Research - I looked at what things I can visually describe that I enjoyed the subject of. I wanted to definitely base it about something in Guernsey, I thought about the location what its known for and wrote down a list of things I could explore; food in the occupation, beaches and coastline, sand rock and granite, wildlife, Victor Hugo, Guernsey jumper, vegetation and Guernsey french/patois. after slightly looking into each of these subjects i whittled the subjects down towhead had the most information available to me. those subjects were the guernsey jumper and Victor Hugo. seeing as i had recently seen articles about the people who still make the guernsey jumpers had been asked to help with fashion week I chose to go with the jumper.
then i looked at ways of which you can get information across the people; video, audio, images, book/leaflet, signs and posters.
seeing as these jumper are made of a thick knitted wool I wanted to use textures to help me to show the information.
the information I collected;
- Originally the jumper was made by the wives of the fishermen of Guernsey in the 17th century, the Guernsey fast became a popular and practical item for those who spent a large amount of time out at sea. The jumper is made from 100% sheep wool which due to its natural waxy coating of lanolin this means that the jumper makes for a warm and water repellent jumper at sea. The jumper later became popular throughout coastal Britain and towards the 19th century it became part of the naval uniform. - To start the making of a guernsey you will need a 5 ply 100% sheep wool.
- You will start the cast on with the traditional channel islands cast on. - After you have completed the desired size and length of the cast on you will knit the jumper with a stockinette stitch until reaching the armpits. This process is done in the round which means stitching on a circular needles. back when the jumpers were first being made they were all hand stitched. - In the armpits a diamond shaped insert for ease of movement. - The 3 lines coming up from the diamond insert around the top of the shoulder would traditionally be decorated to mirror a sailing ships rope ladder; a garter stitch panel depicting breaking waves and stitching on the sweater shoulders representing pebbles, stones and sand. - Guernsey Jumpers also found favour with Royalty; Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots both owned Guernsey knitwear.
- By the 19th century the Guernsey was part of naval uniform that saw action in the battle of Trafalgar
- The 3 lines coming up from the diamond insert around the shoulder would traditionally be decorated to mirror a sailing ships rope ladder; a garter stitch panel depicting breaking waves and stitching on the sweater shoulders representing pebbles, stones and sand.
After collecting the information, i jotted down sketches and imagery to help me start this project.
the videos above are of some of the things I started to experiment with, keeping texture in mind.
I made a script to read out and record to put behind a video, that will be the main way of sharing the information. My idea is to let the people flick through a book using textures whilst watching/listening to the video so they can receive the information in more ways.
I collected found footage of Guernsey from the time that Guernseys were popular to add to the audio I have recorded.
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