AS Textile students expand skills & techniques through Designer investigation.

All examiner reports declare how students must demonstrate their ability to to use materials & techniques effectively (AO1).  They want students to demonstrate how contextual studies have informed, influenced & driven their work.  What better Artist/Designer to look at than the wonderful Alison Willoughby.  This last week the AS Textiles students have been observing and researching into her work, focusing upon her exuberant 'A' Line skirts, specifically the techniques she explores. 

 

Alison Willoughby (c)

 

She truly manipulates her fabrics using a whole range of processes & materials creating incredible one-off skirts often intended for a gallery space rather than the world of retail fashion.  It is this latter concept that fascinates the students & offers them a new & exciting avenue for their own Textile creations. 

 

Alison Willoughby (c)

 

(AO2) states it is vital that students learn about the nature of materials exploring their potential & limitations.  They need to be offered the opportunity to experience media & approaches.  Once again an investigation into the work of Alison Willoughby seems to cover many of the assessment criteria (including AO3 too).  The students have explored a range of shapes, manipulated them into repetitive designs & added them to their sketchbooks - they have used a range of fabrics/papers & combined them to make clever & experimental outcomes.  All of their findings have been carefully documented in their sketchbooks with the addition of some stunning fashion illustrations & pertinent annotations. 

 

 

 

 

All of this work is 'early days', they are experimenting, exploring, developing confidence with a range of materials/techniques through sensitive observations of the work of others.  Their research & samples will all help to give them a solid grounding of relevant information & skills in order to develop their own personal work later on in the term.

 

 

The students have just started some pretty impressive over-sized corsages & today I had them all on the sewing machines, gathering/pleating/looping etc their fabrics as they started their eye-catching pieces (this also teaches them excellent machining skills, so a 'win win' situation).  Below is an example I made on a workshop with Alison Willoughby (yes it does contain racing cars & fishing floats).  Keep viewing my Blog & you may get to see the AS Textile students wild corsage creations.

 



 

(c) 2013 - As always all layouts & images on this blog are purely for the 'Moon on a stick' blog. I enjoy sharing information & ideas, however, I ask you not to use any of these images/layouts etc without permission or without noting its origins on your post. All rights reserved



 



AS Art & Design students start to explore colour media

The last couple of weeks has seen the AS Art & Design students start to explore a range of colour media (AO2).  All of these students must demonstrate that they can experiment with & manage materials & techniques effectively,  in order that they can explore, develop & refine their ideas.  They need to develop an understanding of the potential & limitations of different materials (this is particularly relevant to AO2).  So much of the this initial work is centred on students being offered the opportunity to explore a wide range of media & techniques from straight forward coloured pencil crayons through to depicting the human form using cut/slashed/torn fabrics & the sewing machine.  The latter encourages a very expressive outcome to their studies & can be quite a liberating change from the control that can be achieved through traditional drawing materials. 

 

 

As you can probably see these students have worked particularly hard all week producing these samples & their initial fears of whether they could switch between such contrasting techniques/media were unfounded - there was soon smiling faces & students racing towards the sewing machines to extend their samples into further samples including net & coloured thread samples etc... (they may appear in a future posting - too many at this stage to include/mention).

 

This next week will see the students start to experiment with paint (I love paint) - they will be starting by exploring acrylic on small scale in their sketchbooks, producing studies inspired by the fabulous work of M.R.Taylor (example below), before expanding into observations of a wide range of contemporary based portrait painters (AO1 & AO3).  This work is vital for students to demonstrate that they can observe the work of others & to inform their own work from their visual observations/investigations.

 

 

 

(c) 2013 - As always all layouts & images on this blog are purely for the 'Moon on a stick' blog. I enjoy sharing information & ideas, however, I ask you not to use any of these images/layouts etc without permission or without noting its origins on your post. All rights reserved

AS Textiles debut

 

Last week saw the AS Textiles students progress with so many aspects of their work.  They started to use & develop some of the Fashion Illustration ideas that they'd acquired during the previous weeks lessons & then they started to combine these with their new skill/technique of Vanishing Muslin. 

 

The sketchbook pages below are a stunning example of some of the work developed by these students in just one week of study - they worked so hard & reaped some amazing results.  This level of work is a result of a careful & considered approach to their studies, they have strived for excellence.  This is very early days for this talented group of potential designers - but already I beleive they have the ability & aptitude to really make a serious contribution to the world of  Fashion & Textiles.

