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.

Sample scarves....

Just thought I would add a few photos of how my scarves are coming along. Have been wrapping and tying them around my mannequin to see how the designs fall and drape. As they are sample scarves they can only be worn tied in a short knot around the neck or hang loosely either side. However I do feel quite happy with the size as there are a number of scarves that are fashioned in this way. I think for the end of year exhibition I shall be taking along my trusty mannequin!

Teenage market stall...

In between all of the hustle and bustle of my final major project, I took some time out to think how to market my work and most importantly start designing business cards (in preparation for the degree show).
I thought about getting my business cards professionally printed but it would loose the textures and shades of my drawing, I like to stick to old traditions and methods! It did take some time to make the business cards but I'm very pleased with the outcome. I have showed my business cards to a few people and have been asked why I did not draw tulips (as my business name is Tulip Designs) but I thought the essence of my work is mainly floral patterns and paintings, I like the sound of Tulip and it has pretty and flowery connotations which sums up my work!
Luckily I found a great opportunity to sell some of my work locally at The Teenage Market, which is happening inside the old Stockport Market hall 1st April. The stalls were free to young designers/students which was a big plus! For the stall I will be selling greetings cards and fashion illustration postcards, however I still have a few to produce yet. I'm looking forward to getting a taster of what it is like to sell my work, also to think from a business perspective and how I will price my work and present it. It's going to be a really busy day from the sounds of it and so many varied stalls ranging from vintage/second hand clothes stalls to dancing! http://www.theteenagemarket.com/

Silk screen print samples...

Managed to book time in the print room and finally get started on some sample silk screen prints! Unfortunately I have only completed two silk print designs at the moment but aim to produce several more on Tuesday! I used an A3 size board to paint my designs onto as I wanted to create bigger, fuller designs, as I tend to stick to small and confined paintings.
I'm very happy with how they both came out and especially how some of the colours have merged together. The Peacock design is exactly the kind of colour palette I want to use and I also think these two particular designs (I copied from my current sketchbook) fit well in a scarf design as they have a good flowing, trailing effect. It will be good to hang these samples from a mannequin and see how the design appears when wrapped around a neck and how they can be worn.
My next step in designing is possibly trapping some fake flowers against a painted background and putting into the heat press, I would love to see what kind of outlines and shapes this may give the fabric.

Hopes, fears and opportunities...

Since my last hopes, fears and opportunities, I feel a lot has changed in the last few months of my Surface Pattern design degree.  

I have decided to take part in the teenage market in April at Stockport indoor market, to get a taste of what it is like to sell my own work. Also to explore how I would find working freelance and selling my work to the public at craft fairs.  For the market I will sell a mixture of handmade greetings cards using primary images from my sketchbooks and also postcards with watercolour fashion illustrations. I have not thought about prices just yet which is another issue I will have to think about and plan. I also need to plan how I will utilise the stall and how my cards will be displayed. I will also need to start making a sufficient amount of cards to sell and perhaps business cards. I would also like to see what other craft fairs are around and take part in others to push my work out there. Taking part in the craft fair will also help my CV as will the work experience. It could also be an idea to show cards to greetings cards shops and see if they would be happy to take some.

My biggest fear is that I will find it hard to find work after completing my degree, I think now is a good time to keep my eyes peeled for jobs and start applying. Ideally I would love to work for a company designing bedding, fashion prints or interior products such as lampshades. I find it really hard to stick to one specified area of design as I like to design for different aspects and I like the versatility. I am still considering working freelance and selling my work through an agent though I may find this a struggle to live off after I have finished my degree, but perhaps I could manage with a part time job as well. I am also worrying that my grade will not improve as I was a little disappointed from the result of my negotiated brief and aim to work harder to get a better mark.

I think this year I have taken more opportunities and felt more confident about approaching people and taking part in things. For instance contacting people for portfolio visits, taking the opportunity to intern at an organic sustainable fashion company.  I hope to go back when I have more time to spare as it was very insightful and helpful. I have one more portfolio visit to arrange which will hopefully be a lot more easier now. I found the task in the negotiated brief extremely tiring and stressful, trying to arrange appointments and then having to rearrange, this affected my mark as I did not get the third visit completed within the deadline. With my portfolio I have become more selective with which work goes in my portfolio and make it relevant to the person I am speaking to, for instance I would include my bedding designs if speaking to a designer in the bedding design/interiors field.

