British Home Chic

I am very excited to announce that I now have a designer profile on the British Home Chic website! The website shows off the talents and portfolios of many designers as well as selling lovely homewares and gifts- everything from ceramics and wall art to jewellery and textiles. The lovely people approached me and offered to show my designs, which I jumped at the chance to do. For more info go the the site or follow them on Twitter @britshomechic Here's a little sneak preview of my page!

Trentham Gardens

I recently visited the beautiful Trentham Gardens in Stoke on Trent, a place I have visited several times living in the area. this was the first time I had managed to visit at the height of summer, and I was blown away by the gorgeously designed gardens, spectacular views and most of all the range of flowers and plants. Florals are something I only really discovered my love for a few years ago and now I can't get enough! Here are a few snap shots from my visit, I'm hoping to use them to inspire some doodling soon!

New Designers

I'm very excited to announce that I will be exhibiting at New Designers this year at the Business Design Centre in London! Alongside some of my other course mates from Staffordshire University I will be exhibiting my latest fabric designs as well as an exciting portfolio of work from Wednesday 26th- Saturday 29th June on stand T57.

to find out more about the exhibition you can visit the website, and to view my Artsthread Portfolio which shows all my projects and more about me please go to http://www.artsthread.com/p/lauraelder/

Digital Repeats

Alongside the fabrics I created for the final pieces for my project Ornate Obscurity, I also created a collection of digital repeats to work alongside the main designs as simpler all over patterns, using some of the drawings used in the fabric design and a similar colour palette to tie it all together. Here are a few snaps of the digital prints in my portfolio.

I'm very excited to take all my recent designs along with the rest of my portfolio down to New Designers next week, more on that soon!

Laser etch

To compliment my main collection of fabrics as well as the digital collection, I wanted to use the leather I bought and really showcase what can be done with it on the laser etch. I used a section of my repeat design I created digitally and etched it into a large piece of flat leather to create this piece.

I'm really pleased how well the etch shows of my drawings, and would make a lovely framed piece of artwork. It also got me thinking about how this could be applied to products... bags, shoes, notebooks, leather cases for phones, laptops and tablets... the possibilities are endless!

Cre8 Radio Appearance

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to go on Cre8 radio and talk about who I am and what I do as a designer, with the lovely Paul Oldfield on arts and entertainment show The Nite Klub. I have never done radio before so it was a great new experience which I really enjoyed, despite being rather nervous!

With presenters Paul and Chris

Spreading the word about Surface Pattern!

With my degree show exhibition

If you would like to know more about Cre8 radio you can visit their website, or checkout out the Facebook page, which also features pictures of me and my work!

Degree Show

I can't believe it's all finished, but I'm so happy to announce that the degree show is now open! I'm exhibiting as part of Show & Tell 2013, Staffordshire University's degree show exhibition on the College Road campus in Stoke-On-Trent. The show is running every day until Saturday 15th June, with the opportunity to see final year work from disciplines including Surface Pattern & Textile Surfaces, Illustration and Graphic Design, Crafts, Ceramics and Jewellery, Animation, Photography, Film Production and Fine Art. There's so much to see and some real talent to witness, so come down and have a look, and if you enjoy the show don't forget to tweet about it with the hashtag #StaffsShow!

A preview of my space in the surface pattern studio just before my assessment!

Printing- sneak peek!

So I've been very busy in the print room printing my repeated lengths- 3 in total of 4m each! After all the hard work of designing and kodatracing, it's great to see my vision come to life. Heres a few photos taken during printing...

Strike off- testing out my colours and checking the design

This length was printed on fabric I dyed myself- it took a while to get just the right shade of yellowy green! Really pleased with how it looks in repeat.

This length used the same yellow/green shade on a black cotton this time, with the second screen printed in glue, ready to be foiled.

and here's a close up of how it looks finished, it took a long time to cut out the pieces of foil and press by hand in a small heat press. I love this beautiful multicolour iridescent foil, I'm hoping it will catch the light well when it's hung.

There's also a rather lovely purple/pink silk length with a black flock print, but I'll save that to show you later!

Repeat

After all that test printing, I've been working hard on the layout of my design repeat. I've been looking at a range of inspirations from Joanna Basford to timorous beasties, and have resolved what will hopefully be a successful design. It's going to be a two colour print, with the majority of it in one colour and small highlight areas in a second.

Here is my kodatrace in progress, I can't wait to get printing!

Test Printing!

