Contemporary Textiles Fair

Lovely weekend at the Contemporary Textiles Fair in Teddington.

News

So, it's been a while since I last posted, but lots of things have been happening!
I was lucky enough to graduate with a First earlier this year, with the fantastic opportunity to go down to London to exhibit at New Designers. All the hard work paid off! New Designers was wonderful with so many inspiring pieces of work and meeting people from the industry. 

This is one of my favourite designs
called 'Breakwater'.

Towards the end of the summer I moved down to London for just over 2 months to do an internship with the renowned Christopher Farr Cloth. It was such a valuable experience.  I met some lovely people and learnt a lot about the business. While on placement I was asked to work on their stand at design junction. It was an amazing show set in an old warehouse showing some of the best design around from well known companies to up-and-coming designers. 

Since moving back home I have been working on my own designs and have been accepted to display some of my work at the Mall Galleries through the Society of Designer Craftsmen in their 'Shop within the Show'. It will be very exciting to see what responses my designs receive. 

I am working on designs that combine kaleidoscopic repetition with geometric shapes found in old dilapidated structures. I will be digitally printing the designs and screen printing into them before making them into cushions and scarves. 

Working with my drawings and mirrors to
produce a Kaleidoscope image.

I absolutely love the colours of the worn faded
paint on this old cinema!

In the New Year I have also been given the fantastic opportunity to intern with Amtico; the UK based flooring design company.  I am very excited to start this as I know I will learn a lot from them.

http://www.amtico.com/flooring/design-options

Wish me luck!

I've had a productive week in the print room, here is a little glimpse at my collection so far

New inspirations...

I have become a bit overwhelmed by work at the moment and so haven't had time to write a post or even take many photo's of what I have been upto!

Last week I spent my time taking all my designs through to koda trace. I made a make-shift light box on my bedroom window for some weekend development sessions.

Nikolay Biryukov - student works for 1granary

I specialize in print, in particular screen print, but every now and again I get the to embellish and when my friend Olivia found this image I had one of those moments...I love it!
It is from an editorial by Nikolay Biryukov about cutting edge student works for 1granary.
I just love the embroidery and beading, and it has inspired me to get back into my knitting with the possibility of embellishing it.

It has also made me want to add embellished areas into my prints, but will have to think on that one and do some samples as I am not sure how it will sit with my designs as they are at the moment.

Another new development is that I have just bought (and now received) a vintage manual typewriter! I am so excited to start using it! I am going to incorporate the type into my business stationary... but really it is so I can play around and write cute letters to people!

In the printroom ...

I have been busy in the print room this week. My first design for my final major project is well underway. Hoping to have a final sample printed by the end of the week...

Today...

Had an amazing lecture from Alison Willoughby today.
She was so inspiring with her creativity and commitment to making extraordinary things!

We then had an opportunity to get a one on one tutorial with her, discussing our work, portfolios and future plans. She is frank and to the point but her enthusiasm is lovely. I got some really good ideas from her and she has definitely put me back on track for what I want to create...

...expect big things!!

Progress...

It has been quite a while since I last posted, I have been very busy in my absence though! The drawing has come along nicely and I am now onto development, putting my drawings into repeat layouts for screen printing.

I have also finished and handed in my Dissertation!! This is a major weight off my mind!

This last week at uni we have had a design event on and I attended a couple of workshops, my favourite of these was a lino printing workshop which I loved! I had never done lino cutting before and really like what I produced...

I am now considering taking this a step further and cutting an entire repeat onto an A1 lino....I'll keep you posted on how this turns out!

Let the drawing commence!

My drawing is now well underway. I feel like I know what I am doing and what direction my drawing is going to take now. To begin with I was a little lost and was not liking anthing I was producing but after a quick chat with my lovely tutor Lianne and some inspirational images on Pinterest I feel ready to get stuck in!




So I have decided to get together a little drawing set, it's only in it's beginning stages but I think it is coming along nicely! I made this wooden structure inspired by Lars Vilks' "Nimis" sculpture and am planning to make more items through observation to draw also.

