AWA

Final Statement Summary

REVIEW OF FINAL MAJOR PROJECT (FMP)

Student Name: Amaka Anyimukwu               Pathway:F&T foundation

Final Major Project Title: Attachment within Addiction

You will need to submit this evaluation with your full project hand in

1. Briefly describe the final outcome of your project and the progress you have made, and if applicable how it differs from your original Project Proposal:

My 8 week project for the FMP was Attachment within Addiction with my end final piece being one full garment for menswear, with a photo shoot and a short film. In the essence of my project as a whole I feel that I have learnt a lot on the course and really have broadened my way of working. I feel that I have learnt skills that before I would not have been able to do, such as making a full garment, as I would have to say my sewing skill before were not the best. In the essence of my work I have slowly started to move away from my comfort zone to explore more ideas that wouldn’t first cross my mind. I believe through this project I have also learnt to self critique if I wasn’t doing a particular thing right, revolving in alteration until I am completely confident with what I have done.

2. What methods have you used to show how your learning has effected your project eg FMP Blog/ FMP Plan/ sketchbooks etc, and how has this helped with development of your work:

I was very pleased with how my final piece turned out and I feel that I have made a lot of progress and have learnt so much during my project, plus managing my time using the FMP planner timetable really worked for me as through the project I didn’t feel as though I was falling behind or having to rush due to lack of time; I was able to work strictly to my planner which allowed my project to go by smoothly.  Through the FMP plan research was something that was a strong point for me in this project as I allowed myself a lot of time to fully explore my theme and to really dive in deep to gathering ideas that I wouldn’t originally think of first hand, and as before my research wasn’t practically my strong point so I was very pleased that I focused more upon it which also made my sketchbook flow more and displayed a much more clearer concept.

3. List the targets met (from the original FMP Plan and any that were added later):

Time management when creating my garment was something that too went smoothly as I was able to plan out exactly how many days needed to make it so I didn’t end up spending too long or a little amount of time to make it which resolved in me taking my time to make it causing little to no mistakes in the making. I hope to take these with me in my future course of managing my time well and really developing further my ideas. Sewing button holes, sleeves, and trousers is one of the many skills that I have grasped during my project as well as having the awareness to develop and explore colours, making that a priority when designing a piece. Nonetheless there are still aspects I hope to continue at and get better, which would include design development in more depth as I still feel the urge to rush into a design without considering the extension of structure and shape which could affect the way my final garments are made, causing similar final garments.  My pattern cutting skills is something that I too need to practice, as I am unable to really go outside the box if my pattern cutting skills are minor.

4. Reflecting on your overall final major project, please discuss any developments which have contributed to the final outcome:

When starting my FMP I originally wanted to focus upon very intense, vibrant neon colours as going through my research the vibrant colours is what attracted me the most and I felt lured in by its striking appearance; however as my project went on, I had struggles coming to terms with how the neon colours would blend together as a whole piece, as I began to feel a little unsure with the whole idea of using colours so bold. In terms to my project I also felt that it didn’t really relate, especially when my project began to turn quite personal and more so looking into self-esteem and youth, it just didn’t seem to work for me anymore resolving in a change of colour.

5. Please state what advice you received from others during your FMP, and discuss what you found particularly useful: you should refer to group reviews, one-to-one tutorials and feedback from evaluation groups

During my group reviews I was told by my tutor that my project initially was not personal enough and it seemed that ‘addiction’ seemed to only be based around others lives or in the general rather than my own life, which I could understand where he was coming from. This is when I decided to look into obesity due to my lack of self- esteem, and layers of skin with the use of fabric samples and looking into an artist called Jenny Saville this brought my attention to skin tones and the way the colours change within mood and each stage of the skin which I found very fascinating, making me divert my colour scheme towards nude colours and delicate pinks.

6. Key points to take away – things to change about my approach (give at least 2) eg improve time management, what skills you have developed and how this will affect your future course/career and things to continue doing and to build on (give at least 2). What are you going to do next year? (NOTE – you may find it useful to refer to this document at the beginning of your next self managed project.

