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Kika Karadi

Kika Karadi was born in Budapest in 1975. She lives and works in New York and Minnesota. She went to Maryland Institute College of Art. To create her work, she uses masking tape, cardboard, cut out shapes and removes paint with razor blades to create negative space. She has work shown in galleries across the US and EuropE. She has also had solo exhibitions at The Journal Gallery in New York and the Jonathan Viner Gallery in London. She has previously presented work at FIAC in Paris with Jonathan Viner.  Kika was included in “LIFE” curated by The Journal Gallery at Venus over Manhattan.

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This is similar to my dress that I made. Kika Karadis work has more black on than my dress and also has more thin lines. My dress has more thick lines and more curves than straight lines.

 

Final Piece

My final piece is a tartan inspired shirt. I think it went okay but it could have been better. From this I have learnt that I need to practice more on a sewing machine so that I am more confident and will have neater stitching. If I was to do this again, I would have spent more time thinking about what I could do and developing it further.

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Wednesday 18th Jan

On Wednesday, we had a lecture with Aaron Dunleavy.

He started off in Blackburn by doing a btec. After doing his btec, he did fad and then went to London. Aaron didn’t want to go to London straight away. He showed us a film that he made in his 2nd year at uni. It’s called throw me to the dogs. https://vimeo.com/153044501

He told us that that his main inspiration is Shane meadows who wrote and directed This is England. Aaron made £900 from throw me to the dogs. For his film, he put out an advert asking for young people to star in his films. He got loads of mums replying who wanted their kids in the films. He wasn’t too happy about this as he wanted raw talent. He put the message out to schools. Blackburn central got back to him. When the kids were filming, they weren’t told the storyline or given a script. They just made it up themselves. There is a scene in this film where the kids break a guys window with a ball and the guy chases after them. The kids didn’t know that they were going to be chased, they were just told to run down a back alley. It took 5 days to make this film.

He originally planned to stay in Blackburn but everyone that he made films with left so he was unsure of what to do and where to go. Jamie got in touch with him and told him about a course in London and decided to leave 2 days later. He got there and the course didn’t have anything to do with film making. Because of this he struggled at first.

He showed us a second film which he made on fad. It was his fmp. He filmed it in Lancaster and found the cast online. Everyone that was apart of this film chipped in £50 and made £200. Aaron filmed, directed and edited this film. Someone else on the fad course wrote it.

After this film, he showed us a third film which he didn’t talk much about. It’s called commute and was made on his btec course.

He graduated from London College of Communication in 2016. He is now based in Blackburn. He promoted his work by submitting them to film festivals and competitions. This helped him get more work. The first film he showed us won a competition run by Danny Boyle. Shane meadows saw it which he found exciting. He puts his work on Vimeo which is a good place to put short videos. He has had commissions for music videos and other things. The fourth film he showed us is his most recent work. It is called the truants. The whole video isn’t online yet but their is a trailer for it. https://vimeo.com/169703171

This film was unscripted. There is a scene in the film we’re one of the boys pushes a guy in the water. The boy that does it was the only one who knew it was going to happen. This upset him as he didn’t want to be shown as horrible. They decided to film this. The budget for this film was £2000.

Overall, I really enjoyed this lecture. I think because he did fad as well, it made me be more interested in his work as I could see what I could go onto do after this course. I think his work is good and enjoyed watching the films he has made.

 

Work for portfolio

To help have extra stuff for my portfolio, I have come up with an idea to create extra illustrations and samples.

My idea was to ask people what there favourite songs are and listen to those songs. When I listened to the songs, I painted how I felt by using colours, lines and shapes. I painted 11 different things. 10 of them are other people’s favourite songs and 1 of them was my choice of song.

The first song was chosen by Sophie. Her choice was hold me tight by BTS. This song made me feel confused as it was in Korean. This is why I chose the colour black and used zig zag lines and lines that cross over. I then started to get used to the song and decided that orange was a good colour as I didn’t really enjoy listening to it but it wasn’t too bad. The orange is at the bottom half of the page as I got used to the song near the end.

The second song was chosen by Jess. Her choice was Pompeii by Bastille. I have liked this song for a while so I had a rough idea of what it would look like before I listened to the song. I used red in the top corner to symbolise that I really liked the song at thshe beginning. I then went on to use yellow in straight lines and curved lines as I still liked the song but not as much as the beginning. I spaced more red as the feeling I had at the beginning of the song came back. I then used a little bit of blue next to yellow as I felt a bit sad that the song had ended as I enjoyed listening to it.

