Not much to say apart that it was a very long day of updating workflow, gathering all my research and organizing them in a logical manner. Workflow is extremely useful as a way to keep images even though I would rather do it on paper. However from the nature of how it is composed, I feel it’s very difficult to explain a project resulting in a complex trail of thought by annotating images I think it would be a lot easier for me to write an essay with different parts to be able to share the concept and narrative behind my project. For me visuals even if very effective in a translation of ideas need to be nourished by written text to achieve, the message portrayed  by the project, ultimate understanding.  I feel that with the way things need to be presented the project misses a form of introspection and analysis over its message that would bring a more complex reflection, distanced from the intensity of the project itself. 

Today I learned that we have to prepare a portfolio of 10 to 15 pages on top of everything else even if it’s not written as mandatory on the assessment criteria. That new information really brought a lot of anxiety and I am now almost certain I will not have everything finished in time despite not sleeping. I will have to sacrifice something when nothing can be sacrificed, it’s extremely frustrating because I know my work is not going to be up to the standard I wanted it to be at. I went back to the sketchbook using my memories sample as collage to visualize the reminiscences as abstract shapes and colors based on the photography, I also carried on design development by drawing the samples back on the body to start and visualize garments even if I already made mine because I think it’s interesting to find different ways to draw my samples and their colors for my final illustrations, it’s also interesting to represent each sample as it’s own garment and part of a line up of a possible fashion collection. I finished working on the memories composing my garment in my sketchbook. However I still have to explain the character perception of the family as the lost object visualized as a blanket and to show the design development of the garment in the sketchbook plus the final illustrations. I also need to update my research and my bibliography and to do the portfolio in a week. I think I managed my time badly, making a 100% crocheted garment was definitely an interesting idea but took a whole week off crochet non stop and was possibly to ambitious considering how little time I now have left to wrap everything up and end in the work on Tuesday. It’s definitely a good lesson, I have to be more realistic when it comes to me managing my time. 

Today was the first day back in the studio after a really long time. I regret not being able to get more from the feedback activity, my partner had very little to no argument to justify what he thought wasn’t good enough about my project but still gave me an overall pass, the only things he pointed out had already been referenced and explained in the presentation. And otherwise he made very general comments like to add research which is not really relevant at this stage of the project especially considering I have a considerable amount of research already exploring different portraying of my theme in different means. I was a bit upset because I reviewed his work before and tried to really see what was good and interesting about it and tried to give constructive feedback when he had very little work to show and no sketchbook. Reflecting back on it now i realize that even if I went first and tried to see his work  as positively as I could, I know I would have done the same thing even he had gone first and criticized my work having no arguments, (I felt like just for the sake of it) because I am someone who never is rude for free and always try to do the best job possible even when asked to critique others work. 

I feel like the exercise hasn’t given me much to thing about on my project but rather on the action of critique it self. Critique is inherently subjective and we are prompt to confuse by “the mental bias of attribution” internal causes here being the quality and relevance of ones work with external causes here the partial point of view of an individual. An unconstructive negative critique doesn’t necessarily mean my work is bad but can also be an expression of a point view influenced by many more variables than the sole quality and relevance of my work. 

Apart from that I loved seeing what everyone made for their Unit 7 especially the people who I can recognize the work without seeing their name because they bring a very personal style to their projects. Seeing all those amazing garments made me realize that we all have different strength in regards to what we are capable to design and how much effort and work we all put into it. Reflecting back on my own piece I think it is quite successful and shows a lot of investment because it was entirely made from nothing. There was only cones of threads and balls of wool that I crocheted, knitted into textiles pieces that I embellished shaped and sewed to end up with a wearable garment. This whole process feels quite magical. It was an idea in my mind, than a story on paper, illustrations and small pieces of textiles and now  It’s a garment. A Profoundly synesthetic experience of wearing my poems on the body. 

