01/12/19
SHOREDITCH
Both Textiles classes were individually allocated a place within London, mine was Shoreditch so I travelled to Old Street today to begin looking at structural forms amongst the area. Shoreditch is an extremely trendy and artistic area, so I found it difficult to stay within the restrictions of the brief which says to focus on architecture. I decided to just take photos of everything that was visually and conceptually exciting within Shoreditch. This is because I did feel that it's historic relevance to art and fabric are vital when trying to capture Shoreditch's qualities.
BOLD COLOUR against the re occurring RED/ORANGE BRICK BUILDINGS, exemplified to me that the art culture has utterly overtaken the victorian workhouses which were once so prominent. Street art is such an asset to the area, I even came across artists starting a new project on the wall of 'DINERAMA' a bar.
01/12/19
SURFACE IRREGULARITY
In terms of surfaces, I came across a lot of LAYERING on top of architecture which is something I would like to focus on, I think the shapes formed by the layering/ripping are really interesting and capture a passage of time or trends that so regularly change. Shoreditch holds a very trendy facade, so capturing how it keeps up with trends and current issues I think is very important, looking at the way past posters etc have been ripped down to introduce the new is something that really caught my eye.
01/12/19
FABRIC
By the 19th Century, Shoreditch was the locus of the furniture and textile industry due to wealthy traders and silk weavers moving to the area. Shoreditch originally was a sector which was filled with factories and dye houses, and although this is a lot less prominent now - the area remains extremely important for textile and garment making.
When I visited the area I payed a visit to the longest lasting fabric trading store in the Spitafields area: CRESCENT TRADING. I spoke to Philip, who gave me a very clear insight into the importance of the textile and furniture trade from the 1800-1900's. Unfortunately his original trading building got burnt down, however they revived from the ashes what they could and re opened and now trade with extremely high end brands.
02/12/19
Once I had got some of my shapes I began going straight into some sample making, as I don't really know what print entails I really wanted to immerse myself in the various techniques. The HEAT PRESS is something that unexpectedly worked really nicely for my design. I made a stencil in my fabric roll shape and used green heat proof paper in order to stick to my colour scheme - interestingly, I actually preferred the outcome of the print on the tissue paper rather than the fabric as It felt more rustic and unique. I really wanted to use the heat press for some other samples but ran out of time, however I am keen to use again.
(insert heat press pics)
CONTEXTUAL PRACTISE
BUILDINGS
MORE SURFACE IRREGULARITY
There was a vast amount of texture on walls which I would like to explore through maybe stuffing or ripping prints and definitely looking into layering it all together. I think the idea of PASSAGE OF TIME is so prominent within some of these photos.
One of the first things we were encouraged to do is decide a colour scheme. I did a lot of brainstorming on this because Shore ditch is full of so many colours due to the street art, however I wanted to keep it simple.
After going through some of my photos I decided that orange, green, blue and red were the most prominent colours that worked well together visually and conceptually. Red stood out as the least that worked as it made the colour scheme look a little childish. I wanted to use a similar colour to red as I felt most of the buildings in Shoreditch were red brick, but over the years they have been utterly absorbed by art work and the culture which surrounds.
02/12/19
Once I had collected all my imagery and drawing I started picking out the most interesting shapes and textures which I could derive from my primary research. I found the texture bit to be the most interesting as I like the idea of creating a pattern which is subtly linked to a place and not really obvious like a graffiti wall.
I soon started to see what shapes would work together, my personal preference is to choose one energetic mark, and one simple mark as this means the pattern wouldn't be too overwhelming. However, as Shore ditch is a trendy and energetic area I did feel I must convey this by making sure I choose a shape which is eye catching like a lot of the graffiti and buildings there.
(INSERT DRAWINGS OF PATTERNS)
LAYERING AND FABRIC are my two themes that I am focusing on, the shape from the fabric rolls which are circular and plainly quite mad is a motif that will feed within my samples as I feel the fabric trade is such an important part aspect to Shore ditch's history. Layering will also be prominent as the constant build up of posters, art, and political statements on the surfaces of buildings is something I really noticed when walking around. I almost looked at it as a passage of time, as Shore ditch is considered so trendy it makes sense that they are constantly replacing old news.