The best bits

I was looking back over my photographs when I backed them up the other day and came across a lot of my old uni work from the first and second year. I thought I'd share the best bits here or they will just sit forever on my hard drive in obscurity.

 I love the variation of work in these images which I think is a testament to how diverse BA Contemporary Textile Practice was as a course.

Drawing - a love/hate relationship

...Although, if I'm completely honest, a little more hate than love. I've never enjoyed drawing. I somehow scraped through an entire Art GCSE barely lifting a pencil (and tracing a lot of what drawing I did do!Ooops!) I knew very definitely that I couldn't draw well and so I avoided it like the plague, I just didn't see the point...

...my Textile A levels mercifully didn't include a large amount of drawing either so I got off there too. My degree however, did. Drawing was one of the core practises of the course, it was the basis of everything we did. (I made the mistake of telling my lecturer in my initial interview that I disliked drawing immensely, I will never forget the look of horror on her face and will also never be sure how I managed to get a place of the course at all! Although thankfully I did! :D ) Unfortunately this didn't endear me to drawing either, I just don't get the point of drawing for no specific reason, mark making, exploring, whatever you call it I object!

I don't think my typical design process helps encourage me to draw, generally it goes like this. I'm inspired by something, I imagine something, I create it, done. No need for drawing at all. If I draw it is only for the purposes of design, for creating a template to stitch to or for deciding on a colour palette.

However last night, something odd happened. For the first time since finishing my degree (possibly the first time ever) I felt inspired to just sit with a pencil and a sketchbook and draw. And I actually really enjoyed it! :)

(The drawings in this post were some I did back in the first year of uni and go to prove that when I really put my mind to it and apply myself I can actually draw rather well, not brilliantly but not badly either!)

Beautiful Cambridge

This past weekend was spent in Cambridge, somewhere I hadn't been before. It was beautiful architecture, being punted along the river, castles, blues skies and sunshine and a sweet bed and breakfast packed full of beautifully patterned china. The latter being something of an obsession of mine, and which sparked an enthusiasm to draw (which I haven't been inspired to do since uni)

 I'm thinking of taking up where I left off with my final uni project and perhaps designing a further collection/ expanding my existing collection from that project. I feel like having left it for a few months I now feel full of fresh ideas and ways to the collection forward and I'm really excited about it! :)

I miss university!!

I've been sorting through some of my old work this morning, predominantly digital stitch pieces. I fear that the lack of digital stitch capabilities is going to be the worst thing about being a graduate. Obviously a digital embroidery machine is on my ultimate wishlist but I think it may be a while down the line until I own one. Still, I have some options that i'm considering in the mean time :)

I found these pieces from a project before christmas. I really want to do something with them but have yet to decide what, like my other designs, I don't want to rush to cut or sew them and then regret it, they are after all the only copies of each design that exist so I shall continue to consider :)

Framed

After a very long time deliberating what to do with my final designs from my degree show I have finally found a solution, I didn't really want to cut or sew them at all but it seems a shame for them to be put away in a box in the attic never to see the light of day.

So I now have three of my favourite designs framed and hung on my bedroom wall where they match beautifully the soft Blossom Pink walls and Laura Ashley wallpaper. It's nice to be able to look at them everyday and feel pride in my work.

I'm contemplating framing a few more and putting them up for sale in my Etsy shop. I'm not quite sure how I'd feel about parting with them but on the other hand, I'd much rather someone else have them on their own wall and enjoy them, I don't have room for all 30 of them myself!

(More) Sketchbook snapshots

I realised whilst making the last post that although I had shared a lot of my practical sample work from my final degree project I'd never really shown much of my drawing/designing/studio book work. So here are a few pages from my supporting work for the project.

CAD visuals

Yesterday the degree show was taken down. It seems odd, all that working away for so many months and now it's all over, marking has taken place (results are on Monday! :o) and all my work is now sat in boxes in my living room. Very strange feeling indeed.

Soon time to start thinking about the next challenge! But for now, I realised I never properly shared my CAD visuals. As creating my own pieces of lingerie was out of the question, I created a digital image to show how my designs might look if they were manufactured into garments. And here they are. I'm not a photoshop pro or anything so I was incredibly pleased with how these turned out.

