The Focus: Final Project Set Up

As I began to set up my dress it fell several times from the ceiling and pieces of the dress fell off, it looked as if the dress was actually flaking. This gave me the idea to have the remaining fabric pieces I had leftover, as well as leaves, and place them in a circle around the dress on the floor this made it look like the dress itself was flaking its pieces. I left the dress empty looking in front where there had been more leaves as I liked the idea that the leaves had actually flaked off from what I had created.

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The Focus: Final Project adding more

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As the dress developed and the leaves began to go on the dress I thought of how I could further incorporate the human form and the line into the dress. I asked people I saw on the line if they would give me pieces of fabric to add to the dress. Many people did not give me fabric. I found some fabric in “Repo” which is partly on the line, and was given some denim by one of my friends that walked the line with me. I cut the fabric into smaller pieces to make them “flakes” they then became a part of something that was once a whole. I added these fabric pieces as well as the leaves to the dress in layers to show another aspect of the word and the line. Flake can mean to layer and the line has many layers.

 

The Focus : Final Project beginning stages of creating

After I collected all the leaves and experimented with sewing them together I found mixing different types of leaves together provided for different textures and this made sewing them together easy. The construction of the dress was the next process. When I first began I wanted this dress to be functional. I fitted one of my friends and had the idea to have the dress be a performance piece. The dress fits her and is functional but I abandoned the idea of a performance piece because the dress itself is to represent the human form therefore it should not  be worn in order to convey my idea.

I decided to make the dress out of an earthy plain colored material, this material would work as a canvas to put the leaves on.

 

The Focus : Final Project idea/ beginning stages

My final project idea is to create a dress that represents the human form on the line. My word is flake. There are many definitions of the word flake that people do not normally think of when they hear flake. Flake is: a part of a whole, layering, leaves, and many other things. I  am drawn to the idea of the word on the line that represented the human form. A person on the line is a smaller part of the whole line therefore a flake on the line. People many not wish to be thought of as a flake but flake represents a small part of a whole. The idea of a dress made out of leaves is my idea of the word flake and the line combined.

The dress represents the human form while the leaves are another form of flakes. The beginning stages of making the dress involved gathering leaves from the line that would be easy to sew together. I went on the line with a plastic bag and began to gather many different types of leaves that I could try to sew together. I looked for different sizes, shapes, and colors.

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Homework: Proposal #3

Proposal #3

Flake : as Layers of the Line…

This idea came from the vertical infinity of the line. I thought about how many layers make up this part of the line. I discovered that the parts of the line that make it up vertically are either flakes or produce flakes. Clouds —-> (produce) snowflakes, trees —->(produce) leaves ===> which are flakes, the Earth ~~~~> (breaks down) into rocks and sediments which are flakes of the Earth’s whole composition.

1. I would obtain a clear glass container that is tall vertically. This would represent the infinite distance the line has going upward, because I would not put a lid on the container to “stop” the “connection” to the line.
2. I would the fill the container with layers of flakes that compose the line starting with sediment, rocks, and gravel, and working my way up through the many layers.
3. I would observe and record what was happening to the layers in the container over the course of a week.

Layers of the line in my container would be :

• [top] outer space (represented by paper stars)
• clouds (represented by moist cotton balls)
• leaves and trees (represented by leaves and sticks)
• dirt and grass ( represented by grass and dirt)
• [bottom]rocks and sediment (represented by rocks and dirt)

Homework: Proposal #2

Flake Discovery:

The snowflake: The snowflake is probably the most commonly thought of connection to the word flake. My ancestor (Wilson A. Bentley) discovered the snowflake by taking pictures and studying slides of snow. My idea was to study snow on the line and see if like him, I too, could discover something about the tiny flakes.

This proposal would require a lot of historical research and would be hard to tie to lie line if it does not snow soon.

Homework: The Proposal #1

Line Flake Form…

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Leaves are Flakes. This idea came from the thought that the line is not just left to right but also up and down as well. This made me think about what that area contains and I realized that a person on the line is also apart of the line. The vertical are of the line is composed of many layers and the word flake is associated with layers. Each layer is associated or is a flake. The clouds produce snowflakes, the trees produce leaves which are flakes, and the ground has rocks which are flakes of the Earth. This dress was inspired by the many “flakes”, leaves, of the line. My first thought was to have a cloud like hat which produces snowflakes and then leaves “flakes” as the dress then stones “flakes of the Earth” at the bottom but this form was beautiful the way it was created and truly depicts the area of the line , the human figure would be located at. This area is close to the ground and the trees falling leaves “flakes”. A person on the line is also a flake themselves because an individual being is a piece or part of the entire human race, therefore we are all flakes of Earths entire population.

Composition of the dress:

Leaves and berries for a hat, orange and yellow small leaves for the bodice, red leaves at mid-length, and yellow leaves finish the bottom of the dress.

The layering of the leaves also represents a definition of the word flake as flake is associated with many different layers.

Word museum in Cohen

Flake:

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This was made in class on 11/10/11. We were instructed to put things around our word that defined it or represented it. I chose to put snowflakes on mine as well as an image of Wilson A. Bentley the man who discovered the snowflake. I also put up the paint chip samples I collected that are flakes of paint sources.  I also put a picture of a tree stump that appeared to be “flaking” its bark off. I also put leaves up which are a synonym to the word flake. There are also rocks that I collected with represent the flaking of the earth.

Homework: The Word : (#6 paint part of explorations)

#3 Exploration of paint  

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Flake can be associated to paint flakes, I altered exploration #7 from the book : World of Color – ” Collect paint chips from a paint or hardware store. Find colors you respond to in the world. Attempt to match them using the chips.( you can also match the colors using a portable paint set.) Make notes of where you saw the colors…” I chose to walk through Harder which is on the line and take pictures of paint flakes I found dried on the walls, floor, and other various places. I also collected some paint chips that could also represent flakes of a larger color source.

Homework: The word (#5 clouds part of explorations)

#5 The source of the flakes (snowflakes), the clouds.

I know I could do a lot with snowflakes on the line if there was snow but, there is no snow on the line  yet. I began to think about the source of the snow, the clouds. Each cloud like a snowflake is different and unique. I decided to make a list of how many different types of clouds I could think of:

1. think clouds
2. thin clouds
3. fluffy clouds
4. dark clouds
5. different shapes
6. different sizes
7. day-dream clouds
8. fog
9. smog
10. heavy snow clouds
11. There are also scientific names for different types of clouds and the areas they come from within the atmosphere :

Cloud chart image from : http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/cloud3.html

This is a large collection of types of clouds.