Process 2: writing / presentation
Textile Sketchbook Collection by Lynne Dennis
by Chavisa Piankit (Pear)
Lynne Dennis was a member of the Embroiders’ Guild, a society of textile designers and artists, which began life more than 100 years ago. The University for the Creative Arts holds a collection of archives and special collections which students can use for inspiration when creating their own sketchbook. Lynne Dennis’s sketchbooks mostly dated from 1986-1994, and they consist of a collection of 18 sketchbooks in total. They include inspirational, ideas, samples of textiles, paintings, sketches and her analysis notes for each project. They are interesting from the perspective of art history and personal ideas.
Textile is derived from the Latin word texere which meaning to weave; but a wider meaning than simply weaving must be accepted since it is only one of various ways of making fabrics. (Miller, 1968:8) Textiles have been part of many different cultures, lives and civilization. According to Gale and Kaur, “One common perception of textile is that it is feminine art”. (2002:7) Lynne Dennis is designer who has a fascination with textiles. She applied her knowledge and skill to create fabulous art works. From looking at the contents of four sketchbooks, her design process can be revealed, which reflects the structure of her design over short period of time. In terms of practicality, Lynne has a sense of elegance in the way that she uses fabrics, which show her special talent in this area.
From an analysis of four sketchbooks of Lynne Dennis, it would appear that, almost all of her works are influenced by nature and the environment. She assembled an interesting collection of inspirational items, for example, postcards, cards, photographs and brochures. She annotates each page of her sketchbooks. Stylistically, she used initial sketches and fabric samples to develop her designs. Some parts of her sketchbook contain freeform drawing which shows how her ideas develop. A large part of the sketchbooks consist of ideas which inspired her critical thinking techniques. She combined many kinds of materials and worked with various fabrics with unusual surfaces. These sketchbooks are interesting (other synonyms) because they serve to illustrate her passion for textiles.
Primarily, the craft of textiles derives from the tradition of domestic embroidery. Dennis is a designer who is highly proficient at using combinations of colours, employing various palettes, which balance warm and cold colours. Colour is an important element in her design work. Colours tend to generate a specific response or association from the viewer, and an understanding of these reactions will help the designer create effective colour combinations that will enforce their intended message. (Ambrose, 2005:24) However, fabric and thread are the main factor in Dennis’ work. By combining different colours of thread, new shade can be created, for instance red thread and yellow thread can make orange. Colour and contrast can generate a myriad of design effects when applied to textile design. (Clarke: 2011:144) The tone of colour is affected by how the fabric is perceived by the viewer. From observing Dennis’ sketchbook, it appears that she used 30 : 70 percentage of colours balance between warm and cold, which refer to the temperature created by the visual impact of a colour. However, at times she used monochrome to differentiate between dimensions and complex surfaces. Therefore, it could be said that, colour is the main factor that Dennis used to create and enhance the beauty of her fabric art works.
Furthermore, Dennis’ sketchbooks showed that she was interested in ancient art, for instance the art of ancient Mexico, Maya, Aboriginal arts and American Indian arts. Most of her work in the four sketchbooks have many references to these civilizations, for example symbols and lines are used to replace text; continuing curves referring to the rhythm of water. Geometric form is frequently used in her work, and circles, squares and triangle are common forms found in this