Emily's Adventures in Work Experience

Hello everybody and welcome to my first ever blog post!!

Over the last few weeks I have been doing work experience with a silk painting company called Kinetika. Whilst I was there, they asked me whether I would write a blog documenting my feelings and experiences of my time there. I have thought about blogging in the past and follow several blogs myself but I have never taken the plunge and written one myself before. Anyway, as it is almost the summer holidays and I will have some free time, I thought I would give it a go.

I felt really excited and grateful when Kinetika offered me work experience during the Silk River Artist Residencies as I knew many others at my school were struggling to find anything and I had also sent out emails to other companies but with no luck. When you think of work experience you tend to think of boring tasks such as photo copying, so I was super excited to get this placement as it involved actually making art with professional artists! This meant that I could develop my skills and learn more about life in the industry. Kinetika was one of the first companies I applied to as I wanted to find a placement within the creative sector as my current aim is to become a costume designer, I had also taken part in a workshop with Kinetika a couple of years ago on an open day in which I made a batik silk panel.

During my work experience I learnt many new skills as well as developing existing skills such as drawing, laying out, managing the handmade silk, hot waxing, how to mix cold water dyes, how to blend colours and the process of double waxing. I also enjoyed meeting the others artists as it made me feel more confident about the possibility of me working within the industry.

Day 1: Monday 12th June 2017

The artist residencies were led by Ali, Artistic Director and Jacci, Lead Artist. The day started with a group meeting where we introduced ourselves to each other and explained who we were and which area we were working on during the project. As my school was already involved with the East Tilbury flag I was chosen to be one of the artists to work on this flag. The ten flags were separated into two lots of five over the two weeks (due to limited space as each flag is 6 meters long!), with East Tilbury falling in the second week. This meant that we had the opportunity to view the flags which were made the week before so that we had an idea of what we were aiming for by the end of the week. We also heard some of the plans and ideas that the artists had for their respective flags and the main ideas and images Ali and Jacci would like to be featured on each of the flags.

The Bata Production Line by Emily M

We then split into our groups for the rest of the day and began planning and designing our flags. I was working with Jackie, a student on the Costume Construction course and Margaret, a Kinetika volunteer. We discussed the East Tilbury flag including some photos which Jackie had taken. The main theme for our flag is the Bata shoe factory which supplied jobs to many people in the local area over seventy years until it closed in 2005. Tomas Bata, a Czechoslovak industrialist who founded the Bata Company, built many factories across the world, including Batanagar in India with which East Tilbury is twinned for this project. Each factory had a community and amenities built for the workers, including identical Bata homes, a ballroom, cinema and sports team. In the 1960’s players from the West Ham football team often used the grounds to train against the Bata team. Jackie and I then went to view the Bata map at the Coach House Café.  After that we began to draw our own illustrations for the flag. I drew a production line and a tug of war, inspired by images found online and in the Bata Record paper. After each drawing is sketched in pencil, the lines must be gone over in black felt tip pen to make them easier for tracing.

Day 2: Tuesday 13th June 2017

All images traced onto dot and cross paper

In the morning Jackie, Margaret and I finished our illustrations and finalised the positions of all the images on the flag including those that students from my school had designed following their trip to East Tilbury, sticking the drawings down with masking tape onto a sheet of dot and cross paper with the shape of our section of the river marked out. We then placed another 6 metre sheet of dot and cross paper over the table and began tracing the whole lot in black marker pen with help from the other artists. By tracing all the images, we can ensure that the paper will be completely flat underneath the silk, making it easier to hot wax along the black lines. Due to the scale of each flag it is not possible to work on all of them at the same time, but this also gives the opportunity to help out on other flags and to get to know the other artists working on the project which I found very beneficial and also gave me a sense of pride in the whole project.

After lunch Jackie took me and a couple of the other artists on a tour of the Royal Opera House Costume Centre, which is also based at High House Production Park Purfleet. The course instructor showed us around the costume store were costumes from Royal Opera House productions are kept, the laundry room where they are washed between productions, the wig room and shoe room as well as the workshop which is used by Costume Constructors from the Royal Opera House and the classroom upstairs where the Costume Construction course is taught.

