More experiments....

I’ve been continuing with my experiments in the print room of floral prints and colours. This time I added more texture and tonal variety by being braver and mixing different dyes together. I’m really pleased with how the heat press samples turned out as the colours look very strong, whereas in the last samples they looked a little weak and the designs too being very small. Also wanted to work on a larger scale of fabric with my silk screen printing just to be freer with my designing and enlarge features of the flowers. Working on bigger pieces of silk also helped me see how the silk would hang and drape and how the design looked from this. I wanted to use Liberty’s idea of shocking and sharp colours to have a more modern take on the florals as sometimes with floral designs they can look a little oldy worldy.  

I also found a very useful book in the Library today, with many photographs of Orchids and Lilies that I think I will start using in my designs; getting to the point where am painting the same one flower over and over again – not good!  I will use this book as a resource for doing a few more large scale paintings of flowers.  It would be nice to have long trailing Orchids flowing down the fabric so it appears as though they are moving.


The images above are photos of my most current silk screen prints and heat press prints which I have layered ontop of one another, want to organise them on a couple of boards so I can present my experiments and sampling to other people.

Liberty silk scarves

I took a break from printing and had a look at some silk scarves by Liberty, to see how they are designed and the colours which are used to help me with deciding on my own silk scarf designs and come up with a colour palette.  

I choose to look at Liberty because they have some timeless and classic designs and are well known for luxury and high quality fabrics, also a very big fan of their prints!

Of the collection I looked at they carried a floral and botanical theme (similar to the themes in my work) and with this created a flowing and lucid feel.  They seemed quite traditional and twee in their design however there was a different take on some of the designs where the florals were replaced with exotic and bright colours. Almost a bit psychedelic and acidic in colour. I liked this contemporary and updated version of florals. I especially liked the scarves with a Leopard print design and instead of using the colours associated with a Leopards fur they used shocking bright shades of reds and blues and yellows.

I think my print experiments are a little simple at the moment with the limited selection of colours I’ve used. To possibly push the designs forward I think I will take note from Liberty’s scarves where there are much stronger and brighter colours, it also might be worth dying the fabric and choosing a fabric with colour so the background is not completely white and giving off a very blank and plain feel.

I need to take more risks with designing and fill the whole piece of fabric! Some of my designs look a little weak as they are just one image standing alone.

Hopes, fears and opportunities...

Over the three years of my degree I have really enjoyed being able to paint, watercolours, silk screen, acrylics, inks, emulsion. I probably over indulge in this hobby of mine!  Especially at the start of a new brief and producing primary research, observational paintings of flowers have been a major focus in my work throughout! It’s always great at the start of a brief anticipating how it will turn out and what paths you take with your work which is exciting too. I’ve also found composing mood boards an enjoyable but also challenging aspect in briefs, as it requires a lot of thought and reasoning why you place a certain image in a place. Also I love finding things, even on travels to quirky second hand shops or an old ring at the back of my drawer I forgot about. Composing a mood board is a selective process of gathering and constructing an inspiring board which ultimately tells a story of your themes.

However, there have been many obstacles to overcome like Illustrator, which at first was daunting though really I just needed to invest time into practicing with it. Though I fear sometimes I find it easy to give up and take a break when things don’t work so I need to focus and get on with it.  I can be quite slow with my work too, (especially if I’m in one of my painting moods!) I must work faster in order to get more work done required for briefs and importantly meet the deadline. Also I think I should be more experimental and make full use of the equipment around me in the studios, such as the vinyl cutter and sewing machines and try and incorporate those into my work.

I’ve considered freelancing however after my talks with Sheila and Nicky (both freelance designers) earlier this year, it would be tricky and a bit of a gamble starting from scratch and trying to make money. Though something I will consider in the future. Ideally I’d like to work in a design studio designing, whether it is interiors or fashion. However finding work experience has been tough which (still keeping my eyes peeled) I hope to find and have studio experience, working on briefs with other designers.

I’m still in two minds whether to go down the interiors route or fashion route with my work. (Partly because I’m very bad at making decisions) Both have their pros and cons for instance, I’ve found when working on briefs that fashion is very free and liberal when it comes to designing a print or pattern. With an interiors print it’s a little more restricted with how you place your pattern. Like wallpaper for example, is often printed in repeat or half drop or even as a border design.


I find it fairly easy to go from designing a bed spread to designing a print for a dress and love the different contexts of design. Now I just need to make a definite decision!

Printing samples and experiments...

Silk screen print

Heatpress transfer

Heatpress transfer

Two Layered silk screen pieces

Two layered silk screened pieces

I’ve been busy in the print room the past couple of days! After spending much time painting and collecting various bits and bobs for primary research I felt ready to get on with some printing. I have been experimenting with various designs, motifs and colours using heat press transfer print and silk screen printing. I choose these two methods as I like the see through and trailing appearance and often ghostly effect the print can give. I also put the mirror effect techniques to good use and continued my theme into colour.

The transfer print of the roses motif worked considerably well and I think the strong red outlines are very bold, I’d like to pursue this one as a repeat print. Perhaps a nice silk scarf? Though the top image of the blue flowers could work better if it were to be repeated multiple times, thus giving a fading and disappearing effect.

Unfortunately, I feel that some of my transfer prints ended up a little too ghostly and quite transparent! I think that I probably didn’t use enough dye and mix it enough, however these ghoulish pieces compliment very well when layered on top of each other (like I have done in the photograph of the silk prints) as you can see subtle lines and colours peering underneath. Maybe this could be an idea to use when mounting work and presenting? I think to push these designs a little further I could do with repeating a motif several times as the blank white background is a little plain. I think I could see these prints working well on silk scarves as well as print for a dress, so looking into how print can be applied like border, repeat, motif are things to consider when designing a final outcome too.