Pages

Last week @ New Designers

New designers was definitely an eye opener! The place was just as amazing as last year if not better. I couldn't quite believe the competition i was going to be dealing with. Most of the work was stunning particularly the jewellery in "one year on"... if i had the money i would have bought it all!

My stand was nice and easy to put up as i only had 2 metres of wall to work with...


Janice Webb who also studied with me at Farnham had a lot of attention particularly from the judges... we are all very excited to see where her work takes her in the future and if you get a chance to take a look at her work, I'm sure you'd agree with me that the colour and shape is just beautifully designed...  https://twitter.com/janiceewebb


In all honesty, New designers probably wasn't the best experience for me professionally as i felt it was too commercial based. I didn't feel that i was getting the right attention to my work, however this has encouraged me to look for a variety of pathways to introduce my work to. It has been an exciting week, an exciting year too and am still excited to whatever the life in design may bring...



As for the rest of the textile girls, I'd like to wish them all the best of luck for the future and I look forward to hearing about all the amazing jobs we're (fingers crossed) going to get from all this hard work!

Exhibiting at "New Designers"!!

Next week from the 25th - 28th June, I will be exhibiting my work at New Designers, an exhibition for up and coming artists, textile designers, jewellery makers etc. If you're interesting in coming along please visit the website:


My work specifically will be shown in week 1 on stand T46... if you plan on getting tickets in advance here is a 2 for 1 offer: NDEXHIBITOR1

Belgium skills tour garments....

The last few days of the skills tour were exciting and proved to be quite productive. We carried on to experiment with all the unwoven materials available and developed what we had produced into a fairly extravagant garment, inspiration of "Lady Gaga meets Cruella De Ville". Myself and Anthea chose to combine all of our knowledge of print and composition together using all of the new materials. Admittedly some days in the studio were quite long and tiring and we both got a bit snappy at times, but at the same time had a great experience and i would continue to go back to do the skills tours. After all design can't always be relaxing and easy, it would be quite boring it if that was the case.

Everyone garments were all really different and interesting. We all used different materials, some strong and sturdy and other very elegant and light, others used techniques such as embroidery, or lazer cutting to produce simple and effective patterns...






The studio...

I'm in Belgium... again !

Indeed i am back in Belgium, and this time it's looking promising! Already today we have Travelled to Ghent and could have been shown how to use the digital printing, knitting a weaving equipment and the local collage. The equipment was huge, i didn't understand how it was so empty, if i were studying there i would certainly have made the most of it! Luckily later on during the week we will be travelling back there to carry on with our pieces. 




I also took a revisit to one of my absolute favourite places on the planet... this i call my kind of museum!


So far during the tutorials and workshops we have chosen to do our own thing and simply experience with all new types of materials, especially non-wovens to produce some interesting effects. As a pair working on a collaboration, myself and Anthea have chosen to produce a neck piece as a type of costume... so far interesting... the rest will come during the next few days..


Final end of year show!

All in all,  think the show went really well and couldn't have looked better! Textiles was lucky this year to be put in the front foyer gallery of the university in order for people to notice our work a lot more when passing through as in the past, not many people knew where the studio was and so the shows would be quite well hidden.  As you can see in the pictures the layout was carefully thought about and i was lucky to have my work put on its own plinth towards the front of the entrance. However i must add that it all seems left to the last minute to decide what was going where and was a little stressful - for the tutors mostly - but was slightly frustrating for us girls.... nevertheless it turned out to be a great show...





If you are interested in seeing the whole university show: it is on until 7th of June and the address is: 

UCA Farnham
Faulkner Road
Farnham
GU9 7DS

Business cards arrived!

Here they are! It's all happening, off into the big wide world i go... they make me feel quite grown up but am so excited to be handing them out to possible future clients or even bosses....


Preparing for final year show!

Stressful but getting there! It's been such a long time waiting around and wondering what is going to be put up where, but considering this is the first time Textiles at UCA Farnham is going to be set up in the foyer (before the James Hockey gallery, the overall set is looking good! But as the whole 3rd textiles course is taken up by girls you can imagine the tense atmosphere when things don't go their way!

The show starts tomorrow at 5 and am looking forward to showing all our hard work off to the public finally.





FMP Final Post...

We finally come to the end of what seems an era as it is the day before hand in of my final major project at university and then no more studying... until  start my Masters in a few years. It seems to have been quite a long and tiring year but hopefully it'll all be work it.
The resulting samples, i have put into a few visualizations which have come out fairly well...





Won 2nd Prize!

Have just been informed that i have been awarded 2nd prize in The Bradford Textile Society!


The award is presented in catagory U1 - CLOTHWORKERS' FOUNDATION AWARD For a Material Construction for either a Fashion or Interiors Product, created by non-conventional means.

I am so grateful for my work to be recognized and appreciated. Many thanks to all the judges and especially the tutors at UCA Farnham for all your help putting the boards together! It just goes to show what can come out of putting a good days work into something.

