Just Do Something

Dissertation: How Can Repetative Craft Techniques Improve Well-Being

Nicki — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 20:42:54 +0000

I found writing my dissertation very difficult, in the beginning I struggled to narrow down my topic into a relevant question. At the beginning of my research I had rough idea of what I wanted to do and why I wanted to look at the subject of well-being. I have had mental health issues over the years and also have OCD and found that working creatively using my hands has helped me to feel better, I wanted to understand why this was the case. Also to carry out in depth academic research as this was not something I had done before. Once I had my question I found I easily got distracted whilst carrying out research and would go off topic and find myself researching a very interesting non relevant topic. I booked a tutorial with Les Bicknell to discuss the academic theory required to support my dissertation, during the tutorial I was able to understand why and what were the drivers behind my choice of title. This was also really useful as it gave me an academic framework to fit my primary research to.

I found many opportunities to carryout primary research and particularly enjoyed this part of my dissertation. .

As I have dyslexia I was able to access dyslexia tuition, this was really helpful enabling me to plan my research, and focus on the relevant point of the dissertation structure. After many hours my dissertation was complete Hurrah !!

Learning to take forward ….

I can do it .. My confidence in my academic ability has improved as a result of writing my dissertation, it has also improved my writing skills which were very rusty.

Using my USP to develop my skills. (I enjoy making contact with people and was able to develop relationships to enable me to carryout and develop my primary research)

Personal Project/Oblique Stratergies

Nicki — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 19:45:11 +0000

My initial ideas for my personal project changed quite dramatically as the weeks progressed throughout this unit. My initial idea was to create freeform crocheted shapes inspired by natural forms using reclaimed yarns, following feedback from my Pecha Kucha presentation I looked at creating freeform crochet shapes using items of clothing from my family and friends ; I wanted to create a piece of work directly inspired by my friends and family and direct environment. I was slow to start on this project and became side tracked by my Home project and the subsequent Body project. My personal project remained untouched.. During the Body project I became inspired by elastic properties of yarn and started to spin fibres around shearing elastic (core spinning) to create a springy yarn .

I wanted to develop my core spinning skills. Outcome an amount of very soft springy yarn but what next ……. what to do with it ???

Core spun yarn

I attended a group tutorial, the tutorial looked at using Oblique Strategies to move work forward, we picked a strategy card at random my card was MUTE and CONTINUE how could I use this ??

I gave this a lot of thought …. I looked at how I could mute the yarn ,

Could I remove the colour bleaching the yarn ?

Photographing it and then putting the image into black and white ?

I looked at how the yarn , I decided it is the texture of the yarn that informed the narrative of the yarn. How could I silence the yarn ? I wanted to remove the texture, at New Designers Show in Islington I had seen very small pieces of textiles placed in casting resin (very similar to a paper weight )and thought this was very interesting.

I didn’t have casting resin but had standard fibreglass so started to experiment with covering my hand spun yarn with fibreglass.

Hand spun yarn covered in fibreglass

This worked well on a small scale, could I make bigger pieces ?…

I knitted the yarn into rectangles and attached the knitted pieces to a wooden backing, creating a frame using nails to stretch the knitting. Fibreglass was poured over the knitting.

3 pieces were created and left to dry

Learning to take forward…

Continue to experiment with resin and texture

Can the texture element be developed to create a single element (?? touch)

Unexpected developments can occur if I allow myself to experiment …

Body Project

Nicki — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 20:13:03 +0000

For this project I wanted to look at the brain, in particular how to visualise OCD, I wanted to show non sufferers how OCD thoughts can feel. I wanted to explore this in fibre, for this project I chose to work with ‘non standard’ fibres, viscose, milk protein, silk noil, angelina fibre using wool (Swaledale) to blend the fibres together. I also wanted to experiment using non standard dyes, I chose to use food colouring. Following a discussion with a lady I met at the Wingham Wool weekend who explained how fibres can be dyed using Wiltons food colouring as the dyes are unstable in hot water various colours can be achieved.

Soaked Mixed Fibres – white wine vinegar/water Dye Vat – Blue Wiltons food colouring (entire bottle)

Mixed Fibres straight out of dye bath Mixed Fibres after rinsing (see ****)

******* Mixed fibres were placed in the dye bath at the same time, each fibre type colour varied dependant on colour absorption.

Fibres blended on drum carder to create bats Large pile of bats – ready to spin

Examples of spun yarn

Images showing yarn in context

Learning to take forward……………

Continue to experiment and explore…….

Yarn sample file to be continued – this enabled appropriate choice of fibres for this project

Develop use of unusual materials

Beauty and the Robot : Drawing Machine My Own Robot.

Nicki — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 18:10:41 +0000

I attended a really interesting lecture on the subject of Robots and the future presented titled Beauty and the Robot: Future Innovative Collaboration Between Science and Design by Furuta Takaykuki and Yamanaka Shunji as part of the Toshiba Lectures in Japanese Art and Science held by the Sainsbury Institute for Japanese Arts and Cultures. The lecture discussed the latest development in Robotic technology and how robots and robotic innovations are become a part of our society. The lecture was in Japanese with English translation, we were able to see the latest robots first hand with really good demonstrations. This lecture really made me think , was there a way to use robots in my work ?? How can I make a robot ?? I remembered I hade made a drawing machine in the first year to enable repetitive drawings to be created without any without manual input. The machine was made from 2 windscreen wiper motors connected by steel strips, with power coming form a motorcycle battery. The repetitive drawing element connected to my dissertation and to my current project, the body. I have chosen to focus on the mind to try and describe OCD and the repetitive thoughts in yarn. The drawing machine created a number of very interesting drawings to support my unit on the body.

