Evaluation.

I am really pleased at how this project has gone, it has worked out better for me than the other two projects because I guess everyones more comfortable in the space now and can use the workshops at their will. In comparison to the other projects this one I have found a lot more engaging, I havent had a stage this term where I have really been stuck and I have almost always known which direction I was headed in next. I am pleased that keeping my sampling to only 2 real mediums, has just directed myself and has focused my work and allowed me to produce more detailed and better quality samples. I feel that this project is probably the only project that I feel I could really move on further if I had extra time. It would be interesting to explore with embroidery on top of the devore, combining my sampling, also if i had longer before the exhibition it would be fun to produce a whole installation within Hotspur exploring my concept. Perhaps acquiring furniture and creating a space someone could enter and feel the idea rather than just viewing it. Perhaps setting up a mini living room of the mill owners with accesories that have been worked into with little bits of the workers lives and stories coming into. Areas that werent as beautiful as they should have been because the workers have made their mark.....this is food for thought for the future. Im pleased with the amount I have created in the weeks given, and the concept I have touched on, but again there is a broader spectrum to potentially explore in the future.

Most Succesful Devore.

Devore Results.

Im pleased with how these have turned out, even though the blog deadline is today im going to continue sampling over the next week in order to be able to choose the best for the exhibition.

I am particularly pleased with how the finger print design has developed, even though my concept is not obvious with the one sample, when combined all together i think my ideas will come across well to the viewer.

Im planning on hanging my samples from within a cubby hole in Hotspur, it was really important for me to use Hotspur as my exhibition space, the fact that my work will be hung around the crusty and broken down walls will show my work off better in the environment that my idea originally came from.

I want people to be able to feel the concept im trying to show, and to understand it through the collectiuon of my ideas and my sampling.

More Devore.

Ive just been continuing my devoreing today in order to bulk up my exhibition samples. I felt that my original red devore sample length was succesful it would look good as a pair for the exhibition, so using the mahogany brown length Ive decided to do another one with the blocked out squares acting as 'photographs'. The green one you can see behind ive experimented with the finger print idea of the names of the workers. It wouldve posed too difficult to write the names of each individual worker so i decided to use a dot like formation symbolising a fingerprint (identity) and then for the exhibition display i will layer it with an actual asatate with the names of the spinners from Hotspur, and this will hopefully be a subtle way to explain my concept.

Layering is particularly important to display my concept, it symbolises the build up of Hotspur itself, all of my materials are very symbolic, the fact that asatate is see through links back to workers being looked through and not really seen/poor working conditions within the mill. Using Devore as a medium, physically is taking away the pile of the velvet which is symbolic in the way that i'll use my photos and have workers coming through the fabric, almost as if they were coming through into the family home. Velvet a rich and expensive fabric for the mill owners, being eaten away slowly.

Life Drawing.

Booked in to go life drawing this morning, there wasnt many that arrived so it was quite nice to get some personal teaching. We started by doing a warm up drawing with charcoal on the ends of long bamboo sticks. To start we layed lining paper on the floor  about 4 metres long and the model walked up and down beside us and we just put line to paper and created some beautiful organic drawings. The style of drawing was very Matisse, the shapes were simple and energetic, after the excercise you could really get a sense of a figure moving across the length of paper. The longer 50minute pose i chose to complete in charcoal, I used a page in my sketchbook that had been stained by some of the dye i had been using previously, it was nice to pull in a little of my current project and to work on top of a pigment getting a layered affect, the drawing ended up having a little more to it.

Going Life drawing wasnt particularly relevant to my project, but its just a good way to touch base with your skills and keep practicing. Drawing is so key and really helps get set up for the day to carry on working creatively.

Last Tutorial. 15th. Exhibition Plan.

Ok so, during the tutorial today i discussed with Mark my final ideas for the exhibition........with the exhibition private view being next friday.....its getting stressful!

My project has mainly been about cumulating ideas, gathering history and interpreting the concept within different materials. Reflecting the idea of the mill owners and mill workers within parts of their potential house, the devore has allowed me to explore my concepts. I like the idea of having the millowners fabric hanging, with subtle images or references to the factory workers coming through behind the material. Or directly devoring into the millowners fabric references to the workers.

For my final exhibition i think my work can only really be presented as an accumulation of my ideas, so the viewer can interpret  the gathered information in their own way. I'm going to hang and layer my sampling, initial imaging and devore in a visually satisfying way to the viewer. In order for my work to come across to the viewer the way i want it to, and the ideas to unveil themselves.........