During the project I have been much more careful with my time, and have been able to mange my days well and keep strictly to my schedule. I feel this will affect my future course as I will be able to work according to deadlines and not fall behind or run out of time. Thinking into more depth of future projects will also be something that is my priority as well as focusing on research for future projects. As I enjoyed doing menswear so much I feel that next year I will be moving on to do a full menswear course.

                                                                       

Final major Project

AWA

Final Statement

My 8 week project for the FMP was Attachment within Addiction with my end final piece being one full garment for menswear, with a photo shoot and a short film. In the essence of my project as a whole I feel that I have learnt a lot on the course and really have broadened my way of working. I feel that I have learnt skills that before I would not have been able to do, such as making a full garment, as I would have to say my sewing skill before were not the best. In the essence of my work I have slowly started to move away from my comfort zone to explore more ideas that wouldn’t first cross my mind. I believe through this project I have also learnt to self critique if I wasn’t doing a particular thing right, revolving in alteration until I am completely confident with what I have done.

Sewing button holes, sleeves, and trousers is one of the many skills that I have grasped during my project as well as having the awareness to develop and explore colours, making that a priority when designing a piece. Nonetheless there are still aspects I hope to continue at and get better, which would include design development in more depth as I still feel the urge to rush into a design without considering the extension of structure and shape which could affect the way my final garments are made, causing similar final garments.  My pattern cutting skills is something that I too need to practise, as I am unable to really go outside the box if my pattern cutting skills are minor. Nevertheless I am very pleased with how my final piece turned out and I feel that I have made a lot of progress and have learnt so much during my project, plus managing my time using the FMP planner timetable really worked for me as through the project I didn’t feel as though I was falling behind or having to rush due to lack of time; I was able to work strictly to my planner which allowed my project to go by smoothly.  Through the FMP plan research was something that was a strong point for me in this project as I allowed myself a lot of time to fully explore my theme and to really dive in deep to gathering ideas that I wouldn’t originally think of first hand, and as before my research wasn’t practically my strong point so I was very pleased that I focused more upon it which also made my sketchbook flow more and displayed a much more clearer concept. Time management when creating my garment was something that too went smoothly as I was able to plan out exactly how many days needed to make it so I didn’t end up spending too long or a little amount of time to make it which resolved in me taking my time to make it causing little to no mistakes in the making. I hope to take these with me in my future course of managing my time well and really developing further my ideas.

When starting my FMP I originally wanted to focus upon very intense, vibrant neon colours as going through my research the vibrant colours is what attracted me the most and I felt lured in by its striking appearance; however as my project went on, I had struggles coming to terms with how the neon colours would blend together as a whole piece, as I began to feel a little unsure with the whole idea of using colours so bold. In terms to my project I also felt that it didn’t really relate, especially when my project began to turn quite personal and more so looking into self-esteem and youth, it just didn’t seem to work for me anymore.

During my group reviews I was told by my tutor that my project initially was not personal enough and it seemed that ‘addiction’ seemed to only be based around others lives or in the general rather than my own life, which I could understand where he was coming from. This is when I decided to look into obesity, and layers of skin with the use of fabric samples and looking into an artist called Jenny Saville this brought my attention to skin tones and the way the colours change within mood and each stage of the skin which I found very fascinating, making me divert my colour scheme towards nude colours and delicate pinks.

I had decided to make this choice as I felt that the colours could represent my garment in a way that really displayed my theme regarding my personal connection to the project. In addition to my fabric choice, which also altered to suit the concept of my project, as initially I explored light fabrics such as silk, chiffon, waterproof, and so on; however when it came to putting the fabrics together they did not work well as a whole as they only seemed to contrast with each other, therefore I decided to go for stretchy nude fabrics as I felt it resembled the look of skin quite nicely without being too heavy and over-powering as I wanted it to press against the models skin like a shield; however I used the outer coat as a way of covering up like our body is more of a burden, therefore needs to be hidden. Nonetheless the different cut outs and the openings within the coat displays my mental process,  as I tend to be in my own world so I get these hallucination and anxiety as though everyone is watching me and they can read me like a book and my shelter is the only thing that can stop everyone from looking.