 

 

 

 

Vanishing Muslin is a water soluble fibrous fabric that allows you to stitch into the surface (the stitches need to be connected) - after stitch, the sample is placed into water & the fabric dissolves leaving just the stitch.  It's a perfect way to create detailed & decorative pieces for fashion outcomes - it's almost like creating your own lace effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The AS Textiles students stitched away frantically building layers of decorative stitch, changing colours as they progressed (rather similar to using coloured pencil crayons).  They acquired, developed & controlled the technique with tremendous skill and really started to produce some highly appealing samples for their sketchbooks.

 

 

 

 

Please keep viewing this blog as this is such early days for these students & they are working so hard to continue to develop & progress with their exciting studies of AS Textiles at MV16.

 

 (c) 2013 - As always all layouts & images on this blog are purely for the 'Moon on a stick' blog. I enjoy sharing information & ideas, however, I ask you not to use any of these images/layouts etc without permission or without noting its origins on your post. All rights reserved

Inspirational development of research observation!

This week saw one of my A2 Art students take inspiration from an Artist (Nikos Gyfaktis), and really start some inspirational work.  All week the mentioned student has been deep in concentration on the sewing machine, her eyes have ached, the needles have broken, then tension has blipped - nothing deterred her focus. 
 

 

She did manage to have a little break on Wednesday afternoon to watch & partake in the wonderful presentation by 'Action Jackson' (see below) - but then was soon back to work.  She clearly has listened to the advice 'meet all deadlines early' & 'consistency' - in fact the latter is one of the critical key assessment criteria that my students have to demonstrate.  They all need to prove a consistent standard in their sketchbooks, something that is not an easy request - but one that is often achieved through gritted determination.

 

Meet all deadlines early

 

Pick your friends carefully

 

Always ask for help

 

Stay positive

 

Enjoy it

 

 

 

 

 

 

This student has observed her chosen Artist, as seen in her detailed sketchbook studies, but has also then taken the working method & translated it into stitch.  Substituting coloured pencil crayons for coloured threads & using the round foot on the sewing machine she has literally been painting with threads.  Her work has other reference points to the work of Audrey Walker, Alice Kettle, Cayce Zavaglia & Daniel Kornrumpf - I hope she will explore these too, in order to take her work to a more sustained level (& optimise the chances of the higher assessment bands - I know the mentioned student reads this blog - so take the advice & I'm sure we'll be heading towards your true potential).

 

Above: The initial inspiration - beautiful work by:  Nikos Gyfaktis (C).

 

Above is Claire's sketchbook page, the vibrancy & skill is outstanding.  What you can't see from the image is that she's experimented with layered pages, so there's a wonderful interactive component to them.

 

 From these beautiful pages she has continued to develop her ideas into stitch - see below the beginning of her studies whilst still in creation.  More images will follow - so watch this blog to see how her work progresses through this half term.

 

 (c) 2013 - As always all layouts & images on this blog are purely for the 'Moon on a stick' blog. I enjoy sharing information & ideas, however, I ask you not to use any of these images/layouts etc without permission or without noting its origins on your post. All rights reserved

AS Art & Designs students observational initial studies.

The other week the AS Art & Design students were working very hard in their sketchbooks & although early days some students are leading the way.  A high level of drawing skill has been observed by both Miss.S & myself, a fundamental skill that we value & promote through a structured curriculum that enables students to build credible skills.  They have only just started their self portrait unit/project (those that know me personally will know how much I love this theme & portrait painting in general).  This is no easy subject matter, there is no escape from your own face peering back at you, confronting you & especially when you are trying to observe & draw all at the same time. 

 

 

 

 

Progress has been made though, in fact huge progress has been made.  Our students have already started to learn how to construct a sketchbook page to showcase their own work to best effect.   They have been exploring a range of traditional & modern drawing materials, from pencil, biro, ink & stick & at the latter part of this week they were using the sewing machine as a drawing tool.  Every AS Art & Design student who walked through the doors of our Art studio found themselves learning how to control a sewing machine fitted with a round embroidery foot.  I was so proud of the progress they made, each student produced some amazing results & gained confidence in extending their drawing experiences. 

 

 

 

 

Keep checking the Blog for images of their stitch work (some have already been posted - more to follow shortly).

 

Below are three examples of Clara Lieu's beautifully expressive drawings.  One of our Art students has just made reference to her work in her sketchbook, & has produced some impressive observations of her work & is now in the process of developing her own studies.  Once she has completed more work inspired by Clara's work I will add more to this Blog. 

 

 



 

A2 Textiles - Media experimentation.

