messin' about

In the midst of re-decorating my kitchen and literally waiting for paint to dry, I had a book delivered from that well known rain forest company. I was just about to put the packaging in the recycling bin when I thought I would use it to make stamps for printing on to fabrics. I didn't want to have to faff about with cutting boards and scalpel blades so just used the serrated edge and square bits. On one I stretched rubber bands across to create a pattern (I used two layers of cardboard for strength, one layer curled with the tension of the rubber bands), on the other I stuck the edges on to another piece of cardboard. I then just brushed fabric paints over and multiple printed on to the fabric. I wanted to try opaque and shiny fabric paint to see what I got. I might add some dyes once I've heat sealed the paints.
The rubber band one was so easy and I think I'll try it again over a dyed fabric, without multiple printing to get a crisper pattern.
Below are some pictures;-

I like the look of the stamp itself!

This is the fabric it produced.

The second piece of fabric.  Messy, but I can work on it.

This is the second of the 'stamps'.

holiday

Not long back from a few days away in the Peak District. The weather was great and it was good just to relax and mosey about. Here's a few of the photographs taken

Cottage we stayed in

What fabulous views

Old machinery from Masson Mill textile museum

Old weaving cards from textile museum

Isn't she wonderful!

Pattern from church floor

Keeping up with what's new.

I went to New Designers in London a week or so ago, and had a lovely day seeing all the wonderful stuff that is being produced by the design graduates. There was so much interesting work on display and it was good to talk to the students to hear of their experiences in their chosen courses. I found I was gravitating towards the textures of the knit and woven pieces, which is surprising as I had turned my sights more towards surface pattern in my own work. It was good to be reminded that the choices in textile design are varied and each has it's own merits. Unfortunately I couldn't take any photographs to post here, but I got lots of business cards to remind me of the work I saw.

Back home I've been concentrating on household stuff trying to catch up on things such as decorating and the allotment which get somewhat neglected during term times. But, I'm looking forward to having a break soon, going with friends to the Peak District for a bit of R & R. I hope to get some photography done as an inspiration source for next term.

I've been looking at the work of local mixed-media textile artist Laura Edgar, as I love her work. A lot of it is inspired by the North-East coast and to me has that lovely wild beauty so typical of the coastline in this part of the world. Here is a taster -

Laura Edgar - The images don't do justice to the sense of texture created.  I just love her  use of subdued colour to create  a mood.

fab flowers

I was just browsing for colour ideas for fabric dyeing and came across these wonderful photographs of decaying flowers by Billy Kidd. I can really connect with the subtle colours and the fragile beauty of decay depicted.

Finished!

All the work for Level 4 is now finished, annotated and handed in. What a relief! I really enjoyed the Photoshop module despite feeling lost in a haze of gobbledegook for most of the time. I really found the best way for me to get my head around the techniques was just to go for it and play about.

The brief was to produce 2 A3 size fabric samples and 1 A3 picture of a model using own design to fill in the garment, using the path tool in PS to select the shapes. I never thought at first I would get how to use the pen tool, but practice makes not quite perfect but acceptable.

Here are some of the designs created

based on my drawing of cow parsley.

Cow parsley and poppy heads in differing scales

Poppy heads and fishbones

Lilies

Lilies and barbed wire

onion seedheads with poppy bloom brush.

poppy bloom brush and barbed wire pattern

Poppy seedheads and fishbone in adjusted colour

For this I tried my hand at Adobe Illustrator to make a block pattern and converted it to a brush for the background using different colours and then overlaid with a mirrored pattern,

This was the original block pattern which was defined as a pattern. overlaid and the joins tidied up with the patch tool

Block brush pattern with colours adjusted.

Model with fabric designs overlaid.  (Model image from the Stork magazine).

Oh this weather is too nice to have to spend indoors doing work on my personal development file. I think it's a bit of a joke really as a mature student who already has a lifetime career behind her to have to do this, but it's part of the course so I have to grit my teeth and get on with it.

