A conversation
with Susan was the beginning idea for work based around the
theme of a journey. Steph described
a project the students
had done with the title 'chance findings on a journey'. Christine
had also been speaking about shoes and templates and the differences
between peoples feet, and these ideas all developed into my exploration
of a personal journey. I had thought about drawing feet etc., when
I realised that a more focussed idea and image would be from direct
prints from my feet. I did a few prints using black gouache and
tried not to make too much mess... Especially on the snowy white
towels of Burrastow! These prints were not successful, but were
a good starting point for work at the college.
Print was a new direction
for me and I felt liberated by not knowing what results I
would get and trying new ideas. I began by making
lots and lots of footprints on A1 sheets which developed into
a 4 meter banner. This was covered with monochrome footprints
all
going one direction and fading out, and then I picked out one
set in a contrasting colour. I wanted to put these prints on
a screen
and print 'properly', so Steph took me through the process and
explained the techniques for printmaking. I made up Kodatraces
in the same way, by inking my feet and walking on them. These
were made up into screens and I happily experimented with them
for the
rest of the week.
Some of the ideas discussed about my 'journey'
were: we can only leave one set of footprints in life. Growing
and developing through
to decaying / fading away. Depth of marks made. Life path footsteps
can only be made in one direction, etc. I tried to explore
these ideas in different ways. I eroded fabrics by sanding
the edges
with sandpaper so that the images on them would become more
and more faded and the fabrics disintegrate. I also used the
heatpress
and discovered that the pigment in the printing ink would absorb
more of the dye from the heatpress paper than the surrounding
fabrics. This gave me shadowy images on the heatpress paper
which I printed
again and again to echo the idea of fading away. There was
also beautiful images left on the protective paper for the
heatpress.
Having decided that I would not be working towards
a final product, I ended up printing my designs on tights!
I had chosen
not to
restrict myself with product since I had always worked this
way in the past.
I found it very liberating and took directions that I would
not otherwise have done, and ended up with images that could
be applied
to a range of textile products.
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