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.