Professional Project

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.