Last week I have been in the workshop, experimenting with my test screens and lots of exciting processes, here are some of the results...

Initial strike off in purple pigment print

Discharge print with overlaid foil highlights

Discharge print using pigment in the paste to replace colour

I had hoped to use discharge printing for my main printed length, but this would mean lifting the fabric off the table to steam and wash it to set the discharge paste, however I wouldn't then be able to register my second screen to add foil highlights. So instead I worked on alternative options for colour ways and experimented with more processes....

matte grey foil on yellow/green fabric with lasercut leather overlay

Iridescent foil on black fabric

My favourite samples, which will inform my colour palette and processes when printing my final fabric lengths in a couple of weeks time!

Drawing Pt.3

Since being allowed back in the studio after Easter this week (2 weeks was a long time away!) I've carried drawing all the weird and wonderful things I've been looking at, particularly carnivorous plants. Here are just a few examples of what I've been up to this week...

This striking carnivorous plant attracts bugs to its sticky fronds and then curls itself up to eat them...

I loved drawing these gorgeous succulents

Textural twisting branches/vines

Exotic pitcher plants... love the texture and pattern on these.
I have accumulated a lot of drawings now of a range of imagery with some interesting mark making and texture, so I'm forcing myself to stop for now and move on to the next stage. I have made a few test screens with my imagery to start trying out the processes, fabrics and colours I want to use, and I can't wait to to get in the workshop and start experimenting! I will post again next week to show what I've been up to.

Placement

Over the Easter break from university I had the fantastic opportunity to work at Paper Rose/ The Art Group in Nottingham. This was off the back of a live brief which the company set us at University to design Typography themed cards aimed at a male market- I was so pleased to have my designs selected as a winning entry, and part of the prize was two weeks placement in their design studio.

During my week there I had the chance to develop the designs I created for them during the live brief with a few more ideas for the range. I also developed my floral wallpaper design into some gorgeous giftwrap and gift bag designs, including mocking up samples with foil finishes on- I do love a bit of sparkle and shine! It was also great opportunity to see how a design studio works on a day to day basis, get to know more about ranges, the design and selection process and all the exciting techniques and finishes that are used on cards and giftware products.

I had a fantastic week working with all the wonderful team there, and am very excited to return for my second week of placement at the beginning of July, when I will be doing some more work in their design studio and hopefully pushing on with my card range for them, so stay tuned for my post then on how it goes.

In the mean time, why not check out some of the great ranges they produce at www.paperrose.co.uk and www.artgroupcards.co.uk, or like their Facebook pages and follow @paperrosecards and @The_Art_Group on Twitter for regular updates!

Lasercut Loveliness

Something I'm hoping to incorporate into my designs is the use of leather that is lasercut and/or etched. My lovely friend offered me some time on the laser cutter, so I jumped at the chance to test out my drawings so far on the leather I had (I bought a whole purple leather hide for £49- bargain!) Here are some of the samples I produced.

Testing the speed and power to achieve the right depth for etching the leather...

Then I used my drawings so far to do etching experiment on some pieces from a book of leather samples I have been given...

I then moved on to pieces of the leather I will be actually using, using a slightly larger scale...

I experimented with cutting as well as etching...

This piece was etched first, then cut out

These pieces were just cuts, it took the laser a couple of goes to cut right through!

From these experiments I feel the etch may be better as a separate piece, perhaps I may take a section of my final repeat design and it it into a large piece that could work as a cushion or wall piece. I really like the cut outline style pieces, perhaps these could work as add on 3D elements of a repeat print. I can't wait to do some more drawing and work on combining it with this exciting technique!

More Drawing!

I have been continuing to draw the weird and wonderful forms I have been studying for 'Ornate Obscurity' thoroughly enjoying the drawing process. I thought it would be nice to show you all how my drawings progress, along with some more finished ones...

For these venus flytraps I began with laying out the basic outline...

before filling in with mark making to create depth and texture.

For this spotted Orchid I began with a pencil outline (I often start this way to get the shape right) then blocking in the solid areas...

before using dots to fill in the detail and add shading.

the completed spotted orchid.

Orchid with textured petals (does remind me a little of an alien or fly face!)

Another weird but interesting plant, I love the potential this has for creating a pattern with (though I have no idea what it actually is!)

I'm really excited to develop these drawings further and eventually use them in a repeat design, and possibly as cuts and etches on the laser cutter- come back soon to find out more about developments in leather!