Teacher Training

I have been putting together my Ucas application for teacher training as this is the chosen career path I have decided to take. I have had two meetings with career advisers regarding my personal statement and the application process now that my application has been sent off I am hoping for interviews. My main choice is a PGCE in textile and food design technology at MMU.

More mono printing!

After my last screen printing experiment I decided to go back a step and try to perfect something that I was good at and improve it. I have been working and trying got create more patterns and designs so I can scan them in and edit them on photoshop for digital prints. I am still sticking to my three colour restriction and allowing the colours to mesh and change however they want themselves with out any control from me. This time around I have focused mainly on textures and more intricate patterns as you have to be quick when drawing on your pattern as the paint dries fairly quickly. Although I have gone back to Mono printing I am not completely ruling out screen printing as there were some elements that were successful and I would like to still keep as a section of my cards.

Screen Printing

For screen printing I made background by mono printing and picking up the textures which I then took in to screen Print onto. I think these screen printing samples are nit my best work as the backgrounds I feel are too dark and take away from my print designs. If I was to do this technique again I think I would need to try and use more sublet backgrounds and less intricate patterns as sometimes the finer lines don't show up as much as others do. Apart from these unsuccessful prints there were a few that worked better, gold prints on white paper. These prints really showed off my patterns as they weren't fighting against a dark background. They also had the problem about finer lines and intricacy but this time it didn't detract from the motif it self instead it gave it a double layer which is something that is unique and attractive.

Change of Context

Over the past week I have been contemplating different contexts as I haven't been happy with ceramics as I feel it isn't something that expresses my work the way I want it to. I have changed over and decided to create wedding invitations with a difference. I don't want to create the typical cliche wedding invite. So, I have been looking at traditional South Asian wedding invitations. Typically a South asian wedding consists of three days, so the card includes an invite to all the different days. This has given me the idea to take my textural concept forward and create cards that have different textures within them. I have also decide to give my cards a fabric element to them. The reason why I have chosen a South Asian audience is because my work at the moment is based on this specific culture and my work caters and fits in perfectly with this theme. Although I have chosen this audience I am not trying to limit myself only to specific type of audience I would like to give the option to everyone.

Pictures of cards that I have collected 

Screen Printing Prep

I have decided to give screen printing a go this term. I have been inducted into the paper screen printing  room as my work at them moment is mainly paper based. for my screen printing positives I have made a series of motifs on acetate. I am extremely pleased with how these have turned out they are very intricate and display different shapes and motifs from all the research and work I have previously looked out. I hope to use these digitally aswell as positives for screens.

Live brief Pattern Mash

For my live brief this year, I participated in a Pattern Mash task called Prints of Persia. This was perfect for me as the brief was quite similar to my own brief so I was able to marry the both together and create some prints for it. I used the same mono printing technique and used photoshop to layer different sections up. I also did some drawing which I placed on top of the textures as a motif.

Mid point Review

To mark the middle point of our unit we were given the task to do a five minute presentation on our work so far. I don't normally enjoy these types of tasks as I work myself up and get very anxious. But I was feeling a little more confident after our 2 tutor crit. This task gave me the opportunity to reflect over my work and look at my journey. I was also able to interact with my peers and watch their presentations this gave us the opportunity to give positive feedback to each other which also gave me confidence a boost as the feedback I received was very good. I tried to show my enthusiasm and my journey right from the beginning to help everyone develop an understanding about my concept. I included initial work, current work, artist research, direction and context in my presentation.

Mono-printing

This week I have started mono-printing. So far, this has been very successful for me as it takes into consideration the restrictions I have put on myself and the colours merge themselves beautifully. I use a large piece of glass and use a roller to paint over it and place a paper over the paint and draw patterns and designs I have picked out from my research. Mono-printing has also allowed me to merge new found research with my old research because the textures that the paper picks off the glass    is something that was vital to me in my beginning research, the textures of spice and henna was something I really wanted my work to portray. The paisley patterns and Islamic shapes and geometry combined with textures is something that excites me and portrays my message of my culture.

Research

I have been spending time in researching and learning more about myself and my culture I've tried to look at different types of culture with in a muslim community and Islamic art itself. There are so many inspirational things that I have found interest me and drive my work. As I have found many pictures that inspire me I've decided to put a few restrictions on myself and only give myself a limited colour palette red, blue, and gold (black and white being optional). Allowing these colours to mix and merge themselves with out me having any control over the colour they create themselves is another aspect I have decided to Include.

Foam-board printing

Ive decided to try different techniques of drawing so I've started of with foam-board. Ive scratched shapes and patterns into the foam which I then painted over and made a print with. At the moment I feel my work is quite simple and need I need to push it bait further by trying different things using different techniques that I have looked at so far.

Faig Ahmed

Faig Ahmed is an artist I came across whilst researching into Laurent Mareschal. Faig ahmed is another artist who uses Islamic pattern and inspiration in his work. He used traditional Azerbaijan carpets and manipulated sections of the traditional weave by pixilating and modernising them. The paisley patterns and shapes caught my interest so I decided to look further into Islamic pattern and design.

http://www.faigahmed.com/works/carpets/

2 tutor Crit

My experience of two tutor crit was a good one, I was able to express my enthusiasm and love for my work and explain my journey to my peers an tutors with confidence. Although it was a short minute long talk I was able to squeeze in all the information about my summer research, explain my personal journey and my work so far. I was pleased with this successful presentation as I usually am a nervous person. We were asked to choose between three different places, Airport, Toilet, Church to decide where out work could be displayed. I chose church as i feel it may be a place where my cultural references and inspiration may not be displayed and i enjoy sharing my life, culture and work with everyone.

Inspiration

Continuing to use my life as inspiration is something I enjoy as I like to share and inspire others helping them to understand and embrace my culture and my work. I have been taking pictures of traditional food that my mother cooks and picking out colours as inspiration.