My Learning Agreement for this years final project!
I have decided to create a submission of textured and
layered design craft pieces, based on the life and death of Eadgyth, a Medieval
princess. I will be using my preferred
textile techniques of hand and machine stitch, along with fabric manipulation
and embellishment.
I plan to create a collection of stitched textile and
manipulated fabric samples. Within these
I intend to incorporate some of the textile ambitions I had before I joined the
course, juxtaposed with a selection of techniques learnt during the FdA years one
and two.
What? I have chosen to base my project on Eadgyth, a historical
Medieval English Princess and German Queen who lived in the 10th Century
AD. The story of her life journey, the
rediscovery of her remains in 2010; and the subsequent scientific
identification of her mortal remains, will provide me with the parameters and
scope for my project. I intend to design
and create a collection of textile craft pieces inspired by Eadgyth’s story.
The sample pieces will be hand dyed and embroidered by
machine and hand. They will include
appliqué and other fabric manipulation techniques. I may also use complimentary techniques such
as screen printing, stump work, flocking, and devore. I also intend to experiment with alternative
methods, including fabric decomposition by burying or rusting.
I will use natural fabrics: linen, cotton and silks; with
natural muted colour tones based on Medieval artwork.
I intend to create a series of highly textured pieces, using
multiple layers of fabrics and materials and overlaid techniques, to create
surfaces incorporating a series of images and text; representing the life,
death and identification of Eadgyth’s remains.
I will take inspiration from artists such as Shelley Rhodes, Alison
Mercer, Cas Holmes and Gwen Hedley.
Why? The subject matter of Eadgyth’s life, death, burial;
historical insight; juxtaposed along with the modern day scientific methods of
identifying her remains provides me with a wealth of broad and varied
inspirations and resources to draw upon.
This subject is an extension of previous burial and historical pieces I
have worked on.
Before I joined the course I had a vision of the type of
samples I would like to create: very organic in nature, using multi layers and
images and surface techniques. For this
project I want to explore the fabric surface creation aspirations I had
envisaged, applied alongside further experimentation and application of several
techniques learned during the FdA, and by doing so bringing these two elements
together to create a new and exciting collection of work.
Although I am not able to access Eadgyth’s remains as a
primary resource, I intend to seek out human bones and teeth at Dorchester
County Museum or Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford for sketching and idea generation. Additionally, I intend to visit Cathedrals
associated with 10th Century Monarchs at Malmesbury or Winchester; as well as
looking generally at effigies and sarcophagi from this period at the V&A
Museum and Christchurch Priory. I hope
to also look at chemical compositions of Isotopes, teeth and medieval diet
which all aided in the identification of Eadgyth’s remains.
How? The work will be presented as a textile collection of
mounted stitched, manipulated and embellished fabric final pieces. I intend to create a collection of 10 to 14
intricate complimentary samples for the hand in. Samples will be no larger than
A3 and I anticipate that the collection will comprise of one or two main
stitched and manipulated pieces along with several supporting / complimentary
samples.
I intend the samples to be textural in nature and reflect
the historical influences of Medieval times overlaid with modern scientific
elements.
The final samples will be presented with supporting work in
my sketch book containing all investigative and exploratory work and
experimental pieces, digital work. I
will submit two mood boards to demonstrate colour and collected inspirational
imagery; as well as my visualisations of my chosen design craft samples
photographed in an appropriate Cathedral, Church or medieval building; I will
also prepare a completed plan of project objectives and deliverables vs.
target, bibliography, costing summary and a written evaluation.