Devore Outcomes.



Experimenting with layering. Devore and asatate images transferred from original embroidery sample.



During the extra 2 weeks we have to finalise everything for the exhibition after the hand in, i plan to complete mooore devore, hand doing it is taking a long time, but thats the effect i want, i want to put in the time to create beautiful samples. My first devore went well! i had to change all of the writing back to front which was challenging........but it looks good, i started on another larger sample, i wanted to do a design that would remove more of the pile, just so it would have more of a delicate look. Im half way through so i will upload a photo soon with the result!

Devore.

The velvet dried beautifully! The colours worked so well, im really glad i dyed the fabric up myself, its been left with a reallly nice appearance much nicer than if i had of bought the fabric preoviously dyed. ITs older looking, mixing the colours has added subtle tones that i think reflect the age of how i want the fabric to look. After my dyed samples of silk/velvet dried i began devoreing today. Its not a quick process.........and writing is particularly hard as i have to turn it around so it will be the right way when i heat it.......

Not sure how i feel about my first sample have to fully develop it first!

DYE LAB.

Yesterday after buying a metre of silk velvet (at an expense!!) i vowed i would go into the dye lab and dye it up myself. Looking back through my research i honed in on 5 main colours, a rich green (limey), Deep red, Mahogany brown and a mink. Whilst in the dye room the best bolours were the green, red and brown so i went with these and dyed up some bigger samples. Im gonna start devoreying later........ I messed around with some of the dyes and experimented with dip dying and creating my own thing. Mixing thecolours etc. just a little bit of freestyle and it doesnt look bad. theyre drying now.

Gonna pop to the Manchester Art gallery at 3, as i havent been yet and need to have a look at what they have.

SOUTHSIDE HOUSE

My plan for ages was to go down to London to visit Southside house so i can use it as a setting for 'my family' the mill owners to live in. I was blown away by how beautiful it was, the family who still own it dont like to think of it as a museum at all. Youre allowed to touch everything and sit on the chairs, which made it a more real life experience, i could respond more to how they wouldve lived and walked around the house because i felt like I was at home as well. Southside had such a nice feel about it, really warm and welcoming, usually with old houses they can feel quite hostile and spooky but this one was the complete opposite. We had a wonderful guide who spoke about the house as if she was a storyteller repeating the vast history of the place, in particular paying reference to the family itself which i was particularly interested in. Regarding the furniture and surroundings I loved the expanse of the fabrics and materials used. Its audacious and cared for. The family havent held back. Money has been spent on luxury and plush interiors. Its great to look at and im so interested in interiors it was great.  They had recently opened up an old louis Vuitton trunk from the basement, following this theyve set up a small costume room where they have displayed the beautiful couture handmade garments that were found in the trunk. Hilda and her daughter Anne wouldve worn these in previous times.

It was great to come across the many rooms and vast stages of the house, 'the breakfast room', 'the dining room', 'the powder closet' 'the library', it was interesting to see how the other half lived.



Postcards bought from the house, 'looking into the garden', 'the hall' and 'the library'



The house was originally bought by Hilda, the daughter of 'John Pennington Mellor' a cotton dealer (which links in nicely with my idea of using this house as if im telling a story) she used it mainly as a base to bring up her children. she wasnt fully trusting of her husband Axel who was 20 years her senior and very charismatic, so the tour leader thinks she bought it as a little bit of security for her family. and it has just been passed down through the generations. The decor is audacious and not subtle, Hilda's children Malcom and John have crassly tried to re do some of the paint work to keep their mother happy, Its nice how its a personal house, it makes it so much easier to relate to.

I have discussed previously but i really want to use silk velvet and devore to sample with. I just think this will really relate to the research i have collected, and its a good medium of expressing my ideas. On the overhang of the bed in 'the Queens bedroom' it was thick embroidered velvet. beautifully presented. i want to experiment with this material but expressing my own concepts, drawings and ideas within the fabric. For example having the names of workers seeping through the fabric, or faces revealing themselves in the delicacy. Its almost like a contradiction, using the plush millowners fabrics from theitr lifestyle and having the workers and Hotspur gradually seeping through.........

