I have also been making large scale procion prints on different fabrics experimenting with scale and shapes.  I have had to change me colour palette also as they didn’t work together.   After doing a lot of colour testing I have finally got my colours right.  This piece is with my old colour palette but I think it still looks effective but I would have liked it if the colours had gone right.  I added foil to make it a bit more textural as it was quite simple without.  This is something I’m trying to explore through this work.  By creating simple patterns and adding texture with foil, flock and stitch.

Over this week I have been experimenting with digital designs.  I have changed my colour palette slightly as some of the colours didn’t work well together.  I think these colours look a lot better.  I have tried different techniques of cutting up shapes and placing them on the fabric and heat pressing them as well as creating designs on illustrator to be printed through sublimation onto fabric. I am then going to work back into them using stitch and foil.  

Been experimenting with my designs on illustrator whilst the print room has been busy with the second year repeat print. I took textures from my drawings as well as drawing into illustrator using my tablet. The colours need a bit of work but I’m really happy with this outcome and I will be trying more of these designs over the next week.

Ideas || What I will do next

After a recent workshop with Les, we were asked to bring something with us that we were stuck with.  I choose to bring one of my drawings that I had done as I was unsure on what to do with them next.  After discussing with Becca and Esther they suggested that maybe I should create my drawings into the idea of sensory play for children.  As I am experimenting with textures within mark making and I love to explore the use of colour, we thought this would be a great idea to look into.  I think I will go on to create play mats using different techniques to create different effects.  Next I will go on to create samples using different techniques to find out what works best and what is safest for small children.  

We had a presentation on Monday talking about our practice, what we like, what we want to achieve from our final year, what we want to do after. Here are my five slides 

First Initial Ideas and Plans ||

For this first project I am exploring my usual collage, mark making and stencil techniques.  This is something that I fell in love with last year and I am going to carry this on for my final year.  I have taken colour and inspiration from my recent drawing trip to Spain.  I loved the culture and architecture there.  I love going to other countries and just experiencing what is around me.  So I think a theme for through out this project and where i will take my inspiration from is everything around me. Each piece of work that i create for all my projects are so individual i think having such a vast inspiration for my work will help with this.

Tom Abbiss Smith has also been a big influence to my work recently. Though his work is mostly digital he starts off the same kind of way that I do when creating my work.  Using mark making and shapes and colour to create his prints.  

Another person I’ve been looking at for inspiration is Leah Bartholomew. Her work are abstract representations of the beauty found in the landscape and life of her local environment.  I love the way she uses collage to draw and her use of colour is so inspiring.

Atelier Bingo - Portrait

Taking most of my inspiration from this pair of designers for all my projects so i thought it would be good to share this video of how they work and how interesting it is to see how they produce such unique work.  

Third year!

So for the first project of third year we have been given a lot of freedom. This is something I look forward to but also and scared about. I like having a set brief where as this one is left for us to do our own thing the only thing we have to stick to is design it for interiors. This is something I am also excited about as I feel that interiors is where my work fits best.

REFLECTION ON BA2B

From these 2 collaborations I have learnt a lot about my self. I have learnt that I don’t mind leading as much as I thought i would hate it.  Though I only discovered this in my second group project with fashion. Where I had to take charge of certain things to get them done in time.  If I had only thought like this during the Thomas Cook project I feel that I could have had more of my work inputted into the final samples, not that I am not proud of the work that we created. Working in group projects has made me realise that in high pressure collaboration there will always be differences within the decision making, your idea wont always get picked, but you have to work through it as a group to get to the final point.  

In both these project I feel that i have developed my skills. I feel that i have been more confident with my use of adobe softwares during the fashion project as none of us had amazing skills so I took on the job to develop my skills so i did know how to create things that would be helpful to the group. I have felt that blogging regularly throughout  these projects has really helped me think about what has been happening in the group projects and learn from mistakes that we have had. 

I have really enjoyed working with a group of people that I wouldn’t usually choose to work with, its so great to find and develop new skills that you wouldn’t usually get from working individually. I can actually say that i have gained a lot of experience within working digitally and this is something that I will take on into third year and the rest of the future. 

BA2B has been a great experience and I have learnt many things that will lead to my development in this degree and I leave the year excited for year 3!

Fashion Collaboration || Review of the project.

I have really enjoyed this fashion collaboration.  It has made me think a lot about my self and my work and my way of working.  We have all got on really well and only had a few obstacles to get over and they weren't even big things - which font to use? Working with the fashion students has been a interesting experience I have learnt a new way of working that i will take into my practice for third year. Over all i am really happy with how my group work ended and i think our exhibition looked really good.  With all the printing out that me and Amy did meant that it actually looked like a campaign. Below is some images from our exhibition. 

Michelle Lowe Holder Lecture || notes

Today we had the amazing opportunity to have a lecture by the jewelry designer Michelle Lowe Holder.  Her work has always been an inspiration her use of interesting colour in the jewelry is something i have always been drawn too. She came in to talk about the Cartier brief that we have had the opportunity to enter.  It was really interesting to see her work up close and actually learn about how she makes her work.  I didn’t realise how much of her materials are recycled and this is something that really interests me.  One of her projects that interests me most her Fusion, the main part of it is her use of model Ingmari Lamy.  She is a mature model and this is a topic that i’m addressing in my dissertation. I had the chance to talk to her about why she chooses to use mature models in her photographs. Her response was really helpful and will be included in my dissertation as I think her opinion has really help an opinion that I need to address.  

After researching into lookbooks I decided to create my own lookbook in a booklet style. I have printed it on thicker paper over in guntons and the front page is on tracing paper. I think this added a professional effect just like many lookbooks.  

After discussing Amy and I decided that we liked this style of font better. It makes the booklet look more professional and keeps a constant style that links with how professional our photoshoot looked.  We have created these to put in our folders to show our development.

Amy’s Booklet 

The next day Amy showed me the booklet she had created and it was perfect.  It was a constatina booklet so it had 4 images from our photoshoot on one side then on the other the front cover and the 3 pages of information to do with our challenge and some facts about the fashion industry.  I really liked how this looked however, I didn't like the curly font, but after a discussion in the group everyone decided that this made it look fun and that we should stick with it.

Look Book Development || Indesign Work

To create the look book Esme had a idea but as she didn't have the skills on photoshop and indesign I took on the role of creating this for her. Amy and I had the most skills in the group digitally so we took on these roles to create the leaflet Esme had imagined and then try and create it on indesign. This was a challenge as we were unsure on how it would fold once it was double sided. 

This is the design that I created with Esme, it would be printed double sided and on A3 the pictures would fold down to be able to open out but I don’t know how well it will be for the back to be folded.  We printed off a few copies and we agreed that it didn’t fold 

So Amy has taken on the role of recreating the booklet.