#final_assignment

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excellent and exciting portraits from Mariam Ismails final project.

[nickybourdillon]

Gaudi Research

Gaudi Research

Barcelona is rich in culture and modern history and continues to be a top destination for travel hungry tourists.  The city rests on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, less than 100 miles from southern France.  Like most European cities during the industrial revolution, Barcelona enjoyed growth and expansion.  It was considered cosmopolitan and the home of many creative artists, such as Joan Miro and Pablo Picasso.  Most of the buildings of note in Barcelona were designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi.

Gaudi

Antoni Gaudi was born south of Barcelona in the town of Reus, Tarragona, in 1852.  His parents were Francesc Gaudi, an ironmonger/coppersmith and his mother Antonia; he had four siblings.  After serving in the Spanish Military Service, Antoni trained to be an architect in his home town.  There are lots of variations as to the name of the school he attended, but the one that occurs most frequently is Escola Technica Superior d’Architectura.

After graduating, he exhibited at the Paris World Fair in 1878.  His designs attracted attention, leading to some of his first commissions, namely with the Guell family whom he worked with on various designs and later, La Sagrada Familia Cathedral, which he worked on throughout his life.  The cathedral is still under construction and is expected to be complete 100 years after his death, in 2026.

Gaudi was designing during the Modernism period (1890 – 1910).   This was linked to the distinct Art Nouveau style, where inspiration was derived mainly from nature, both in the design and the colour of his buildings.

His style was buildings on a grand scale.  They were impressive and included elements of fantasy, gothic, medieval, modernist, surrealist and romantic.  Many of the same elements also showed in his other buildings, such as the high curved archways, blank spaces filled with light and colourful mosaics.

Gaudi’s work in Barcelona;                                                                                                

·         La Sagrada Familia (1882 - @2026)

·         Casa Vicens (1883 – 1888)

·         Palau Guell (1885 – 1890)

·         Casa Calvet (1898 – 1900)

·         Casa Figuera (1900 – 1909)

·         Park Guell (1900 – 1914)

·         Casa Batllo (1905 – 1907)

·         Casa Mila (La Pedrera) – (1905 – 1907)

·         Colonia Guell (1908 – 1914)

Outside of Barcelona, he was commissioned for;

·         Casa Botines (Leon, 1891 – 1893)

·         El Capricho (Comillas, 1883 – 1885)

·         Episcopal Palace of Astorga (Leon, 1883 – 1913)

·         Bodegas Guell (Leon, 1891 – 1893)

·         Artigas Gardens (La Poblet de Lillet, 1905 – 1907)

You could call Gaudi a pioneer of his profession and his style was way ahead of the time. He was one of the first architects to use biomimicry, finding a solution to design problems, without harming the environment.  This uses techniques which can be found in nature and as an example, Gaudi took inspiration from the design of tree canopies that branch out, to help with the vault structure in La Sagrada Familia.  He was one of the first architects to use the hyperbolic and paraboloid technique, which have the benefit of enhancing the stability of tall structures.  A series of three dimensional intersecting straight lines make the building very stable and if one part of the building were to become damaged, it wouldn’t affect the remaining structure.  He was also a fan of recycling as in his many mosaics, he reused glass and ceramic tiles to create his colourful designs.

Casa Batllo

I visited Casa Batllo in the summer of 2016 and the first thing I noticed while queuing at the entrance, were the unique hexagonal pavement tiles.  Each section uniformly creates a different pattern when layed next to the other tiles.  Even though they are flat, they have a three-dimensional quality about them.  On their own, they seem to be a random, complicated design, with dots, swirls, wavy lines and curves.  When put together, it forms a never ending carpet of interconnecting patterns, forming a different design from each point.

The history of the tiles was a little different to what I had imagined; they were laid initially in 1976, and were a glazed blueish/green.  These were prone to breakage and were replaced with the current, more hard wearing style between 1997 and 2001.  It takes seven of these hexagonal tiles to make up the complete pattern.  Some were incorrectly laid, which spoils the effect, but some art students from the local university campaigned for them to be re-layed and they began to be replaced in 2014. The design does belong to Gaudi though and they were originally destined for the floor inside the house, but instead were used in Casa Mila (La Pedrera).  

Walking around the inside of Casa Batllo, its very evident that the sea is part of his inspiration.  Inside, the glass above the doorways are reminiscent of sea shells and the lights on the ceiling are formed at the centre of a whirlpool like shape.  The colours, including the vast stairwell, are sea blues and greens.  The ceilings are smooth, curved lines, which seem to reflect all the available light and in some rooms, there are shapes that seem like water dropping from above, perhaps from a cave, onto your head.  Some of the heavy wooden doors have shapes carved into them which appear to be seahorses.  Perhaps even the honey coloured wood on the staircase, skirting board and doors, could be compared to the sandy seabed.