Tutorial 1st May

Having the tutorial this morning really helped clarify my orginal ambitions, im off to London tomorrow to see 'Southside House', chatting with the group has encouraged me to focus on what i am going to see tomorrow. im going to grab another disposeable camera and take as many atmospheric pictures as possible. i wanted to fully interrogate the house has its my only chance before the end of the project. I can imagine this house as being where the family 'mill owners' used to own and have a life in. It'll be interesting to use my imagination and see the family wandering around the house. Hope everything goes to plan! i want to also get to Goldhawk road as well in order to pick up some good quality silk velvets, undyed and dyed. Devore i think will be a great way to push my sampling and experiment with my idea, i love the thought of the process and burning away the fabric leading to creating and revealing different identities and history. Its the fact that different areas of the story will slowly be being revealed....through this process.

Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae

Rebecca Heather Nokes

Date of Birth: 11/04/1992

Contact Numbers:  Home:- 01342-834530

                                  Mobile: - 07826546627

Email: beccie.n@live.co.uk

Education History

September 1995 – July 2003:- Lingfield Primary School (general all round subjects)

September 2003 – July 2005:- Stonar Girls school and Equestrian centre (general all round subjects for years seven and eight.)

September 2005 – July 2010:- Woldingham Girls School (Year nine entry, all subjects studied)

September 2010 – May 2011:- Chelsea College of Art and Design, Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, 1 year full time.

September 2011 – July 2014:- Manchester Metropolitan University, BA Degree ‘Textiles in Practice’  3 years full time

GCSE Grades:-   

o   History – B

o   Maths – A

o   English Literature – B

o   Science (part 1 Biology, Chemistry and Physics) – A

o   Art – A*

o   Drama – A

o   R.E – B

o   German – B

o   English Language – A

o   Additional science (part 2 Biology Chemistry and Physics) – B

                                                                                       

Qualifications:-  

o   Cycling Proficiency award

o   Duke of Edinburgh’s award (Bronze) from September 2006 – December 2007

o   UK Driving Licence

AS and A2 Results:-

o   Fine Art – A

o   Art Textiles - A

o   Business Studies - B

o   English Literature (AS) – C

Foundation Diploma in Art and Design : – Merit.

Previous Employment:-

- An assistant childminder at the ‘Edenbrook’ children’s nursery in Lingfield. 

- Volunteer work at ‘The Monica Cantwell Trust’, in Lingfield for just over 6 months. It was used as part of my Duke of Edinburgh’s service section.

-  Part time employee at ‘Oxted Interiors Limited’ – Saturday job. Started in September  2008-June 2011

- Current Part time employee with ‘AYS - At Your Service’

- Casual employee for ‘COWES week 2011’ Fosters Beer tent, Bar staff. 

- Current Part time Suervisor for 'FRURT' Frozen Yogurt, Manchester.

Interests:-

o   Gymnastics

o   Horse riding

o   Fine Art and Textiles

o   Athletics

o   Trampolining    

Personality:-

I’m an interactive person and not shy. I enjoy work and am a hard worker; I have good people skills and can communicate well. I can create good relationships with people and have a wide selection of skills. I have had a well rounded, good education and am computer literate. I love being around different people every day and have an aptitude for learning quickly.  I especially enjoy a packed schedule, I love being busy and enjoy the thrill of being hard work.

Blogging Task, Re-posted from Sampling blog

When initially being given the brief I did think it was rather broad, it allowed us to choose an area to explore freely. However looking back, if it was more specific I probably would have found it easier. Then again, this would not have been quite so much of a challenge.

I initially started with three opposites, ‘Delicacy: Crude’, ‘Tiny: Massive’, ‘Deliberate: Coincidence’. A mistake I made in the beginning was sourcing a lot of my visuals and inspiration from books, I chose images I like because of the juxtaposition they held when put together, however when Christmas came I still was hanging onto these images and I have found it hard to move on with my own work. Admittedly I should of thrown myself into my work at Christmas and not put it to one side, I sort of ‘fell out’ of the flow and this term I have found it hard to get back into it.

Within the project, so far I feel that I have managed to experiment with more of the university’s facilities. Within ‘Sleuths, Spies and Lies’ being new to Manchester and the university I wasn’t confident in the space or place I was living. This project however I have expanded my knowledge, I rented an SLR camera from the AV store, worked out printing onto tracing paper and acetate, discovered the Whitworth gallery and the Manchester Museum. I also have been better at gathering relevant materials. I have put to use the practices I have learnt in the embroidery workshop making relevant samples to my work. I do need to be more conscious and aware of time, I feel I have let myself down by not throwing myself into my project over Christmas, I would feel stronger within it if I had done so.

Selecting intermediate embroidery has allowed me to use the machine as a tool for drawing. In my project, it is incredibly important that I explore the detailing and opposites within the face, enlarging these and working with the machine has been crucial. I have also been able to explore further areas of embroidery such as, the princess pleater which has only strengthened my project.

