A couple pics of finshed head dresses

Evaluation

Moving Tides has come to an end! (Kinda), and no one can deny it was the end we all hoped for thanks to the good old English weather. The Moving Tides procession was cancelled. Although the big finale didn’t happen there is still a lot that has been learnt from this project, Budgeting, sourcing, lesson plans, working with children, developing creative ideas and designs for the world of carnival and holding onto those things I am able to look at my moving tides experience as an extremely positive one both professionally and personally.

When starting the project and being briefed I was excited mainly by the idea of designing for carnival and the construction behind the designs. However as the project developed a key factor to the project was the creative journey with in the schools, getting children excited by the arts and allowing them to develop their skills and knowledge of how our industry of costume and live performance works.

Working In the schools has shown me how much i admire all the behind the scenes work that goes into live performance and carnival, the excitement of being creative of a small budget and developing and researching different skills and how to apply them, such as plastazote workshops, silk painting and dying and even make up for carnival.

I was extremely nervous about running workshops in Westfield School; this would be the first time I have had to get children excited about my design to create the buzz of carnival from the very first day of meeting them. However on stepping into Westfield all those worries were gone when receiving a great reaction from the children involved and having other school children telling me they wished they could be involved in the project.

Working with disabled students can be challenging at times mainly in the communication aspect. Some children’s disabilities meant they would shy away from me being a new face in their class, others meant their speech proved difficult to understand. These factors were overcome very quickly with a bit of patients. Once getting to know the children after my first session i was able to notice when a child was struggling with a task and when extra help would be needed.

Carnival was always an area of work I have been interested to explore, and it is definitely an area i would like to develop further in my studies, developing onto more large scale costumes and a key interest in head dresses and costume probs.
I feel one of my biggest achievements with in the school was being told by the children they had all really enjoyed my workshops. When talking to the teaching staff at break and lunch times they also thanked me and informed me that workshops such as moving tides dont happen enough, and the arts with in schools can sometimes be forgotten able. It was an amazing feeling to know that because of the work ive been doing with in Westfield the children have been able to develop creative skills  such as dyeing, laminate techniques and costume design that may not have been looked at before i had arrived.
Not only have i developed in my creative sense I know feel more comfortable with my abilty to time manage, organise, and budget with in the costume industry. These are all factors I feel i was lacking before as I had only focused on making, It has made me question the idea of possibly transfering these skills over to supervising and trying my hand at that.

On learning the moving tides carnival could possibly be cancelled due to weather, at first there was a lot of disappointment among all people involve. We had worked so hard for so long on creating the best costumes we could for the children - however it is very clear now if the carnival had of went ahead it wouldn’t be the amazing day it was meant to have been anyway, costume would have been cut, make up would have ran, children would have gotten rained out and unwell, this is something none of us wanted.

I appreciate how hard it must have been for the organizers of the carnival to make that finale decision as they had been working on it longer than any of us costume students had. Which again reassured me it was the best choice for everyone involved.

I think it is worth mentioning how much I have appreciated the opportunity to work on moving tides and have it known that I’m extremely grateful to all the help and support i have received along the way from such people as the organizers offing constructive advice on costume designs, Adele and Alison for overseeing our costume development, budgeting and workshop plans, and of course all the teachers and children at Westfield for being so welcoming as well as being excited about the creative process of the costumes - i couldn’t have asked for a better experience though maybe could have asked for a little bit of sun on carnival day.

Workshop Week Three

Final day of workshops - not everything got finished. This wasn’t because of the time management it was mainly because of the nature of the design. When making my prototype my main issue with the design was the balance points of the headdress. Getting it to stay upright during dancing and movement. I had planned to constructed the head dresses in school however it would prove difficult for the children to meet the correct balance point so a decision was made between myself and the teachers at Westfield that i would get the children to finish all surface decoration, ever piece would be laminated and cut ready for construction, head measurements would be taken and i would construct the head dresses in Bournemouth and transport them to Weymouth with extra padding materials in case it was needed.