Today was entirely taken over by sewing the final garment. I draped the previous night all of the crochet tapestry on the mannequin trying out different disposition to try and get across the most accurate representation of the frailty of memories on the garment, what I finally decided on was to make the crochet cover the whole surface of the body until mid thigh as I had the undergarment as well giving more coverage to the body. All the crochet pieces were then sewed on the mannequin to not loose the precise disposition of the pieces, it was a quite long process but I did not encounter any major issue doing it. The machine knitting pieces where then sewed on the side as tube of different width, originally I thought of sewing the sleeves to the bustier but I felt like it was not necessary as the sleeves fitted on the arms at least my arms without doing that. But I also chose to not sew them in the end because as a very skinny girl I have small arms and can put the sleeves on my upper arms. as I don’t know the size  of the model yet I already made the undergarment a bit too big for me but adjustable, by not sewing the sleeves they become adjustable as well with the possibility of putting them on the lower part of the arm. I feel like if I had sewed the sleeves on the garment I was taking a risk of the bustier fitting but the sleeves not fitting on the upper arm and having them just hanging in my shoot. I added the last embellishments of the corals and the beaded fish, I also sewed some of my corals (originally made for the sleeves) as tubes and decided to use them as accessories to bring added value to my final piece. 

As my crochet tapestry results to be quite sheer and see through I decided that rather making sleeves to represent the sea and what the character sees when she is drowning I should make an undergarment and smaller sleeve to go within time limitations. I decided that using a knitting machine would be relevant to this part of the garment because it would show contrast between the crochet representing the frailty of memories and the undergarments and the sleeves looking more solid and present opposing reality and Dreams. I looked back at my earlier research images and sketchbook development trying to recapture what I had already extracted from my research images. I chose to use Iurex to bring the reflective and blissed aspect of the sea on the horizon, I selected two shades of blue lurex to portray the tones of the water aswell as silver for the foam of the waves and bronze for the corals, to contrast with the lurex I used used ligther iridescent green velvet for the seaweed. I also went back to the shapes of the wave as a visually appealing way to portray the ocean and decided to knit wire inside my undergarment on a low tension on the knitting machine to have a very tight knitted lurex resulting in a shapable fabric to represent the ondulations of the waves. I think the result was pleasing as it was easily bendable and mimicked waves pretty well I definitely see how I can tube the pieces and shape them around the body quite easily to achieve desired visual effect. To represent the seaweed I did not include wire because it would not have been relevant I rather decided to develop a technique I had tried in the beginning of the project using lace holes. However as it was supposed to represent seaweed which is not as precise and regular as geometrical lace holes I placed them more randomly and varied the sizes to give a more realistic effect of seaweed. The sleeves are mimicking the corals effects by demonstrating visuals previously explored in the project, like the use of fringy shiny yarns and sequins layered with thin yarn to represent the sun light passing through the ocean and give through that layering a sense of transparency. I am overall satisfied with the final pieces however I would have liked to show more of the knitting techniques I learned like curving the yarn by holding the needles to create ondulations or create the effect of a ribbed/bubbled yarn. However due to time management I decided it was safer to make the final pieces with the wave effect given by the wire. I can still give myself some credit though because knitting with wire is in itself a technique and something quite difficult to do but by going slowly and adjusting the tension as I went along I was able to create the effect I desired. I think it was a good experience to have to change my plan to fit into the deadlines because it shows me how to think realistically about time management and how to get my ideas across in different ways using different techniques of knitwear. 

I decided to include the nymphéas growing in the lungs as a symbol of Melancholia in my garment as it is the one I chose to portray the occurrence of the melancholic sentient in my short story. A real violence lies in the image of a nymphea growing in the lungs firstly because it cancels breathing a symbol of being alive (the first breath of air and the last breath of air) but also because by depriving the subject of breathing an other object is growing, a beautiful flower slowly killing, blossoming the sanity and safety of the person. I feel it represents Melancholia extremely accurately as it is a subtle long wave of sadness tinted of  joy yet flowing undoubtedly to the bleak loneliness of emotional death. It sees numerous parallels with the image of beautiful flower whose blossoming cancels breathing and leads to dying by slowly deploying its petals. However for the sample I wanted to move away from the familiar aesthetic of a flower and focus more on creating a metaphorical Textile nymphéas which will express the feeling created by the occurrence of Melancholia. I decided to use pearls as visually it gives a reflective effect reminiscent of the movement of the water on which the nymphéas grows, I also decided to use crocheted pearl threads because it gives the aesthetic of something extremely delicate and fragile yet paradoxically heavy which I thought was relevant to portray nymphéas (in the context of Melancholia), seemingly beautiful and joyful figures blossoming in the lungs of my character making her spiral and drown in the ocean.