My drawing machine

Drawings created by my drawing machine

Woolly Well-Being Workshop

Nicki — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 17:02:23 +0000

To support my research for my dissertation I decided to facilitate a Woolly Well- Being Workshop, creating a large piece of knitting that would enable a large group of knitters to knit from the same piece of knitting all at the same time.

I created a piece of machine knitting with multiple legs that would enable each knitter to pick up the stitches and to continue knitting from the end of the’ knitted leg’ , no restriction were placed on the knitters such as colour or size of needle or yarn thickness. The workshop was about having fun and enjoying the process.

The beginning … The middle ……….

IMG_1917 Click on the link to see a short film of the knitting in progress

The day was very successful, each knitter was asked to complete a label to attach to their knitting and a subsequent label on how they felt knitting improved their wellbeing.

The end ………..

The workshop went well, I think all the participants enjoyed themselves, next time the knitted legs could be made longer to prevent back ache!

Each label was removed from the knitting and collated into a small book alongside the second label containing the participants views on how knitting has helped their wellbeing. This book contains a snapshot of each person, this outcome was not the intentional product but I think is a more valuable resource than the piece of knitting. This event created a valuable research resource for my dissertation.

Book

Learning to take forward…

Look at the incidental outcomes , this can be a more valued resource than the initial intended outcome.

Using a variety of mediums to record events (need to develop film editing skills)

Home Project

Nicki — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 18:52:00 +0000

For this project I decided to look at homelessness, I wanted to show what homelessness felt like in yarn. I was homeless for a short period of time several years ago, I wanted to explore these feelings and try to express the feelings in yarn and to create a piece of work that visualised these feelings. My first thought was to create a mind map using words as prompts. The final words were Control, Warmth and Safety.

Initial experiments with fibre, I had chosen a merino fibre as I wanted the outcome to be soft to the touch but very visual.

The first plied sample went ‘technically’ wrong as I had plied the fibre in the wrong direction, technically it should be plied the opposite direction to that of the spun single yarn, but in this case I plied it the same way as the single yarns. Creating technically incorrect overspun yarn. On discussion with Louise Harding at my tutorial I was able to understand this was a benefit to my practice as I was able to explain to Louise how this overspun yarn visualised my overthinking and this discovery led to the development of the rest of this units spinning development. Also discussing the initial colour choice I was able to understand I had instinctively chosen a yarn to resemble myself.

Overspun Yarn

Samples

Final piece in context

Learning to take forward…

Supposed ‘technical faults’ may not be always incorrect .. the outcome can be more important than the process (unless the process if the point of the outcome)

Experiment…. Develop…. Explore…. I am beginning to (really) understand the need for these processes finally…

Wingham Wool Weekend

Nicki — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 16:09:31 +0000

The Lavenham Guild of Spinners and Weavers held a 2 day sampling weekend enabling spinners to sample a huge variety of fibres. Holly (another 3rd year textile student from NUA ) and I headed of to Lavenham with our spinning wheels in tow. The village hall was filled with spinners and spinning wheels , I don’t think I have ever seen so many spinning wheels.

A collection of our spinning wheels

Hollie at her spinning wheel Me spinning a rather lumpy fibre

This weekend was a really good experience enabling us to experiment with a huge variety of fibres that we do not normally have access to. Saturday evening was spent evaluating each fibre, I created small hanks from each fibre sample, these samples were collated to form my own fibre record, this will be added to as my experiments with fibres continue. I returned to Lavenham on the Sunday to experiment further also developing my sampling based on the samples created on previous day. I was able to purchase suitable fibres for my body project based on the sampling carried out.

Photograph showing fibre samples continue to develop fibre sample record. This has record has created a valuable resource for future use.

BA7: Pechua Kucha, Learning Agreement

Nicki — Sat, 03 Oct 2015 14:00:01 +0000

This is my first unit of my last year at NUA, I am now a year 3 student … Oh dear I am not sure what I want to do in my last year, I spent the first week thinking what was I going to do, I wanted to spend this last term developing skills and doing something I enjoy but what there is so much I want to do !! We have been asked to create a presentation to show our ideas and planning strategies for this term to the rest of our class. Initial thoughts oh dear (again, there was a lot of this during the first few weeks) OK decision time , I decided to create a list of all the things I wanted to do, reflect on my recent creative activities what had I enjoyed ; Spinning and crochet ! A whole term doing something I really enjoyed hurrah ! This also fed into my ideas for my dissertation I wanted to look at how craft activities could improve well being.

Part of the presentation process was to include a gant chart to show planning for the term to enable all of the required work to created and finished in the allocated time. I found the process of creating a gant chart really helpful as it enabled me to visualise where and when work was required, I also set my self deadlines for finishing projects and to finish my dissertation before Christmas.

The presentation went well it enabled me to externalise my creative ideas for the term, the feed back from the rest of the class was also very helpful and positive.

Learning to take forward …

Gant charts are great … to try and transfer and develop this skill base into my personal life , also to be realistic when planning allowing for work and home life.

UPDATE -3rd January 2016

Gant chart must have worked as my dissertation was submitted 4 days before the deadline all of the practical work was completed before Christmas Hurrah ….

Reflecting on my slides for the Pecha Kucha I am able to see that my personal project is completely different to my original idea, but I feel my actual project shows lateral thinking with abstract outcomes ,which I want to investigate and develop. This can be seen in the post for Personal Project / Oblique Strategies.

Writing this update has enabled me to understand and to visualise the amount of learning I have achieved this term. I feel proud of my achievements’ and I am very pleased with the work I have produced.