I was worried the children might be a little upset that they didn’t get to try there head dresses on that day however this was not an issue, the children were happy to see how the head dresses were going to look and expressed excitement for the costumes and the carnival.

With the stress of the construction in school gone, this meant the last session was a very relaxed easy going day applying more surface decoration and cable ties, talking to the children about carnival, if they were excited about there make up and dance workshops, what they had learnt from the experience.

One of the girls in the class even told me she had been inspired by the workshops and she would quite like to do an art based course after her GCSEs, she told me she liked the freedom I had given her with the design and being able to create her own character with in the seahorse was a way she could express her own creative skills with in the workshops. This was probably the best thank you I could have asked for knowing at least one of the children had gained something from the workshops as well as having an enjoyable time making the costumes.

Sea Horse Heads Constructed and Ready To be transported to Weymouth

Week Two - Westfield Tie Dye

Tie Dye in schools is by far one of the simplest things to do with the children, if you know what you’re doing! When deciding to set aside a full day session for different styles of tie dye I had a worry that the children might become easily bored of tying fabrics and had planned a second activity of continuing with pattern work on the seahorse heads in case this became a big issue; but i was pleasantly surprised that it went down extremely well with only a couple hiccups.

Tie Dye is a great way to create different pattern work on a piece of fabric or garment and when showing the children the t-shirts and fins they all get extremely excited (possibly because they all said it looked like a superhero cape - the main thing is they were excited!)

Time management was a key factor to this day, giving enough time for the dyes to set and then be washed as well as finding activities to do when the t-shirts were dying. Luckily the time plan ran extremely smoothly, tying t-shirts, dyeing them, tying the fins while the other dye was working, washing them and revealing them.

My main problem with this day was I had planned to tie the t-shirts with elastic bands, which worked fine with the children no great problems there. However i wanted to show them string can be used too so I planned to use this on the fins... only 4 of the children could tie knots. This meant we had to add an extra activity to the day which was "how to tie a knot", luckily the children picked this up relatively quickly and we were able to continue with or day.

Those children who had finished early helped other children who were finding it a little bit more difficult and once everyone had finished we had the extra activity to continue with.

Health and safety is known to be one of the most boring things - even I got a bit bored when i done my health and safety at uni, so i thought we should make this a little more fun, all though none of the children will be mixing the dyes there is no reason they can all wear aprons and gloves. This meant we could have discussions like "Why would it be sensible to wear gloves when working with a fabric dye" and "what is the purpose of the apron". this proved to be a great way of keeping the children involved in the preparation of the dyes and well as them learning the health and safety behind dye work.

T-shirts out to dry after being taken home for an extra wash.

School Session - Week One!

So today I went back to school - for the first time in 5 years I had completely forgot how different school was ever like, the art room walls covered in work, the hallway displays full of photos, the morning assembly.

Getting the train to Upwey I had no clue what to expect, luckily i had met Sue (the teacher running moving tides at westfield) at the kinetika weekend at AUCB so any awkward introductions were out the way and we had a clear understanding of exactly what was expected from me with the sessions.

Before Class started I was invited to morning  to morning assembly, it was being taken by the head of art, who was giving an assembly on the cultural Olympics, in which she give me a special mention, showed my design to the school and explained the work i was doing through out the 3 sessions i was there.

Meeting the children was an interesting experience, I hadnt been around disabled students since I was in school back in 2007, even then I was a class mate not a teacher. There disabilities ranged from physical to learning difficulties; however I was confident in my design and lesson plans and safe in the knowledge that i had the support of Sue and Mandy who knew the kids extremely well.

I was surprised and excited by the amount of knowledge the children had about carnival, when faced with the question "what is carnival?" they delivered a range of answers from "Dancing down the street", "wearing funny costumes" to "celebrating with friends". We went onto discuss carnival costume the children were keen to talk about colour, pattern and movement - however at times it felt i had to pull some of the answers out of them asking questions like "what kind of things will you like to see at a parade?" and "what will make people stand out from everyone else". By asking questions like this the children started discussing costume and visuals more developing from each others comments.