The nymphéas are also visually represented pompon of white feathers reminiscent of the idea of the flowers blossoming in the lungs of the character slowly ending her feel smothered and trapped gasping for air as reality becomes unbearable.   I feel the sample is quite successful for all the reasons I listed above however I would have liked to bead myself the thread with beads instead of buying a thread already beaded but again I feel that was a necessary comprise in relation with time. I would have had no chance to finish the garment if I lost time beading the thread myself. 

I think I made the last sample I will use in the tapestry of memories for the garment. Focusing on the figure of the blanket I analyzed it’s shape through different photography I had of it. This blanket resonates as a very special object for me because it was hand knitted by my grandmother on the English side of my family. I feel it has family infused in it like if some of the essence of the family traveled in the blanket through every person snuggling in it. It is very significant in the short story aswell because it’s the object chosen by the character to drape over family to negate the imperfection of its reality. However what is interesting is that the blanket also represents family but in a different way it carries memories and represents the idea of family rather of family itself. The perfection of a untarnished idea, A vision in the mind of an idealized portray of family irrelevant to the reality of the complexity of an existing family group. The figure of the blanket is also reminiscent of the mother (traditionally seen as the lost object in the occurrence of Melancholia) it is warm comforting and acts as a shelter from the cold world as would the arms of a mother. I based the sample on a combination of shapes between the mother and the blanket and created sort of waves as a way to manifest the comforting serenity of the bercement, gently transported back and forth sheltered in ocean of passivity and protection. This sample represents the key image in the story : by presenting a similar scenery the soft bercement of the body gently floating it is reminiscent of the state the body is in when the baby is sheltered in the mother’s body floating gently in the Amniotic liquid. This image creates a parallel the character safe in the tapestry of memories and the insecurity experienced while drowning. Through this image alone you understand the gesture of the character diving in the ocean as a desperate attempt fueled by Melancholia to retrieve the lost of object and the feeling it carried. By drowning in water the character relieves the emotion of feeling sheltered in the amniotic liquid. I chose the color blue to bring to life the blanket because it was the shade of the real blanket as well as the shade of the ocean. The sample I feel is successful because it ties the whole garment together and makes the story quite understandable and relevant through looking at the garment alone. 

I wanted to use a great amount of memories to offer a broad sense of the characters memories to symbolize accurately the complexity of life however I feel like this direction might be to ambitious as it makes more and more piece to create for the garment and I simply don’t think it’s realistic in response to the time I have left. Therefore I decided my only goal was to portray every member of the family in specific memories as samples to make understandable as much as possible that the family was the lost object triggering the occurrence of Melancholia. This next sample was based on a photography of my father holding me in his arms. Rather than trying to represent the whole scene in textile I decided to focus on certain details that felt important to me, visual effects and colors. This sample uses the colors blue representing the intensity of the light and the colors of my dad jumper. The colors of the sky is made out of thin blue yarn éparse and ethereal to show the inconsistance of the shimmer of light this reflective effect is made stronger by the use of wire knitted with the yarn . I made to embellishments for this sample. The first one represents my father and I as part of one ensemble.  He is portrayed by a soft blue yarn reminding of the jumper he is wearing and in which I am entirely contained. I also used orange fringed yarn as his hair are ginger. I am represented by the outer layer as if I was contained in the universe of his jumper because visually in the photography my whole body is situated as cocooned by the sweater. I chose gold metal thread to represent the sun hitting my hair creating an array of light on my face and an interesting imagery to focus on to bring this character In the final sample. I am also represented as a smaller flower seen on what I am wearing in the photo there is no particular meaning otherwise than me liking the color blend of pinks and blue on this particular flower. I am quite satisfied with this sample but it is one of the most simple, less embellished and smaller than some of the other however it fits in the aesthetic of family as a tapestry and portrays Melancholia well showing United in the same embellishment the character with family adds on to the rupture and the metaphorical loss of family resulting in the occurrence of Melancholia.  

