Assignment One Reflection

I feel I have made a good positive start under  difficult personal circumstances including  bereavement. For me there will always be improvements to be made as I like to be ‘perfect’ in my learning and excecution of my work. I am aware that I have fallen short of that ideal in tackling some of the exercises and in my general approach to the studies. However, I am accepting that this is a very exciting part of my personal and professional development and due to health issues and other commitments it will not be an easy undertaking but a worthwhile one.

I have already changed in my approach to how I view, record and interpret my observations. I can see where I need to get a little more organised. Starting off well with the learning log. Completing the log after every exercise initially I quickly lapsed into short note taking and have needed to spend all today completing the posts!! Not a desirable outcome although it had it’s advantages in a time for reflecting.

I enjoyed experimenting with different media to record my observations and I started with a list of media I wished to explore. Now having completed initial experiments it has opened up further experiments I wish to try. Researching different artists including fellow students gives me a wealth of material to try. Resists and collage have infinite possibilities whilst printing which I touched will be explored in the next projects.

I have made more detailed observations that require reflection to interpret into textiles. This is an area I feel I have just skimmed. How am I going to capture this essence ? It does not involve direct duplication of the object.

I have a wide range of natural fibres which I have been wanting to spin into useable yarns. I feel I am gaining confidence to be more adventurous with this task. I use natural dyes and have always wanted to explore shibori. The exercises made me think more along the lines of how I could use these techniques to develop my own fibres and materials to use in my work. I had been initially overwhelmed by other students work and needed reminding of my own abilities.

I did find that having time constraints worked in apositive and negative ways. It focused my attention onto the whole. I would still be experimenting it is so easy to get absorbed. However, placing myself under pressure due to chronic fatigue it is a balancing act and I can seem unreliable. A quality I do not enjoy. I do not cancelling or letting people down.

There are areas I need to address in my working arrangements; The dry studio area worked well for stitch. The wet area amounts to my kitchen table and is not working as well. I will set up a permanent corner to keep materials out visible as it does affect the thought processes.

Overall I have to be content with the start I have made.