The third song was chosen by Zen. Her choice was NCT 127 by Limitless. This song made me feel confused which I why I chose black zig zags. I then started to feel less confused but still didn’t like the song very much. Because of this I used blue and a straight line. I repeated this pattern as I kept alternating between these feelings throughout the song.

The fourth song was chosen by Garfield. His choice was where is my mind? By Pixies. When this song started, I didn’t feel too optimistic. I used black lines to represent this feeling. I then felt a bit better about it but still wasn’t 100% sure how I felt. To represent this I used orange and painted a wavy line. I then went back to not liking the song and painted the black lines again. The song picked up a bit and started to enjoy it so I painted a straight line in a bright yellow colour. The song finished quite suddenly which left me feeling slightly confused as I thought the song had a break in it. To represent this I painted a straight black line.

The fifth song was chosen by my mum. Her choice was Nightswimming by R.E.M. This song is quite calm and made me feel quite sad. To represent this I just painted blue wavy lines.

The sixth song was chosen by Luke. His choice was What’s my age again? By blink-182. I have liked this song for years so I knew it would be a bright page. I used red lines to represent how the song makes me feel quite excited at the beginning. I then used a bright yellow to paint wavy lines to represent how I still love the song but it doesn’t make me feel as excited as the beginning. Towards the end of the song, I get the same excited feeling I get at the beginning so I used red to paint another straight line.

The seventh song was chosen by Maisy. Her choice was Hometown Glory by Adele. As I like a few Adele songs, I felt quite optimistic towards this. I wrest calm when the song started so I painted a blue wavy line. I then thought I quite liked the song so I painted an orange wavy line. I repeated this pattern as my opinion didn’t change. Half way through the song, I got bored of listening nad wanted to change the song. To represent this I painted a black wavy line.

The eightth song was chosen by Hannah. Her choice was Acquiesce by Oasis. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this song as it isn’t my type of music. I didn’t really like the beginning so I painted black lines. Because I have painted a few black lines over this project I wanted to change it a bit by painting arrows. I then got used to it a little bit so I painted an orange wavy line. I then went back to not enjoying it so I painted a black line with downward curves on the edges.

The ninth song was chosen by Kristy. Her choice was True colours by Cyndi Lauper. I didn’t like it to start with so I painted a straight black line. I then thought the song was quite sad and calming so I painted 3 blue wavy lines to represent this.

The tenth song was chosen by Lauren. Her choice was The wonder of you by Elvis Presley. Before I listened to this song, I felt quite negative towards it. I didn’t know how I felt when the song started so I painted a black circle. I then decided that I didn’t like the song so I painted short, black, vertical lines. I went back to not feeling anything so painted another black circle.

The eleventh song was chosen by me. My choice was Milk by The 1975. This song makes me smile and feel happy when it first starts so I chose to use a bright yellow and paint curved lines facing upwards. The song starts to make me feel excited and makes me realise how much I love the song son painted a red zig zag line to show this. As the song nearly finishes, I start to feel sad because it’s nearly finished so I painted a blue zig zag line. As the song finishes, I go back to feeeling excited and loving it so I painted another red zig zag underneath the blue zig zag.

I want to use these paintings I did to create illustrations. I want to possibly add the lines and shapes onto a garment or make a pattern on illustrator. I think the painting I made for the song by Elvis will be the best one to make a pattern on illustrator. I have made my own stamps by using black sheets of thick paper and string. I glued the string to the paper in the shapes and lines I have used in my paintings. I want to paint the stamps and print it onto white fabric. I hope to use these in my portfolio. I don’t know how well the stamps will work but I will still test them out to see what happens.

 

How Tartan is made

Tartan is a woven cloth consisting of criss cross patterns and vertical bands in a variety of colours. It is often seen in Scottish kilts, bag pipes and other fashion.

Tartan is made up of two parts, a warp (vertical stripes) and a weft (horizontal stripes). Its important that each warp and weft meet at a right angle otherwise you’ll end up with a different and crooked design. When combining the colours on the warp and weft combine to make new colours. Some of the original colour stays in some parts. Once combined, there is a new number of colours. The more colours you start with, the more colours in the finished product. The sett or the sequence of the thread begins at the edge of the fabric or other medium and reverses on pivot point. Pivot points are smaller lines separating the larger chunks of colour.

