Reflecting on the Locating Unit

Since reflecting back on the Locating Unit, I feel that I have gained an exciting new wealth of technical skills to which I am enthusiastic to bring to future practice. Throughout this challenging module, I feel I have pushed myself to step out my comfort zone and to most importantly, keep things experimental and exciting. I began by responding to various tribal identities by interpreting forms and 'plants' within the indigenous environments some call home. I used abstract drawing techniques to reflect this in an interesting way, and then developed this further by using Photoshop to manipulate compositions, and then adding value by using embellishment and embroidery techniques.

On reflection, I believe I branched out thoroughly in my sample development, and can now confidently use the laser cutter and Ethos embroidery to add surface value. By considering a new dimension of textural quality, I believe that I can become more critical in my final sample selections, therefore producing refined outcomes that fit my concept concisely.

 

I feel that my initial research was thorough, therefore it built strong foundations for my determined concept. This then began to develop into my FFF live brief, meaning that it linked well with my independent project which allowed me to explore three dimensional, mixed media sampling.

 

Critically speaking, when looking back on my body of work, I don’t believe that my colour scheme is as coherent as I had planned. I found it increasingly difficult to maintain exact tonal qualities when interchanging between sublimation, digital printing and printing off images using the paper printers. This was even the case when the image file was exactly the same. Frustrating as this became, I continued to work back into them using threads and embellishment that were closer to my colour palette, disguising the unexpected shades within the prints as well as I could. Working out compositions also proved to be difficult. I definitely needed to have spent more time considering placement and scale of motifs, as when delving straight into Photoshop manipulation, it became quite overwhelming and easy to overcomplicate prints by adding too many elements.

In regards to the FFF live brief, the main challenges I had to overcome were the technical skills needed to deconstruct, and then reconstruct a collar. I found this extremely difficult due to being a visual learner, and struggled to follow written/verbal instructions. I attempted to overcome this by watching tutorials, and photographing each element of the construction process, but definitely intend to improve this further by taking more time to prepare pattern pieces beforehand.

 

 I found the overall brief exciting and innovative, but did struggle to understand some aspects of the tasks within the given time frame and do believe that my work shows this to an extent.  Producing a garment for a specific 'character' was something I struggled with, as generally my context is decided after developing samples. By having to decide before the sampling stage, I did occasionally feel restricted with how to progress, and felt I had to justify each and every aspect from material choices to colour selection. This is why I decided to not finalise a colour palette, as I believe I would have struggled further to produce samples within the time limitations.

If I had more time to develop my body of work I would spend more time planning and drawing initial motifs to use within my compositions. I believe this really affected my final print outcomes. With slightly more considered prints, I would then progress further, selecting different 'fashion' fabrics, perhaps exploring movement and how my garments would fall and compliment the wearer.

 

To conclude, I did enjoy the fast pace of this module, but can safely say I have learnt a great deal about how important it is to manage my time as soon as the brief is set. By doing so, I believe I have been able to consider a wider range of technique exploration that I would usually have to rush in a smaller amount of time.