca tissue                                                             5.70
Lens tissue                                                                5.70
Tea bag paper                                                           1.00
Deli paper                                                                 5.00


Material and threads
Calico                                                                       10.00
Raffia                                                                          5.00
Linen thread                                                                4.00
Quilting thread                                                            4.30
Gold check purl and Jap gold                                    10.00
Twilleys goldfingering                                                 3.25
Madeira holographic                                                    2.65
DMC fils d'or                                                                4.00
Other*                                                                         25.00

Total  £179.95

*estimate

Recording Time

Based on elapsed time of two weeks to complete a chapter, working for 2x8 hour days per week.
14 chapters approximately 448 hours.

Health and Safety

Any particular health and safety details have been noted as I performed the tasks during the module.

Additionally,

• keep wires from electrical items away from main thoroughfares
• take a break and move around at least once an hour
• keep 'sharps', e.g. scissors, awls, bradawls, etc stored in a cork 
• wear rubber gloves when using bleach and keep room well ventilated
• dispose of sharps considerately
• don't inhale metallic powder or other powders. Wear a mask if prone to irritation.
• take care when heating metal. Check that it has no plastic coating if recycling items, e.g. tomato paste tubes. Hold the metal with pliers, heat it outside for ventilation and have a metal tray handy on which to place it (see Chapter 7).
• always store art materials clearly marked and away from the kitchen/children/pets.
• using wax and wax pot - keep pot on work surface with flex out of way so don't pull pot over.  Cover floor before you start, but should any wax get on floor clean off with scraper (credit card) and abrasive cleaner so don't slip.   Cover ironing board with newspaper/kitchen roll and silicon paper - then another layer of silicon paper on top before ironing.

Storage of Work, Materials, Tools and Equipment

Design Work in Progress - kept flat in marked, homemade wall paper lining folder and easily accessible

Completed embroidery - boxed, wrapped in acid free tissue or framed

Completed design work - kept flat, in folders, in cardboard boxes

Papers for design work -  kept flat and covered to keep clean

Inks - lids secure in rainbow storage tower, attic

Paints for design work - lids secure in plastic crates

Other items like glue, bleach, sprays - lids secure, labelled clearly, away from children and pets

Embroidery work in progress - covered, usually in pillow case, easily accessible

Fabrics - in under-the-bed crates in attic, fabrics in use in reusable supermarket bags

Threads - stranded - wound onto bobbins, by colour, in plastic containers

              - sewing machine - in plastic shoe boxes, by colour

              - interesting textured - in plastic shoe boxes, by colour

              - machine embroidery - on covered stand

Beads - small plastic containers in shoe box

Metal threads - acid free tissue in plastic toolbox

Dyes - lids secure, plastic container

Sewing machines, embellisher - upright, covered, normal room temperature

Special materials, e.g. abaca tissue, lutradur - rainbow storage tower, attic

Printing materials - under-the-bed crate, attic (when not in use)

Lino cutting tools - rainbow storage tower, attic

Other electrical equipment - rainbow storage tower, flex lightly wound, stored when cold.
Wire - drawer - masking tape over any sharp ends and kept together with masking tape or cable ties
Wax pot and wax - original box with brush, then in crate with other associated materials
Flour for starch paste - don't store in attic as attracts vermin
Gold thread - wound round velvet tube and wrapped in acid free paper (to stop corrosion)
Raffia and paper thread - on cone if possible with heavy weight tied to end to stop unravelling
Print blocks - made or bought - dry well after use and keep flat in box with design work
Looping samples - plastic takeaway box
Foils - flat in rainbow storage, attic
Cutting boards - upright and flat so don't warp.

Authentication of work

See email.

Diploma Module 2 - Evaluation of Completed Work

Choice of research theme

Choosing the Expressive Figures - Option A as my research theme gave, and continues to give me, such a rich variety of work to explore.  This in turn has helped me to be selective in the work I look at in detail, not only in textiles but other artistic forms, e.g. sculpture, both metal and paper, photography, drawing, literature and music.  It also led me to look at the magnificent work of Alice Kettle (more below).

