Here comes the sun!

Summer is beginning to rear its head! And with creative freedom and a project to look forward to heres to the summer!

'It seems like years since its been here, Here comes the sun!' (and the Strawberries!)

Im currently embracing my favourite fruit, the strawberry! Anybody for strawberries and cream!? :D




(Just a few snaps) Enjoy your summer everyone x

End of Year One!

That's right, Friday was hand in day for all my work, so year one of my degree is officially over! How time flies! Naturally I have a lot of personal work which I want to complete over the summer, so my blog will still be as active as ever!

I have passed my context modules, Achieving an A on my final essay about challenging gender stereotypes within design so its just the waiting game for my practical grades.

Here's to a creative summer and the end of year one! Hopefully Ill achieve good grades and be accepted onto my chosen specialism, Print!

'Weave' been busy!

Sorry, I apologise, no more bad weave puns, although they were looming. Ill stop, I imagine your all yarning.
Yes, completing my weave and therefore virtually all my practical work for year one created that out-burst of poor humour.

After a tiring but worthwhile month my weave is complete, all that remains is to cut and mount my final samples and make my finished piece, a corset. Its taken 6 metres but my weaves are ready and raring for some finishing touches.

And in a reminiscent farewell I wave goodbye to my loom (for now):

Weaving History

On a trip to my hometown of Nottingham I visited the Medieval Market on the square. Immediately a rather large vertical Loom caught my eye and interested me:



I inquired about the loom and discussed it with the lady (in full medieval attire) who was giving demonstrations. I enquired if she was weaving linen as I had always wanted to see wet weaving. She was infact weaving a coarse wollen fabric suitable for a tunic. I asked if she carded and spun her own wool, it didnt surprise me to hear that she did (mostly because Id already spotted her basket of fleece.
She was also hand weaving a trim for a tunic as well as doing a tapesty.



The market was in abundance with textiles, including; leather mugs, rag weaves, recycled textiles, felt and many more crafty things!
The market was just one of the events celebrating Robin Hood month. Celebrate medieval history with fun events for all the family throughout may, visit the website for more details:

http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/robinhoodmonth

Get Weaving!

Well, its been a busy few weeks, what with making my warp. This was a new challenge and I had heard tell of the soul destroying process of making a warp from other students. I was eager to begin my weave so jumped at the chance to start my warp. Winding the yarns onto the warping mill was easy enough, even if it was dizzying at times. Winding the yarn onto the Loom was time consuming (with over 6 metres of yarn to wind and having decided to have a double warp it was bound to take time) but not incredibly trying. Threading the loom however was a different matter. Threading almost 200 needles in sequence was frustrating to say the least. And when the hard work was over, my warp broke several times, needing to be mended on various occasions.

Despite a few little hiccups I got into the swing of weave very easily and I'm currently enjoying producing my samples, here are some quick snaps of my progress so far:




'We sleep, but the loom of life never stops, and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up in the morning.' - Henry Ward Beecher.

Bradford Textile Society Award Ceremony

Today was the day of the Bradford Textile Society design seminar and Award presentation! The long, busy day left me somewhat exhausted, but it was rewarding to see my work on display and to have achieved something.

As I rather foolishly forgot to photograph my entry before it was posted, here I finally bring you a photograph of my board!
Here is my 2nd prize entry in the Clothworkers' Foundation award for First Year Students for a Knitted Fabric in any Fibre or Blend (quite a mouth full I know!):



The day began at around 6.20 for me, travelling to Derby and walking to university, something I do every day (although never in a dress!). Unable to catch the election results before I began my journey I bought a paper on the way, only to see my strong support of Labour had not been enough to win them the election. We left on a University of Derby mini-bus for Bradford at 9am, managing the journey at a fair pace until we arrived at Bradford and got lost attempting to find the 'Rio Grande', our first port of call for registration. Eventually we arrived and were then taken on a tour of the 'Bombay Stores, which boasts the title of the 'UK's Largest Asian Department Store'. In a word the place was incredible. Everything seemed to shimmer or sparkle or glint, and the rolls and rolls of fabric and ribbon got me snapping away madly:






As usual I could see inspiration and ideas everywhere, so a few close ups were rather tempting too:







After the tour of 'Bombay Stores' we returned to Rio Grande for lunch. I decided this was the perfect time to take some photos and fly the flag for the University of Derby, and here are all the UoD prize winners (I'm far left lol):



And Jackie and Kay:



After lunch we walked to the National Media Museum to view all the winning entries on display and then have our design seminar and award presentation. The seminar was given by Sabine Le Chatelier of Premiere Vision. Then everyone received their awards from President John Dyson.
Congratulations to all the designers who entered into the Bradford Textile Society Design Competition, well done to everyone and thank you to the society and its sponsors for an enjoyable day. Best of luck for next year everyone! :)

Bradford Awards Nearing ...

