This is my piece of work that I have put up in the studio. Overall I am quite pleased with the piece that I have created and am quite proud of myself for being able to create this knit piece after less than 4 weeks of being taught how to use a domestic knitting machine. Within this piece I have used most of the techniques that I was shown in my work. I find it very interesting that all the knit students were given the same basic techniques and yet everyone came to such different outcomes. 

Although the project has now came to an end I can see how I would go on to develop the work that I have created. I think I would start making larger samples and then give them more shape and form, possibly shapes that I have taken from my own images of the outside of the building. Also I have learnt from this project how important it is to keep drawing as an ongoing task and I know by doing that I would think up new ideas and paths for my project to go down. 

Now that I have put work up in the TIP room I think I will feel more comfortable when it comes to going into the workshop and putting up pieces of my own work. This is something that I find can be quite a daunting task so I am pleased that I now feel more at ease within the studio. I also loved getting the chance to see everyone else's work up in the studio, it let me see what the different workshops offer and made me think about what I may want to take next.

Knit Samples

 In have found working within the knit workshop an interesting and inspiring task, it has given me the chance to try and create lots of things that I have never looked at before. I have really enjoyed this workshop and hopefully knit will be something that I will try again within another project. I want to now try and push myself harder within this workshop, giving myself larger samples and adding a bit more shape to the overall samples. I have looked into the work of Sandra Backlund and found all the shapes she creates in her pieces fascinating,  I want to now go on to try and give my own pieces more shape and structure.  

 Within my knit work I have now moved on to looking at the views outside of the windows of the Cloud 23 bar. Using the skills from my past workshop I have looked into the photographs that I have taken and picked out some of the colours that I found. I have made my samples very textural and the patterns found within the pieces are very irregular. I feel that I want to start bringing in more of the colours that I found within the photograph in order to give my work more depth and to widen my colour scheme. 

Felt Samples

Here I have uploaded some of the felt samples that I created for my project. At this point in the project my focus was around the drinks and the bottles of wine. The felt workshop really helped me when it came to looking at the colours I use within my work, it made me realise how many different colours we can get out of one photograph or object and this is a skill I will now take into other workshops. I quite like some of the textures that I was able to create within my samples. Going onto knit for my second workshop has worked quite well with my felting. Within some of my other samples I have tried to combine my own knit with the felt, these samples were less successful however I think with more experimentation they could work well for the project. 

Sketchbook Exhibition

I have chosen to look at the Cloud 23 bar for my project; this is based inside the Hilton hotel at Beetham Tower. I began my research looking initially at the exterior of the building as I loved the shapes and colours that it gave me. When I had been given permission to go inside I was then able to expand my research further. Once inside I was intrigued by the idea of the bar and different drinks, I was also interested in the views through the window. I found when I stopped drawing the movement of my project and the research was much more difficult. I have tried hard to link my workshops to my project and I feel that I have been quite successful in this area; my felt workshop gave me a chance to explore colour. Now that I have begun Knit I want to look closer at shape.

 Within my work I have aimed to use a varied range of drawing techniques, I feel that on the whole this has been successful, though I often tend to favour continuous line drawings. I think this is due to a lack of confidence with my own drawing skills. Confidence in my work is something that I hope to improve upon while studying here as I found I was quite shocked by some of the nice comments within my book after the task. When we first began the project there was a slight fear of the white page, however I found that once I had took the plunge and began my work new ideas began to come quite easily.

 An area that I know needs a lot of improvement is my reference to artists work. I am yet to do any research within this area. I think by completing designer research I might find it easier to generate ideas and feel inspired when I am at a dead end. My current workshop is knit so I think it would be a good start to look at knit designers, this could inspire me to create my own pieces that link with my project. 

 A lot of the critical feedback that I received about my sketchbook mentioned the way my work progressed. I haven’t made my way of working and my journey very clear. I can see this now after taking a step back from my work, I believe that the main reason for this is down to my lack of annotation within the book itself. I found sketchbook exhibition to be a very useful task, though I was anxious about letting people look at my work before we began. The task has given me more confidence in my work and opened up my eyes to new and different ways of working and starting a project.