DROPSTITCHED

3000 staples, 2.5 litres of matt emulsion, 2.5 Litres of matt floor emulsion, 1.25 litres of gloss paint, 1 Brother KH230 knitting machine, 500 balls of wool,  2 months, one room.

I would like to thank GAVAA who awarded me with the funding that made this exhibition possible. 

Without their help my proposal would of remained just that, a proposal.

I would also like to thank Jon for all his help and hard work documenting my exhibition, my family for their ever support (be it financially or emotionally) and patience, my friends and of course Ryan for putting up with having an artist as a girlfriend. 

The Hanging

Again I hung my show whilst I was still knitting. I found this a good way to work as not only did it break up the monotony of knitting it also meant I could be productive outside of knitting and kill two birds with one bird so to speak. 

My general programme would be to spend two nights after work knitting then a night hanging what I had knitted and so forth. In the final stages of my hanging I moved my knitting machine in to the gallery space so I could maximise my time and create more wool as soon as I ran out rather than having to go back home to do so.

This was very laborious but the excitement of seeing my show finally coming together far outweighed any complaints of fatigue.

To hang my wool I began by applying it vertically, as if wallpaper, to the walls and stapling each sheet in to place. 

I didn't want each sheet to be perfectly placed in strips as I wanted to respond to the wool and the way it wanted to hang naturally. Instead of controlling the wool I reacted to each individual sheets personality. Each sheet was entirely different, some with flaws which altered their aesthetic entirely. 

After I had hung every sheet of wool I then began to manipulate certain areas of the wool with a yellow gloss paint - the same of which I used for the woodwork.

I chose specific areas and poured paint accordingly to each. Not only was this to explore the relationship paint had when used with wool but it also explored the depth created after application. 

Wool is super absorbent and with a paint so thick as gloss applied it was exciting to see how the wool reacted. 

At the end of hanging I finished off by giving the floor it's final cover of yellow paint so that it would be perfectly yellow for the opening.

The Final Countdown

It was important to start preparing the gallery space for my show rather than just concentrating purely on knitting, I didn't want to end up with a mountain of wool with a completely wrong environment of which to hang it in.

I entered the space two weeks before my opening and began by preparing the walls with a yellow matt emulsion paint. The walls needed two coats each to be a suitable enough backdrop colour for the wool I was going to hang in front. 

I wanted a colour that would not entirely blend and vanish within the wool but instead a couple of shades lighter than the wool so that it would shine through any holes and create a sense of  greater depth within the wool.

The floors were painted with a matt emulsion floor paint the same colour as the walls and all woodwork with a matching gloss paint. 

I did also want to paint the ceiling but unfortunately the material was not suitable be painted and I did not have the funds to suit my other solutions. 

I was however quite pleased that I didn't end up painting the ceiling as it opened up and altered the perception of the space. This is one of these "happy accidents" I learnt so much about at university.