When my prototype was introduced the children responded well to the height and the movement of the head dress as well as the fins on the t-shirt. This again confirmed my faith in the design which meant at this point all nerves were completely forgotten and I was able to focus fully on the sessions. 

Starting the pattern work, at first the children were using very basic techniques to create patterns, sticking pre cut shapes onto the seahorse pieces, I felt it was key to force the idea of individuality in the costumes, although they are all a collective each seahorse could have their own personality. This was created by getting the children to work into there patterns more, applying pen and collaging different colours and orders. By doing this the children's confidence grew in their own ability to create pattern work which was the main focus of the first session. However I may have been to flexible towards the things the children were apply to the pattern thus having a lot of seahorses with hearts and flowers which is not really to the sea theme, i dont however think this will effect the costumes to much as the overall shape of the head dresses will very clearly be the same seahorse design. 

I feel it was a good idea to only have a half day session for my first day, this allowed me to get to know the children with a quite simple quick activity, and i will now know which children work fast and which need a bit of extra help to get the work done on time. 

Quick Snap Of finale Prototype

Finally finshed the prototype - just testing its ability!

Balance Points problem solving

After finishing all decorative aspects of my costumes prototype the construction has raised some problems when it comes to balancing the head dress so the children are able to move freely without it falling forward or back as well as slipping down below their eyes.

The original plan for the neck was quite a coned design this mean the top for the cone supporting the head of the sea horse was not a wide point of balance this has mean the neck has been changed from a cone design to more of a tube allowing more support around a larger area of the head.

A spilt at the bottom back of the neck was made in the first neck piece to allow a lower positioning on the head however this didn’t really achieve much more balance - this just means all head dresses will have to be made a little larger and padded with plastazote to sit in the correct position on the children’s heads. The plastazote will also create friction to stop the head dress slipping as well as act as padding to create a more comfortable fit.

Original cone shaped design with added split up the back.

Also the Cable ties at the back of the head are pulling the head dress backwards, this has meant i have had to readjust the heads and dip the nose of the se horse down creating more weight at the front to balance the head accordingly.

Developing Laminate Pieces

I am planning on using the laminate technique to create the head dress - however some of the pieces are proving to be to large to fit in the laminator. This has meant i will have to iron or heat press them.



At first i wanted to create laminate pieces with no backing card in the heat press, this would give a see through effect with collage trapped inside - however after tryin out this effect it is clear that not only will the see through effect not work due to the inside construction of the head dress but the heat press needs the backing card to keep the laminate in a flat smooth shape.

Although the crinkle effect does work to create a under water, sea feel because of the neck piece that runs up behind the sea horse head these pieces need to be smooth to allow for accurate construction

example of laminate with and with out backing card

Prototype - Dye

Tie-Dye - A simple, quick and effect way of creating pattern of masses of fabric and clothing. This makes it a brilliant activity to use in schools as the children learn the techniques of tying to great patterns as as well as the excitement of revealing there final dyed pieces. The Two uses of tie dye in the costume mean i will be able to spend a full day session on the subject of "creating pattern with tie dye!"- Teaching different tying techniques as well as the how to use dyes, how they work and health and safety behind dyeing.

The Two techniques used in the schools will be a ring and a line technique. Line for the stripes of the t-shirt and ring for the fins as this will almost resemble the shape of the scales. 

Ring technique - Tied in schools, they will be dyed at uni as a kemtex dysperse dye will have to be used for the synthetic fabric. the dye used will be "royal blue" on a green fabric for 5 mins at boiling point, this will darken the green enough with out turning it blue. a green dye will not give the correct level of colour change to make the rings noticeable from a distance.

Line Technique - Tied and Dyed in school, this will be done with a cold water dye. This has been done in two sections. first the green dye was applied and left as long as possible to create the strongest colour possible. once these were washed and untied the t-shirts were dunked in a mix of blue dye to add extra tones through out the t-shirt.

