Design and Development Days
In each of these
workshops we will explore a few simple guidelines, spend time taking
inspiration from your original images and starting points in whatever form you
have them and we will gradually move away from the littoral representation of
the subject matter.
We will get away
from deciding in advance what to create and surprise ourselves with more
interesting results to use to create our finished works.
Including some
easy steps towards creating abstract images and testing a few testing a few
ideas which will expand your creative possibilities, I will guide you to
develop a concept and plan for a piece which is based on this, reflecting the
character or message of the piece, whilst abstracting the essential elements
and emphasising the qualities of the original which attracted you.
Depending on the
duration of the workshop we can stick to development trials or with more time we
can start to translate your emerging designs into textile works.
(Making friends with the ‘D’ word)
During this
workshop you will spend time discussing the value of design elements,
principles and mind maps.
Then working in
small groups you will engage in exercises which enable you think and work more
deeply, freely and creatively. You will learn methods and processes to
translate ideas and design sources into more meaningful finished works.
Layers of Meaning
(Using colour and symbols
in your
work)
A series of
discussions and exercises, including some messy, fun stuff, which will help you
to represent meaning in colour and symbols, then try new ways of depicting this
in your work.
Breaking down shapes
Discover how shapes
and arrangements affect our reading of a picture in order to create more powerful visual messages. Inspired by Molly Bang’s
work on reading images, see how arranging shapes and simple colours affect the impact
your work has. Make the most of simple ideas about how we read shape, form and
colour in a piece to make your own pieces more meaningful and arresting.
Altered Shapes
Using an original image, extract
the main lines and then alter the form. Choose to make your design more rounded
or more angular, see what happens to the form and how that will translate into a finished piece.
Repeat and Simplify
Repeats, negative spaces
and simplifying lines are all useful and reliable methods to abstract
interesting designs for your work. You could develop these patterns into print,
appliqué, paint, stitch etc.
How does the way in which
you break up an area affect the piece? What options do you have?
Take time to consider
grids, strata, horizons, cruciforms and diagonals as spatial tools.
Design without designing!
No skill required! Patterns and forms from an original inspiration will develop
easily and naturally giving shapes and forms which are ready to take forward
into freely stitched embroideries and quilt designs. A great method for those less
confident with drawing.
Creative response playing cards
Playing Chinese Whispers
with your original inspiration.
Transform the original design ideas in a series
of quick sketches, then build a new piece based on one or more of the patterns which result from your sketches.
To see takes time
An effective and
achievable method for transforming a favourite image of a landscape, flower,
tree, seed pods etc. into a painted, printed, appliquéd and stitched panel
which is fantastically effective and helps you work towards abstraction whilst
retaining the essential qualities of the image which attracted you in the first
place.
You will spend a short time looking at the main lines your image has and
the textures then you will develop these using practical, maybe slightly messy,
fun techniques such as image transfer, felting, painted transfer adhesive and
painted fabrics and stitch.
No, it’s not your eyesight
going, this piece really will be out of focus!
When you look at a flower
or other detailed, macro image, your eyes and mind are drawn to only some
aspects of it, perhaps the stamens at the centre of the flower, or the markings
on the leaves, or the texture of a seedhead etc. When you take a photograph of
this, the detailed focus in areas of the scene which your mind has taken is
lost.
We will take an image of a
flower or flowers and by painting our fabric background in a soft focus,
blurred style, then by adding pertinent details in a combination of hand and/or
machine stitch we will draw the viewers attention to only those details which
attracted you to the image to start with.
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