 I realized that for time management sake if I want to finish the garment to show it on Monday I would have to do samples based off photography of memories without developing the samples in 2D first. I started with a crochet sample representing my sister on a pillow when she was a baby. She is placed next to a cuddly toys witch is almost the same size as her. I thought it related with the concept of dream and reality confronting because it shows a definite sense of absurdity of a child being the size of a cuddly bear there fore kinda of scaled to a cuddly “bear world “. I think It was important to include because it brings a new member of the family to the tapestry of memories representing “the lost object,” it being family it should include a broad range of character to emphasize the depth of that figurative lost in the character mind.  I choose to use bronze colored lurex to translate the orange tones of the pillow on witch the the baby is placed on, reflecting on that choice using a more orange color would have been better to portray the shade. But I think lurex was a appropriate texture because it plays on the amusing absurdity of the photography setup. I then decided to represent the baby in the center of a pink flower because that’s the general shade I saw in the photography. The cuddly bear is represented as a small plastic object covered in pearls to highlight how weird it is that a human could be so small, those materials were chosen to emphasize the artificially of toys and to reinforce the opposition between the cuddly toys and the baby laying next to it. The sample is shaped as a flower of witch the baby is the center to remind my sisters named after a flower. That sample doesn’t relate with Melancholia per say it’s more of a character exposition to reinforce the weight of the family tapestry representing the lost object. 

 The second sample contemplating our visit to acre wood is a recreation of an original drawing made by Ernest shepherd where piglet and pooh are walking away on the path. I tried to build the sample as a circle using inspiration from classic granny square model for the center building yarn from the colors of the clothes we were wearing that day. And building an outer layer of wool representing the forest first soft dark green wool and then layered with another color of green velvet ligther and more reflective to represent light passing through the trees and to evoke the water color aspect present in the original drawings. It mimics the density of the forest and the intricate disposition of the leaves  to create a layered visual effect on the body. It’s related to Melancholia because it shows visually the strong link between family and the character in a place that takes more from dream than reality the purity of an instant emphasizing the brutal realization of the imperfections of our world revealed in the short story. I am quite happy with how it turned out because I think it offers the aesthetic of a crochet “grandma” square aswell as being interesting from the use of unconventional material in that type of craft (grandma style squares)like wire, lurex and velvet thread 

It is also disposed like the photography with the circle of different yarns representing the characters in the center.

I wanted to reflect that crossover between reality and imagination by confronting different tones in my crochet samples. I used soft thin grey wool to represent the foggyness of reality and a darker subtlety tinted green velvet to reflect the color of the leaves hit by the sun in a realistic manner. It is opposed to the vision my character has of Pooh stick bridge idealized in an unrealistic soft sandy beige crochet it’s thicker to represent how strongly the vision exists in the character mind. I also used an iridescent blue blurry texture to symbolize the power of imagination over reality it stands out and catches the look like the pearls imagined by the character to magnify the bridge. 

To expres how strongly imagination and purity of the instant exists I represented one of the character of acre wood in crochet and it becomes palpable and real in the garment , the character of the photography are not textured or physically present as a way to emphasize the permanence of childhood dreams in an disenchanted reality.

