Textiles "embroidery"

Embroidery is a form of material work that requires you either cut, stitch, sew, embrode, fasten and use many more techniques to alter or improve a design, a basic background or an item this can include stitching buttons, cutting fancy edges, fray materials or attach other pieces of material.

For this session we used all the pieces that we had experimented with to create an overall embroided design by using items from batik, felt making, and screen printing. By adding all our designs together we created the equivalent of a mood board that we had been doing in our other practical lessons outside the workshops, the theme still remained the same with the design being based on signs in the work place such as cautions signs, warning signs, and information/notifications, . Some of the prints we had done already included images taken from the workshop and meant we could introduce new aspects of the modal that we had not seen before this further increased our ideas and inspiration when in class as to what we can draw.

Ceramic "clay"

The next work shop session we did was ceramics and working with clay, clay is basically mud as a raw material and can be orange as it is lined with metals such as iron, this oxidises over time giving it it's orange tinge, it is purified and turns grey. To start we were told to make clay tiles with the theme of signs in the work place, mine was based on a restriction/no access sign, this was  designed with different levels to add texture and effect to the piece , we rolled out the clay between two guards to stop it spreading far, if it is over rolled it will curl at the ends. Once we had finished our pieces they need to to be left to dry then they can be fired in the kiln to solidify. If the tile had hollow sections where it was raised quite far it need to be punctured with holes so that the peice doesn't explode in the kiln why its cooking this is because the air particles become active and expands caused the clay to shatter with detrimental force and can cause damage to the kiln. This can be a huge safety hazard and can be a fire hazard as well.  After out first attempt we had to make a more complex peice of work, I made a flammable sign in 3d which stood up and was split into layers, like a theatre set with different layers representing different segments of the flame. 

Textiles "print making"

Print screening is the art of applying thick inks on a screen using a scweegy and running it along the print area onto paper, cloth, calico or silk to imprint impressions of the patter that isn't covered by wax, the wax covered area protects the material underneath for the ink being ran over the top of the meshed screen, it's recommended that you run your scweegy Over the screen twice otherwise the ink may bleed and distaught the image trying to be printed. Once the screen has been used it need to be cleaned to prevent the waxless areas of the mash from being clogged up by the ink when it dries, after use the dirty screen should not be left any longer than five minutes, it is recommended to jet wash the screen on a low pressure to remove all the ink.

When We did the screen printing we had a variety of different screens and inks to use, in mine I made some Rainbow effect ones where I placed the inks next to each othere the ink then mixes as the scweegy is ran over the screen it creates a fade effect against the material this is visible once the screen is lifted to revial the print. We did 15 pieces in total so that we could make a vast amount of screen printing and different pattern use. 

Textiles " felt making"

Felt making is the art of creating basic shapes with wool, mainly refined sheeps wool because it's softer and easier to use, basic patterns and layers are required to  make a base section this is normally done in white like a plain canvas though other colours can be used this depends on the designer and style in which they are looking for. To start the wool is placed on a towel and a sheet of bubble rap then the wool is applied in a two layer system horizontal and vertical applications, small tufts of wool need to be placed, this is needed to increase the surface area of the wool to allow the fibres to fuse when it is rolled. Once more layer has been applied a net is placed over and the whole thing is doused in soapy water. The net is removed and the next layer can be applied this process is repeated until all the layers required have been place. Again the net is applied but this time the entire thing is soaked in soapy water and rolled in the bubble wrap then it needs to be worked, rubbed and rolled for atleast 4 minutes, then it is unraveled, stretched then this process is repeated until at least 15 minutes of work in stages has been done, this gives the fibres time to fuse and creat a sturdy piece of work.

We then had to apply more detailed patterns based on the modal of signs in the work place, the  designs couldn't be to detailed as the image becomes distorted as it is rolled, this is done a few time so the image can become quite distorted.