I have come to a particular sticky area within my project, I have needed to hone in my ideas and edit my workings. Within my sketchbook, you can see my progression, but sometimes I feel my mind is moving much faster than my sketchbook, and I get lost. I have managed to move on from my original opposites and I have narrowed down my focus to just the opposites within the face.  I felt that my colour palette was not working; I needed to eliminate the reds and oranges and just stick to neutrals, as my work was much stronger. I also need to collect my sampling, really focus on the best qualities, and push forward with those. Elimination and direction is key now.

Gathering all my samples I can tell the qualities that are relevant and that I have been looking for within my project. I have been much more selective with materials and meticulous with processes within the second project. If I were to start again I would have been more focused on what the project was actually about, I would have pinpointed a topic rather than chosen such a broad outlook. I thought it would create more options of sampling but it has only made it harder to focus.

I have really realised the need to throw myself into a project and not forget about it for a period, I made that mistake over Christmas, it has set me back but I will not make it again.

mix up of observational drawing, cut up asatate images and drawings of sampling. All in response to my subject.

exploring the contours and lines of the face through drawing.

observational study of enveloping fabrics in order to reflect the lines created within the face through age.

Experimentation with photoshop on primary image, opposite of fresh, younger skin below

 

experimentation with cropping the face to show intensity on certain areas. and focus.

Photos and Photocopying

Yesterday i used the morning to start making some textile pieces from my research. In the embroidery room i enjoyed using the pffaf machine and recreating some of the beautiful backs of the photos, it did take me a while but i preduced a really great sample. I will blog a photo as soon as i get to a scanner. I also blew up and played around with the my family photos, it brought out some really interesting colours and shapes. Messing around with the reality of the scale of the photos brought out some new ideas. I experimented with tracing and asatate as well. Great results.

Tutorial 24th April

Carrying on from the idea of creating a Fictional story of the mill owners of Hotspur back in the day. I managed to resource some pictures from throughout the Victorian era of my own family. 'The Cottrells', some of the photos are just exquisite, the colours, smell, scale. Some photos are stunning for the wrong reasons, one of them is blurry, but the edging around the image is beautiful, the blurrs show movement and the photo isnt as 'snapshotty' or posed as some of the others. During the tutorial we dicussed that the qualities of that photo link to gerard Richter's work, the way he uses the gelatine to pull the paint across and blur the image. We also discussed my need for scale, some of the backs of the photos are more interesting than the fronts, blowing these up i can look into working with the backs and devoring them rather than a more difficult and complex full image. I need to look outside the box, dont overlook some areas, i could use edges of photos as inspiration and negative space as well for the Devore. I'm going to order online fromWhaleys some cheaper silk velvet, rather than shop bought.

Manchester 19th Century Housing

After visiting the Visual Resources centre i knew that it was a must that i go back and rummage through the slides myself to see what i came across. By doing this i ended up riffling through the section 'Manchester 19th century - Housing'. Some of the housing slides were beautiful, i picked out a few and John scanned them in and sent them to me so i could document them in my sketchbook. Just seeing the photos from the time, the crumbling exterior of the houses made it all real again, people actually had lives within these homes all htose years ago.

It made me think about creating an almost 'fictional' project, i want to create a story of either a worker of Hotspur, or the mill owners. Almost 'fake' follow/create a life for people, based on real investigation. So i have booked to go down to London next week in order to visit this Victorian house 'Southside House'. My friend documented it in one of her a levels. Its a house in Wimbledon that has simply been left, and looked after from the Victorian Era. Its grand and ornate, i think (without predicitng which way i will  be heading) it may become the house in which my 'Mill owners' will own and live in. I hopefully will get inspired from decor, interiors, colours and furniture, and therefore be able to move forward away from my research and into a more textile based way of working. the technique of Devore i think may be on the cards.

The Old Workers

From all my research the most interesting thing for me was the old directories of Manchester. Yesterday I went back to the library and photocopied pages out of the directory to get names of cotton industry workers, and investigate other professions. Names, the idea of working with actual identities excites me. I also popped up to the 'Special Collections' in which i found a book titled '19/55' its a 'Slade school of Art' post graduate Sculpture collective, they created a print portfolio of the 2009 graduates work, including altogether 34 artists work. Within this book was one piece that in particular grabbed my attention, it was a finger print design, but it was actually made up of words, overlapping and interlocking. I loved the simplicity of this image and working with the finger print as a form of identity.

