Hello,
I cant believe this is my sixth consecutive blog post, which brings us to my university journey. Where I studied Textile Design at the University of Derby. Similar to my A-level blog posts I have decided to split these blog posts up into not only years but also semesters, as I learnt so much in each semester that it would be too much to just do it year by year. I think my blogs are long enough as it is since I like to babble. As there is a big jump from 6th form to university if you would like to know how/why I went to uni, please feel free to get in touch, then I can do a blog post about it.
For the first year and a half of uni, each semester is split up into three four-week rotations, based on the three areas that they cover (print, knit and weave) so we would do 4 weeks of each subject. Since the subject areas are split up I thought I would also change the layout to suit this too. So if you are only interested in knit, you can just go the knit subtitle and read about that section.
Summer Project:
Once I had received my A-level results (such a scary and long wait) and finally got to find out which university I would be going to (my first choice). I received an email from the textiles department, informing me on a summer project that they wanted us to complete before joining in September. Our topic was sculpturer and artist Barbara Hepworth. The project was to research who she was (as I had never heard of her before), take notes of any key colours, shapes and designs used as well as create a number of our own Hepworth inspired drawings. Some of which can be found below. I would just like to apologise now for my awful drawings. I know that it is not my strong point and it is something that I was very worried about when joining university since it is a huge part of textiles. I have always loved drawing but I have never been any good at it. However, after exploring many different drawing techniques in our drawing classes I soon picked up my own drawing style, which you will begin to see in some later blogs. I'd just like to say to anyone like me, who can't draw, don't let it hold you back because you will have strengths in other areas that other people won't have. I know it's hard but try not to look at other peoples drawing and compare it to yours as it doesn't help you.
Knit:
As September came around and I started my university journey. I was placed in the group that had knit, as the first of the three rotations. We started off by learning about the domestic knitting machine, which was new to me as I only knew knitting to be what grandmas do with two knitting needles. How wrong was I. In this four-week rotation, we learnt the basics such as how to cast on and off as well as how to create stripes, lace hole, hooking up and holding. As well as this we also had to create 4 Barbara Hepworth inspired knitted samples, which were roughly a4 sized and are shown below.
Print:
After our four weeks of knitting, we then moved on to the print rotation. Here we got to learn about all the different fibres and how to identify them. As well as how to make and mix pigment, prepare and expose a screen, screen printing, transfer printing and texi-foil. Similar to knit we had to create 6 A3 sized Hepworth inspired samples. Which can be seen below.
Fashion:
Once our eight weeks of textiles were up we then had to hand in all our print and knit work as our introduction of textiles was finished and we would be finishing the semester with four weeks of fashion. We swapped with fashion as this allowed both subjects to explore the other as we would sometimes be closely working together, and it also gave us the opportunity to see what the other was like and possibly swap if the other seemed better. Which was great for me as I was unsure as to whether I wanted to do fashion or textiles.
In our fashion rotation, we were taught subtraction cutting, moulage and a variety of different seams including plain open seam, french seam and run and fell seam. For the subtraction cutting, we had to make a top. We were all given the same piece of tubular knitted fabric, but depending on where we placed the pattern blocks and how we joined them, meant that everyone ended up with something very different. For moulage, we had to create a skirt by draping it on a mannequin first, to come up with the design. After many different attempts shown below, I decided I wanted to have another go at created a voluminous circle skirt, similar to the one I created at A-level but with more volume and structure.
Summary:
Overall, I really enjoyed my first experience of university and textiles at university level. It definitely wasn't what I expected, because in the past textiles was about making garments and products whereas here it was about designing and making the actual fabric. Which I surprising liked, as I thought I would have preferred fashion as I love making clothes. However, with the introduction of fashion, it actually helped to confirm that it wasn't for me. I didn't like the strictness of it, for example, we had to keep quiet and everything had to be precisely measured (seam allowances). It made me realise that I am not cut out for the fashion industry, although it was something I loved I much preferred the easygoing feel of textiles and the creative freedom to do what we wanted. Now I know I don't paint fashion in a good light but at the time it just didn't feel right to me, it kinda put me off it. I mean I did enjoy it but I liked knit and print so much more. Which is why I chose to stick with textiles, and I'm so thankful I did as this was the best course and I truly loved being at university doing it.
Thank you so much for reading.
Love Karmann Jean
I cant believe this is my sixth consecutive blog post, which brings us to my university journey. Where I studied Textile Design at the University of Derby. Similar to my A-level blog posts I have decided to split these blog posts up into not only years but also semesters, as I learnt so much in each semester that it would be too much to just do it year by year. I think my blogs are long enough as it is since I like to babble. As there is a big jump from 6th form to university if you would like to know how/why I went to uni, please feel free to get in touch, then I can do a blog post about it.
For the first year and a half of uni, each semester is split up into three four-week rotations, based on the three areas that they cover (print, knit and weave) so we would do 4 weeks of each subject. Since the subject areas are split up I thought I would also change the layout to suit this too. So if you are only interested in knit, you can just go the knit subtitle and read about that section.
Summer Project:
Once I had received my A-level results (such a scary and long wait) and finally got to find out which university I would be going to (my first choice). I received an email from the textiles department, informing me on a summer project that they wanted us to complete before joining in September. Our topic was sculpturer and artist Barbara Hepworth. The project was to research who she was (as I had never heard of her before), take notes of any key colours, shapes and designs used as well as create a number of our own Hepworth inspired drawings. Some of which can be found below. I would just like to apologise now for my awful drawings. I know that it is not my strong point and it is something that I was very worried about when joining university since it is a huge part of textiles. I have always loved drawing but I have never been any good at it. However, after exploring many different drawing techniques in our drawing classes I soon picked up my own drawing style, which you will begin to see in some later blogs. I'd just like to say to anyone like me, who can't draw, don't let it hold you back because you will have strengths in other areas that other people won't have. I know it's hard but try not to look at other peoples drawing and compare it to yours as it doesn't help you.