Upon returning to the studio I helped to hot wax the Tower Hamlets flag including the jewel necklace and buildings at the bottom. Any area that is waxed will remain the original colour of the silk after processing. Then I traced the Bengali writing and a structure for the Tilbury flag on which Steve and Sara were the lead artists.

Day 3: Wednesday 14th June 2017

Hot-waxing on Indian Silk

On Wednesday the first flag up for waxing was the Tilbury flag. Amongst the images I waxed was the Maersk Sealand writing onto the boat which I was very careful about to make sure the writing would be neat and readable after processing. After we had finished waxing the Tilbury flag we began to wax the East Tilbury flag where I got to wax my production line that I had designed at the top of the flag. The next flag we waxed was the Southend flag where I waxed the man with his buckets at the top, the seagulls on the border and the house on the right.

After we had finished waxing all of the flags, we were taught how to mix cold water dyes. Beginning with mixing the urea powder with water to create urea water, this helps the dye to go into the silk rather than sitting on top of it. You then add a small amount of urea water to some dye powder and mix to a smooth paste before adding more urea water to create a liquid.

The first flag to be painted was Tower Hamlets, during this time Jackie, Margaret and I discussed the colours for our flag and created colour swatches ready for when the school children came in to help paint the flag the next morning. Jackie’s friend Emily, who is also on the Costume Construction course, designed some templates for our flag such as cogs and parquet flooring for our second waxing.

Day 4: Thursday 15th June 2017

First painting of the silk flag

Before the school children arrived Ali, Jackie and I went through the colours for the East Tilbury flag as there would be a lot of people working on the flag at the same time so organisation was very important in order for it to run smoothly. We also began painting some of the flag before the school party arrived to show what the silk looks like when painted and to create some excitement. I painted the workers’ overalls, skin and hair, the outside of the production line as well as the shoe machine, the Bata house door, the land on the map and the lorry radiator. I enjoyed painting the silk as I find it very relaxing and exciting watching the cream fabric slowly becoming more and more colourful.

In the afternoon most of the artists and the school children went on a tour of the costume centre and the rest of the site led by Jackie and Lesley, a Kinetika volunteer. Margaret and I stayed behind to complete the flag and to tidy up.

Later I painted a boy on the Purfleet flag and the tail of the lion-fish on the Tilbury flag.

Day 5: Friday 16th June 2017

Second waxing details drawn onto dot and cross paper

In the morning we continued to paint the Purfleet flag, I helped to paint the girl, black background and more.

After lunch Jackie, Margaret, Emily (Jackie’s friend) and Lisa from the Purfleet flag and I went upstairs to the office to work on the designs for the second waxings for our flags and to trace them onto the dot and cross papers.

During the double wax, additional lines and images are waxed onto already painted areas, leaving these lines the colour of the first coat of paint after processing. The rest of the silk is then given a second coat to deepen and brighten the colours.

Day 6: Monday 19th June 2017

When I arrived I helped to paint the Southend flag including the roof of the Kursaal.

Completed silk flag!

As it was an extra day, Jackie and Margaret were not available so I had to make some of the colour decisions for our flag. After lunch I finished hot waxing the flag and began the second coat of paint with help from a couple of artists who were on the residency the week before. Having an extra day was therefore additionally helpful as it meant we got to meet more artists such as Tanya who worked on the Dartford flag. We started with the easier sections such as the river which is the same colour throughout all of the flags so that we could discuss some of the other colours with Ali when she returned.

Day 7: Wednesday 21st June 2017

We continued painting the final two flags, East Tilbury and Purfleet. The studio was a lot busier than Monday as more artists were available for this extra day. This meant that Ali, Lesley, Tanya, Steve and I completed the East Tilbury flag by 12:30pm. All the flags were finished by the afternoon and packaged ready for processing. Each flag must be processed which involves steaming in order to remove all of the wax.

Overview:

I really enjoyed my time at Kinetika and learnt many new skills which I am sure will be very useful in the future. I believe this was the best work experience opportunity for me as I got to meet lots of artists who work within the creative sector where I hope to work in the future.

Woah, that was a lot of writing, I hope you enjoyed reading my post! Follow me on Instagram @emily.m.adventures and @princessemily_m for daily updates, and Twitter @EmilyMAdventure for info on my next blog post.

Emily M x