Lesson Plans

I have a new found respect for every tutor, teacher, lecturer that has ever taught me! Lesson plans are tricky!
Listing things to do in a classroom just isn't enough, especially in artistic workshops. Planning every second counts; your intro, the main activity, how it is broken down and explained, how it is looked at in the end, when to tidy, how to be prepared for the following session. creating the lesson plans in moving tides was a lot of guessing until the prototype was finished, knowing exact orders of construction and decorating allows accurate timings for activities and prep.

OH MY BLOG!

so i've completely neglected my blog , LUCKILY i have everything noted down and my little note book is ready to catch yall up!

Dye Room Session - Cable Ties

Its offical, Im crazy in love with cable ties! They doo so much in the construction of a carnival piece and on top of that they can be dyed THE most amazing colours. Using kemtex dysperse dyes designed for synthetic materials amazing colours can be achieved and cable ties give great height and movement to a costume!

4 Colours I will be using with the children. Bottle Green, Royal Blue, Lincoln Green, Lemon Yellow. 

Cable ties in kemtex will absorb the colour with in approx. 20second (remember to add salt). When I was dyeing a my 200 cable ties for the school I found it useful to have all the dyes in pans, this meant I could mix and match if and when I wanted to create dip dyed cable ties containing 2 or more colours. This also meant I had a large range of different colour effects among the cable ties.

Every Penny Counts!

Maths has never been a strong point, and who'd have thought there would be so much math in costume! Budgeting for moving tides has been one of the trickiest and most daunting tasks ive had to do for moving tides. Creating multiples of one costume means having exactly the right materials and measurments, there is no guessing allowed, and then on top of that getting it for the cheapest prices so hunting through suppliers for deals and discounts always helps. This is definatly and area that could not be done last minute, and things will always be moving around. VAT and delivery are another tricky aspect, which suppliers include it, which dont, who ships for free, who charges per iteam. this ius where a lot of my last minute expense came from, forgetting to include VAT and delivery when pricing materials meant i had to revisit ever supplier and price list to get my total value; and at the end of the day this isnt my money, if i mess up this full costume could go bad!

Moving Tides: School Workshops Materials List

Student Artists Name	ANDREW LAYTON
School Name	WESTFIELD
Project Name and basic Description	SEAHORSE COSTUME DESIGN
Number of costumes to be made	13 CHILDREN 3 DANCE LEADERS
Material	Proposed Supplier	Quantity	Cost per item/ sheet	Total per item INCULDING VAT AND DELIVERY	Purchased by Moving Tides (MT) by Student Artist (SA) (to be completed by Sarah)
A2 LAMINATE POCKETS – 50 PER PACK	BINDINGBAZAAR.COM	2 PACKS	£16.95	£52.38	SA
STRYROFOAM BALLS (PACK OF 20)	LITTLE CRAFTY BUGS	10 PACKS	1.49	£17.86	SA
FLESH COLOURED ELASTIC	EBAY	2 ROLLS	£3.99	£8.78	SA
LINGING FABRIC	CHEAPFABRICS.CO.UK	18 METERS	£1.25 PER METER	£24.49	MT
STRING	WILKINSONS	1	£0.68	£0.68	SA
DYE	WILKINSONS	1	£4.99	£4.99	SA
SALT	WILKINSON	1	£0.48	£0.48	SA
ADULT T-SHIRTS	CHEAPPOLO-SHIRTS.CO.UK	3	£1.79	£6.27	MT
CABLE TIES PACK OF 100	TOOL STATION	2 1/2	£9.48	£23.70	SA
LAMINATE ROLL	EBAY	1	£9.99	£13.98	SA
TOTAL				£153.61

Learning Agreement

NAME:                                   Andrew Layton      

COURSE:                             BA (Hons) Costume with Performance Design        

UNIT TITLE:                                    Self Directed Project                    

REF. NO./LEVEL:               CSS518

WEIGHTING:                        2.0      

DURATION:                         9 Weeks       

HOURS OF STUDY:          300 Hours    

Unit Leader:                         Adele Keeley/Graham Cottenden

Your Blog address:           www.andrewlayton.blogspot.co.uk

DESCRIPTION:

Working on Moving Tides will allow me to develop skills in the industry of carnival and parade. Creating costumes that will be made and worn by Weymouth school children in the spirit of the sea moving tides carnival. The carnival this year has a strong sea theme and all costumes should be designed to fit this theme. The Moving tides parade will also be incorporated with the Olympic torch relay in Weymouth this year, using the colours of the Olympics as a secondary theme.

