Final scarf!

I have completed my final scarf! It was a long and sometimes frustrating process but I am happy with the overall result!
There were a few problems along the way which I had to resolve such as rolling the seam and stitching it, a very fiddly job and also had to make sure I selected the right stitch tension on my machine, as the fabric at one point kept getting chewed up. It was quite a task working on such a bigger scale when painting my design onto the screen, as I'm so used to working on a smaller scale. Also the large size of the screen meant I had to keep rotating it so I could reach the top of it to paint my design. I needed help when printing onto the fabric as the screen needed to be held in place as I used the squegee. Fortunately my design did not come out smudged because I had help holding down the screen. However there was a slight pink tinge down the centre of the scarf when I removed the screen but I think it works with a hint of colour in the background to correspond with the pinks and purples of the lilies. The only other problems I encountered was the time it took to dry, then fix in the steamer then wash and allow to dry, the size meant it would take double the time for these tasks to be completed as opposed to my smaller sample sizes.
 I am very happy with the way the design falls when draped around the neck as it has a flowing and trailing effect with hints of the different colours. The size of the scarf works really well too as it is more versatile to style i.e tie around the neck in a knot or worn hanging either side.
The design is also versatile enough to be a pattern on a maxi dress with the way it falls down the silk too. If I was to design this scarf again I would possibly introduce a background colour so dye the silk before printing onto it. The design is quite striking on the blank background though I think a soft, pastel colour could add a more deep and vibrant character to the design.

Brooklyn Pottery visit...

Today I made a trip to the lovely and quaint Brooklyn Pottery in Shaw Heath, a cafe, gallery and a place to create pottery! I loved the quirky style inside with a subway map on the wall and New York skyline on the stairs!
I spoke with Vic (who I met at the The Teenage Market) about my cards and if she would like to sell them in her shop and she was very happy to. She said they were a very good price and maybe to slightly up the price a bit, am finding it hard to price my work as I'm new to selling and really don't know my works value! Vic suggested designing Father's Day cards as this is an event fast approaching. Vic found my cards different and liked the stencilled font and colours.
I left my cards with Vic and she would sell them for me and keep in contact with how it's going, she also suggested making a little display of business cards and a bit of information about my cards and how I create them.
 It was great to pop in and visit a new up and coming gallery, cafe and pottery rolled into one! Especially to get positive feedback and good suggestions on my cards. A lovely place and they make good lattes too!
http://www.brooklynpottery.co.uk/

Final scarf piece - the process!

                                         

Over the past couple of days I have made a start on my final scarf piece which has been quite hard to say the least! The Habotai silk I used is a square meter in size ,which first of all involved folding over the edges and pinning in place which took a while! After pinning I then used an iron to carefully iron the folded edges in place, the frayed edges were still visible so I then folded the edges over once more and pinned in place. It took quite a while on my sewing machine to stitch the seam as I had to keep changing the tension on the dial of my sewing machine as it kept eating up my silk! Though carefully retrieved my eaten fabric and started again with a looser tension and a very fine straight stitch.
My next task was painting my Lily design onto a very large screen, this was quite tricky as I had to keep rotating the screen so I was able to cover the whole area of the screen with my design. After much time drying I used a squeegee to print the design onto the silk. I taped my fabric to some paper and rolled around a tube to be put in the steamer for fifteen minutes to completely fix my design onto the silk. At the moment my crinkly silk needs washing in cold and hot soapy water to get rid of excess dyes, which I will wash at home as it's fairly big enough to hang out on the washing line!

Final design proposal...

Above is my design for my final silk scarf! It is an A2 watercolour piece painted from an observation of lovely Lilies. I have slightly exaggerated the colours to have a more vibrant and vivid effect against the pale, white background. The red and green complimentary colours also add to this appealing design. The Lilies work their way upwards going from large to small so when printed onto silk the wearer has a nice trailing effect of florals when draped or tied around their neck.
Before printing onto the silk (Habotai silk) I will roll the seams of the square metre of silk and use a very short and fine stitch to prevent fraying and make the scarf look professional (as from my secondary research I found all silk scarves have this finish).
I won't dye the fabric as I really like the idea of a white background as it looks quite pure and projects the design quite well, also I was worried about having too many colours in my colour palette.
I aim to start printing this Thursday as this large design could take a while to produce!

Online portfolio and selling my work...