 

The A2 Textiles students have also been working hard this week, they have been developing their paper origami based work from last week & using denim as their material to explore & manipulate.  Their choice of denim was dictated to by its strength & ability to hold & support structure - perfect if you want to hold shape without too much intervention of stitch or starch.  The composite of images above are a mix of sketchbook pages and on the top left a mini-outcome created by the very clever Chloe.  She has foiled her denim to add a metallic finish to one side of her fabric & has carefully extracted the waist band from an old pair of jeans to use as a support for her ideas.  She has been cutting a range of circles from her foiled denim & is trying to develop a waistband fashion accessory that has an extended hip design.  It's a bold & highly creative idea, that although has a simplicity in visual appearance, actually combines a vast array of design possibilities & trials.  This is only the second week back & already all of the Textile students are making some amazing progress.

 

Watch this space for more images & stories of the incredible students of MV16.

 

 

(c) 2013 - As always all layouts & images on this blog are purely for the 'Moon on a stick' blog. I enjoy sharing information & ideas, however, I ask you not to use any of these images/layouts etc without permission or without noting its origins on your post. All rights reserved

 

 

 

Using paint to portray the qualities of human skin.

Painting flesh - the challenge of portrait painting is something that has mesmerised Artists for centuries.  Each & every Artist deals with it in their own personal manner/style.  Some become obsessed with exaggerating the colours naturally found within in human flesh, whilst others try to capture the translucent porcelain qualities that skin has.  Whether you are concerned with high key colours or muted, pastel shades the journey will be no less challenging, but the outcomes will be totally rewarding.

 

 

For talented South African artist Lionel Smit “painting is like an energy release and at that moment in time the work becomes alive – a paused action. ” He can relate to Jackson Pollock’s “Action Painting” – the controlled release of energy onto the canvas but “unlike automatism there are definite thought processes to digest and manipulate whilst working on a piece”

 

Nick Lepard paintings seen here on the right are a fantastic use of expressive paint.  His colour palette is often quite restrictive (as seen with a broad range of greys) that are then injected with a couple of vibrant high key colours (seen here with the bright turquoise).  He controls & expresses himself through colour media to the greatest of effect.  His drawings are also worth a close inspection.  He uses compressed charcoal to create these (this is not the nasty burnt twigs known as 'Willow charcoal').  Compressed charcoal will allow you to get a true rich black line with the minimum of pressure (without the irritating snap & dust of the previously mentioned variety).  If using compressed charcoal, try using a touch of water, I guarantee you'll love the quality to the line that you achieve.

 

 

Of course anyone that knows me will already know I am obsessed by the work of Lucian Freud, and other portrait painters including Paul Wright, Ben Cohen, David Newman White etc...  Check them out for yourself.

 



(c) 2013 - As always all layouts & images on this blog are purely for the 'Moon on a stick' blog. I enjoy sharing information & ideas, however, I ask you not to use any of these images/layouts etc without permission or without noting its origins on your post. All rights reserved.

Amazing work from week 1 - congratulations to my students!

Wow, week one has really started with a flurry of creativity in both the Art and Textile studios.  Students have been focused & 'on' their projects with a sense of purpose.  Congratulations to those students who have already started to commit to extra time in the studios.

 

Remember what I asked you all on day 1 - 'Are you up for the challenge & are you up for the journey' ? If you want the grades, you have to work for them & some of you have started with a really determined attitude, demonstrating PRIDE in what you have produced.

 

The A' Level Textile students have really started to explore their new theme of 'Architectural Detail' & after a morning with us waxing a range of different papers (everything from newspaper to brown parcel papers to old Vogue magazines etc).  The studio smelt like a candle factory, but soon the students were folding & stitching & creating some very exciting samples inspired by origami techniques (could this be where Maths meets Textiles?  Watch out Mr.B).  These samples were then put into context by pinning them onto the mannequins to resemble fashion accessories/shoulder & neck details that one might find in a couture collection.

 

 

 

Watch this space for how these ideas develop later on this week.  Additional to these studies these students have been pushing & working very hard on their sketchbook pages, one student exclaimed 'this is the best page I've ever created - I love it' - keep viewing & you may get to see more of their sketchbook pages later this week.

 

Additional to this, the A2 Art & Design students have also been very busy developing their sketchbooks (see below).  I was blown away by some of their pages, really individual responses to a common theme - demonstrating a high level of creative & independent thinking (this is vital as this unit is called 'Personal Investigation').

 

 

 

Let's hope week 2 is as positive & creative as this week has been - watch this space!



(c) 2013 - As always all layouts & images on this blog are purely for the 'Moon on a stick' blog. I enjoy sharing information & ideas, however, I ask you not to use any of these images/layouts etc without permission or without noting its origins on your post. All rights reserved.