Rhiannon Furness

Print Design 1- Combining elements of aerial maps, local publications and street names. Repeat print on wooden panels intended to be displayed on a building within the community. Print Design 2- Cohesive use of the shapes extracted from aerial maps of Chesterfield alongside illustrative drawings of Chesterfield landmarks. Depth and interest added via collaged shapes. Digitally manipulated and for use on public screens.   Mixed media design 1 - Patchwork of textures and print. Intended for interior use. Symbolises the variety of individuals with a community and how they all work together to create a community. Mixed media design 2 - Inspired by cubism, a collage of prints, lines and shapes. Shapes taken from aerial maps of Chesterfield.

Mixed media sampling using offcuts, local magazine pages and stitching. Using shapes of buildings from aerial photographs of Chesterfield. Keeping the colour palette muted and simple. Black and white provides contrast whilst subtle blues reoccur throughout Chesterfield (likely due to the local football club). Using illustrations and previously used shapes to experiment with colour ways, collage, machine stitch and digital manipulation to create a print. Experimenting with different mediums (acrylic paint, spray paint, printing ink) and colours using a stencil. Layering street names over one another and shapes from the aerial photos. The spray paint reminds me of street are and seems apt for an exterior installation piece.   Creating a patchwork with texture, layers and print as a way to symbolise the variety of individuals within a community. Carrying the use of blue from Chesterfield FC.  Development inspired by synthetic cubism by collaging textures, shapes and print. Symbol...

Art pieces around Chesterfield. Art that is easily accessible to the wider public helps inspire creativity. Exposing new generations to design ideas and promoting change. Art pieces can tell stories and educate, they can relate to histories and the future. Designing pieces that relate to the community of Chesterfield and displaying these where the public can easily view them will give members of the community a sense of pride and therefore inspire active participation within community activities. Examples of textile installations, some of which created in collaboration with communities (local residents and students). Evidence of public art bringing people together.  

There are many ways to create a print, conventionally through methods such a screen printing, block printing, and digitally printing. But I want to explore other methods such as hand painting, collage, stitch and embellishment to create prints. These methods can be used and digitally manipulated to create even more possibilities within the print world.  The above prints all display elements of structure, either through the use of geometric shapes or architectural imagery. Techniques include collage and digital manipulation. I want to use elements inspired by architecture in my own designs as well as experimenting with digital processes and collage within my prints.

Kari Moden is a Swedish illustrator. Her work is bold and colourful and she's often commissioned to work for agencies who distribute her work, for example for advertising, information and packaging etc. (Kari Modern, undated). Her work is an example of art reaching communities. Her work also depicts communities through scenes of people, maps and architectural images.  

Christine Gedeon uses paint, fabric and stitch to invent these semi-abstract landscapes with limited colour palettes, intended to make viewers contemplate their individual relationship with the external world (Christine Gedeon, undated).  The use of different fabrics to create shapes and layers adds depth to the works. Overlapping lines and shapes perfectly capture the connectedness of a community and the place it's based. Places hold memories and memories build a persons identity. So conjuring depictions of places via design can hold different meanings to different people but simulaneously be recognisable to an entire community.   

The idea of layering textiles and the symbolism connected to layers (more than meets the eye, the layers relating to different aspects of a community or a person's identity) would be interesting to incorporate into my collection. The process can be utilised in many ways in order to suit other visual choices made during primary research and design development. Using MMT processes to create a collage of textures to symbolise the variety of individuals within a single community. Shapes can be formed to reflect those found within my primary research, based on architecture, maps and aerial photography. Adding in the use of unconventional materials will help add structure and variety of texture.  

 " Chesterfield offers a town lifestyle set on the edge of the glorious Peak District, a great outdoor leisure experience, local independent retailers, high street names and is a place where history, heritage and modernity go hand-in-hand. With new schools and one of the largest colleges in England, Chesterfield is home to a wide range of businesses including IT specialists, world class engineering and communications companies. From high street names to local specialists, arts and culture, hotels and an historic town centre market, the town has a vibrant heart. We are superbly connected, have history galore, fantastic buildings and places, world leading businesses, enthusiastic and skilled people and most importantly we offer a great lifestyle. As the largest town in Derbyshire and the gateway to the Peak District, Chesterfield is a great place to invest, live or visit, combining both historical and contemporary experiences. We are a place th...

 Extracting shapes from an aerial map of Chesterfield and experimenting with composition, overlapping, adding colour and collage. Lines here can be translated to stitch in order to create multi media pieces. Shapes can become appliqué pieces or inform where to block in textures. Overlapping shapes creates links, symbolising the links within a community. Photography focusing on physical aspects of community including architecture and street signage. These buildings could be both potential sites for my designs and also provide visual reference for my primary experimentation. Illustrative drawings created in reference to the photos I have taken around my local community of Chesterfield. The crooked spire is the most recognisable and notable building/ attraction in Chesterfield and holds memories for a lot of people, making it an obvious choice to include in my design work. Extracting shapes from aerial photos of Chesterfield town centre and using line drawings, stencils and collage to...