Throughout this project I will develop my understanding of costume in carnival, looking at materials, decoration and construction techniques. Researching past carnivals from around the word will be key to creating the costumes for moving tides. I will also be designing on a budget, this will mean experimenting with materials to create cheap yet effective construction techniques and solutions. Planning lessons will be a key part of this project, taking key notes when creating a costume prototype to ensure effective and time managed workshops are applied in schools.

I decided on the Moving Tides project as I wanted to focus on carnival and live performance costume design and construction. It has always been a keen interest of mine to create costumes of unique and individual scale and form; this is key in that of carnival and parade costume. I also feel this project allows for a lot of experimental and sample work, looking at new and alternative materials and techniques compared to those of which would more commonly be used in traditional theatre. This project also allows me to develop skills in budgeting, time management and organisation; working on these skills will help me progress into a more professional mind set.

On handing in this project I will submit a sketchbook of work, this will include research relevant to carnival and parade costume design. Looking at size and shapes often used in the carnival industry, research of relevant materials will be evidence throughout the sketchbook also. Evidence and reports of construction techniques and workshops attended ( willow, headdresses, make up) this will include photographs, sample work, written reports and blog entries. My design development stages will be evidenced with reflective annotations to support my ideas; this will also be supported by suitable sample and experimental work. Alongside my creative sketchbook outlining designs and workshops, I will also be submitting a work book of lesson plans, budgeting sheets and any other official Moving Tides paper work. my costume prototype that will be used in schools will be submitted as a 3d representation of how the design will be realized.

Aims:

A1       To provide opportunities for self-initiated, autonomous learning

            and develop the ability to plan time and work independently

A2       To provide opportunity to study the contextual development of costume and performance design

A3       To further develop the creative, intellectual and practical applications of research and contextualisation within a self initiated environment

A4       To propose, develop and evaluate professional aspirations through professional development planning

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this unit you will be able to:

LO1     Identify and define the context for the development of your own work towards professional aspirations

LO2     Demonstrate an understanding of the development of Costume with performance design

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LO3     Have developed the creative, intellectual and practical applications of research and contextualisation

LO4    Consolidate and demonstrate professional aspirations and planning                     

Assessment Requirements:

A body of work consisting of a design sketchbook evidencing workshop preparation, a prototype costume and headdress for a dance leader plus a reflective blog outlining schools workshops and personal development. Under pinned by personal development planning (in your blog journal) and a final written evaluation (750 words) evidenced in your Blog               100%

Each assessment requirement must be passed at a minimum grade of 40% to successfully complete the unit

Assessment Criteria (specific criteria related to the learning outcomes and linked to the statement of generic assessment criteria matrix):           

           

1.   Evidence of knowledge of contextual and theoretical issues – The level to which you have considered the context of your project and evidenced that to your body of work (LO1, LO2)

2.   Evidence of understanding through synthesis and development – The application and extend to which research has informed decision-making and project development together with the appropriate management of time (LO2, LO3, LO4)

3.   Evidence of evaluation and reflection – The extent to which you have reflected on the progress of your project and used it to inform personal development planning (LO4)

4.   Evidence of realisation through the communication of ideas - The presentation of your work and the level to which specialist knowledge has been applied, communicated and evidenced (LO3, LO4)

Reference Material

This will vary according to the needs of the individual project.  You will define Reference Material through personal investigation and consultation with staff and list it in your Learning Agreement.

Carnival! - Barbara (ed) Mauldin

The Venice Carnival - Paolo Alei, virginio (phot) Favale

Theatrical Costume, masks, make-up, and wigs - Sidney Jowers

Masks of the world - Douglas Congdon-Martin, Jim Pieper

Parade of Colours - Cirque Du Soleil

STUDENT……………………………………….DATE………………..

TUTOR…………………………………………..DATE………………..