Pop-Up Beyond Drawing

As I was developing my Pop-Up research I began to think of different ways in which 'drawing' could be interpreted relating to my objects. To me the term drawing is a very broad one, it means the translation of information into marks, textures and colours. This in mind, I examined my objects very closely, the wispy root forms reminded me of threads and fibres.

These sewn drawing inspired my mark making, making it much more textured and diverse.

These three drawings were an observation of the surface texture of the root forms.

Pop-Up Photography

After completing various drawings and designs from my Pop-Up objects I felt the need to study them in a different manner. I began to observe the effect of light on my objects and the marks and textures created by their shadows. These photographs I feel have greatly informed the type of marks I have used in some of my drawings and made them much more interesting, as well as being a series of sensitive photographs in their own right.

Playing with shape and tone to create marks.

 I then began to incorporate some of the objects themselves into the photographs as well as adding the element of shadow so there was a contrast of sharp and soft marks.

These photographs inspired a series of drawings the two below are just examples of how i translated the shapes found in my images onto paper, experimenting with texture and fine marks.

Blythe House

After 3 tubes, an overground and much walking back and forth I finally arrived at Blythe House. Blythe House is a sort of storage facility for the V & A archives amongst other museums, and as I was to discover a   highly valuable resource for a textile student such as myself. After a brief talk we were left to our own devices in a room full of late 18th-early 19th century fabric swatch books, intricate lace sample books and my favourite; 60's trend forecasting magazines. I found it amazing how such archives exist and the extent and depth of their collections, for example they hold various studio sketches and works of designers but also have large sample books from commercial textile companies. All in all i found this a highly valuable experience and I will certainly be paying Blythe House another visit in the future.

Look how old it is!

 Beautiful woven fabric samples-highly relevant to my weave block. Also its much more exciting when you know how they're made.

Lovely book of prints, all very purple.

I love all the drawings mixed with fabric swatches.

A particularly nice print with berry formations. 

Weaving

Being new to weave, I found my first technical block initially challenging but eventually enjoyable! Drawing colours and textures from my Pop Up collection I began to create organic weaves where I could using natural fibres such as cottons and wools in order to stay true to the very ideas behind my collection. As the first week went on and I'd grasped the basics of weaving I began to be a bit less constrained by the loom and started to be more playful with what I could achieve.

My First weave trying out different lifting patterns and trapping twigs into the weave

I tried to make the weave a more 3 dimensional cloth rather than a flat piece of weave by tying areas of the warp adding a sense of transparency and weaving in pieces of bark.

I was then shown a weaving technique called leno were you twist the warp threads and weave a yarn through them creating a sort of lace hole effect i experiment with this technique in various ways using many threads then using singular threads which creates a very subtle outcome.

To help me with my weaves i created 'de-constructed' fabric samples drawing colours from my wrappings and creating a vocabulary of surface effects.

Here I attempted to show the affect of leno weaving which is much more difficult when not on a loom!

Here i began to plan my own lifting pattern to create diamond and triangle shapes with the warp threads.

 By trapping thicker yarns into my weave i creates a highly textural weave.

In this weave i trapped an object and continued to weave around it, when the object is removed the warp threads are exposed.

In keeping with my theme I mounted a few of my weave samples on twigs and hung them with fishing wire. I felt the display of these samples was just as important as mounting them on card would have turned them into very flat 2 dimensional samples by hanging them their transparency and texture is rendered more clear.

Inspirational Weavers

Laura Thomas- A welsh weaver who casts her hand weaves into resin, making traditionally free fabrics into sculptural forms.

Victoria Hyatt Sowers- An american weaver who traps found objects or memories into her pieces.

Links
http://www.laurathomas.co.uk/gallery/commissions/item/5