Western Park Galleries - Japanese Vases

 

I recently visisted the Western Park Museum in sheffield. There was an exhibition on featuring Japenese culture and ceramic work. This provided me with further primary research but it also gave me inspiration to direct my project down the route of Japenese pattern and I began to look at creating prints from the patterns on the plates, vases and objects from the gallery.

Further experimentation on Indian pattern

Here i used a similar technique to the previous piece. I think the colours in this work well together.

Experimenting with Indian themes

Today I began researching Indian themes and the styles within their culture, a popular style is Paisley. I drew from observation of a scarf with similar patterns on it.
I began by making a ground using ink and acrylic, i then cut this up and created the main shape. I put detail onto this using ink and then used the sewing machine to stitch details around and within it. The pattern to the left of the shape is an adaption from the initial observation of the scarf pattern.
This is a technique i want to try more of i feel it could work really well, i may also scan this into photoshop and experiment more digitally.

Researching the different cultures

In order to begin my project I needed to reaearch into the different cultures and traditions around the world, in my sketchbook I have looked into the ways of life of those in India, Japan, Africa, China and so on, I have also looked at Islamic religion. I have used books and internet resources as well as gallery visits to gather this information. I decided it would be useful to not only look at there ways of life and traditions, such as African culture using a lot of natural resources to create the majority of their belongings but also to look at the patterns that already exsist from these cultures. I wanted to discover what was the meaning behind the patterns and symbols they create, for example the Islamic Hamsa is to ward off evil and keep the carrier of the Hamsa symbol safe. This research gave me the starting point to continue with my project and begin to develop my own ideas for patterns and ways of working.

London trip - Camden Town

I have recently been on a College trip to London, whilst there I visited Camden Markets. I came across these large pieces of patterened material hanging up on a wall under the rail way bridge. These pieces have been a starting point for my work and initial research into patterns and different cultures.
I particularly like the orange and black one, the way the main focus of the pattern is directly in the centre and is very detailed. The background orange colour supports the heavy black pattern.

Pattern....Culture....City

For my Confirmatory Stage project I have decided to look into the different cultures around the world and the styles and traditions within these. I am going to research the variety and hopefully begin to develop patterns that involve aspects of the cultures in a Graphical way. I also want to look into the idea of incorporating these patterns with building which are relevant to the styles and traditions I research and create pieces for.
I plan on using this blog for research and to document my progress towards my final outcomes for this project. I will also upload anything I come across which I feel is inspiring my work.