 In the essence of the padding and heavy covering the reason behind this was through myself not feeling attached to my body, having to live with myself and wishing I could love myself; constantly feeling out of place and not good enough, causing me to be cautious of my surroundings and obsessed with others thoughts on me as pleasing everyone was my priority more over myself, and covering my skin to blend in the sight of the people around me became very important. This is why for the outer coat I wanted it to have a heavy kind of fabric as a way of carrying fears and doubts, with lots of layering to show off my struggles dealing with my own low self-esteem and concealing myself. Another reason as to why I had a great amount of padding within my outer coat was due to my brother passing away as after he died it affected my parents severely to the point where they became too over protective that it might happen again. I felt as though I was being suffocated by them, that I was feeling trapped and babied down like I didn’t get to have control over-myself; constantly being watched and shielded to the point where it just became too much. I felt as though I was being sucked in by their obsessive worrying; slowly watching everyone around me move on with their lives while I am strapped down and cushioned like a child no longer having that freedom to breath, so much so that I kept to myself feeling isolated; gradually watching myself sinking into the saturation of my own protection.       

The bottoms too express my feeling of being babied and isolated. I chose to create a pair of dungarees with some alterations on it and a print of jelly babies. I felt that the jelly babies really suited with what I was trying to get across as I feel that you instantly think of a child when looking at these sweets, also the use of the ‘babies’ just shows the position of being stuck and this kind of fake world. I had chosen to do this as a way of displaying my lack of freedom and being forced to come to terms with my inner child. I felt that dungarees represented an image of innocence like a child. I also felt this strong attachment and obsession with my past and how it has effects my self esteem and lack of control over myself, I felt was due to my brother’s death being so sudden and being so young that no one had the opportunity to adjust to the realisation that he is no longer there so all that’s left is the past and no future, like the past has replaced the present and the future. With the garment as a whole it is very similar to pyjamas with its cosy image shows a representation of being lost with your own mind; attached towards your own thoughts like a baby letting your imagination and fears move you further away from reality.

AWA

Week 8

As our final major project has come to its end I believe that I have learnt a lot on the course and feel very confident in my final piece; disregarding minor technique issues but overall it went quite smoothly.

What I felt was most successful in regards to my project upon ‘Attachment within addiction’ was my final garment. My final piece was very personal to me and I felt that this project allowed me to really open up into my own insecurities and struggles and illustrate that into my work; however if I were to make it again I would probably have changed the fabric of the trousers as I felt it was a little tacky and frayed too much that it made it exceedingly hard to sew them.

Furthermore in the essence of making my garment I felt a lot more developed from when I first started the foundation course and feel a lot more confident to go and make a garment and have more ease in the process where the making goes by with less stress than before. I feel from the project I have gained a lot of sewing skill that before would have been a struggle for me and would be something that I would try and avoid, which was learning how to create button holes, sewing on sleeves, and hoods and padding, and also making trousers; however I do feel that I am not completely adjusted to sewing trousers fully, but I still do think that I am getting there.

In the essence of my final garment I chose to create it with layering, and an explosion of pure, luminous tones that leaves the viewer captivated by its feminine but delicate colours showing a kind of humbleness and purity to the piece. When making the garment I add a lot of layers, consisting of bottoms, an inner top, and a heavy outer top; using the nudes and pinks. I felt that layering was appropriate for this kind of garment as it starts off with rosy colours but switches to nude from the stretchy inner top, which indicates the impression of looking ‘skin deep’ to finding that we are all human despite our protected layers, giving off an impression that we are content and confident in our own skin but I feel with everyone; (and you could have the highest self-esteem) if you look deep enough everyone has their own insecurities and fears, and not even the greatest amount of shielding and cover up support our vulnerability sometimes, so we start to crack and bit by bit we become bare to our own doubt as our nerves and anxiety get the better of us; slowly eating away at us as we stand helpless; feeding on our fears. 

