Michelle Reader reuses waste materials to create unique figurative recycled sculptures. She makes bespoke recycled and sustainable sculptures for organisations, often created from waste materials relevant to the business or event. She created a sculpture in Blackburn town center from food packaging and general waste. I was drawn to her work, and was inspired. I thought of using this idea but changing it to suit my needs, so using asian food packaging that would normally be discarded and creating a design out of it, not exactly using the actual packaging, but using the design to create a print.
After the manu text experiments and floral and architectural prints weren't really working, I knew I had to try something else. So, from the bright pink manu text floral print, I photocopied the piece onto acetate, and from my visit to Whalley range, I had the rice and flour bags that I hadn't used as I didn't know what I could use them for. I put the photocopied acetate over the flour and rice bags and it was a perfect match - the two just worked together. However, there was still something missing and it was the lack of colour on the acetate copy of flowers from the manu text print. I painted the acetate copy with colours that matched the flour bag, and that was a step closer to being a finalized design.
Another thing I thought didn't work so well was that there are a lot of bold colours and solid colour blocks, and the image of the flour bag in the background wasn't so visible. To make it more visible, the image would need to be edited. This would need to be done on Photoshop. I knew what needed to be done to make it work - it had to become a line drawing with the lines being in different colours in different sections. The only problem was that I didn't know how to use Photoshop, so would have to have a crash course in using it and then have a go myself.
It wasn't as hard as I had first thought it would be, and after a couple of hours of playing around, I got the hang of using most of what I needed. I did a few different edits of the image above, experimented with different colours, tones and shades to see which colours worked together and which didn't.
This is the packaging on its own that I turned into a line drawing, as I was Photoshop, I had to cut out the individual flowers and then layer the image up flower by flower onto the packaging.
I then ended up with this image. I really think that the colours here work really well. All year I have been working with bright colours, and I think it's about time that I tone them down and create something sophisticated. I do think the subtle colours work well, and there isn't a part of the design that clashes or over takes another.
The above two I 'solarized' which made them really dark with a barely visible pattern, making it moody, Gothic and sultry. I think this would work as a piece by itself, but for what I am trying to do and the look I am am trying to achieve, this is not it, so I won't be using it.
This is just a monotone version of the original image. It was another idea I thought I would try out, but I think that the line drawing works best, and solid block of colour don't.
The above few are just some colour sample experiments, where the colour was completely changed every time for the whole piece. I don't think this works as well as the ones below, where there is almost a set palate of colours which varies in shade.
Some of the above are very bright, where others aren't. I prefer the ones where there is a mixture of bright and dull shades of the same colour in various places as for me, they can used in a design and developed further.
The three above were purely for experimental purposes. The tool used blows up a selected part of the image, distorting the image. This is not a working design, and I don't really like the way it appears.
These edits are a mixture of hue and saturation which control the colour levels, and for the above images, I have used these to extremes to get these results. For me, the colours clash and take an element away from the design and attracts the focus towards the colour which is not my intention.
The above two are oil painting edits of the image without being changed into a line drawing. I dont think they work as well as the line drawings, and perhaps a point to expand and experiment further would be to edit these into line drawings, and then into oil painting edits.
I decided to use the other flour and rice bags that I had collected, and painted matching coloured flowers for them too. This particular flour bag though has a very plain and simple look and design, and I feel there needs to be more going on. Again, The line drawing version below works better than the solid blocks of colour original one above.
These are some experiments with hue and saturation, which changes the amount of colour and the areas of blocked colour. They do work on their own however I feel that this particular design is quite simplistic so I will not use it, but it has allowed me to experiment.
These are like the other ones where a line drawing hasn't been created and there are just blocks of solid colour. I changed the hue and saturation on these, but there is too much going on, and the line is essential for this design to work.
With this design, the problem that I hadn't even thought about was that I could set the canvas size on Photoshop before editing the image as I started editing as it was, and with this image what happened was even if enlarged a little bit, it became really pixelated and the design started to lose it's edge, so I wouldn't be able to use it if I needed to enlarge it as it would just become more pixelated.
Another technique/method I sampled was discharge printing. This is also a screen print, but instead of using inks an acid based substance is used on a special black fabric. When it is first printed, the print is not visible, it needs to be steamed and ironed, and it then beco es visible in a creamy white colour on the black fabric. It is an effective technique, however is very time consuming as you can't see where you have last printed, you have to be very careful about putting the screen down and printing over something you have previously done. Due to this, I don't think I will be using this particular method of screen printing due to these factors. I did create some samples however, and thought they worked well.
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