La Pedrera

The doors of La Pedrera were designed to allow as much light as possible into the building, together with ventilation.  It is an interesting design, reminiscent of an ammonite fossil, but perhaps not as structured.  Each section of the door was glazed separately, which was an ingenious design as sheets of glass on this scale were not yet available.  This large door opens onto the street and is divided into three different sections.  At the side is an entrance for pedestrians, while the main, larger section was to allow access for vehicles and the fan lights at the top allow for ventilation in warmer months.

La Pedrera was very modern for its time, as are most of the Gaudi buildings.  Cars could gain access through the doors, down a curved ramp and into one of two car parks.  Underground car parks were a first for Barcelona at the time, but now common place in the city.  One of the car parks was a circular design, with exposed steel ‘spokes’ in the roof, similar to the design of spokes from a bicycle wheel. This helps to distribute weight, so the usual pillars dotted about a room to support the roof weren’t required.  Instead, the pillars are placed underneath the edge of the spokes, maximising the available space in the centre, to park.

The iconic decorative stone figures on the roof of the building, some of which resemble gothic style soldiers, serve an important purpose.  They cleverly disguise stairwells, vents and chimneys and some are carefully covered in mosaics.  As with the rest of the buildings style, they have curved sides and there are no straight lines in sight.  Some of them form a three dimensional cross at the top, which is known as Gaudis ‘four armed cross’.  Night is the best time to visit the roof top of La Pedrera, due to the colourful lighting effects and projected images on display, together with the accompanying dramatic music.

Park Guell

Built by Gaudi between 1900 and 1914, the Park is accessed first by public transport which stops short of the venue, then up a fairly steep hill.  It was initially privately owned by Eusebi Guell, and transferred to the citys ownership in 1926, after Guells death.  Once inside, the park winds around shady areas which keeps you out of the hot sun.  Despite the visitors, there is still an air of tranquillity.  At the top on the terrace, there is a large curved seated zone where brightly coloured mosaics decorate the area.  This is said to emulate a serpent, probably linking to the dragon at the lower entrance to the park.  Under the terrace, is the lower court with an array of tall columns supporting the structure.  Looking up, decorative circular ceiling roses can be seen, adorned with more brightly coloured mosaics.  This is rather grand, with stairs curving up, either side of the dragon with the columns of the lower terrace greeting you majestically at the top.

The site was meant to be a housing development, but never took off due to lack of interest from potential buyers.  Subsequently, there are only two houses on the site; one is at the pavilion entrance and has a decorative roof like many of his buildings, complete with turret shapes, looking a bit like a gingerbread house.

The other house belonged to Gaudi.  He lived on the estate from 1906 until 1925, when he went to live at his workshop in La Sagrada Familia, so he could concentrate solely on this project.  His home changed hands a couple of times, before it was purchased in 1960 by a campaign group who wanted to turn it into a museum.  Most of the house is accessible to the public, in the grounds of Park Guell.

La Sagrada Familia

The construction of this gothic style church began in 1882, as a Roman Catholic Church, but not by Gaudi.  He took over as architect in 1883.  135 years later, its still under construction, with an expected finish date of 2026, a span of 144 years.  It has since been upgraded to a cathedral and then a basilica by the pope in 2010.  All work on the building has been funded by donations from both private parties and by donations from the public, together with the cost of entrance fees.

The outside of the church is just as impressive as the inside.  Gaudi wanted a total of 18 tower of varying heights from 100 metres to 172.5 metres.  He had to carefully plan this part, due to the potential problem of them toppling over, using models, weights and mathematical calculations, to ensure his vision would be practical.  

There are three different faces on the building, depicting the Nativity, the Crucifixion, and the Glory of Jesus, all meticulously carved out of stone. Figures adorn what seem like every available space and certainly give those waiting in the never-ending queues something to see.  The scary looking soldiers above the entrance are very similar to those on the roof at Casa Mila.

This was Gaudi’s last project as he was killed in a tram accident in June 1926.  His resting place was the crypt in La Sagrada Familia.  Gaudi was a popular architect during his lifetime in his home country, but his popularity waned following the Spanish Civil war (1936 – 1939) and his workshop was plundered, destroying some important artefacts.  His work enjoyed a revival in the 1950s helped by Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali and in recent years, UNESCO gave some of his designs the recognition of ‘world heritage status’

Modern design influence on textiles

Given his colourful unique designs, it’s not surprising that modern designs share some of his influences.