Like the innocence and free-spirit of a child; clueless to their surroundings and reliant on others we try to rely on something else as our own insecurities restrict us from relying on ourselves so we would find other means of finding that reassurance and peace from someone or something else in replacement of our self-positivity. This resolves in us becoming obsessed and fully attached to that one thing that will make us, even feel just that little bit good and will give us worth, so we drain ourselves with it and become a child, falling vulnerable and imprisoned by the very thing we think is keeping us safe and cushioned we let it deceive and control us as we stay naive to its harms and the fact that it’s doing no good for us as it stops us from have self control or to actually think for ourselves without our addictions doing the thinking for us; spoon feeding  our pride like a baby. 

AWA

Week 8 Day 5

After the shoot I wanted to have a film on the side with my photo shoot. I choose to do a film as I felt it would be a good idea to see the movement of the garment on someone and to just see it from all angles rather than just a still frame. This meant that I needed to plan my storyboard and the setting of where I wanted my film to be.

When it came to the filming I choose this section in my Uni building that kind of looked like an alleyway. I felt the setting would be great for my theme as it was very simple but very effective at the same time and showed off this kind of enclosed space as if the walls were closing in with my model becoming trapped within his surroundings. I also liked the colour of the setting and felt that it really meshed well with the model and the garment.

As it was a small space instead of a flat white wall this allowed for me to move around more and film my model from different angles without it looking a bit peculiar. The lights in the setting, I felt was a great touch as it added more depth to the garment; blossoming the colours. Nonetheless as it was a small space this made filming my model extremely difficult as there wasn’t much room to move around, or to get many far out shots, so if I were to redo the film I would most likely find a bigger area; not to say that the look of the area wasn’t good it was simply down to lack of space.

Another issue that I found when filming was the short clips where quite shaky even though I was very careful to not move my camera around a lot but for it to be still would be close to impossible when filming by hand instead of using a tripod which is why for the future I would make a tripod my essential, but overall, despite some of the flaws I felt that the clips were very successful with my level of filming.

As I wanted it to be a short film I made sure that I made the clips brief; giving each up to 2 to 3 seconds and showing key parts within the short seconds.

When it came to the editing of my film I had a friend help me with that, as editing wasn’t my specialty but in my opinion it went very well and I think that the film turned out very well.   

  Behind the scenes of Filming 

 The making of the film

AWA

Week 8 Day 5

As it’s the last week of our final major projects and we have come to the end of making our full garments in this week we spent the whole day photographing our final pieces as a way of finalizing our work.

As I was doing menswear yet using bright, blossoming colours I felt that a white back drop would be the most suitable for my garment in terms of making my garment stand out, and more so complement the outfit rather than over- powering it in terms to say if I were use the more bolder colours such as black and red, which would take away elements from which my garment has to offer as the colours are very soft and simple it would become lost within the background.

When choosing my model I wanted him to be kind of tanned, beige as I felt that this skin colour would blend well with the piece instead of the two contrasting with each other. I also felt that his kind of skin colour really worked well with the colours of the outfit as I focused on nudes and pinks which suited him very well.

The presentation of my garment showed this kind of childish and playful concept to it as the outfit was quite simple and laid back. I felt my model could really show off this concept as when it came to the shoot he had this kind of innocence and youthfulness to his face, or what really showed in the images; however I felt this allowed the garment to come to life and telling this story of being exposed of our child within but not being able to break from our bonds; strapped down and restricted by our means of safety.

Furthermore for me I felt that the photo shoot went very smoothly once it came round to it, and I found it enjoyable when watching the models physically in the final pieces as it really did impact the appearance of the garments and showed off its structure. At first I wasn’t quite sure what to do when the shoot began; however as more pictures were being taken I could start see what poses I wanted to be achieved in the shoot which would really work with my theme.

Nonetheless I really enjoyed the day and I felt that my images looked amazing, and really presented my theme quite nicely but all in all it was a great experience.

AWA

Week 8

As my project is now drawing to an end this week I have been in the process of make my final piece. For my garment I have all the materials to sew it as well as the digital print pattern. Here I decided to show the step by step for how I made my outer top as for me it was the most difficult to make and took up the most of my time out of all of my pieces as it had the most steps within its making.  

