Week 6 - Tue 18/10/11 Glue and Cloth Part II

Following on from last week, our structure had dried and we cut the material off from the chairs. I was surprised that some areas had actually gone rock hard and moulded around parts of the chairs, which I was pleased about.

This is our structure just thrown on the mannequin. You can see that some areas of our tights/ mutton cloth has moulded around the shape of the chairs.

We then started experimenting with our structure. I really like the neckline we created and the bit jutting out on the left hand side.

The back view is a bit boring in comparison.

Again, using the same neckline but changing the bottom half and the back.

The back is very dramatic, much better than the last design.

The side view, to show how the mannequin doesn't determine the shape of the structure. I like the bits of material jutting out, not even touching the mannequin.

We then started to cut up our structure to create something different.

I really like the black piece of material that covers the chest and curves around the neck. The glue makes it stand up by itself. I also like the area on the left hand side on the hip. It's very different to the thicker parts of material.

We then used the rest of the material that we cut away and gathered it around the waist.

After looking at everyone else's mutton cloth and tights sculpture, I decided that if I were to do this exercise again, I would like to try and use just a big piece of mutton cloth. I was disappointed with how the tights performed and other people's work where they had used just mutton cloth were a lot better in my opinion. The mutton cloth sculptures remind me of  Lamija Suljevic's work. The knitwear looks very similar to the mutton cloth and is very sculptural.

Week 5 - Tue 11/10/11 Glue and Cloth Demonstration

 Today we were told to use 1 chair, or more if we liked, to create an interesting sculpture.

To protect them, we then covered them with cling film. This also created some interesting forms over and around the chairs.

Once the entire sculpture was covered, we then began to drape and stretch our mutton cloth and tights over the sculpture.

We then covered the sculpture with a generous amount of watered down PVA glue, paying attention to corners and curves. 

This is our finished outcome, still dripping wet with glue. We spent the rest of the lesson drawing our sculpture and other peoples. Next week we will be putting these on the mannequin.

I found similarities between Bryce Aime's work and to the sculpture that we made today. His work is very sculptural and I imagine that when we take the tights and mutton cloth off of the mannequin, in places it will form a cocoon around the body.

Our sculpture also reminded me of a spiders web. In the photo above a group of artists created this giant spiders web using sellotape.

Week 4 - Tue 4/10/11 Rule Based Art Large Scale

Following on from last weeks lesson, we used our rule based art shapes and enlarged them to paper A0 size. 

This is just one of my shapes on the mannequin.

I then cut out another one of my shapes and joined it to my first shape on the mannequin.

Then my friend and I joined our two shapes together on the table, folding and interlocking it together, and then placed it over the mannequin.

Then we took our two shapes off the mannequin and squashed it all up. Funnily enough, this became my favourite, and in my opinion, our best piece. We created a hooded bodice which looks especially great from the back.

This was a good session experimenting with different forms avoiding the natural figure, similarly to Japanese fashion where they create a cacoon around the body.

After today's lesson I went and researched Martin Margiela and felt that his work was similar to some of the shapes I created today.

Week 3 - Tue 27-09-11 Rule Based Art

We were each given a different shape that we had to manipulate and transform using rules. My shape was a square and I used these 3 rules; remove a semi circle, add a semi circle, add a triangle.

Though my rules were very basic, after repeating them 3 times my shape had transformed into something very interesting that I couldn't have come up with by drawing it freehand from my head.

I then cut out my 2D shapes and folded them in on themselves to create interesting 3D sculptural shapes.

Week 2 - Tue 20-09-11 - Making patterns on the stand

We began by wrapping the mannequin in paper and securing with sellotape, making sure it was skin tight and clung to every curve. Then in our groups we worked together to create style lines, taking into account where on the body seams are needed. We ignored the standard side and centre back seams completely. Our design incorporated cut-outs, a low back, an asymmetric neckline and spider web styled seams.

In part 2 of the session we removed the paper from the stand and cut out our pattern pieces, added seam allowance and labelled them accordingly. We then put them back together in their original places. Next, we rearranged the pattern pieces to create a completely new design that didn't cling to the body.

I really enjoyed this session and it opened my eyes to a completely different approach to pattern cutting. I've done pattern cutting for 4 years and I thought it was a really good way to get people who know nothing about pattern cutting to understand it.