The next two samples are based on a very particular memory of mine and do resonate with childhood innocence as well as the importance of comfort. I used to attach a great value to marvelous realms who don’t belong to our reality when I was small as a way to reinvent who I was myself. I did therefore carry a strong bond with my cuddly toys as a materialization of my imagination in my surroundings. Going to Acre Wood when I was small and throwing sticks off of pooh stick bridge remains one of those singular moments where those two realities collided and consequently one of my most vibrant memory. It truly intertwines with Melancholia as it appeals to nostalgia and childhood naivety witch can easily transfer something part of reality and mis see it as as partaking in a dream long awaited for. In this case I choose to represent the moment of me throwing sticks in the river as an opposition between reality and imagination. I used collage of real objects my push chair and my cuddly toys and showed how that vision of reality slowly slipped as the scenery became watercolor to illustrate the apparition of dream and the immersion in imagination indeed the caracthers seen as cuddly toys are now visualize as illustrations throwing sticks in off of Pooh stick bridge. The collage of me represents the links between those two interpretations as I am both seen with my cuddly toys next to me as small objects and also sitting next to them on the bridge as if I was part of the story of the books. I think it stands as an important story in the development of Melancholia because by showing such strong beliefs in the power of dreams, imagination and instants not inherently flawed it reinforces the break down of the character when she realizes how imperfect is life and she looses all glimmer of hope in the daunting impossibility of perfection.  

This memory is based around my birthday Probably my 4th or 5th birthday I am not too sure, as It was a festive event i wanted to bring some sparkles in my samples. With using garland threads and holographic glimmer to try liven the atmosphere. The colors I choose are based on the dress I am wearing (that I ironically still wear) blue and green glittering synthetic fabrics and of the carpet on the floor behind me mostly orange. However I decided to not use the green garland in the garment samples because it’s so visually present I feel take over the rest of the tapestry. To bring the synthetic look to my samples I focused on making very kitsch like embellishments using the moss inside a bathroom glove and plastic beads. 

I feel that page was really representative of the innocence of childhood, very bright and colorful with a sort of kitsch fake feeling to them aimed to portray the feeling of the character drowning looking back in those memories and only seeing how unreflective of reality those early childhood moments really were. 

This memory is based around my birthday Probably my 4th or 5th birthday I am not too sure, as It was a festive event i wanted to bring some sparkles in my samples. With using garland threads and holographic glimmer to try liven the atmosphere. The colors I choose are based on the dress I am wearing (that I ironically still wear) blue and green glittering synthetic fabrics and of the carpet on the floor behind me mostly orange. However I decided to not use the green garland in the garment samples because it’s so visually present I feel take over the rest of the tapestry. To bring the synthetic look to my samples I focused on making very kitsch like embellishments using the moss inside a bathroom glove and plastic beads. 

I feel that page was really representative of the innocence of childhood, very bright and colorful with a sort of kitsch fake feeling to them aimed to portray the feeling of the character drowning looking back in those memories and only seeing how unreflective of reality those early childhood moments really were. 

Moved on to memories from my childhood in Paris focusing on happy memories of me having fun as a small child on the carousel. This carousel is placed at the end of cours de Vincennes near I lived when I was small and near the school I was at at the time. I remember riding it countless of times after school and on the weekend sometimes with my best friend that can be seen in the photo I took as an inspiration. Visually the object of the carousel is interesting because of the cacophony of colors It expresses and the light coming through the neons, it’s definitely very kitsch and plastic look. I decided to use posca and oil pastel to bring in my sketchbook the intensity of the object both in my memories and as a interesting visual. For the sample I decided to make one centered around the colors of the carousel green, yellow and pink forming a crochet fire truck because that’s the visual present in the photo (and our me and my friend favorite when we were small ). I also added beads in a plastic tubes to represent both the neon on the carousel and the overall plastic aesthetic of the object. Another sample was based off the colors of the fire truck (red silver and bronze) and our outfits on the photo, I crocheted around the plastic tube this time to try and integrate it more into the sample. It was a difficult task as the lurex kept twisting around the tube and making uneven knit holes. It was also time consuming and the final result, after crocheting the plastic thread on itself didn’t meet my expectations because it looked to chunky. Therefore I decided to redo the sample for the garment by removing the plastic thread and replacing it with embellishments representing the shades of our visage in the form of small crochet « flowers ». I still would like to experience crocheting around and with plastic but I think it’s would need a thinner thread. 

