Self-Evaluation

I really enjoyed both the practical and the theory parts of the course. It was sometimes challenging and frustrating having such short technical blocks but it was also good to have a quick turnaround as it kept me on my toes and it helped to improve my ability to come up with ideas within a short deadline.

The theory lectures were really engaging and I looked forward to them each week. I enjoyed doing the theory tasks and the associated reading because I have an interest in the social and historical contexts of textiles, fashion, and art & design. Some of the tasks I struggled with, however, but talking to other students helped to clarify a few things.

I found the drawing sessions and the tutorials in the technical blocks to be very useful in helping me to translate my research into samples. The feedback I received in the 1-2-1 tutorials were great for making sure I was going in the right direction. The techniques I learnt during the drawing weeks (e.g. drawing with marks, zooming in and enlarging small details) were applied in each of the technical blocks, as well as helpful tips from tutors in how to translate drawings or objects into design samples - I will carry on using these techniques.

I realised that I had the most success when I was able to put a lot of extra hours into the technical blocks. Spending extra time working on the projects allowed me to make my mistakes early on, build on these mistakes, play around with concepts, discover new ideas through experimentation and produce samples that had a lot of thought put into them.

One of the things that I struggled with was the CAD block. This is because I didn’t feel competent at Photoshop, even though I stayed extra hours to use the photoshop facilities on the library computers. As it was only 1 week long, I feel like I did the best I could in the short period that we had. I also felt I could’ve done a lot better if I had more printing time during the screen-printing block, as I wouldn’t have felt so rushed.

Something that I found came quite naturally was my ability to translate my research into design samples, particularly in the weave and stitch technical blocks. With weave, I was able to translate drawings or objects into textures and colours with ease. As I already have sewing and construction experience, I tend to have a sensitivity to materials, and this helped me a lot in the stitch block.

Looking back on all the work I have done in my technical blocks, I can see that I have tended to focus on textures rather than patterns or motifs. If I could do these blocks again, I would try to incorporate more patterns, especially in the weave and knit blocks, where there is a perfect opportunity for pattern-making. I could also have done more research into the work of contemporary textile designers/artists during the technical blocks as it would have provided me with a richer source of inspiration.