Scarves at Saint Werburgh's

In order to visualise my collection and represent my designs appropriately I took a number of photographs at Derby Cathedral and Saint Werburgh's Church. The location was a very important, conscious decision, as every day for the past three years I have walked through Saint Werburgh's Churchyard on my commute to university. The building has always held a certain fascination for me, as I adore its Gothic style and exquisite craftsmanship of the building, however its disuse makes it rather mysterious and sad. In relation to the context of my project, Saint Werburgh's was a perfect choice for a location, its deconsecration and decay relates directly to my questioning of faith and many of its 'traditional' aspects. The church sits lonely, empty, vandalised, adorned daily with groups of homeless people, passed by and ignored by commuters, with no place in the busy cityscape other than a convenient shortcut. To me the church is a representation of Christianity in modern society, an archaic, fading glory, still cherished by a small few, ignored by the majority, until it becomes in some way convenient.

The location also felt appropriate, as it marks the end of three years commuting to Derby, and seeing these familiar, impacting sights which have largely inspired the thinking and concept behind my collection

Many thanks to my model Anita Harasymiw for doing a brilliant job!

Here are just a few of the photographs:

Miyuki Beads

Enhancing my designs with high quality embellishment is something which I am eager to incorporate within my work, as it only serves to enhance the impact and lavish exuberance of my fabrics. As well as hand painting with Selectacine Metallic gold powder, I also chose to hand bead some designs with Japanese glass Miyuki beads, which represent the pinnacle in innovative manufacture and superb craftsmanship.

For more information on these high quality, truly beautiful beads visit the Miyuki website:

http://www.miyuki-beads.co.jp/english/

Sanctus Strix

After days of careful, meticulous printing with Illuminate Acids, Discharge and Selecticine metallic powders onto pongee silk (dyed with my own recipes of Procion MX) I now have some finished scarves which I am satisfied with.
The scarves feature my two halo owl designs specially designed for scarves. I combined different techniques in a variety of ways to make each scarf unique, experimenting with layering different chemicals, and using different strengths of discharge to achieve varying effects.

Some images of the scarves so far:

Scarf Designs

'Sanctus Strix' are a range of scarf designs focusing upon Owls, which have been considered a bad omen and a symbol of death throughout art history, and intricate patterns inspired by religious Medieval art. The designs echo repeated themes of my project, such as dot work, gilding and halos.
When initially conceiving the designs, I decided that I wanted the designs to be connected to my elaborate repeat designs, however they are not intended to be worn together as the scarves are large, bold statement pieces.
The designs feature a Barn Owl, as ever expressing my long running obsession with Barn Owls, and a Long Eared Owl, which I find incredibly beautiful, yet sinister and menacing, which I felt was rather fitting due to the symbolism of the imagery.

Now the designs are complete, I intend to screen print them onto silk using a variety of techniques and processes.