However I am not there yet I am very worried that I will not be able to complete everything I had in mind before the end of the project. So I started making very quick sketches of my final piece to see how it would look like, to start making some pieces that will be hand crocheted instead of machine knitted. Mainly involving the memory tapestry part of the garment that will be based off the shape of a blanket as it is suppose to represent family > the lost object that I personified as a blanket in my short story/ prose poem. However doing both things at the same time is quite arduous as it assume that I know a hundred percent where the project will be standing in several sketchbook pages. I don’t want the samples I make now to not reflect what I will to make as a final piece in a week or so but again it’s for a matter of time management but it ironically suggests that the garment might be finished before all its development is clearly explained and demonstrated in the sketchbook.It also raises the questions of finding a balance between the samples I put in my sketchbook which can work as individuals following a similar aesthetic and the ones part of the garment that don’t stand as their own but rather as parts of a finished piece that I feel need to convey a deeper aesthetic direction and therefore be more similar in style. However I don’t want all the samples part of my tapestry of memories to look too similar as they are all expressing different memories I feel I need to each time not only varie the colors but also add one element that is unique to the sample to the tapestry of memories part of the garment looking to “samey” as a whole. 

Today I have started diving into the memories. 

I feel like organizing them into a chronological order would be relevant. Therefore I started with the photos from my early childhood analysing both shapes and colors using watercolor and collage. The character here is my grandfather who lived in the same village his all life and the scenery is the Alps, the colors I used in my crochet samples are meant to capture the calm and suspension of a village asleep under the snow focusing on the instant the sun light hits the snow mirroring a multitude of tones and colors all present in the white. I then use the particular shapes of the mountains full of curves and pics to initiate early design development as I feel my sketchbook is clearly lacking simple desig« stuff » so far.  I feel it relates with knitwear which are also full of curves and textures.

Diving into my own memories to try and recreate a sort of tapestry of reminiscence. Because even if the story i am writing doesn’t especially relates to my current feelings I think it’s still more relevant and personal to use my own memories to build the project development as if I used photography that were not my own I wouldn’t have had the same understanding and attachment to the development it would have felt fake. I decided to do a samples for the sketchbook and then straight away another one for the garment combining the elements of both this is for time management so everything I am doing Benefits both the sketchbook and my final piece as I want my garment to be for a big part hand crocheted and embedded. I think I would like to organize some of my next pages exploring memories a bit like a photography album using my families one as a reference, as well as the big collage my grandmother does in cadres as a literal tapestry of family history. I want each of my samples to involve different places and peoples I know or knew because the short story represents family as the lost object and there for need to visually represent it to make it understandable in the garment and the design development. I just hope I am not to ambitious and the project will be finished in time. 

I decided to introduce memories by looking at films and pellicules because I think it’s interesting how it relates with the flow of the water. Both are reflective surfaces that surrounds us that it does not seem absurd to verbalize that you are drowning in memories. I decided to use those films because as small miniature visions of photography that need to be projected to show the photographic instant they captured it links closely to how I consider memories, as miniaturized sentient reminiscences kept in the unconscious until they rise back to the surface. There for using a projector as a way to initiate the mental travel of my character in the realm of her memories felt really relevant because it visualized the transfer between reality and dreams through a catalyst of reminiscences resembling the circular shape of a vortex. Through this imagery I feel like  it becomes clear that the long forgotten memories of the character are going to blossom in her mind and take her away from reality allowing her to dive in her childhood and explore the occurrence of Melancholia. 

I started design development of the shapes of the corals looking out the black and white photography of Imogene Wright of woman naked posing on the sea shore. I collaged those photography with à background of corals to create the visual effect of the women being under water, I then extracted shapes and started to place them on the body. I am not really happy with my result, the shapes are looking really big and organic when I felt it would be more relevant to have smaller shapes as my project is focused on frailty of memories. I think it was to early on in the project to start design development. I need to develop my narrative more. 

