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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

Drawing

It's been a few months since I've had dedicated drawing time for a project as i have been working on (amongst other things) experimental textile samples, notebook designs and photographic cards as part of a live brief for The Art Group (more on that later).
So for the first time this year I have given myself time to enjoy drawing, immersing myself in the weird and wonderful imagery I've been collecting.

weird and wonderful plants...

using markmaking to create texture and depth...

alien orchids...

loving looking at bizarre plants like this venus flytrap

I'm thoroughly enjoying myself working with these strange forms and taking the time to get into drawing. More drawings coming soon!