1. I started by making the pattern cut for all of my pieces needed and using it to cut it out on my fabric.

2. I pinned the fabric that I cut out onto my wadding so I could have the same shape to use for the filling.

3. Once pinned I cut the wadding, but I made sure that the wadding was slightly smaller than the fabric to have room to stitch.

4. Once I had it all cut I pinned a slightly thinner fabric which I had pre cut to the same shape, almost so each piece looks like a sandwhich with the two fabrics and the wadding.

5. when everything had been sewed together I used a ruler and put a number of lines through the pieces. This would be used to sew a line through so it has that lumpy effect and the lines are straight. Though I only came up with this idea when it got to the sleeves.

6. Here I have shown myself sewing through the lines.

7. Here I have shown what it looks like when I have sewn all the pieces together.

8. Here I showed the extra pieces that I have added to my outer top so it looks like my designs; focusing upon the straps that i have added.

9. For the other sleeve I had to cut the whole sleeve in half then made it neater by sewing it. I then added on the straps by hand sewing in buttons.

  

AWA

Week 7 Day 5

During this week, and my project slowly beginning to come to its end I had decided to practice making my outer top as this kind of styled top I wasn’t quite familiar with, nor was I sure where exactly to place the complications of my garment.

When doing this I used calico to make my practice piece. I felt that practising this top went very well as I learnt how to add on a hood and how to successfully add sleeves as before it wasn’t something I was completely confident in so I was glad that I was able to learn that. Also learning how to sew a complete piece together with no help from anyone was something I was pleased with as well as I felt that my sewing skills are getting a lot better.

Nonetheless if I were to improve when it comes to make the garment for real I would fix the hood part of my top as I felt that it was slightly wonky and out of proportion when it had been sewed; however when it comes to making it for real I will have one whole front piece and one whole back piece instead of sewing two half’s together.   

I had chosen to do this is I felt that I needed more practise in the essence of my making skills to become more better, plus the outer top that I was making was quite a complex piece to make which meant that it would be best that I practice it before I made it as there would be no doubt that I would make a lot of mistakes if I just rushes straight to making it.

What I hope to do after making my practice garment is getting everything ready for when I make my final piece and be completely confident and to be sure of what exactly I need to do when it gets to that stage so nothing goes wrong. 

AWA

Week 7 Day 4

During this week I made a decision to change the colour for my final piece. When designing my garment I originally wanted to go for neon colours such a bright green, yellow, pink, orange etc. where I had chosen to narrow my colours down to bright sunset yellow and faded pink with a bright tangerine orange; however as my project was starting to become closer to the making and it came to buying the fabrics I came to the realization when I really saw the colours mixed together with the fabrics that these particular colours would not all work together and they do not match, not even in a good way.

When finding this out I felt that my colours need to be more similar to one another so they can complement one another and really stand out as a whole garment rather than each piece of clothing pushing for attention and just contrasting with one another.

Furthermore when it came to thinking about the new colours that I was now going to choose I first thought about which colour I preferred the most out of the colours that I had at that moment in time then find a way to take that one colour and go from there to finding similar colour that would benefit that colour. When choosing the one colour I realized that I really liked the faded baby pink colour that I would be using on the trousers of my final print through the pattern I made. The reason why I liked the colour was I loved the simplicity yet the boldness of colour and the way it showed off my theme really well through the pink complementing the jelly babies and still standing out as its own colour but at the same time still not taking the attention away from the jelly babies. I also liked how it contributes to this kind of old-fashioned look to it like it’s somehow part of the past with the way the colour feels like its fading into the back; disappearing from its own image, or disappearing back into the past. This was something I found captivating about the colour. This led to me choosing pink as my basis colour and basing the other colours around this.     

When it came to the outer top that I would be creating I decided to go for a kind of nude but vibrant pink as I felt that it would really be able to cope with the boldness of the patterned trousers but still contrasting and complementing the pattern at the same time where it just works as one. For the inner top I decided to go for a complete nude, where it would almost match the skin of my model but feeling like it is replacing the models skin. I chose this colour as I did not want the inner top to take the attention away from the outer top and the trousers but more so being used to just complement and add to the outfit rather than competing with the two.   