To portray the corals in my mind as well as I could, I went knitting in the knitting studio to try out different techniques. The first sample only uses a basic layering with the exception of bold contrast between the fringy and shiny pinks representing the corals the multicolored lurex representing light passing through water and the much lighter and fuzzy blue yarn representing the sea. Going back to my research I tried to translate the flow of the waves by creating ribs in my knit pieces witch I think translates the effect I wanted to create pretty well I used both a blue, fuzzy and floaty yarn to represent the water and a silver lurex yarn to represent the foam on the waves. Finally based off the photography of the corals of the artist I referenced previously, I decided to try and represent the delicate lace like feel of the corals by experimenting with lace holes. It worked well (i was able to make the holes ) across the textile sample as a Texural print because it was not based off a symmetrical pattern but rather on the impression of graceful corals in the ocean. 

I feel fascinated by the psychology of humans how we evolve and change especially while we grow up trying to find triggering events like literary climax in ones life. That’s why the occurrence of Melancholia felt like such an important theme for me as a feeling that instil slowly rather than a brutal event that is caused by a clear trigger. It is more interesting to analyze the combined little things generating Melancholia to understand its occurrence. The central focus in the occurrence of Melancholia is always the idea of a lost object. Object is seen here as a figure and as person or group of person. I need think of how I can develop the idea of the lost object and the memories to visualize the occurrence of Melancholia.

Bringing forward how Melancholia relates for me to the ocean i would like to quote French poet I unfortunately don’t remember his name but he is implying that the sea is inherently melancholic because it can either be agitated and in a state of instability making it impossible to regain the shore but also extremely calm and still with no wind acting like a golden prison away from the coast where the ships could derive for months on the still surface of the ocean. I think it was an interesting imagery because it shows the complexity of a melancholic mind even in periods tinted with joy. 

I think I also feel drawn to the sea because it hold some of my most vivid memories of my childhood when we went scuba diving in the Red Sea when I was 3 and were able to explore with my family the intensity and the profusion of the sea life. I have been fascinated by the ocean from that very moment. Therefore the idea of drowning in the project is not entirely negative because it brings the idea of returning to childhood and escaping into happy memories almost like a way to retrieve the lost object. 

Visually I started working on the sketchbook setting up a color scheme for the “drowning part” of the story, centered on blues for the ocean pinks and oranges for the corals. I started sampling aswell, using plastic thread to represent the silkyness of the water on the corals as well as clear sequins to symbolize the bubbles in the ocean escaping to the surface. I looked at photography of corals under water especially liking the photos of photographer: what I loved in his shots was how much depth could be seen in the corals despite the color being universally grey. It seems almost like lace under water from how precisely crafted it was almost sacralized because of how much it was emphasized in the photographs. It does relate to how the ocean is seen in my project, a divine purgatory of Melancholia an escape from a raw and bleak reality. Therefore i wanted to had more depth in my samples. I weaved metal strings draped up in wool to give a wave effect of corals in volume, I repeated the process with Jersey in à camaïeu of pinks and oranges however I don’t think it worked as well because the texture of the material was not holding it’s shape as well but it did make semi 3D coral fringes whom still give an interesting effect to the samples. As another method I also tried to layer the sequin rubans with my thinner yarn that looks a bit like it breaking appart. I really liked the effect as the sequins were seen in transparency really recreating the effect of the light in the water when the sun hits the corals. That’s something I would like to recreate and develop in further more final samples, or maybe even as part of the garment. 

Introduction to the Harrods project, I am not going to lie it comes off a bit as an obstacle in the way of my UNIT 7. But because it has to be done.. my initial idea is to try and link it with the Unit 7 project however I am not sure I will be able to do this. Harrods and the “grand magasin” in general made me think of the ones that opened in Paris in the 1900’s as it also ties in with the period my all time favorite book was written in “In search of lost times” , i decided to tie both things together and use the character of the book to evoke Harrods orientalism and luxury. 

For Unit 7 I would like to focus on Melancholia and the different symbols of Melancholia. 