Mood board based on Barbara Hepworth's sculptures.
My drawings of Barbara Hepworth's sculptures.
My Barbara Hepworth inspired drawings.
My drawings of Barbara Hepworth's sculptures.
My drawings based on Barbara Hepworth artwork.
Knit:
As September came around and I started my university journey. I was placed in the group that had knit, as the first of the three rotations. We started off by learning about the domestic knitting machine, which was new to me as I only knew knitting to be what grandmas do with two knitting needles. How wrong was I. In this four-week rotation, we learnt the basics such as how to cast on and off as well as how to create stripes, lace hole, hooking up and holding. As well as this we also had to create 4 Barbara Hepworth inspired knitted samples, which were roughly a4 sized and are shown below.
My colour pallet was grey and blue as these are key colours that I noticed throughout Hepworth's work.
Sample 1: grey and blue stripes with laces holes.
Sample 2: light and dark grey yarn. I used the holding technique to create a variety of small rounded shapes, which is a shape Hepworth used a lot.
Sample 3: similar to sample 2 but with a pop of bright blue.
Sample 4: again similar to the previous 2 samples but with stripes inside the circular shapes. Similar to some of Hepworth's scultupes which have some sort of string through them.
After our four weeks of knitting, we then moved on to the print rotation. Here we got to learn about all the different fibres and how to identify them. As well as how to make and mix pigment, prepare and expose a screen, screen printing, transfer printing and texi-foil. Similar to knit we had to create 6 A3 sized Hepworth inspired samples. Which can be seen below.
Transfer printing: cutting out shapes using pre-transfer printed paper, which is then heat pressed.
Transfer printing crayons: use the specialised transfer printing pens to draw a design then use the heat press to transfer it to the fabric.
My negatives edited in illustrator ready to be used to expose my screen for screen printing.
My screen being exposed using the above design.
Screen printing, using my own mixed pigment.
Screen printing on top of transfer printing.
Sample 1: transfer printing using circular samples which are found in lots of Barbara Hepworth's work.
Sample 2: transfer printing using similar samples to Hepworth's sculptures.
Sample 3: screen printing rectangles.
Sample 4: screen printing circles.
Sample 5: overlap of circle screen printing design with the same colour pallet as knitting.
Sample 6: transfer printing with freehand texi-foil details.
Sample 7: screen printing circle design, overlapped with texi-foil dots.
Once our eight weeks of textiles were up we then had to hand in all our print and knit work as our introduction of textiles was finished and we would be finishing the semester with four weeks of fashion. We swapped with fashion as this allowed both subjects to explore the other as we would sometimes be closely working together, and it also gave us the opportunity to see what the other was like and possibly swap if the other seemed better. Which was great for me as I was unsure as to whether I wanted to do fashion or textiles.
In our fashion rotation, we were taught subtraction cutting, moulage and a variety of different seams including plain open seam, french seam and run and fell seam. For the subtraction cutting, we had to make a top. We were all given the same piece of tubular knitted fabric, but depending on where we placed the pattern blocks and how we joined them, meant that everyone ended up with something very different. For moulage, we had to create a skirt by draping it on a mannequin first, to come up with the design. After many different attempts shown below, I decided I wanted to have another go at created a voluminous circle skirt, similar to the one I created at A-level but with more volume and structure.
First, we learnt how to use an industrial sewing machine.
Practising with the industrial sewing machine, not too good at following the lines.
More practice, at least these look a bit like circles.
Designing my moulage skirt, a pencil skirt with gathers at the side.
Designing my moulage skirt, a maxi skirt with an underskirt.
Designing my moulage skirt, midi skirt with a floral overlay.
Designing my moulage skirt, pleats.
Moulage skirt: 8 pannel petal skirt shape.
Moulage skirt.
Moulage skirt: planning a hidden zip.
Moulage skirt: back
Moulage skirt: front.
Subtraction cutting: working with block pattern piece
Subtraction cutting: planning out where the block pieces should go on the fabric.
Subtraction cutting: joining up the block patterns.
Binder machine used for the neckline and armholes
Subtraction cutting: armhole after using the binder machine
Subtraction cutting: final garment front.
Subtraction cutting: final garment back.
Subtraction cutting: final garment front manipulation with a knot.
Subtraction cutting: final garment front manipulation by tieing the front up.
Subtraction cutting: final garment front knot close up.
Subtraction cutting: final garment front manipulation with two knots.
Overall, I really enjoyed my first experience of university and textiles at university level. It definitely wasn't what I expected, because in the past textiles was about making garments and products whereas here it was about designing and making the actual fabric. Which I surprising liked, as I thought I would have preferred fashion as I love making clothes. However, with the introduction of fashion, it actually helped to confirm that it wasn't for me. I didn't like the strictness of it, for example, we had to keep quiet and everything had to be precisely measured (seam allowances). It made me realise that I am not cut out for the fashion industry, although it was something I loved I much preferred the easygoing feel of textiles and the creative freedom to do what we wanted. Now I know I don't paint fashion in a good light but at the time it just didn't feel right to me, it kinda put me off it. I mean I did enjoy it but I liked knit and print so much more. Which is why I chose to stick with textiles, and I'm so thankful I did as this was the best course and I truly loved being at university doing it.
Thank you so much for reading.
Love Karmann Jean
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