I have also considered other options I could take on such as fashion illustration, which I aim to research and talk to people in the know about this area of design. Next week I hope to go back to life drawing, something I’m quite used to as I did this at college a few years ago. Hopefully drawing figures will help me understand the form of the figure which will help me with my fashion illustration and become more accurate. I have not looked in to prints for fashion before which is something that I have only started on, since the beginning of third year with my scarf brief. It has been exciting and interesting exploring this other avenue of design and designing for another context, exploring more colours and patterns. It is completely different to interiors, I think this has made me more explorative with my design work to try new styles and be more experimental. This has opened my options too, if I decide to go into fashion print or fashion design. Another option I am considering is stationary and greetings cards, as I intend to sell handmade cards at the teenage market. I find designing cards quite quick and easy and I could still use my fine art background when designing, such as floral painted cards.

This year I feel a lot more open and comfortable to try new things which I would not normally do in first or second year. I feel more confident when talking to people I am not to familiar with and arranging visits etc. My PDP has helped me tremendously as I have been able to keep track of where I am up to with work, reflect on how I am progressing and what I can improve on next. In my last few months of Surface Pattern design, I hope to speak to more people in various design areas and look out for other intern positions and work experience to add to my CV.  I’m glad I have taken more risks as I would not have seized these opportunities such as work experience, craft stall and speaking to people several months ago. I am happy with what I have achieved so far but need to keep taking risks!

Spring/Summer 2012 trends...

                                                    Images from ELLE magazine March 2012

Been flicking through this months issue of ELLE magazine and fell in love with the many prints and colours gracing the catwalks and shops in this colourful season! Everthing from clashing digital prints (Mary Katrantzou, Peter Pilotto) and patterns to poppy pastels and floaty pleats; it seems S/S 12 is alive in colour and fun! Everything is immersed in detailed patterning and print and so different to each piece. I especially like a dress by Mary Katrantzou which she designed for Topshop, (see the first image at the top) made from Polyester and digitally printed. Jonathan Saunders also had some similarly bright cocktail colours with more intricate and folklore style patterns.

I think with my scarf designs I will aim to explore a few different colour palettes when I start printing, as there are an array of colours on the catwalk this season. It will also be interesting how changing the colour palette could change the mood/style of the print too.

http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/designers_catwalk.aspx?designerid=160&seasonid=26

Work experience...

Last week I did two days work experience interning at a luxury organic cotton fashion brand. I have never had any experience in the design or fashion industry before so it was brilliant to have the chance to experience what goes on.
My first day involved meta tagging for the website, which meant entering a brief product description, the website page and typing in key words that people may type into a search engine, when looking for a particular product.
Another task I had to do for updating the website was selecting three other garments or accesories to match the product being described. For instance adding a scarf, clutch bag, white t shirt to match a boyfriend jacket, which would then show these images at the bottom of the page to encourage shoppers to pick something as well as the jacket.
In the afternoon I had to alter photographs of a couple of products on Adobe Photoshop (which I was not use to at first as it was different to using Photoshop on a mac!) this I felt happy with where my skills and knowledge of Photoshop could come into play. However, I found it fairly tricky remembering how to type in the quantity of stock, type of colours available and sizes available.
I enjoyed my time working at a fashion company and will consider this area as a possible job after graduating, though unfortunately as it was based quite far away and hard to travel to I could not carry on with interning. Travel and travel expenses will also impact where I will look for work too so I have enough time to get there and it is not too costly .

Pattern designs...

After speaking to Jane Bews who suggested I look into fashion, I started to produce pattern designs that could be used in fashion. I used watercolours to capture translucent and flowing effects of silk, which is the fabric I want to use when I produce my final outcomes. I decided to use the beautiful iridescent colours of peacocks and also thought they had a sense of elegance and beauty which I could reflect in my designs. I've started off with a few dress designs but hope to upload a few scarf designs too so will keep you posted!