The Nymphéa flowers also called water lilies present in the scenery of Ophelia drowning in John Everett Millais painting,  and the tones of the flowers reflecting onto water in Monets paintings. I find fascinating that the flowers were such a changing subject to paint that they were painted time after time by Monet always inconstant and resulting in different outcomes, I feel like it’s relevant to Melancholia as a state of mind an inconstant mirror always reflecting a different emotion of a person. Researching Melancholia, I came across a documentary called kind of blue explaining in details the history of Melancholia and it’s relation with planet Saturn. That brought me to Verlaine poetry “Les poèmes Saturniens” and makes me wander wether the stories should be purely based in reality with the interruption of objects from the sea or if they should be more metaphorical or even not tied to reality at all. 

I realized I haven’t finished explaining the story of the Virginia Woolf book yesterday. It is set in a House on the island of Skye also taking inspiration from Cornwall scenery. Interestingly it is not written like a conventional narrative but described as a psychological poem, it relates to my theme as memories are not conventional narratives either but rather frail and inconsistent reminiscence giving an impression of ones past. The story focuses on the desire to get to the lighthouse symbolizing safety but never being really able to get there I feel it relates to Melancholia because it gives a sense of fatality, it’s a constant still state as immobile as the ocean drawn across the horizon. 

The book about Melancholia also relates “To the lighthouse “ to Magritte paintings. In the same way that the lighthouse is inaccessible, in his painting a Dominion of light, paradoxically under the domination of darkness it shows the idea that light, safety and protection feels impossible to attain for someone trapped in a melancholic bubble, it’s sacralized as a fantasized object far away, a halo, or a lighthouse like the frail flame of a flickering candle at the heart of a tempest. This painting was deemed created by Magritte expressing how he felt after his mother suicide, interestingly enough drowning in a river in the middle of the night in it self a very melancholic death. She was found with her night gown covering her face reminiscent of the death of Ophelia in Hamlet, immortalized in last instant in a long lacy white dress . which could be in itself an interesting detail to initiate design development.

I found interesting books at the library expressing both Melancholia in relation to the arts and psychology. In a book exploring Melancholia from a Klenian point of view I found a reference to a book by Virginia Woolf that could be very relevant in the narrative, it was called to the lighthouse and set on the highland of Skye. As my name is also Skye based of the island, it stays ambiguous if the character is overwhelmed and drowning in her own mind visual of the ocean as mere symbolism or if she is physically drowning. I thought that was a very interesting subtlety to explore. Also as almost a manifestation of destiny I randomly found some camera films in the book probably used to keep the page, as it relates to memory and my theme I decided to keep it and use it to collage. If i could get my hands on more it even could be an unconventional material to knit with. 

I visited the welcome collection as it related with psychological illness which can be related to Melancholia, I came across a work of art that I thought was particularly interesting, it was a video split into two parts by artists . The left part showed kids aged 9 in the 1980’s expressing themselves in any wich way they wanted, visually or with words. The next part of the video showed the same kids 10-12 years later asked to react to their first performances. What I deemed was that the adults explained what happened in their lives in the last 10 years, it showed a real shift from innocent and clumsiness of kids making grimaces to seriousness of the adults addressing what went wrong in their lives, loosing a parent, developing anxiety etc...

It felt very relevant to my theme exploring the occurrence of Melancholia and how it develops in ones life. I think I am going to focus on the symbolism of Melancholia in art and literature but also on psychoanalytic factors of it, and find some theoretical books to inform my progression. 

I feel I should emphasize the contrast between the universe of the memories, unreal only existing in my character mind and the reality of what she sees drowning, her litteral outlook on what she is surrounded by. I am not sure yet how I want to visualize that contrast but it could be relevant to use objects from the sea and make them somehow blurry to show what the characters, her eyes filled with salty water. However I would like the contrast to not only be visual but also based on the symbolism’s of Melancholia represented as a soft and subtly beautiful sadness therefore I think using soft textures in my knitwear could be relevant. The project will be set as , my character sinks under water, the level of the land decreasing to finally show it disappear and the ocean dominating the page. However I want to develop the land scenery aswell basing it on the cliffs of an high land. Skye a aswell as the lighthouse. Therefore as my name is Skye it stays ambiguous if the character is overwhelmed and drowning in her own mind visual of the ocean as mere symbolism or if she is physically drowning.