Nearly there.....now PhD....hmmm

Well here we are, at time of posing I have a print collection under construction.....and no one could be more surprised.

It worked, and it really does add something to the contextual underpinning of the whole project. It moves it into a process driven dissection of practice, and I am seeing everything slightly shifting into place.

I am now running on empty, but will manage to stay the course.

Today's job is to rationalise my PhD proposal and get it ready to go, I have no idea if it is what they are looking for but ultimately with a doctorate I have to be doing something that matters to me so pragmatic head on.

This time next week I will have submitted all the work for the Expo...and will be focusing on the home stretch. Right now that seems a long way away.

And so it goes..... 

 

......whatever......ARGHHHHHH....

This week has passed in a blur and as for the week before that.....worst week ever since I started the M.A.

The problem was for the first time I had to do something I knew I was weak at, design a surface print. And I had to use bloody photo shop to do it. And to be clear about this, I am fucking useless with photo shop. I can do something, walk away from the machine for 5 minutes and when I return I can not remember how I did what I did.....how this can be is absolutely beyond me but it is the case.

However... I have done it and after an anxious week waiting to see it on fabric I have a metre sixty of digitally printed silk crepe. And it is OK....it actually worked and it is intriguing to see something as crude as felt used as a surface print for something as sophisticated as silk.

Now what to do with it, I have a line up and it is one dress a top and a pair of narrow trousers and one other garment/outfit yet to be determined...

The whole process has made me consider the relationship between those parts of the process that have underpinned my garments, the elements which were about construction and using my instincts to shape the fabric physically. These are the things that ultimately make me a knitwear designer, I build the fabric. And the parts that could be used to create something other than the constructed fabrics, the images that I took to inform my fabric development.

These images have become a body of work in themselves,  and in existing beyond their purpose they speak to the fact that I am able to use my strengths as a conduit to a more inclusive way of working in an inter disciplinary way. I would normally just put them to one side at this stage as they have served their purpose. However to use them in this way has without doubt brought something else to this whole process. They have allowed me to consider my personal weaknesses and try and challenge them, they have given me a link between the practice of knitwear and fashion design and they have helped me understand why I am a knitwear designer.

All in all as nightmares go.....it could have been a lot worse.
 

Time Flies.... but at the moment it anin't much fun....

Oh dear it is now May and everything should be getting finished....at the moment however I seem to be juggling custard.

On a positive note I have spent a lot of time reading and reflecting on what I am and have been doing and why I have been doing it. In part this is because I need to start thinking about what this project has been and why for the final presentation. But also it has been because I am thinking about how much my work and perspective has changed in quite a short time.

The obvious changes are, well obvious, but actually I have made some discoveries I didn't expect. I had never previously noticed how I need to feel the association between what I am knitting and the physical development of the item. The while project has been a conversation between why I knit and what I feel knitting is. The initial proposal was and is important but actually the development of the work was about my development through the process.

That aside I have been designing, and re-designing some supporting garments....still on going and harder than it sounds because the knit is the star but the wovens have to be able to support without completely disappearing into the background or challenging the knit. I am getting there...

And then there is the conference paper proposal, it is in and now it is just a matter of wait and see.

I have also been more than a little anxious about getting the panel for the final garment done. We are now back on track and I am waiting for the first sample to come off so I can felt and check it.

The dissertation is coming slowly but it is coming along so now it is just a matter of pulling it all together. And then I can think about next year, teaching, PhD, choices.....

Not an awful lot to add....but photos...

I spent Friday trying to make an hour to get some good enough shots to send off for a show in Milan....

In all honesty I don't think there is much chance they will be picked upon as it is an interiors show but it was worth submitting something as it has been so long since I have done anything like this....anyway in an attempt to keep this blog current here are the finished shots of my garments...

 

 

 

A Frantic Month.

February is gone and was a whirlwind. The month was spent fleshing out what I will be doing this month and next and completing the second garment.