Congratulations to all the other winners and commendations i look forward to seeing the work at Salts Mill in May.

All the winners can be seen on the Bradford Textile Society website:


Reaching the end of the course... FMP Post 5

 3 weeks until the final hand in and it's all over for the free life at university. Just handed in the final section of my dissertation, the 'critical reflection' which for me seemed harder than i thought, it really made me think about everything i was doing throughout the whole 3 years on this course. However, it really tested how much depth i could go into about my work. But 9000 words later in total the essay writing is finally over and done with.

  As for the practical work it's all beginning to be brought together. I find the garment shaping very exciting ...





I have found it very important to think about the composition of the print determined by the shape and movement of the garment and working with the garment rather than producing the print and then struggling to fit it in with a garment shape.

So that a little sneak peak towards the final collection which i plan to produce 3 different but connecting garment suggested pieces. All of which will include a variety of print design based around this abstract and very chaotic nature.

Shortlisted for a FESPA award - 10776173

 I have just been shortlisted for a FESPA young stars award, i would really appriciate any votes? Thank you very much.. please follow the link
10776173

FMP Post 4 Fashion illustration

I'm not much used to fashion illustration but lately i have found it incredibly useful for creating visualizations of how i could see my work being created. Plus it's simply the quickest way of producing an elegant figure with your own strong directed ideas.




From these designs i felt it would be ideal to get to grips with the actual scale of the kind of garment i want to produce, which lead me to think about structure. Paper has always been a friend of mind and so now i'm going embrace it by helping me mimic sculptures on the body. Using a simple manikin even at first was quite tricky as paper doesn't exactly give you easy control over creating shape, but eventually i was able to assemble a composition that best fitted to shape for a fashion piece:


As a development, I then had some of the compositions I had previously designed printed onto large scale paper to then test if the proportions were as expected or if any alterations needed to be added. This structure was slightly different simply because I have been testing out various positions which the pattern would sit in...


FMP Post 3 Sketchbook designs

Sketches and designs are coming along... Not all as fast as i need them to but as my dad always says "you can't rush a craftsman". I felt that i had to simply move on almost completely from the previous project as it felt like it just carried on for far too long considering i was already preparing for it during my placement way back in April. How i know that i do need to stick to some aspects of the previous project and so staying with the idea of collage and mark making was a good base to start with.

Some sketchbook work:


Leading into quick print ideas and compositions:


From these i can now develop them further into small fashion illustrations. 

FMP Post 2 Research and inspiration

Since the main idea for this project is still based around the idea of structures relating back to the derelict school, I have had to research various design which can also inspire me for my contextual designs...
I have found Pinterest to be extremely helpful for finding designs in this particular category. Stephane Roland's work especially has been incredibly inspiring in the way the fashion sculptures are so well created...



I have been inspired to create designs for fabric which build their own structure and can take on many different forms. And So I have found two other textile designers who think about a similar aspect of adding on arranged structure to them be applied to new ones...


Mika Barr is the designer of this wonderful piece of textiles. She has found an innovative way of using a simple triangle shape which is applied to the fabric using a strong puff binder paste which hardens to then allow the relaxed fabric to be able to move freely but only in the structured spaces available, allowing the fabric again to take on different forms when moved in different directions. Noticeably all the triangles are exactly the same shape and size which perhaps she signs of creating control to these forms.

Much similarly with the "Wooden Carpet" created by Elisa Strozyk, she uses a pattern created up of many wood pieces which are of the same size and shape in a repeated pattern to produce again a sense of controlled manipulation to the fabric...


Final Major Project Post 1

I've been so caught up in the final major project i simply haven't even thought about blogging about it! However, dissertation is now complete which has taken a massive weight off my shoulders as i simply am not the best person for writing about something i'm not hugely passionate about.
The reality is that the main priority in my life is my practice however a textiles degree does unfortunately come with its down sides, but in the end i found something fairly comfortable to write about... colour and 21st century fashion. The focus of my dissertation was to research the work of Josef Albers and to connect his work with fashion designers such as Roksanda Illincic, explaining how many fashion designers are beginning to be inspired by fine art of the late 90th and early 20th century. I found the designs quite boring and in terms of print design they were pretty dull in connection to my own designs, although for colour, these relationships are really inspiring...

An so after finally handing that in i could then move on and focus on my FMP (Final Major Project) which was to be a follow up of the previous research project...

So far my plan is to continue with sketchbook work which, this time round involves "destruction" rather than looking at "construction". I have kept in mind the theme of structure and manipulation combined with imagery, therefore have decided to use the photographs taken from the derelict school in Ronce for inspiration. There i found a lot of really interesting piles of rubble, broken glass, graffiti, and simply general destruction...




Soon these photographs should hopefully turn into some interesting collage and drawings.