Nonetheless to narrow it down I had decided to now go with blossomed pinks and nudes as my inspiration is upon obesity and the body as well as my past and childhood this would make more sense.  

AWA

Week 7 Day 2

In this week I wanted to experiment using sweets by doing this I took a visit to my local store to pick up jelly babies. As I was fascinated with the colour and frame of the sweets I wanted to see what it would be like, or if it could still be as interesting if I were to completely melt the jelly babies to see what that would look like. As I melted it I could see that everything was melting down smoothly; however you could still see a few lumps from the reminisces of the jelly baby heads which I found very interesting. Nonetheless when I put it in the freezer it was still the same shape that it was when it had been melted. As I was using this experiment for my digital print I wanted to have an idea of a distinct colour and design that I would be using for the print so this really gave me quite a few ideas and I definitely knew that I wanted to use sweets for my final print since I abolished my previous final print using a repetition of deformed heads; almost like dolls in a pink background with a representation of smudged drugs in the background, nevertheless I found the pattern to have too much going on in it that when it came to having the full garment it would draw too much attention away from the rest of the garment which I did not want. Therefore I decided I wanted my final design to be very simple but still have meaning to it, and relate to my theme but still be interesting to look at. This is when I concluded to carry on the idea of the jelly babies and I found the image and look of the sweets very appealing and captivating and really just draws your attention to the uniqueness of the sweet alone, not to mention that it reminds more a lot of my childhood and would instantly make you think of young children when looking at the sweet compared to other sweets. However I did keep the pink background but slightly altered its colour to a washed out baby pink rather than salmon pink in my previous print design.

I feel that this experiment went very well as it helped me come up with a pattern that I personally felt was a lot more suited to my final garment, also I felt that having the idea to melt the jelly babies actually gave me the idea to edit my jelly babies in a way where it has this smudged, but kind of animated appearance to it rather than looking exactly like it’s image. Making the viewer have to look more into the design to tell that it is jelly babies which I felt was a success. If I were to improve or if I have  time to make my print better I would have worked on adding more life to my jelly babies like their an animation or alive to us like we had the imagination of a child. I would have made the jelly babies interact with each other or made each jelly baby have a different posture to make the print more fun and exciting to look at.

Nevertheless to carry this on in my project I will be getting sample prints to see what the print looks like on different fabrics so I can have the most appropriate fabric for my print when it comes to making my final piece.

I also took a trip to B&Q to pick up some colour cards as I wanted to make sure that I really looked into a great amount of colours to really make a decision on what colours would be the most suitable for my garment and how they would actually work together as one. By taking this trip I explored so many colours and could notice all the different shades just for one individual colour which made me a lot more observant of every detail of a shade and the difference between each one rather than picking a colour as a whole such as saying that I’m just going to choose a ‘yellow’ but more so I am going to choose a ‘mustard yellow’ or a ‘creamy yellow’ makes more of a difference and shows that I have taken the time to think of how a particular shade makes a real difference to a garment then just choosing it by random as that could really affect the outcome of my final piece and even making it appear tacky and random.         

AWA

Week 6 Day 6 

During this week I have been working on a way of looking into my past and my childhood and finding a way to incorporate it into my final piece.

By doing this I decided to take a trip to the store to pick up some teddy bears and sweets, as I feel that, that is what really defines a child through the innocence and softness of a common teddy bear, and the rush and need for sugar that most children go through as if it’s something rare and of a lot of value, or more so wanting what they can’t easily get or are denied. I wanted to play around using this to come up with a captivating and interesting approach to my theme by using this as a way of combining my personal addictions and my past together.

When creating this I put a string through each of the teddy bears and my sweets in a way that it creates a chain (kind of like the chains representing a journey through my life and struggles).

I felt that this experiment went very well as I was able to explore with 3D designing which helps towards coming up with ideas for the structural aspect of my designing and looking into the disproportion of the silhouette which I also found quite interesting.