Each colour has its own meaning. They are varied by muted, ancient and modern colours. Modern dyes are blue, black and green chemical dyes instead of natural. Ancient are lighter shades produced by natural dyes. Muted dyes are in between ancient and modern. Many people think that the colours signify something. They do but this idea has only existed in the past century. A popular misconception is that red tartan was worn by warriors so their blood is camouflaged. Today, in countries like America and Canada, blue symbolises water, green symbolises forests and yellow symbolises crops.

The thread for tartan didn’t exist in Scotland until the 16th century. Tartan was associated with regions and districts but are now associated mostly with Scottish clans. Today, tartans are made from thread, plastic and paper.

 

Unit 5 – Tartan Shirt Process

First, I cut out my pattern to get my pieces. This went well, I was a bit nervous about doing it as it was the first time I have done it in a few years.

Second, I placed the pattern pieces on the white fabric. I did get confused when doing this so this took me a while to do. I eventually worked out where the pieces were meant to go. Once I worked out where they went, I cut the pieces out. I was nervous to cut them incase I cut them wrong but I cut them right and they looked okay.

I started to cut strips of fabric in Blue, Red and Yellow. Each strip was 1.5inch. I weaved them on top of the white so I knew how much I needed to cut. This was an easy step so it went well.

I thought that the fraying on the strips looked messy so I started to hem them, this was going okay. I spoke to Julie about what I was doing and she suggested unhemming them as she felt it would look better. I tried it out with strips I hadn’t hemmed yet and I agreed with her and unpicked all the strips that I hemmed. This wasted a few days where I could have been sewing the strips to the white.

I started cutting the edges off and stitching the edges down on to the white for the back pieces. I then sewed the two pieces together and I realised that I put the colour on the wrong side of one piece and had to unpick it and put the weave on the opposite side so the pieces matched.

I weaved and stitched the sleeves, front pieces, front yoke and back yoke. I thought they went well. I stitched the yokes on to the shirt pieces. This could have gone better and been neater.

I attached the front bands to the sides of the front pieces. This turned out really well as the stitches were neat. I am happy with this part of the shirt. I used red and white thread as the front bands are white but I still wanted a little bit of red in it as the rest of the stitches are red.

I stitched the back yokes to the front piece of the shirt by attaching the inside yoke to the inside of the front pieces and the outside yoke to the outside of the front pieces. This part confused me a little bit so it took me a while to do. Once I understood how to do it, it was a quick job.

I then started on the collar. The pattern instructions were not so clear so this took me a while to get done. I eventually attached the collar to the collar band and then the whole piece to the shirt. Once I knew what I was doing, this part turned out well. I didn’t turn the collar inside out so the edges are fraying a bit. If I was to do this part again, I would make sure I turned it inside out so that the edges of the collar are neat.

I then sewed the sides together. This job was easy.

The sleeve placket was quite difficult to understand. I wasn’t sure how to attach the strip. I eventually understood what I needed to do and I cut the sleeve.  I pinned the sleeve placket to the sleeves and stitched them down. This didn’t go as well as I wanted as stitching them down to the sleeves on the bit that bends wasn’t so easy and didn’t stay attached to the middle part. I stitched the sides of the sleeves together.

I put the cuffs on the bottom of the sleeves. This was difficult as the sleeves were already stitched together and I couldn’t pin the cuff to the sleeve. Once I got it pinned down it was easy as I only had to stitch around the cuff.

I pinned the sleeves to the armholes of the shirt. I couldn’t work out how to pin them so that the colour was on the outside and the seam on the sleeve and the sides of the shirt lined up. I decided it was easier to start pinning them from the bottom so that I knew the seams would line up. I pinned and stitched them by hanging the shirt over a chair. I found that doing this made this part a lot easier to do.

After attaching the sleeves, I stated to sew the poppers to the shirt. I placed pins in the places that they would need to go. I found this easier as I always knew where they were going. I think this helped speed the process up as I didn’t have to keep measuring out where I wanted to put them. I was originally going to use proper buttons but I didn’t feel 100% confident doing the buttonholes. Because this I chose to not do the buttonholes in case it didn’t go right and ruined my work. I plan to add black buttons over the poppers because you can see the stitches I made to attach them. The black buttons I attach will cover up the stitches and will also stay with my original design.

I think this shirt is good for my first attempt and I am happy with the way it turned out. I plan to do a photo shoot with the shirt for my portfolio.