Hand in of the last project was last Tuesday and there's a general sigh of relief within the group when this happens. As usual, I always wish I'd done things differently - why do my best ideas always come to me in hindsight I wonder? Anyway, too late now. Here is some more of my sketchbook work.

Feel like I've had enough of college work for today, so I'm off to look at a new book I've just had delivered, it's called Quilted Symphony by Gloria Loughman and is about experimenting with forms and colours to take quilt designs into the abstract.

Well at last my wallpaper is printed. I was a bit miffed that one of the designs had about 2 inches cut off the bottom, but I didn't have time to wait until it was reprinted. So here they are. My main ambition was to make them fun for children, with a story attached to one of them, hence the polar bears leaving the planet with their suitcase. The actual colours are brighter than shown.

Line drawing half drop repeat with background of collaged cut outs.

Pastel drawing made into brush and put down on a grid in different sizes.

Collage of textile, line and detailed drawing, mono-print background

and painting using half-drop repeat.

They are very different to what others in the group have been doing, so I hope they fit the brief.

I'm still here

I had decided to withdraw from my course as I've so many other interests wanting attention, but decided I would at least complete this Level qualification. Having been inactive for three weeks in doing course work I had to spend a weekend frantically trying to catch up. So I've been doing more drawing, painting and development work and fiddling around with Photoshop.
Here is some of the work

polar bear in soft pastel 

pencil drawing 

reclining bear drawing repeat

bear head in watercolour

ink drawing cut out

Moved on to Photoshop trying some repeat patterns, brush making and messing about with colours.

When I had finally sorted in my head what my 3 final project designs were to be I spent most of today making them into repeat half-drop patterns, using the healing tools on PS to blend in and finally getting them into A1 size. My next step is to take them to college tomorrow and have all 3 printed out. When that's done I'll try to take photos to post on here.

As well as doing the wallpaper project we're also having a Photoshop module with 2 hours tuition a week. I have to say it's doing my head in! The speed of delivery is so quick, I find it difficult to get my brain in place to take it in. No sooner have we been shown one application, we're off to something else before having a proper opportunity to play or make notes to remind us of what we did. I took some screen shots as we were progressing but looking at them they seem meaningless to me. I'll have to try to remember what we did and practice at home for the rest of the week so at least I feel more comfortable with the applications. For this PS project we have to design 4 floral patterns and place them on a garment, then we can have the designs digitally printed on fabric. Ha! can't wait to see how that one goes.

   

New Project

Well I'm a couple of weeks into a new project which is wallpaper design for infants or young children using one of four trends from trendbible www.trendbible.com
The choices for a theme were Supergeek, Seastorm, The Longest Day or Pioneer and to be in a style like that of Kate Usher www.kateusher.co.uk

I must admit to not being very enthusiastic initially as I don't like wallpaper, having wasted months of my life scraping other peoples choices from walls of houses I've lived in, but the idea is growing on me especially after seeing some of Kate's designs.

The colour palette of sea storm appealed to me most so I decided to go with that. Kate's briefing advised the group not to be too obvious so I veered away from fish, shipwrecks, pirates etc and decided I wanted some sort of story to tell. I began to think about icebergs and volcanoes and then on to polar bears and where will they go go if the ice-caps melt. The idea of them leaving the planet appealed and extensive market research (well,actually a fellow student ran the idea past her two young children) showed that this could be an idea to run with.

So I've been researching space rockets, Jules Verne, the drawing style of Fornasetti, back copies of National Geographic, icebergs, and planets to get me started.

Here I've laid together a rough collage of drawings,a fabric sample and photographs as an initial ideas board. 

I've also done a a bit of drawing and painting to try to develop a style that will lend itself to the theme and project. Trouble is there's not much in the way of primary source material to draw from so I have to rely heavily on photos from books or magazines.

Soft pastel 

fabric and stitch on painted vilene

graphite and pastel drawings

Early days yet but I'm sure the ideas will eventually start to form further and the drawings will develop and be fine tuned.