My reasoning for doing this was originally to create an accessory out of it; however I later realized that having an accessory, or having an accessory like this was not going to work in regards to physically working with my garment or complementing it. I just could not see it working, but I still wanted to add these elements of stuffed animals and sweets into my final piece; this is when I decided, and talking it over with my tutor( as my tutor stated that it was too cliché to use chains.) that it would be more effective if it were to add these elements by using its structure or adding in the idea of the sweets and toys into a digital print/pattern which is what I eventually decided to go forward with, abolishing the chain idea.

If I was to go forward with this idea I would maybe try working with the shapes that have been made through my youth chain and see how those shapes can create a structure in regards to my garment.

AWA

Week 6 Day 5

In this week I have decided to work on the stand by using pillows. As I looked at the words around protection and suffocation I wanted to use the pillows as a shield or a way of tightening around the body like a replacement for skin. By doing this I did a lot of stacking and piling up with the pillows to see what kind of shapes it makes. I feel that this development went really well as I was able to come up with shapes that I wouldn’t originally go for if I were to design it straight. I also liked the structure of the shapes when being piled up and stacked; however if I were to improve, or work into it more I would probably try changing the size and quantity of each pillow and playing around with it to see what kind of shapes that makes. I have chosen to do this as I felt that my design needed to be more thought about and developed as it mostly stayed within one shape.

Looking into my personal addictions as well, and going into my past and childhood I really wanted to look into the thought of being cushioned and sheltered from your surroundings, and having that sense of safety with what we are familiar with but somehow being very vulnerable, puny in the very thing that keeps us sane, secure, therefore making it more so a way of concealing us and strangling us emotionally rather than giving us comfort;  feeling like we are nothing without our amour, like we are naked if we do not receive that attachment/ nurturing, like we are somehow one.

Furthermore in regards to moving on using this throughout my project I will be using the shapes and will be creating a number of rough designs to see how this could potentially look as a garment; by doing this I will alter the shapes and by repeating, rotating, and moving around just to see how it could look when placed in another area as this has been suggested of me to do in by my tutor to explore a new kind of way of designing, and to allow me to get away from my comfort zone of designing only basic shapes which I felt was helpful and really helped me in the essence of my project as I was able to delve more into interesting and exciting potential garment ideas. 

AWA

Week 6 Day 2

During this week I had looked into plastic and filling it up to see what its shape looks like when the bag has reached its complete capacity. When exploring this I looked within the creases that the bag made. I could see that the creases, where the knot was placed was the most noticeable as stuff in the bag press against this not as if the stuff is forcing its way out; in any attempt to be free. It felt as though everything that was in that bag was desperate to get out; only the very knot keeping it all within its enclosed and cramped walls was the one thing stopping its escape. I found this very fascinating as I felt that this links in with addiction, and attachment within addiction as our own addictions somehow are the one thing that prevent us from fully being unrestrained, and this puts a strain on our lives whether we realize this or not we are trapped within our own bags, our own enclosed walls, desperate to get out and forcing are way through until the weight becomes to unbearable to support anymore and that knot stopping us from moving on gradually gets tighter and tighter. This is what I felt when I resembled the two in comparison and felt that it would be fascinating to go forward with in regards to demonstrating my theme of displaying an interesting structure.

I felt that this investigation went very well as I was able to look into structure and exploring what happens to materials when being stretched, pulled and weighed down, and the shape it makes when this is happening. Nonetheless if I were to improve or move further with this idea I would try investigating with other materials/ fabrics and seeing how the stretching and pulling would affect these fabrics and if it would be any different to plastic. I would also try stretching out the bags to see how it could look on a potential garment.

Nevertheless when moving on with my project and researching more I decided I wasn’t going to move further with this idea purely as I felt that the bags was not exciting me much and I felt that it was quite restraint with what I could actually do with it. I felt that it reached its peak of investigation; however I still did find the idea of the creases and stretching interesting so I feel I will still move that idea forward through my project. 

This did however lead me to working on the mannequin using pillow cases and working with twisting and scrunching up to see what kind of silhouette that gives in opposed to the plastic bag as I felt that it was a must better improvement and kind of worked for me in the essence of my theme but some of the elements was still there but in my opinion this one looks a lot more interesting and grabs my attention more so I would probably more go on further with this idea.