hannahrachel

17/05/2013

MOSI Pitch

Yesterday our group met to discuss ideas for the MOSI pitch on Monday. We decided to split the group into three smaller groups; Under fives space, Outdoor space and connecting MOSI, making it easier to organise the presentation.

College 3 Exhibition @ Bench

For my contribution to the exhibition Victoria and I has decided to come together and show her garden idea with my crochet piece suspended over it. Although we were unable to do so due to space and other factors. So I decided to hang my piece suspended around this pole, similarly to the way it was hung in some of the photographs I took of it outdoors. I wanted the piece to about head height so when the viewer walked past they would smell the mixture of each dye.

As another contribution to the exhibition Chris and I had a 'crochet-off'. A competition against each other to see who could crochet the most in the space of 30 minutes. The point of this performance was to represent hand processes before people had machines and other equipment, representing manual labour.

In the end we drew, both having done six rows!

(photographs by John Lynch)

16/05/2013

Crochet

Thinking about how I can adapt my original idea for the under fives room to work in the MOSI garden area that Victoria is working on, I took my crochet structure to a park to experiment with creating different structures within the trees as I would have done with the hooks in the under fives room. I have tried to show a range of uses for the piece such as a seat, something to go above you or create a divide. I think the piece is diverse and could be used for many more things. The only doubt I have about it is I think it looks like a blanket - I wish I had experimented with different crochet techniques and structures, I would have liked a more open structure. One thing I am really happy with is the smells that come from the dying - some pleasant and some not! But I think it adds to the idea and makes the simple crochet more interesting and also would show visitors to MOSI what can be achieved with some cotton and food that could be grown in the garden. I'm really happy with the way our group worked together, even after joining late they were all really helpful and included me straight away. As I didn't particularly enjoy unit x last year I was a bit worried about this year however I've really enjoyed it. I think working as a group has given me a bit more confidence to talk about my ideas to people as its something I struggle with and the opportunity to host an exhibition was great!

15/05/2013

More dying!

Here are some more experiments with dying using natural dyes such as spinach and blueberries and onion skins. I wanted to try and get a wider range of colours, so chose Spinach hoping for green, however it made a pale yellow/green. I also chose to use blueberries hoping for a deep blue, and it made a red/purple and finally onion skins hoping for an yellow/orange but it made brown.

Spinach

Blueberries

Onion skins

14/05/2013

Changed location for idea - garden

After meeting with the group today we discovered some of our ideas were clashing for the under fives room and the group felt my idea would work well in the garden area that Victoria is creating. The crochet structure can be used as more of a climbing frame for children and links well with the garden as some of the plants and foods I have used to dye the cotton with will be grown there. It also creates an interesting aesthetic for the garden area, hopefully catching children's attention and drawing them to the far end of the site.

Victoria showed me this outdoor design but Ball-Nogues studio a practice that creates artistic architectural pieces. This design really inspired me to create something similar using my naturally dyed crochet. I love the way this design forms shadows on the ground.