Herve Leger and Max Azria

Herve Leger designers, husband and wife team Max and Lubov Azria, prepared an autumn collection in 2015 for New York Fashion Week.  This was inspired by Gaudi, following a trip to Barcelona.  Photos were taken at La Sagrada Familia and were depicted on the fitted dresses, which were printed with bright symmetrical patterns. Some of the plainer dresses were adorned with sequins, beads, straps or studs and most seem to be above the knee in length.

Ezra Santos

Middle Eastern designer Ezra Santos produced a collection for ‘Fashion Forward’ Dubai, in April 2013 using Gaudi as inspiration.  The flamboyant designs are based on La Sagrada Familia.  Unusually, the colour of the dresses are plain, but they include complicated details to reflect the style of the building and have a constructed element to them.

Fabryan

Fabryan is a UK womens clothing brand, based in London.  Designed by Samantha-Jane, who bought out an eye-catching and brightly coloured scarf collection which was inspired by Gaudi buildings and Barcelona. They clearly depict the brightly coloured stained glass windows of La Sagrada Familia.

Debbie Sun

Caribbean textile artist Debbie Sun lived in Barcelona for several years.  Taking her inspiration from nature and organic forms, much like Gaudi, and architecture.  She uses elements of Gaudi’s colourful mosaics and the stained-glass windows in her fabric design.

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Final_Assignment

[nadinepowellsf-sv-blog]

Life’s Highway

My major project has been handed in.

Life’s Highway focuses on the twists, turns and changes of life. in my life i’ve spent nearly every weekend on the road travelling. Whether that be to and from Dubbo where majority of my family is or to and from Sydney. 

Travelling has been a major part of my life and through time life has changed quite a lot for me, whether that be just moving or things to do with more personal situations.

The whole looking back to the past thing came around due to a few of my friends who can hold grudges for a long time and whilst they live in the past they miss everything that life could give. Even I am guilty of being stuck in the past in regards to changes in my life.  I wasn't able to do masking or anything like that due to the fact every time I tried the program died on me. 

It’s pretty depressing at the start but according to reviews it does have a motivational part to it.

I’m pretty happy with how it all worked out. 

[nickybourdillon]

Feedback reflection

I think the feedback I received reflects the fact that I rushed some parts of the final section, mindful that time was fast running out for me.  The feedback wasn’t exactly negative, but it drew attention to the fact there were holes in my presentation and there was a lack of consolidation.  I paid more attention to preparing the final piece than the process and background that led me to choosing it and the influences of putting it all together.  

The main part that was lacking in detail was the theme book, or lack of it, which I presented in a loose folder format.  It wasn’t really pulled together in any particular way, and I do feel that this let me down.  There were lots of images and photos together with some samples included but not a great deal, if any, written explanations.

I need to further research Gaudi and his work and include details of his own influences and methods of working.  I’ve visited Barcelona on two previous occasions and seen his work first hand, but this isn’t evident from the work I presented, so I need to document this in my theme book.

I’m also reminded of my lack of a bibliography, which was brought to my attention on the last feedback and which I’d forgotten.  I have some rough notes somewhere, but again, I have to bring all of that together to include in my work.

Having reviewed everything in the feedback that is required of me, I feel the work I need to do is somewhat overwhelming.  I hope to have everything ready for July assessment, which is due in May, so I need to get cracking if I’m going to achieve the assessment date.

[nickybourdillon]

Reflection

I so enjoyed this course! I can’t say at the beginning I was really sure what it involved, though. At the start, I must admit that I found it difficult to get motivated; there was lots of mark making and if I’m honest, at the time I didn’t see how this linked into textiles. There were also lots of outside commitments that were slowing me down and preventing me from ploughing ahead, but I’m glad I stuck with it. The turning point for me, and really boosted my thought process and motivation, was visiting my local Art Trail and meeting one of the textile artists, Katrina Parris, who I wrote about on my course blog. She really took the time to talk about her designs and the processes involved and seemed genuinely interested in my course. That spurred me on to finish!

As I mentioned earlier, I really enjoyed the appliqué but was disappointed with my efforts and knew I could do better given more time. I loved using new processes, some of which I’d heard of before, but never had the time to do and some I had no idea about.

Analysing colour, texture and proportions, I found really tricky. It was hard to match the colours and working out the proportions was just as tough. Weaving was fun but time consuming and as you can weave on your lap, I found it a great evening past time in front of the telly, as long as you don’t forget to concentrate.

For the final assignment, I thought I knew early on what my theme would be but changed my mind quite late as I just couldn’t see how far I could take paisley. I enjoyed my practise samples just as much as putting the final piece together.

If I had any negatives on the course as a whole, I would say that some projects/assignments were difficult to interpret from the description and the drawings weren’t all that helpful either. If it wasn’t for searching out other people’s bogs, I wouldn’t have had a clue!

