Final Major Project | Week Five : Development & Production

The penultimate week of the course, suddenly! A patchwork of design, photography, test printing ― and literal patchwork . . .

Theme of week six in the ‘comfort of creativity’ self-coaching program is ~ Give yourself permission to make what feels right; create without judgement. It’s a challenge with a Final Major Project deadline looming, but I’m sticking with it! What’s been feeling right is to keep exploring a number of things that speak to me: A booklet of the phases of the moon, ‘self compassion’ cards, a ‘comfort blanket’ stitched from fabric I inherited from my mother.

I began the week in a tumble of memories: scraps of material I sorted by colour, texture, meaning before narrowing down my selection for this project. At its heart offcuts from the dress my mother made me when I was about three years old; Soft cottons and silks. I layered photographs in Procreate and played with patterns inspired by mandala shapes. I researched textile artists whose work I saw at the V&A’s quilting exhibition: Jo Budd’s use of colour, the powerful messages of Caren Garfen’s work. Their pieces take months to create ― I have just a week, and nothing approaching their level of skill/experience; so I’m cutting my cloth to suit! Helen Wells’ ‘variation on a theme’ sketchbook tour and discovering Van Gogh’s stunning Mulberry Tree painting inspired me to seek bright vibrant colours contrasting against black and rich blues: hues unusual in quilting. I folded paper to create a pattern before beginning to stitch and layer, continuously revisiting and adjusting as I go along. It’s still in progress . . .

I’ve also been working on some illustrative, print elements. Initially I was thinking along the lines of creating a little booklet of words I find soothing; but as I worked I began to feel they would work better as a set of cards that could be shuffled or laid out. I ordered some A7 eco fleck recycled card stock and test prints are reproducing with a beautiful soft texture. There are nine cards in total, that fall visually into sets of three, unified by the typography in Didot, outlined, white. Initially I experimented with different colours in the type but the text reads out best in white. I wasn’t happy with the busy background or colours in ‘hope’ and was pleased to find this green in my photo archive. The final three cards I designed for ‘soft, gentle and kind’ I used found elements from the garden that I photographed specially, with the design layout in mind, using natural light against a backdrop of the xerox recycled paper that I knew would reproduce well on my recycled card stock.

I had lovely response to my physical pieces in Saturday’s studio session; the challenge is how to present them in images for the final submission & exhibition. I’ve started some experiments with product photography, trying light box and also shooting outside, with a mirror backdrop, and exploring CapCut to create a short video. I need to think about how to communicate the scale, richness of colour and texture. 

I’ve also continued to develop my phases of the moon booklet and illuminated letters for an edited version of the ‘wonder-book’.