A week in the life of a 21-year-old Nigerian textile student
Nigerian textile student Khadija Dikko takes us through a week in her life as she submits her final project for the semester. (Courtesy of Khadija Dikko)
Khadija Dikko takes us through a week in her life as she submits her final project for the semester.
Monday, 6 December
I woke up at 8:30 a.m. today and got ready to go on campus for the last week of uni of the term. This week will be intense as I will be putting together all my work from the whole term (which started in September) and submitting it online for my tutors to grade. As a final-year textile student, we get to design our own projects to work on. This term, I am focused on exploring the relationship between women and food. I made samples of textiles that draw on colours, patterns and textures from photographs I took of food over the summer and interviews I conducted with girls about their relationship with food.
I missed the bus so I had to get a slightly later one but thankfully I arrived on campus around 9:30 a.m., right on time for the technician's drop-in. This is when you meet with staff who teach you the technical aspect of creating textiles — for example print screens or weaving looms. I didn't need help with my work so I only stopped by for a minute. I then headed to my section in the third-year studio space. This space is specifically for final-year students and each student chooses a desk where they will work for the whole of the school year. Tall, plain, white boards separate the desks from each other and students to showcase what they are working on on their boards. This space is very nice as you work alongside your peers and you can feed off of each other's creativity and also suggest some things for other students to experiment on.
Right now I’m working on my final samples inspired by food, which I’m weaving on a 32-shaft floor loom. In one of my samples, I’ve used different yarn textures to recreate the textures of broccoli. I finished my final samples and took them off the loom. After that I tried the matcha latte bubble tea from the Panchi trailer; it was super good and gave me the boost I needed to get on with my day! I had my tea with a sandwich and watched Netflix for 30 minutes before getting back to work (I was watching “A Tale Dark & Grimm,” which is an animation action fiction about Hansel and Gretel).
I continued to put together my contextual research in InDesign, which is a publishing and page layout designing software app. As for every project we work on, we have to present the contextual research to go with it, so all the research that influenced your ideas and designs but is not actually part of your final artwork or samples. My research included food, feminism, female artists and designers that use food as their medium and female food photographers. I went over all my research till around 5 p.m. when I decided to go back home. I spent time with my housemates and had dinner.
“I then headed to my section in the third-year studio space. This space is specifically for final-year students and each student chooses a desk where they will work for the whole of the school year.” (Courtesy of Khadija Dikko)
“I tried the matcha latte bubble tea from the Panchi trailer; it was super good and gave me the boost I needed to get on with my day!” says Khadija. (Courtesy of Khadija Dikko)
Later, I went into my room to work on the contemporary practice documents, which are documents that I use to keep track of my hours. By referencing my timesheets and invoices, I can calculate how much my hourly rates are and the total cost of my project to a hypothetical client. I knew this work would take a few hours and I wanted to feel as motivated as possible so I made my setup in my room cosy and nice with a candle. My environment significantly impacts my productivity. I submitted my project at 1 a.m., well in advance of the Wednesday deadline.
Tuesday, 7 December
Because I was up late, I didn't get up till 12:30 p.m. today. I had a shower, got ready and took the bus at 1 p.m. My house is a bit far from the university; it can take over half an hour to get there on the bus. The first thing I did when I got to campus was get a matcha latte and start working on putting all my visual work together in InDesign. I then had my one-to-one tutorial with my teacher, which was useful because I was able to talk through how I wanted to present all the work that I have done so far and get help and advice from my tutor on how best to achieve this. After our tutorial ended, I decided to wash my final samples and start working on my finishing process for it. A finishing process is what you do to a textile sample to present it a certain way or to stop the edges from fraying and the threads coming all loose.
When I arrived back home, it was around 7 p.m. I hung out with my housemates and we watched more episodes of “My Mad Fat Diary” together and had dinner. Then, finally, I went to bed around 10 p.m.
Wednesday, 8 December
I woke up early today around 8:30 a.m. and decided to have cereal. I got ready whilst listening to some lo-fi music. It is one of my favourite genres of music to listen to when I want to have the most productive day. I associate it with all the studio vlogs I watch on YouTube. Studio vlogs are basically just like regular vlogs but show creatives working in their studios at home or in their workplaces. These videos can show order packaging, painting sessions and more. I find them productive and calming and that in turn makes me want to make the most of my day. After that, I took the bus to campus. It only took 30 minutes to get there today.
I worked on my sketchbook, which is a digital accumulation of all the drawings and colour work that I had done for this project. I also finished my final samples by cutting them and trimming the edges to make them look neat.
Thursday, 9 December
After I get to campus today, I spend hours taking all the pictures of all the textile samples and putting together my visual research and everything else. I had already planned out my sketchbook and annotations, but it still took hours to put everything together. Through this project, I sought to make people aware of the societal pressure that comes with being expected to cook for your partner as well as the fact that in some societies, women are not able to take pleasure in food the same way as men.
I came back home around 7 p.m., spent time with my housemates and got takeout. We watched more episodes of “My Mad Fat Diary.” They all went to bed around 11 p.m., but I stayed up till 5 a.m. working because I still had quite a lot to do in terms of working on my InDesign sketchbook. I leave little left to do on Friday.
“After our tutorial ended, I decided to wash my final samples and start working on my finishing process for it.” (Courtesy of Khadija Dikko)
“It felt significant and right to end my project with a rainbow in the sky.” (Courtesy of Khadija Dikko)
Friday, 10 December
Today is the deadline for the project that I have been working on all week. I woke up at 11 a.m., had a shower and got on the bus to uni to submit my work. I went through all my documents one last time as the deadline wasn’t until 5 p.m. There was a rainbow on my way to campus; it was so pretty and put me in a better mood because it had been such a busy and hectic week. It felt significant and right to end my project with a rainbow in the sky. I felt like it was my own personal reward from the universe for completing such a tasking and overwhelming study block.
Because I did all my work till the early morning of Friday, I didn’t have much to do on campus. I handed in my work by 2 p.m. I was proud of what I had done and how all my textile samples came out but I couldn't help but feel like there was more I could do. I always feel like that, and the truth is there is always more you could do and add, but you have to find a way to dedicate time for specific tasks or else you could get stuck on one thing.
Then I made my way back home to spend some time with my housemate who was leaving early to go home for the holidays.
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