I definitely chose the wrong blog in Tumblr as it isn’t very user friendly. It isn’t easy to organise as there are no tabs to sort things into. If you’re looking for something in particular, you have to scroll through everything and you can’t even change from oldest post to newest posts. They also recently decided to start using ads, so after every few posts an ad pops up. For these reasons, I won’t be using Tumblr again.

[nickybourdillon]

Final Assignment; Learning log notes

Can you see a continuous thread of development from your original drawings and samples to the final design? I find this hard to tell. The sea blues and greens play a strong part, but they are my favourite colours anyway. Geometric shapes also play a strong part, lots of circular shapes, diamonds, curves and continuing patterns. I finally settled on hexagons. There are buildings, facades, doorways etc, but I went for the pavements (outside Casa Battlo) hexagon design, which surprisingly, of the people I knew who’ve been there, many hadn’t noticed the pavement. Do you feel you made the right decisions at each stage of the design process? If not, what changes would you make? I had lots of ideas in my head, but was conscious I shouldn’t overdo it by using everything and then it risks being ruined. I didn’t work without testing any ideas first, unless I’d done something successfully in a previous stage. Even though I tried the stamp out first, there was still one or two stamped areas that I wasn’t quite happy with, as the colour bled and also stamping the green on top of a darker colour wasn’t the best idea. I also used the reverse side of my dyed cotton as this looked better than my intended right side. The colours were softer and just had an overall better effect. I think some of the colours may have settled on the felt wadding inbetween the layers. The foil transfer paper was tricky to master and I’d never used it before. It took a few tries before I got the look I was after. With the polyester chiffon Applique (the large hexagon) I wasn’t sure if applying interfacing would spoil the look of the fabric as it’s so sheer, but it wouldn’t have been possible to do that design without it as the fabric is so flimsy. Were you able to interpret your ideas well within the techniques and materials you chose to work with? I’m very happy with the larger applique designs. I’m especially happy with the different yarns couched together. The shapes and colour ways and different designs work well together. The background works well (after I reversed it) with the subtle colour applied and I also think the different sizes of hexagons blend well for the design. How successful is your final design in terms of being inventive within the medium and coherent as a whole? I think I’ve successfully designed the basis for a quilt design. I was disappointed with my earlier attempts at appliqué and knew I could do better, so I’m happy with this. I think the cotton is a good medium to work with as it takes colour well and is easy to sew, both by hand and by machine. I used various scraps as embellishments, mainly polyester, which on the whole, is fairly easy to work with.

[nickybourdillon]

The finished piece. It took a while, but I'm happy with the finished article!

[nickybourdillon]

I still felt there was something missing. I didn’t want to go over the top by doing too much, but there was quite a big gap and I felt it need to be filled, so I made a further appliqué piece using a polyester chiffon, which I cut circles into. I had to stiffen it first with interfacing which I wasn’t sure if this would work as it’s so sheer, but it seemed to work ok. I then layed it over a polyester fabric and machined a zig-zag over the top.

[nickybourdillon]

This is a close up of the transfer foil applied, together with the hand-stitched back stitching in embroidery thread.

[nickybourdillon]

This is picture of the front, which quickly became the reverse instead!

[nickybourdillon]

I then used my Lino stamp and carefully applied it to some of the smaller hexagons. I wanted to add further embellishment with transfer foils, but I'd never used them before, so had to practise quite a bit before I got it right. I watched 'Angie Hughes' on a craft channel (one of the artists I'd written about earlier) to see how it should be done. It was quite tricky, but I got there in the end.

[nickybourdillon]

Once dry, I inspected both sides of the background copy and realised I was happier with the reverse side as the result was softer colours, which could have been how the paint settled into the felt. Then, with larger hexagon templates, I put together my appliqué pieces, using varying shades of blue and green fabric and threads. These were stitched onto the background with a zig zag machine stitch. The threads and fibres were a bit trickier and they were held in place with couching.

[nickybourdillon]

I played around with making a stamp from Lino, to make sure I was happy with the design. I learned that the least paint applied to the stamp, the better, as otherwise it bled into the blank spaces, which wasn't the effect I was looking for.

[nickybourdillon]

I chose green, purple, dark blue and mid blue fabric paints and watered them down. Next I sprayed my cotton/wadding quite liberally with water and using a dropper, I applied the paints, 1 colour ate a time. To make the colours softer, I sprayed the colours with water once they were applied.

[nickybourdillon]

So, this is it, the final piece. I began with 2 pieces of white cotton and sandwiched a piece of white felt inside, as my wadding. I tacked everything together and machine stitched around the outside with white thread. Using a disappearing pen, I drew on hexagons with a card template, then machine stitched over the pen.