Our Struggle With Knitting...

I had a new admiration of all knitters after our two week long knitwear project- I did not realise how time consuming and hard knitting really is! I had never tried knitting before so it was a totally new skill to me, and so I had to start right at the bottom. I managed to get the basic stitch, however at the end of each row my knitting kept gaining a couple or stitches each time which left me with a very oddly shaped panel at the end! However I persevered and finally managed to get the hang of hand knitting as well as some machine knitting too. In the end I really enjoyed the knitwear project which was based on fragile forms. I chose to focus on natural forms such as frozen cobwebs and lace linchen which lent themselves beautifully to really fine knitwear. I particularly enjoyed machine knitting and experimenting with the shapes and structures that could be created with this. I kept all my samples in a sketchbook along with my contextual research and final knitwear designs at the end...

...I had a bit of trouble closing my sketchbook at the end though!

Print Project...

...This was a side project led by our student teacher Claire, a student at LCF. We were originally encouraged to dig much deeper into our initial research and inspirations to get a really wide range of imagery and concepts to develop our prints from.

My starting point was Turkish ceramics. I love the simple colours and imagery that is used in the ceramics designs as well as the meanings behind them. Through the Turkish theme I also found traditional paper marbelling and did a lot of experimentation with this technique too.
My outcome was a series of collaged fashion illustrations featuring the final prints..

...these are some of my initial drawings from the ceramics patterns..

... I then experimented with marbelling and adding colour into my linear patterns...



...these are my repeat patterns developed in photoshop...

...a selection of my final designs, some on photoshop and some collaged onto a model...

So back to updating all my work... alongside my Art Foundation Diploma we also completed a Level 3 Drawing Award which is part of the UAL board. The first part of this qualification was a guided group activity to assess everyones levels of drawing and get us to develop our creativity. However the second half was much more focused on our specialisms (mine being fashion and textiles) and encouraged us to develop mark making and drawing techniques within this area. We started off with a still life compiled of books, jars and structured textiles pieces which we then photographed and drew from. We then turned these drawings into stitched textiles pieces that mirrored the marks made in our drawings.
I felt that this project had one of the strongest outcomes in the stitched textiles panels. The textures and marks that I created look really effective in the simple colour palette and they clearly show the influence of drawing and mark making.

   ... these are all my original long drawings in ink and paint from the

still life photographs...

                                                                                 

...these drawings were then developed into larger drawings to incorporate all the

drawings techniques....

...I then developed some manipulated photographs by cutting into the images and

adding stitching and cut out sections to mirror the shapes in the photos...

...all these elements were then brought together to create these stitched panels of fabric in subtle shades with emmulsion printed circles, stitching detailing and cut away sections to make marks and textures on the fabric...

The hills are alive...

Just got back from a concert tour with St. Helens Youth Brass Band, had such a wonderfull time yodeling around Salzburg and performed in two beautiful venues. Ive been lucky enough to be a part of the band for 10 years now and im really going to miss playing when I leave in September.

These are a few of my favourite photos of Salzburg, its such a beautiful city with so much culture and history I could have spent all week just soaking up the sights (and the gorgeous sun!) We also visited Mozarts birth house which was fascinating to see all his original music scores and instruments.

It was a lovely way to say goodbye to all my friends in the band and hopefully I will get invited on the next one!

These are some moodboards and designs from the second foundation project based on change. I researched themes of decay and aging in both people and objects and used the textures of peeling wall paper, wrinkled skin and the human form to create the silhouettes of my collection...

...Following on from these mood boards I then created a simple garment that was then "changed" and put through a transformation of aging to represent the images in my research... I used coffee to create an aged colour and gathered up the seams and embellished the side panels to create the look of aged and puckered skin... the layers of chiffon were added underneath the original dress handprinted with a flock wallpaper design and the ruffled up chiffon gave the dress more texture and structure...

So backtracking to my first Art foundation project entitled "structure"... I decided to focus on the shapes and repetition found in art deco buildings and created repeat patterns and structured garments from my drawings and experimental fabric samples.... I loved this project as it involved a lot of drawing and development work which is really exciting to do!

Hello...

To start this blog I have chosen my favourite six images of my work that show my style and what I like to create...

...I find inspiration in many different places and forms and aim to bring all these elements together to create an exciting collection with its own personality...

This blog will document my journey and progress through my past work through to all my future projects... I welcome any feedback so please get in touch...enjoy!