At the moment I am experimenting with the idea of mixing the finger print, with the names and identities of workers. Potentially creating a story.

Town Hall Architecture and Atmosphere

At a bit of a loose end....in desperate need of some inspiration. I went to Manchester town hall. Its Victorian Gothic archictecture is beautiful. the atmosphere inside was overwhelming, vast rooms and ornate interior decor made me feel slightly insignificant. Designed by architect Alfred Waterhouse Its a grade 1 listed building and was one of the most expensive buildings ever contracted in England. It was completed in 1877. Rumour has it, the foundations were built on top of cotton bails, during the booming cotton industry in Victorian Manchester. This doesnt directly link to my project but being stuck i guess researching around the area im looking at has helped me get back on track. Drawing always helps reboost my inspiration.

Museum of Science and Industry. - Furthering Research

I didnt realise that the Museum of Science and Industry held all of the old machinery used in the cotton making process. It was enlightening to go down and introduce myself with how vast the machinery was that would of been held and used daily in hotspur. The scale of the machines was crazy! I managed to source a book from the local collections area of the library called 'Mirth in the Mill' - the gradely world of Sam Fitton. It explains in depth each area of the mill for example 'the millworkers day' 'the spinning room' 'child labour' etc. It has given me an all round knowledge of what it would have been like to be working or in that environment in the 18th century. The Museum of Science and Industry however also had an underground manchester part, using my disposeable cameras to document i have a very eerie picture of what would have been the underground bricked tunnels of manchester. Creepy.

Victorian Directories.

I was made aware after visiting the Visual Resources centre that the library held past documents of Manchesters history. I found old Directories that document all of the merchants and manufacturers in 1808 and 1809. The book was so crunchy and smelt of must and age, it was great! Just investigating and reading about the inhabitants of Manchester in that period made it all very real. Its exciting to imagine life going on years ago,and when its documented in a book in front of your eyes its sinks in. This project is real. I also managed to find some old ordance survey maps and i have pin pointed Hotspur House in my sketchbook. Then 'Medlock Mill'. Im intrigued mainly about the names documented in the Directory, i want to see if i can find any REAL workers of 'medlock mill' and perhaps start drawing on their individual lives. Further my investigation with actual names. Identify actual people.

'Hotspur' - The History of the Workers'

Entering into Hotspur for the first time was exciting and fresh. I felt there was a certain atmosphere within the building, so much history was being held within the cracks in the bricks. I needed to concentrate on the history of the building when looking at the 'old and new' title.

For me the first 3 weeks were crucial for research about Hotspur itself. An 18th century cotton mill, all i could do was visualise the workers and their lives. I could imagine all of them working, the massive machinery and the noise. I had an idea to look at the workers and their lives, the lifestyles, the housing, architecture, their families, fabrics of the time. Potentially look into a personal story of one of the workers.

Drawing and using a disposeable camera helped me document my findings. Some of my disposeable images are beautiful the way they have turned out. Really honeing in on areas of hotspur and revealing the 'gubbins'. It looks abandoned and derelict. Beautiful markings on the walls and the colours developing is extraordinary.



Looking up through a skylight. Hotspur House.



David Hockney

The David Hockney exhibition 'a Bigger Picture' is on at the RA from jan 21 - apr 9th. If you get a chance over easter to visit London, definitely go.

Honestly i think its one of the best exhibitions i have ever seen, purely because of the profilic way Hockney works. His addiction to detailing the landscape and analysing it through paint is incredible. He studied at the Royal College of Art in 1959 - 62, moved to Los Angeles for a period of time, and settled back to his Yorkshire roots in stints as well. He focuses on representation of space, seasonal changes, representing the natural world and pictorial space. He uses a lot of 'artistic licence' within his work and often has worked from memory within the studio, as well as observation in the landscape.

You cannot question whether or not Hockney knows the Yorkshire landscape well, because its clear from the sheer amount of work he has produced. That he has literally devoted his entire career to explaining it to the viewer through paint. I admire his colour palette and style, for a relatively 'old' painter he works in incredibly modern ways, the vibrant colour is placed almost 'haphazardly' on the canvas. In some instances almost childlike.

In recent times he has begun using his ipad as a drawing tool, and has dispersed with his sketckbook for the timebeing, i personally am not sure what to make of this. Will this be the future for all artists?.......

I admire the fact that he creates his own work and doesnt subcontract his work out. He also still owns a vast amount of his own work. I think this proves hes genuine.........not really it in for the money, its a true devotion.