Yao Yao

This set of work was inspired by the Columbia Flower Market in East London. I did some experimental drawings and then looked into the textures, and I combined the surface looking and inside feeling that it gave me together. As a result, some part of the drawings looks like realistic things, some part of them looks more abstract. I was really into it when thinking of the combination of realistic things and abstract feeling, and put them all in my drawings. Most of this set of drawings are created by marker pen, one of these used crayon. I focused on the texture, played with it, and tried to create some patterns. When I thought about creating the drawings and the patterns, I was also thinking of what kind of threads and beads can I use, and how could the patterns transfer to embroidery. It’s really useful to think of the embroidery techniques when creating the patterns.

I visited East London with my groupmates and discovered many places such as city farm, god’s own junk yard, Columbia flower market, Brick Lane. The place that most attract and inspire me is God’s Own Junk Yard. I took many photos there and used some of the colours and structures to start with. I tried different colour materials such as water colour, crayon, mark pen, acrylic and just play with the colours to try different results. It’s really great to see different outcomes using different colour materials and it inspires me a lot. It’s also great to try different colour materials mix and overlap together.