To create them, I purchased ready made garments and photographed them. I then loaded them into photoshop and layered a photograph of my design over the top. Then using a combination of reduced opacity and blurring I merged the two images so it appeared that the design was actually stitched onto the garment. I wanted to create a soft, dreamy feel to the images. These were then displayed in my show, alongside my work to help people visualise how the designs might be used.



Degree Show snapshots

Some snapshots of my degree show, I finally remembered to take in a camera. The whole show is wonderful and still on until the end of the week if you're in the Cardiff area!

And so there it is, done.

Well, it's over. The last couple of weeks turned into a mad stress-filled panic but now it's done, the work is all up, everyone's exhibition looks really amazing, now time to relax and celebrate. There is a few more things to do, a presentation next week of our work, but basically that's it. Degree. Done.

My show space! I am so happy with how it turned out, exactly as I imagined, I wanted to create a simple boudoir theme as a showcase for my lingerie designs. (Please excuse fairly terrible quality iphone photos, I meant to take in my camera but I forgot. I'll take some better photos next time :) )



Almost there!

Frantic painting, sewing, buying, organising, researching, photographing, mounting and displaying of work. Just 10 days to go!

Business Cards

Super excited that my business cards from Moo have arrived, they're brilliant! I have about 20 different designs and I'm really happy with them, the card quality and printing is great, all round just good really! :)

Final designs

Here are some photos of my finished final designs that I took to put onto my business cards. I still have SO much work to do but I'm happy so far with the way things are turning out :)

Degree show!

If you find yourself in Cardiff between these dates you should definitely come and check out the show, it's going to be good! :)

Designs

 

Here are some designs I've been working on today. Photoshop makes designing so easy, I love it! Not sure which of these, if any I'll use yet, I have to sample them in embroidery at uni next week. :)

Works in progress

The last couple of weeks have been frantic! Work has been started on the final designs for my degree show collection (Eeek! Scary!)

Some work in progress digital stitching

Now, these pieces have just to be finished, that is to say, all stray threads cut, backing paper removed and the majority are to have hand stitched beading added, which I am forseeing as a rather painstaking business but luckily I have a great deal of patience for that kind of thing! :)

Completely unrelated but very lovely, blossom trees photographed on my way through Bute Park this morning :)

Working space

Here is a peek at my studio space at uni, this is where a lot of my work is done, I find I'm much more productive here than at home where there's too many distractions! :)

Are you bored yet?

(I wouldn't blame you!) :P



Fabric

Yesterday I went to London and visited what was, quite frankly the most amazing fabric shop I have ever seen in my life. It was Joel and son fabrics which I came across a while ago when Jane Brocket wrote about it on her Blog. Literally piled floor to ceiling with the most beautiful silks, satins, lace and velvet, I wish I'd thought to take a photo of the inside of the place but I didn't.

Having requested some samples from them a few weeks back and having been treated with really great customer service (unfortunately not always the case when you mention you're a student) as well as beautiful fabric, I decided to buy all my fabrics for my final collection there. They were friendly, helpful, had absolutely everything I needed in the perfect colours, and packaged my purchases in a gorgeous bag (i'm a sucker for good packaging!) so much so that I didn't mind spending what for me is an extortionate amount of money!

I bought silk satin, silk duchesse satin, silk tulle and silk chiffon. The quality is great and the fabrics are beautiful, it's hard to get perfect colour reproduction in photos (particularly on such a grey day) as the colous are so subtle; shades of ivory, blush, oyster and champagne. I can't wait to start work on my final designs, if I can ever bear to take a pair of scissors to such expensive fabric that is!

This week I have been mostly...

...pleating, embroidering, beading, designing, drawing. More of the same really but somehow, thankfully I'm not yet bored of it. Tired and stressed, yes, but not bored. :)

(More) Ruffled, embroidered goodness

I'm really enjoying my uni work at the minute, this project is the very epitome of everything I adore. (which figures really seeings I wrote the brief!) But this week I really have to wrap up my playing and start to get down to the serious business of taking all these yummy scrummy fabrics and techniques and turning them into actual designs, this is the difficult bit, but I have some ideas swirling around already in my head so I'm hopeful I can translate them into real life designs. Wish me luck! :)