I am really pleased with how my bay is looking, surrounded by all my small found objects and handmade bits and pieces, it feels like a little creative wonderland!

This week...

After handing in my Minor Project i felt a bit lost, having been so busy for the last 8 weeks i didn't know where to begin for my Final Major Project!

I took some time to rest and get my brain back in order. Had a lovely weekend last week; York checking out all the little boutiques, vintage shops and Christmas markets, then spending some time making presents for the family, it really got my creativity flowing again and got me back on track to begin my FMP ideas.

So for my FMP I am following my own trend, 'Endo/Exo'. It will be an exploration of skeletal structures and protective layers.
I will be looking at delicate skeletons, the structures within and contrasting this with the outer layers and protective coverings. Here are a few ideas of what I might be drawing from...





If anyone has any interesting locations they think might help or any museums/exhibitions that might be relevant I would love to hear about them!





I am really looking forward to getting into this project, with it being the final one of my degree it is going to be epic! I am going to put 110% in so that I might be lucky enough to get a chance of being a part of New Designers next year... fingers crossed!

I plan to start drawing tomorrow, so once I have some bits and pieces done I will get some photos up on here!

Hand-in date has arrived!

This week i have been busy getting ready for handing in my Minor Project. Today was that lovely day and it feels so good to have it all displayed in my bay!

I am really pleased with how it has all turned out and think it reflects my concept beautifully. It has been a lot of hard work but it has been worth it! I love spending time in the print room experimenting with new designs.




The experimenting paid off and I am planning to continue some of the techniques I have learnt through to my Final Major Project, hopefully I will have some exciting materials to play with, my initial thoughts are to try something out on acrylic sheets...so watch this space!



Here is a little sample of 'Urban Bohemia'. I love how the pleating has turned out, opening the parcel yesterday was very exciting!! And using the laser cutter was a challenge, seeing it cut through my carefully printed fabrics was a little scary, but when it comes out like this I can't help but be happy! I hope you like and any comments are always welcome!

Urban Bohemia

After a busy summer of internships and visits in London I am just getting back into the way of things in my final year at university.
My Minor Project will be following the trend 'Urban Bohemia' which combines the harsh geometric shapes of the urban cityscape and the fluidity and rich colours of the bohemia.



My workbay; a wall of inspiration for my Minor Project!

 After spending the last two weeks in the print rooms to try out different designs i now have my final three layouts decided on. This week I have been working hard to get them ready to put on screens so that i can get back into the printroom and do some experimenting!

1 of 3 final designs

This year i want to experiment as much as possible with textures and techniques so i will be mixing pleating, laser cutting and screen printing.... we'll see how it goes!

This Week...

At the beginning of the week Hallmark came in to view all of our work and give us some feedback. It was a bit nerve racking having a one-to-one interview with them to talk about our work, but they were very lovely and I think they put everyone at ease! They picked 4 people for work-experience too which was amazing! The people that got chosen well deserved it and had done some gorgeous work!

This vintage light by Curiosa & Curiosa is just beautiful! I want one!

 

Since then I have been cracking on with my research for the next module. I have decided on a trend from Mix magazine. 'Tender' is one of the trends they have picked out for Autumn/Winter 2012/13 and looks at late 18th and early 19th Century design with key words like 'elegant', 'genteel mannered' and 'romantic'. It has a lovely colour palette of pinks, blues and greys. Some of the design inspirations for this trend have come from Richard Brendon's range of Reflect china, old fashioned cubed soaps from Arlatep and Surfacephilia's Embelli wall jewellery.

Love this tea-set by Epha3 

I plan to bring in lots of floral details and make it lovely and pretty. I'v got a bit more research to get done, but am really looking forward to start drawing again!

Relief!!

By the skin of my teeth I managed to get all my Gift work done and presented by Friday afternoon! It's such a relief to hand it in, I think everyone has worked so hard on this module, there is lots of lovely work to see!

