Gathering commenced!!

So this past week has been eventful. I've finally decided on my final major project theme and its a lot of using all the techniques I have tried over the past few months and years to get one big collection of what I love. Techniques I am going to try and include, are monoprinting, felting, and hand embriodery and machine embriodery.

My main theme is florals.

The pictures come from flowers being given to me and I will use this idea to create my theme and story.

Its been a while....

So its been a while since I blogged. Bit slack really... but o well and Ill try and keep it up after all its my FINAL YEAR!!!!! YIPPPEEEE!!!

Well weve just complete a final mini project. Textile design project. Was a little bit underwhelmed with the project. Lost interest as I was itching to make something and we couldnt. Did a lot of photoshop and stitch on this one but I know if I had made something with the patterns they perhaps would of been more successful and that is where I think im going to head. Be a designer maker and a swatcher.. If thats a word!

My final project of year 2!! Grade 73% an A!!

I've discovered that over my last year studying textiles, I have finally found what makes me tick. If I can find something new to try out then it pushes my boundaries and I work harded because I know I have more to acheive. I have to make it look right and because I have never tried it before then it makes me want to succed. In my final tutorial we all agreed that trying something I hadnt even pondered over before really made my work stand out to something beyond what I thought I could never achieve.

One of my newly tried techniques is felting. I knitted the felt using a knitting machine, with lambs wool, and then put it through the washing machine. I had a few issues with getting a resonable size piece to work with. In theory everyone said it would have been easier to just buy it, but then it wouldnt have been as successful and mine. I finally got a resonable piece out of all the time I spent creating it. I then out of my crazy mind looked in an embroidery book to see how I could use this. My other pattern development was on photoshop, using my watercolour and lino print images, and combining them together creating a layered effect. I wanted to keep that effect throughout my project, it was my intial aim to keep within the theme of camoflauge, just taking it in a completly different direction. I found an image of cut out holes that had been stitched around and really wanted to try it with my felt. I tested it out and it looked fabulous! I then began on my giant piece, and well all I can say is it took alot of time, patience and drive to keep me going. At some points I wanted to completly give it up but as you can see it was completly worth it.

I put my photoshopped design behind my felted stiching, to create a camoflaged look.

Here is one of my final cushions that I finished. The image behind is of poppy seed heads once they have died. It created a really balanced effect and linked really well.

Here is the rest of my work that I experimented with.

I tried adding stitching but unfortunatly the type of fabric just buckled underneath.

Year 2 is over!!

Year two is over!! I'm finally on my way towards year 3. Its going to be so scary and also really exciting!! I'll post my final project work later from my final project!!

Length Project

So its done. The length project has been handed in! I've really enjoyed this project and felt that I really wanted to share it. I've done alot more digital printing in this project and really expanded my technical ability in this area. It so far has been the best project yet!

Here is my final presentation of my whole project. My length and cushions and also my samples in the far left corner.

My length had two differently coloured flowers with black leaves. I made two cushions and seeing them sat together with my length proves that they work really well as a collection.

A closer look at my length.

A proven match of my collection!



Here is my cushions that I made. I wanted to make them to show my ideas of how I want them to be used. On the back is my very simple leaf print that you can see below.

I wanted to keep some of the designs simple to keep the whole theme working well together.

My collection has a few more complex and detailed prints in it. I have done a bit of digital experimentation before but this time I've had more time to play around and learn simple yet effective techniques, that in turn have been very successful for this project.

Here are my digital prints -

This is my favourtie print that I have done.

This is one of my simplier designs that uses a few of my other flowers.

On this one I really like the way the black leaves at the back really are striking. I think the contrast works well and brings in my fine linear effect.

To create this effect I just use the paint button on photo shop and played around with the tolerance, which means that if I change it to a low number then it would only pick up little bits and colour them or if it was a high number then it would colour a lot of the same image. The effect is dramatic and works really well.

This I tried to combine lots of different styles together which I think worked well. The big pink flower was one of the original line drawings and that I just coloured it in. I used the paint button and then the eraser. I used the eraser to rub out bits of the block colour and then used my skill with the tolerance to fill it back in like I did on my flowers.

I have really enjoyed this project and I actually think that it shows! 

New pages!

I have added some new pages to the left hand side of this post. It has lots of my different work that I have done over the past year. It has a variety of the techniques that I have learnt and now am skilled at.

Length Printing

Over the past few weeks I have been learning how to print a length.

To create a length I had to take my drawings and turn them into a print idea. I have to use acetate and tracing paper to get the pattern into repeat. I wanted all the flowers the same but in a slightly different arrangment, which made making a repeat pattern a little harder to create.

I had to cut my repeat in a wave shape so that I could fit it on my screen so that I didnt lose any of my pattern. I also had to re-draw my leaf shapes so that it would be easier to match up.

Here is a closer view of my work.



I wanted to print my lenght in three different colours. I didn't realise how much work went into getting it to match up, but now I feel that I could confidently create another repeat.

Here is some pictures of my final outcome.

A view of my final outcome. The print is done in three colours. I had to print the leaves first and then the flowers. I had to do it one step at a time and mask off lots of areas to get the required effect.

To get the leaves printed I had to cut stencils of the flower shapes to cover the flowers up whilst I printed the leaves.

To print the flowers I kept the outer stencils of the flowers and used them as the stencils to cover up the leaves.

I wanted to print the flowers in two different colours. I realised that this could take some time and some serious stencil cutting, so I decided to print the same colours at the same time. My pattern is in repeat so I put the colours in a diagonal so that when it was repeated it would repeat diagonally and go pink purple pink purple, like the image.

To print it I had to carefully pull one colour over the image, each colour at a time but without washing the screen. So I would pull the pink first and then pull the purple, trying to not mix the colours together.

I really enjoyed my print and I think that it has worked really well.

My print has been inspired by Cole & Son, the textile company. My trend idea was to make something traditional but with a modern twist. I call it modern Heritage. I have re-vamped some of the colours to give it that modern twist and slightly more feminin. I feel that once I have completed my other samples I think that the whole modern heritage trend will work well together as a collection.

Watercolours.

I recently discovered that I had an underlying passion for watercolours. I came across it researching for a technique. My main inspiration came from Elizabeth Blackadder. She paints flowers using watercolours. Her technique is very free and fluid and that was what I really liked about it. I had a lot of fun experimenting with it and used my drawings and her inspiration to inspire a trends book that I put together. By creating the trends book I discoverd a new way to present my work and alo a new love for painting.

Watery bloom trend book :

I used my flower drawings to create a front cover for my trend book. I have been learning photoshop which has helped improved my design ideas by using a selection of my drawings and creating patterns.

My pattern ideas

I used my pattern ideas and put them onto fashion ideas. I used photoshop to do this. I tweeked the colours and then used shadows and shading to make it look realistic. 

I will hopefully re-visit this technique possible for my final major project in the next year. I really enjoyed it and created some good design ideas.