Unit X- Completion

The start of completion for me started at the big group crit session and it was at that time I knew for sure which way my project was heading. Due to the nature of my context, I wanted to use a silk material and Teresa suggested I also try a linen fabric which gave me another reason in which to sample before heading straight into my final piece. Teresa and Lynn also agreed with my adjustment of adding the orange colour stating it was a ‘wise move’. The main piece of advice I took from that crit was to use reactive dye as it wouldn’t affect the quality of the fabric as much as the harshness of pigment dyes. At first, it was a little unnerving as I had not had much practice with reactive dyes but as my sampling began, I got used to using them and mixing them with other colours to create the specific colours I wanted to use.

Group Crit session

I decided my screen designs were going to be constructed from individual brush strokes I made up on Photoshop from my drawings. I tried out different compositions and layering with the brush stroke and narrowed my screen designs down to three.

My three Screen Designs

This way I could layer each screen over the other/ overlap them to create specific texture. However, due to the high demand for the print room at this time of year I could only put my design onto an A3 sized screen. I would have preferred A1 large screens as it would have taken me less time and it most likely would have flowed better on the fabric.

After my first session in the print room, I had nearly completed six samples where I had used all three screens to layer up the different textures using different tones of colours to understand the way in which I could go about doing my final piece. For me, my favourite sample was the one where I referred to peeling paint, where I layered up the softer colours and textures and finished with a darker green colour over the top, as if uncovering what was underneath. Therefore, this informed my decision for the route to my final piece.

My Linen and silk Samples                      Favourite 'Peeled Paint' Sample

Another element that I had to think about for my final was the fabric I would be using. Both the Juniper white linen and the medium Habotai silk had pros and cons. The linen was the easiest fabric to print onto however, when I finished the samples it was creased, it had shrunk and it did not hang in the way I would want it to when referring to my context of head/neck scarfs. On the other hand, the silk did hang in the way I would imagine a scarf would and its fragile quality linked with the kind of higher end of fashion. Yet, it posed challenges when printing onto it as it would move and bunch up once it had dried although it went back to its original way after steaming and washing.

Doing these fabric samples informed my decision thoroughly and so I decided to stick with the silk fabric as it links in the best with the context as well as having a certain kind of quality that seemed superior to linen.

The next challenge to overcome was the use of A3 screens. This meant I had to repeat the designs next to each other to create a texture that spread across the complete square metre piece of fabric. I had to be precise with the screens so the designs flowed well throughout the fabric. A few mistakes were made in this process, such as overlapping the screen on the fabric design, which made the edges of the design darker coloured than the rest of the design. This made it obvious I was using an A3 screen and rather than being a solid well flowing surface texture it looks like it is almost broken up in to sections at times.

Screen Print mistake on Final Piece

As the context of the final piece is for a head/neck scarf, it will be folded/bundled/tied up and these mistakes will be hardly visible. At the exhibition, I will also be pinning one corner of the square meter and letting the rest of the fabrics hang and flow in its own way. Therefore, the mistakes will be hardly visible.

Final Piece bunched/ folded/ tied up