Come Monday we'll be starting our next module, no rest for the wicked! I am looking forward to it though as it's our individual options, so we can have a free reign to do anything we like.

I think I have finally come to the decision that I'll be doing interiors. I think I'll do something really feminine this time too! I feel like I have been quite geometric and masculine with my trends this year so I'm going to do something lovely and gorgeously pretty this module!

Hopefully next week I'll be able to get some pictures up of the inspirational things I find! Can't wait to start searching!

The Art of Gift

I have found gift a hard one to get into, hence no posts about it! But I think I'm getting there now.

We're working with Hallmark for this module, they have provided us with our Trend options - yet again more secrecy! But all the options are inspiring and I'm sure there will be some lovely outcomes.

The Trend I have chosen is aimed at the male market, as with all the modules we've had this year I have wanted to try something new.

We have been working on multi-directional repeats this week, which I loved! I've been busy on the computer mixing up colour-ways for my gift wraps and am starting to get ideas for cards and products. So we'll see how I get on!

Surface Design for Fashion....Done!

So I have finally finished my four final garment shapes this week, it feels so good to have got it all done in time! I managed to get lots of fabric manipulation done on them and tried out lots of different dye techniques, so overall I am pretty pleased!

Back in the Print Room with Olivia
hand dying Silk for my final garments...

 


Here is a little sneak peek at my final ideas... lots of colour and 3 Dimensional fabric manipulation...

It's also getting pretty close to our Paris trip now and we're all very excited! Not only that we might have a chance of exhibiting at Indigo Paris this year but also to have a bit of a break to explore and do some shopping!! Can't wait!!

This Week...

I recently mentioned that we were doing a project for Trend Bible... well I must have done something right because they have chosen my work along with six others to go in their trend book for 2012/13!! It's such a good opportunity, I'm so pleased my work got chosen. So after a little drama last week with a painful neck I managed to print the four samples needed... fingers crossed I get some good feedback!

Having handed in our furnishings project last week, we started our fashion module on Monday. We have been asked to choose our own trend to follow which gives us a bit more freedom to go in any direction we like. I will be following the WGSN trend for Spring/Summer 2013 called 'Wonderlab'... I will be taking my inspirations from cells and artificial colours, looking at all the shapes and textures to hopefully produce garments with lots of fabric manipulation. I'm still in the early stages of drawing from my primary research but when I have some samples started I will make sure to put some pictures up!

Paris here I come...!

If our planned Uni trip to Paris and Indigo this coming February wasn't exciting enough, I've managed to get myself a place helping on the stand! I'm sure it will be a bit scary at first, but what an experience getting a chance to talk to all the buyers and traders! I've just got to hope my work gets picked to be on the stand too now! Eeek!

If you want to have a look at what its all about, or maybe have a sneaky peek at some of the exhibitors follow the link:

http://www.indigo-salon.com/

Update ...

So after a lovely summer of travels to Thailand and surfing in sunny south Wales I'm back at uni to begin my second year. It's been a bit full-on and stressful after a relaxing 2 month break! It has definitely taken me a bit of time to get back in the swing of things, but I'm slowly getting there.

We have just been given a very exciting project working with 'Trend Bible', it's all very hush hush though so will have to give an update on that at a later date!

I am loving being back at college and am excited to get blogging again!

Final Garment Shapes...

Having not been too happy with my final paper designs i am really pleased as to how these have turned out. I have 3 final garment shapes on silk twill with a mixture of hand and machine embroidery detailing.

After a very long time hand sewing i have finally finsihed the collar edged with tiny blanket stitch. It took forever, but well worth it... i love it!

I like to make things difficult for myself... so i decided to fill the centre of the flower in hundreds of french knots... it took a while...!



So everything is mounted and labelled and ready for hand-in!

First year of uni done! Wow, time has flown by!

My Drawing Set

This is my drawing set for my current module. I chose the theme 'Rococo', i tried to find fabrics and pictures of things that would inspire me. Both my furnishing designs and fashion garments are from my initial drawings from this set.