I have recently created an online portfolio of my work which is....

http://tulipdesigns.carbonmade.com/projects/4279936#1

At the moment I have just made a portfolio of my my final major project work so I can upload primary photographs, drawings, paintings, fabric print samples etc but I hope to add previous works to my account soon and also my handmade cards.
Also I'm going to create an Etsy account to promote my handmade cards and hopefully sell them. It will also give me an idea of what it is like to sell online, keeping track of orders and sending cards. Selling online also gives me the benefit of a larger audience (The Teenage Market quite limited to buyers) and so my designs need to be more varied and look at designing a new range of hand made cards for pother audiences. I will look at expanding my greetings cards for other occasions such as engagements, new house and sympathy cards.
Another way to sell and promote my work is speaking face to face with shop owners and asking if they would be interested in selling my cards, the downside to this is that they could take a large amount of commission, however this will be a good way to get my work around. In the next two weeks I will aim to get this done!

The Teenage Market stall....

Just got back from The Teenage Market today and had quite a successful day! Sold half of my greetings cards and a couple of fashion illustrations which was brilliant as I thought I was going to come home with a huge surplus of stock! I have never had a market stall before so this was very new to me, I felt a little self conscious doing a stall on my own but found it easy talking to people who asked about my cards. I also enjoyed having my own stall as I was able to present my cards and signs however I liked, more importantly I had to layout my cards to appeal to the public and keep re arranging them when people bought things or picked them up.
It was a lovely day packed with a variety of stalls including second hand clothing, jewellery, photography, printed t shirts and some tasty looking cup cakes! It was nice having people looking at my work and getting it out there, people were very nice and someone suggested that I should make more of my good luck cat card! It also helped seeing what sold well or did not sell in order to have enough stock for next time. The cards which sold well were the watercolour florals of sweet peas and tulips (so in future stalls will produce a lot more of this particular design), I was quite surprised that my biro drawings of florals didn't sell to well as I thought the textures and shades were quite striking. the greetings cards with the drips of paints falling down the page sold fairly well to but I think I could develop those into a more busier card as they are quite simple against the blank background.
For future stalls I think I would maybe produce watercolour paintings of my flowers and possibly bigger fashion illustrations as they could work well as paintings, this would also mean I could charge more for paintings due to the larger scale of the work. It would have been nice to suspend my cards against the back wall so people would be able to see my work from a distance (attract more buyers).
Taking part in The Teenage Market has given me more confidence to take part in future fairs and to be able to talk about my work more openly, it was also reassuring to know that people would buy my work and speaking to people helped me find out their dislikes and likes with designs. This has given me a head start to think about how I will present my space at the degree show soon and what to include such as, layout, business cards, illustrations etc.
I really enjoyed the experience and a great way to publicise your work, now I need to start making more and find another craft fair!

More scarves!

I had a look at some of my scarves at home to see what colours are used, the pattern and design and the fabric used. Each scarf was from a different brand too.
 All scarves are 100% silk except for the one on the far right from Primark which was cotton. The middle scarf is from Marks and Spencer and the far left is Christian Dior (which I found for a bargain price at under a tenner at The Vintage Style Agency in Stockport http://www.vintagestyleagency.co.uk/)
 It was good to see how or what was different about a low cost scarf (Primark), high street brand (Marks and Spencer) and a high end design (Christian Dior). All scarves were made from good quality silks and cotton and had a repeat design which meant whichever way you wore it the pattern would still be the same or would not be completely missing.
I've been wondering when it comes to making my final scarves how to finish the edges off, as at the moment for my sample scarves have been using magic tape to give a clean and straight edge. All of the scarves I looked at had a very finely rolled seam with a tiny straight machine stitch, so there were no visible frays at all (this also looked a lot more proffesional than the magic tape obviously!)
The colours are as you can see very light and soft which add to the overall texture of each material, they have a nice drape and hang very well. Though each scarf was of a different size, the Dior scarf was a standard square meter, the Marks and Spencer scarf was 62 inch x 10 and the Primark scarf 76 inch x 45. The Dior scarf was the shortest and could only be worn hanging loose or tied around the neck, the Marks and Spencer scarf was a longer skinny scarf which again could be worn hanging either side or in a loose tie, however the Primark scarf was most versatile and could by styled any way due to its large size. This was interesting to see the differences in sizes as it affected how the scarf could be worn, I will have to think about the size of my final scarves as this will impact how the scarf can be worn and styled.