Micro Genre: Final Design

This design was selected as the most successful as the colours extremely bright and vibrant keeping in with the celebratory tone of the countries within West Africa and celebrating the origins and roots of traditional black gospel. The design is successful in representing the idea of hidden messages and the andrika symbols swell as the colours celebrate the culture of west African countries, specifically Ghana where are a lot of the slaves came over from. The symbols also both critique slavery on one side and celebrate the emancipation and freedom of slaves on the other, therefore it achieves two sides of the history. 

OUGD505: SB01 Evaluation

When evaluating the design, first of all looking at the colours. These probably turned out the best and most successful as they are extremely bright and vibrant keeping in with the celebratory tone of the countries within West Africa and celebrating the origins and roots of traditional black gospel. 

Evaluating the process, the process wasn’t as successful as hoped and none of the designs turned out perfectly, however the design was more about experimenting and testing out new techniques such as Batik printing and it was hard to do without all of the correct equipment. The symbols show up quite well, but the dye has still managed to seep underneath the wax and into the design, therefore it isn’t a perfect white outline. Some of the colours have also ran into each other, however this adds to mixing and vibrancy of the colours.

The design is successful in representing the idea of hidden messages and the andrika symbols swell as the colours celebrate the culture of west African countries, specifically Ghana where are a lot of the slaves came over from. The symbols also both critique slavery on one side and celebrate the emancipation and freedom of slaves on the other, therefore it achieves two sides of the history. 

The design also answers the brief in the way it combines the history of gospel music and also popular culture in music today, by using tote bags which are still popular and used all the time today. Also they are normally used for music and band merchandise, with artwork and designs on, which fits the object in context in the 21st century. 

In conclusion the design itself works well as it represents the roots of gospel music and celebrates the lives of the slaves from Africa and celebrates their culture now as well as in the past. However the process of batik does definitely need refining and would probably have worked a lot better with the correct tools.

Micro Music Genre: Successful Tote Bag Designs

Below shows the images of the most successful tote bags designs.

Design using a dip dye effect, of the Kenyan colours of green and red. Although the colours aren't that bright, the design worked out successfully as the wax stopped the dye from getting underneath well and the designs can be made out for each of the Andrika symbols.

This design worked the best colour wise, the colours are extremley bright and vibrant, as well as the designs holding out and leaving the cotton showing through.

Both of these designs use a repeated pattern of the Andrika symbols, however on both of the designs the colours have faded and do not represent or celebrate the vibrant nature of West Africa.

Micro Music Genre: Outcomes

Micro Music Genre: Process - Ironing off the Wax

The process of ironing off the wax was also difficult as there were many different techniques and ways of doing it. Traditionally it should be melted in boiling water, however this would have desaturated all the designs and colours and also wasn't safe. Another method was ironing off the wax, but the first few attempts burnt the tote bags and melted the wax into the bag and left an oily stain around the design. 

Due to this different materials had to be experimented with to see which would best soak up the wax, newspaper, newsprint, baking parchment and kitchen roll were all experimented with as those were all absorbent. Kitchen roll worked the best, as it absorbed the wax much better than the other materials. 

After ironing off the designs, there was still one issue is that the pencil from the initial sketching of designs was still visible. Therefore the tote bags were then washed and rinsed and although they lost some of their colour, most of the pencil disappeared and was successful. 

Micro Music Genre: Process - Dyeing

Below shows the process of dyeing the tote bags, the first practice design didn't work well at all. This was because the dye that was bought wasn't deeply saturated or strong enough (Figure 9) and the dye got underneath the wax so the batik effect didn't work. However after repurchasing different Dylon Dyes (Figure 1) which were a lot more pigmented the designs started to work better. However on a few of the designs especially the text or smaller motifs, the dye got underneath the wax and therefore the design wasn't as visible. This could have been because the wax wasn't hot enough, therefore it didn't penetrate through the cotton bag properly (5,6).

Different dyeing techniques and colours were experimented with. The colours chosen were green, red and yellow which are colours associated with West Africa where most of the salves came from. They are also very bright, celebratory colours to contrast the bleakness of the history of slaves. 

Solid colour was experimented with, this worked well, the green was the most pigmented however when the bag was left too long in the dye the dye started to seep underneath the wax. The yellow solid colour worked the best, as the red was quite pink as well. 

Dip dyeing and multiple dye colours worked well as it replicated the flags of the likes of Kenya and Ghana, it made use of all of the colours and made the tote more interesting and celebratory in nature. (2,3 and 7). 

The tote bags with text on didn't work very well, probably because there was too much detail. However it could still work as the concept of the designs were hidden messages, therefore maybe it doesn't have to be completely legible. 

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Figure 2

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Figure 9

Micro Music Genre: Process - Waxing and Designs

Below the images show the process of melting the wax and painting the wax onto the pencil drawn designs on the tote bags. This process seemed to work well, different ideas and designs were developed and changed to experiment how each would turn out on the tote nags when dyed. Ranging from type and text to repeated patterns and larger images of symbols. The designs were traced with wax using a paintbrush, rather than the batik waxing tool, as these were expensive. However in hindsight, it maybe would have been better to use that for the wax to be hotter and more accurate when placed onto the tote bag. It was hard to keep the wax hot enough, using a hot plate would have been better, however these resources weren't available at the time.