Primary Europe Commission

Today I gave a pitch to the company Primary Europe for a commission. It was a nerve-wracking experience, but I feel as this has helped my confidence in talking about my work and consolidating my ideas. I pitched two ideas for the office walls. My idea is an abstract representation of Manchester using the symbols and embroidery techniques that I have developed for this unit. As part of the pitch I had to do a 5 minute presentation about my work and explain the logistics behind the making and fixing it.

These are the two ideas I put forward today. I created visualisations from a selection of my samples. I have never done this before so it was great to see how my work could look in a space. However during the presentation, I was asked about the scale of my work in relation to my visualisations. I then realised that I had made a mistake and I had made them too big for the wall on Photoshop. Although I was ultimately unsuccessful, I'm glad I had the opportunity to present my ideas and the experience has helped me resolve my project as well as think further about the context of my work.

Primary Europe Preparation

Next week I will be making a pitch to the company Primary Europe for a commission. The brief is for a piece of art containing a red number 1. I feel as though my current project can be easily adapted to fit this brief, and the context mirrors my practice unit. Over the past weeks, I have undertaken a series of preparatory studies in order to fulfil the brief.

The client mentioned that they wanted the work having relevance to Manchester. I created a set of symbols that represent Manchester. My first idea was to have three circles with a red 1 in the middle. I used embroidery stitches that represent certain elements that in my mind make up Manchester, creating an aerial view with the red 1 in the centre.

This brief has helped me to develop a colour pallet that coincides with my project. I like how the subtle colours are highlighted with red.

I began to think further about the composition of the symbolism. I started to move away from the motif nature of the designs, to develop an abstract composition. By reacting to the folds in the fabric, it creates a structure through material experimentation.

I like the landscape aspect to the unfinished edges. I have been using Fray Check to prevent the edges from fraying. However, this is a delicate process and can leave a stain on the edge. I am proposing to make two pieces of work. One for the main wall in the conference room and the second for the kitchen space. The second one will contain just the one circle and have all of the Manchester symbols together.

New Design Britain Awards 2015

I have entered the New Design Britain awards in the surfaces category with a set of my heat pressed Bondaweb samples. As part of the application process I had to describe in detail my product, the inspiration, the context and the process. The writing process has been helpful as I had to describe in detail how I arrived at this point. It has helped me to evaluate my project so far and think more about possible contexts that I could apply my work too.

Getting Bigger

Over Christmas I started to think further about increasing the scale. I began by including the multiple aspect of my work within a singular piece of fabric. However, I do not like the colour pallet I have used. I want to create a colour pallet that is subtle yet reflects upon the landscape and environment I encountered. I also feel as though the work will look better if each day is told through an individual piece. This way I can create multiple pieces of work and display them as a series.

Janet Echleman

Janet Echleman uses huge fishing nets in public spaces to build living, breathing sculptural environments that respond to the forces of nature. The shape reacts to a changing environment and creates huge shadows which in turn creates an environment on the ground.  I like the setting and concept behind this work. I want to explore public space art and investigate how I can create something sculptural. I think that Unit X is going to be a better time for me to do this as the work I have been producing recently is more of a 2D nature.