For the concept Political Society I'm exploring the themes of Community and Identity. Community is defined as a unified body of individuals such as people living in a particular area or sharing common interests. Identity is defined as the distinguishing character or personality of an individual (Merriam Webster, undated). I will be exploring my local community through different viewpoints including: Housing, homes and buildings/architecture Local publications (newspapers/magazines) People (local groups such as charities, outreach programs etc. and notable members of chesterfield's community) The two textile pathways I will be focusing on are Print and MMT. I will research these processes and linked designers to inform how I commence my design work. Whilst considering my approach to this theme and how it will translate into physical/visual work, there are design and art elements that came to mind: Cubism (the way of displaying different viewpoints of something together in one pi...

 " In an attempt to classify the revolutionary experiments made by  Pablo Picasso ,  Georges Braque  and  Juan Gris  when they were exponents of  cubism , historians have tended to divide cubism into two stages. The early phase, generally considered to run from 1908–12 is called analytical cubism and the second is called synthetic cubism." (Tate, undated). Analytical cubism is called as it is a structured dissection of a subject from different viewpoints coming together to create a fragmented image with overlapping planes. Another distinguishing feature of analytical cubism is a simplified colour palette to prevent the viewer becoming distracted from the form. (Tate, undated). " Synthetic cubism began when the artists started adding textures and patterns to their paintings, experimenting with  collage  using newspaper print and patterned paper. Analytical cubism was about breaking down an object (like a bottle) viewpoint-by-viewpoint, into a ...

  Sam Jaffe "Sam Jaffe is an artist currently living and working in Chicago, IL. Characterized by wacky, toxic color and overstuffed, mutated forms, her recent work explores labor, folk and domestic art traditions, ornamentation, collecting behaviors, femininity, and the grotesque fallibility of the human body. All art materials are recycled, reused, repurposed, dead-stock, vintage, or otherwise sustainably sourced." (Sam Jaffe, no date). The use of line and shape within Jaffe's work reminds me of aerial photography, especially the prints. Her work in MMT displays distorted shapes with the use of techniques that could be used to depict aerial photography or architecture of communities. Although I plan on using a more refined and understated colour scheme, the colours here could symbolise the wide range of identities within a landscape. The shapes are reminiscent of cubism and, to me, mirror the idea of seeing something (a community) from many angles at once.

Visualisations. Three conceptual ideas for the use of my textiles combined with other elements from my design development, including handmade embellishments. The use of torn edges and stitching gives my visualisations an organic feel to connect it to my project as a whole. A fashion collection intended to tell a story of environmental resilience. MMT final design. Manipulated strips of fabric to mimic a simplified version of tree bark. The pop of colour gives it warmth and links in with colours found in corals. This enabled me to bring together elements of woodland and underwater into one design. All materials used are remnants, offcuts and/or natural. A digitally manipulated print extracted from a collage. Shapes inspired by coral reefs, intended to be printed onto natural fabrics.  

My primary woodland research began by photographing textures and shapes within several local woodland areas. Whilst doing this I also collected fallen branches/twigs, as well as small cuttings of ivy and ferns. I intend to use these to create embellishments and experimentation. Attempted to photograph marine ecosystems also but was unable to get good photos despite visiting two aquariums. My first colour explorations. Using yarn wrapping to explore tones of green. I moved away from this colour in order to be able to create something more usable. Deciding instead to explore natural colours that can be found in both the woodland and marine ecosystems. Focusing on the textures using the objects I have collected, including barks, wood, shells etc. I will use these textures to extract lines and shapes to use within my own designs. After deciding to add a pop of colour to my palette, I chose pink. There are many pinkish tones within my initial extractions and it blends well with the warm nat...

Experimental mark making. Using acrylic paint, palette knives and natural sponges to create bark-like textures. The products have then been digitally altered to create depth. Line drawings that emulate the shapes found within bark have been used here to create a stencil by cutting lines from card. This allowed me to experiment with positive and negative space. Using stitch, felting and handmade embellishments to recreate the textures found on logs. I initially did a digital drawing informed by my photography and used this to dictate my decision making for a multi media piece. I created the embellishments used here by sanding collected sticks, sawing off slices and drilling a small hole into the centre.  The intertwining lines and shapes found in these photos informed experimentations with weaving. On the left I chose to weave natural-fibre fabrics unevenly to emulate the crisscrossing of vines. On the right I wove with natural materials gathered from the local woodland. MMT experim...

These fashion designs are produced by graduates at Central Saint Martins. The pieces on the left have textures and shapes similar to coral reefs. The designer is Matty Bovan and concept is not listed but there are clear links between the designers work and my research. The use of different materials and techniques layered together to create a complex outcome show how different elements of textile design can be brought together for use in fashion. The collection on the right is by CSM graduate Masha Popova (Show Studio, 2020) and the concept does not link to my project but the shapes and textures within the designs reflect the imagery I've found during my research of underwater ecosystems.  

Mixed-media or Multi-media textiles involved using a range of materials and processes within a single design. This can include the use of multiple techniques to manipulate a single material as seen above in The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff. It can also involve to use of several materials as seen in Jessica Grady's work, where she uses an array of found and recycled materials to create 3D motifs on fabric.  

The above textiles are created by a German interiors company called Effi Home Couture. The company specialises in biophilic textile design using cotton, paper, wool, leaves, leather, feathers and organics (Effi, no date). Biophilia is defined a s; " a hypothetical human tendency to interact or be closely associated with other forms of life in nature  :  a desire or tendency to commune with nature" (Marriam Wester, no date). Biophilic design integrates nature with human living, within architecture, interior design etc. This relates closely with my research of natural materials and their use within textile design.