Portfolio Visit - Jane Bews

For my second portfolio visit I spoke to Jane Bews B' Ed Hons Design & Technology. Jane is a local freelance designer and works full time as a teacher at an independent primary school. I wanted to speak to Jane who is from a different design background having studied Design and Technology, so I could see from a different designers perspective.
I collated a couple of sketchbooks together from my negotiated brief as I thought some of the pages were a Graphic design style which might interest Jane. Also in my portfolio, (as well as current sheets from Final Major Project) were a few design development sheets with portfolio bedding designs, which Jane commented on saying, "I really liked the bedding designs and would happily buy it should it go into production!" Which was very flattering feed back!
Jane thought my sketchbook from the Negotiated Brief was especially interesting and full of experimental media and colour ranges, which is important to explore when going through the design thought process. Jane also said, "A lot of time, thought and effort has gone into this portfolio so far." Improvements however, Jane thought maybe investing in a larger A1 portfolio and dividing different design sheets from each other to make my portfolio more professional and better presented. Another suggestion from Jane was to look into fashion prints as she thought my designs had a colourful and playful style. This I will hope to push forward with my Final Major Project, although I intend to look at scarf designs I will look into the possibility of fabric prints for fashion garment i.e dresses.

Portfolio Visit - Krishta Fitzsimmons

I met with an Art teacher, Kirshta Fitzsimmons who teaches art to primary school pupils at an independent school in Cheadle. Kirshta provided very helpful feedback and advice on my portfolio. I decided to select a few sketchbooks and design sheets from previous projects as well as current ones, to show Kirshta the progression of my work. Also if there were pieces from previous projects that could be developed and incorporated into my Final Major Project brief.
After showing Kirshta my Midsummer Night's Dream sketchbook and my photographs of flowers she commented, "the sketchbooks are so tactile and fragrant. Pages are inviting and the size of the book works in complete harmony with its contents. " Kirshta also said, "Ink Illustrations show real progression. Love the monochrome theme. Designs are beautifully executed. Ideas are modern and fresh. Excellent use of media, very varied and professional, sensitive use of colour."
Kirshta also suggested to add a bit of character and texture to my sketchbooks in future and to have a go at trapping flowers inside empty tea bags and possibly cover in hot wax.
It was lovely to hear such positive feedback and also to get feedback from someone who is in another area of design, which I found invaluable.

The Gallery of Costume...

Evening dress, Zandra Rhodes

I took a trip to Platt Field's Gallery of Costume recently to have a look at a selection of old and new clothes, ranging from the early 1900's up to the present day. It was great being able to take time out of working and see such amazing garments! 

There was a beautiful, bohemian styled Zandra Rhodes dress, with the most intricate and flowing pattern, it was made from a chiffon/silk material; this gave me ideas for scarf designs. I also really loved a 1920s/30s flapper evening dress, which was completely embellished in beads. It was a lovely deep green shade and had a wing like feature at the back of the dress revealing some of the back, so unusual and rare to see such a varied dress design. 

I saw a lovely display of bags from the thirties also very much adorned with beads and they looked so delicate and glamorous, I just wanted to take them all home! 

As well as the many couture dresses by Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier, Valentino; there were dresses from the fifties and sixties which were akin to Primark where costs through production were minimised.

Now i need to get back to work and start designing, though no doubt I will be taking a leisurely trip back to The Gallery of Costume soon enough!

New year, new brief!

Have been thinking about Final Major Project and decided my next brief will be to design and make a collection of silk scarves to be sold in a highly desirable designer shop, e.g Selfridges. Which is similar to the negotiated brief but this time I want to pursue it further and come up with some really striking colours and designs!
For themes I have decided to focus on floral, insects and birds, Peacocks in particular! I have been inspired by iridesent and transparent blue hues and greens. Also want to try and capture the patterns on insects wings and the Peacock's feathers for some colourful, abstract inspired designs. 
 At the moment just compiling research together and drawings, have taken a few photographs of some pretty, pink Orchids (above) because they have such a beautiful shape.