Use of sketchbook to glean visual information

As I said at the end of the last module, if people work in different ways, some plan and then produce; some produce then adapt; some plan, produce and adapt, then I am probably in with the first, plan and produce (and only then adapt if the original plan isn't quite what was anticipated).   I'd rather work on paper, making mock-ups if required, and then consider how the piece will develop, than jump straight in.  The use of the sketchbook for me is an essential tool, giving me ideas on which to base future work and also a focus for continued exploration.  The sketchbooks used in Module 2, from small to large, and ideas suggested are already providing directions for future work.  They have helped me collect and explore ideas.  For this module my particular favourite has been the less formal ringbound 20x20cm Seawhite sketchbook.  Thanks to Gwen Hedley (Summer School 2017) pages can be easily removed and inserted. This is where I have collected ideas for the Figures Option and inspiration jumps off many a page.

Your designs

Again, the only way I can address this is by considering which designs make me excited and want to go on to do more.  In no definite order:

• the medieval birds - MM8
• prints from the stitched 'blocks' from Decorative Details from a Shisha Textile MM 123-144 - such treasures here!
• figures - MM264, 267, 290, 294 (and other similar prints).

Proposed design ideas

It was interesting to see how the idea for the resolved sample evolved and it would be interesting to take some of the other prints from the figures print run and see how they evolved into stitch.

Artists study

The two artists I studied were specifically chosen due to the type of work they produce.  I have been fortunate enough to attend two workshops with Su Blackwell at Charleston, one on making 3D paper thistles and the other on lightboxes.

While studying each artist, two gems stood out for me which relate to the direction my work is taking:

• Alice Kettle's new work - machine embroidery on printed canvas, where some ground is left visible rather than covering the whole ground.  This is an approach she developed after experimenting with the multi-needle Schiffli embroidery machine.                                                                             '(I realise) I do not have to cover the fabric with stitch: I can let each mark breathe.  For the first time in 21 years I have liberated the fabric'.
• Su Blackwell - a quote about her from Justin Croft (antiquarian bookseller)                       'Each letter is like a stitch; it's as if she's weaving with words.'

Diploma Module 2 Chapter 14 - Developing Design Ideas

Proposal for First Assessment Item

Criteria

Specified

• made mainly of metallic materials

Personal

• using design ideas developed in Module 1 design exercises from my research topic 'gulls with an emphasis on shadows'
• consolidating many of ideas sampled in modules 1 and 2
• neutral/limited palette, with little splashes of colour
• non-symmetry
• layers of pattern and shape
• ripped/cut edges
• changes in scale
• introduce quiet space into design - keep it simple
• use of wax 
• influenced by my favourite designs from my research topic, detailed below so you can follow my thought process in coming up with my design:

Image 167, 177, 192, 280, 281,231 and sample produced at Summer School workshop with Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn.  Influences from Japanese boro textiles and traditional English spot samplers.

Image 204 - mixed media piece from workshop with Debbie Lyddon (middle section is collaged onto paper), gulls cut out to produce shadows if piece hung away from wall.

Additional design elements - harbour wall, steps and sea -  MM303/4/5.  By enlarging MM303 the marks from the sea become apparent and lend themselves to interpretation with metallic thread (MM304/5).

Design development from MM280/281 - cut outs, textured gulls, add-ons - MM306. 

So I would propose to make either:

• a boro style mixed media sampler/panel, with sections printed and heavily stitched in metallics to give the idea of gulls and their coastal surroundings, with 'holes' from the traditional boros based on gull shapes, with changes of scale and simple quiet areas. This would be similar to Image 167 above but with more texture and stitching.  It would be a simple colour palette, very similar to that of Image 167, but with the addition of silver and perhaps a little yellow, or
• a more constructed piece, held together by a design element on the right of the photo in MM303 - black rubber tubing surrounding chain. Below MM307 is a quick sketch of the idea.  It would have five sections each enclosed in black tubing either made of rubber or painted calico, three containing cut out gulls (the one on the left gives an idea of how this would look), rigid enough to support their sections, and the other two sections would be sand and sea, with silver metallic thread and perhaps Swarovski crystals to give the glint that you get as the sun hits the water (this will probably change but at the moment I'm still under the spell of the Christian Dior:Designer of Dreams Exhibition at the V&A!).

Alternatively, the two outside sections could have negative cut outs of gulls and the middle section the positive cut outs.

The gulls would have a similar construction to Image 236, below, but would be more abstract/fluid  in shape and the stitching would be integrated into the shape.