The programming was torturous in a number of ways. Sharon and I hit a wall with the computer pattern capacity and this meant some fancy footwork to circumnavigate the system. Eventually we did it and the pieces were knitted. All IMAGES ARE BEFORE WET FINISHING

COLLAR

BODY PANELS



INSIDE  OF BODY PIECE AFTER INITIAL CONSTRUCTION

FRONT OF BODY PIECE AFTER INITIAL CONSTRUCTION



INSIDE SHOT SHOWING ATTACHMENT OF COLLAR PANEL



OUTSIDE DETAIL OF GARMENT SHOWING FINISHED GARMENT LAID FLAT

INSIDE OF FINISHED GARMENT LAID FLAT

As you can see from the images these were very large pieces of fabric and do not in any way suggest they will be pieces for a garment to be worn by a normal height person. The very long piece is actually photographed hanging from the third floor balcony, and that is a collar panel...

The fear I had  [apart from had I made an insane mistake in my calculations....] was this garment wouldn't felt properly. I wanted to do it in the machine I had felted all the other pieces in as to change to a commercial machine at this stage would carry with it the risk I could over felt the garment or damage the fabric. However given the size of the pre-wet finished garment there was a real chance it would not have enough space to felt in my machine.

This time I got lucky, which given I am generally pretty risk adverse was an exceptional outcome. In fact I had the garment finished and ready to felt for a week before I decided to take the risk.

Next I have to get my head around the photo-shoot and the final garment....then it is just two written documents, my portfolio and and a conference paper and possibly a PhD application....OH DEAR...

Post PGDIP, post Xmas post....

The last month has been both busy and exasperating. The presentation was fine and I now have a PG DIP.

So only another 7 months, a little luck and a lot of work it will be done and I will have the MA.

Christmas was a difficult time so far as making physical progress on work was concerned, I also had Flu so that was two weeks of very little....however I did account for this in the period leading up and it is sometimes useful taking the time to step back and just think.

Since returning to Uni I have been trying to focus on getting the Rosette fabric correct...[ at times I did wonder if it was possible.....]. The amount of time both Sharon and I have spent fretting about why it wouldn't knit and searching for a possible programming fault is rediculous. Had I known at the beginning it is entirely possible I may of done something else ....but I did not so after about 7 weeks of banging our heads against the desk Sharon tried processing it on another computer and it worked first time. This means that there must be a factory preset in the system on the computer we usually use that was preventing it being processed, there was no mistake in the programme and we weren't doing anything wrong....

Part of me could cry....time is so tight and even though I believe my timeline will hold I really don't want to waste a single moment BUT to put another spin on it it has proved a point I always believed to be true....while computers have made so much possible they are very limited when not in the hands of Technicians and Designers who are willing to question what they are saying. It is in someways like dealing with a petulant child......you have to find a way of communicating the child will accept and sometimes you are not doing anything wrong it is the child at fault...and the child needs to learn. So that puts the ball back in your court.....  This experience has at least given me the chance to think again about the idea of the trilogy of understanding I thought about in my initial proposal and how agnostic thought and gnostic thought have to be brought together in order to achieve anything close to the best outcomes in the design context.

I am now past the tipping point in this project. The research journey out has been gentle and unplanned, I have developed my work through a combination of wandering, reflection and practice. It has been successful in more ways than I could have imagined. My work is now my own, my choices and experiences have made it such . The early influences are there however I have molded it through the experience of questioning it. The path back is much more structured, I am drawing the threads together and I think I am in a position to say I have answered my question to an extent I am ready to pull it together.

That isn't the end though....I am now addressing how this will be used in my future career, how I can show others in a way that might engage them in my work so it goes on ....as always.

BIG presentation....done and done...

Today was all about the presentation....and thank goodness it is over.

It is amazing the way a twenty minute spot can actually blow everything out of the water for the preceding fortnight.

I think it went OK it all felt unreal, I seem to have developed a vocabulary that is all about my aesthetic and how process and practice are two parts of the same journey. It is strange the way a personal realisation about something as unromantic as knitting can actually be quite emotional to recognise.

I have missed feeling this about what I do..