A week today is the Bradford Textiles Society Awards ceremony. I must admit to being very excited at the prospect of meeting other Junior designers from all over the country. The occasion has arose for me to wear a dress! Something uncommon for me but I am eagerly awaiting the event and the formal chance to congratulate all fellow Derby Uni winners. Naturally you can expect some photos to emerge next weekend, so watch this space! And now I return to work on my final project of year one, Weave.

The great outdoors ...

As a faint trace of the English summer begins to slowly emerge any reason to photograph out in the sunshine is a good reason. And what better cause than displaying my Curious skirts. Inspired partially by Alison Willoughby's skirt photographs and by the themes of Alice in Wonderland I ventured out into my garden one sunny afternoon to photography my finished skirts:

Closer & Closer ...

Once again I couldnt resist taking a few arty photographs of my 'Text Styles' project. As I mount up my samples and get ready to display for Crit photographing some of my favourite elements is just too much of a temptation (I even got slightly carried away and started involving my treasured 1970s copy of Alice in Wonderland!):

Illustration Experimentation ...

During my 'Text Styles' project I experimented with Illustration.
Illustration is something Ive never really done specifically, so I found it an enjoyable experience.
Here are a few of my illustrations:






I attempted to incorporate the modern slant of illustrators such as Sara Fanelli within my work.

Second Prize in Bradford Textile Society Competition ...

Well, it was certainly a shock to say the least when I was given my mail last week! Thinking nothing of the brown envelope and expecting nothing more than more election propaganda I tore it open. Much to my amazement my eyes immediately focused on the words '2nd Prize in section K3'. In utter shock I read the letter thoroughly. Well, in my previous post I had commented 'just in case I'm in luck' but never imagined I would be!



Congratulations to the 6 other students from the University of Derby who also won prizes or commendations. A full list of all winners can be seen here:

http://www.bradfordtextilesociety.org.uk/dc10wnrs.html

Many thanks to the Society for looking kindly upon my designs and Jackie and Kay for putting me forward for the competition.

My new favourite technique ...

As a self confessed print obsessive I have definitely developed a new favourite technique in the current project; Expanding puff binder. Its fun, has a lot of wonder and excitement (if your a sad obsessive printer like me)and the outcome can be very effective. I'm so enthusiastic about it, I filmed my work on the steam press, Expansion in action!:

Music Masterpieces' Rebirth ...

Here is some progress from my sketchbook and very early studies and looking at typography for the first time.

My recycled sketchbook 'Music Masterpieces' (although I have heard of none of the titles personally lol):



My text message (illustrated):



One of the first exercises we completed:



And another!:



And how could I resist abit of arty nonsense with such a pretty old book?:

Bradford Textile Society Entry ...

Today I completed my entry for the Bradford Textile Society competition. I was chosen as one of three knit students at my university to be entered into the competition. I have entered one board into a first year contest with two of my knit samples, a number of photographs, a drawing and a spec drawing. I am satisfied with the entry, even if alot of stress has surrounded it. I enjoyed the 'In the Bleak Midwinter ...' project thoroughly and felt it was a nice way to round off the project, and it is quite exciting to be entering my first competition. Rather foolishly I forgot to photograph my entry before it was posted ... however here are the two samples that were selected to be sent:






So good luck to any other entrants and Ill be keeping my eyes and ears open just in case I'm in luck:

http://www.bradfordtextilesociety.org.uk/index.htm

Got me in Stitches ...

And the new project begins! With a Bizarre twist the new project is cleverly called 'Text Styles' and looks at using text within print design. Instantly excited that my love of quoting all things great and knowledgeable may make an impact I was once again involved in an enthusiastic project. In our initial exercise we were asked to select a text message from our phones with a form of statement. I chose the message 'Got me in stitches Alice', not knowing that my entire project would be based upon this message. Various exercises involving this text ensued, involving writing with masking tape, in different scales and using different media.
Our second brief detailed our given colour scheme options and told us we would be conducting our project on this text or an element taken from it. A rapid mass panic ensued regarding creating fashion prints from the most bizarre things ...

In the bleak midwinter ... Long Ago.

Crit for 'In the Bleak Midwinter ...' was today. Presenting all of my work was enjoyable as ever and it felt especially strange to observe everyone elses knit and weave compared to my own and how differently everyone interpreted the brief. This project struck me especially as very personal to everyone and the ways in which the brief has been interpreted are so different. Some people have chosen to look at colour, texture or pattern, I personally chose texture.
Here are some photographs of my mounted samples on display and of my finished sleeve and neck ruff:

Sleeve:








Ruff:




Kindly Modeled by Nat.