Busy Bee!

Hi, Sorry i haven't updated in a while been so so busy!.. Catching up with drawing as well as sampling and putting together a few design ideas for my scarves! Its time now we need to be preparing to start printing and making our final products and i'm still drawing and only just started to design.

I recently went to visit Fred Aldous in Manchester which is a huge shop and studio with different facilities for the public to use. I went to learn how to laser cut and see how fast it was and what the outcome would be like.  They showed us examples of different types of cutting on different materials.

However my file i had prepared didn't work, and i had so many things on my hard drive when i plugged it into the laptop it just went crazy and couldn't handle my hard drive . So i ended up just testing my fabrics to see how it worked and what it looked like on my leather fabrics.  I just cut small circles but it was quite fast and gave a great outcome which never frayed. it helped me gain an understanding of how to correctly prepare my files and what it would turn out like. Heres an image of my fabric cut outs. 

However Becky's image worked and looked great once finished 

Laser cutter in the middle of cutting Becky's Doile design

It was a great experience to see and learn how it all works however it is so expensive so if i decide to use laser cutting in my final show which I'm pretty much sure i will be doing i need to work out if i have the money to pay for it or the time to cut it out myself if not as its very time consuming.

I spent a day experimenting with other metallic leather fabrics cutting out and screen printing over

I also took a trip to the NEC wedding Fayre which was not for my research initially but it did give me a few good ideas. This wedding dress had beautifully cut out and embelished detail which i would like to try on some of my samples but develop it to make it more contemporary as this seemed quite vintage and old fashioned with the style of the dress. 

Also at the end of the fashion show the final dress was a beautiful haute couture dress but everyone was taken by surprise from the over the top wedding hat, it gave me the idea to have bug heads on my mannequins for my final show or even just floating above my final garment.

The picture doesnt really do it any justice as i only had my mobile but it was beautiful and eye catching.

So on my day off me and my boyfriend had a productive day creating insect heads with paper mache

they are still nowhere near finished as i have to do layer after layer whilst letting them dry so i will upload some images later on.

I also entered the Bradford Textile Society competition with two entry's, one of repeat fabric for fashion and one with a digital print with embellishment over. I really loved my embellished sample and it made me want to embellish my final scarves once printed - if i have time which i hope i do :)

Heres images of my final boards, one being an idea board and then my main sample

Two more drawing designs of mine which i managed to slip in my hectic schedule experimenting with bugs and flowers combined and also organic flowers and forms.

 I am currently working on my final scarf designs which i will upload later

Creating new visual material

Whilst spending so long int he print room i have fallen behind a bit on the drawing side and development of patterns and designs. So i am trying my best to catch up and create a new collection of really detailed insects and flowers. I have bought three new books of amazon to inspire me to get cracking haha :) Heres two i have completed so far...

I Love the detail, texture and colours in my insects i have drew, who new insects could be so beautiful :)

Digital Prints

While spending three days in the print room i also printed off some digital prints too work into with devore, i used a velvet fabric which i loved the texture and weight of the fabric, i thought it would look great as scarves. So with this idea and samples i changed my mind from making wallpaper to making scarves and fashion pieces and fabrics for my final show.

Devore paste on back of sample because it has quite a thick pile so we print on the back.

I Love these samples and the texture and colours.  I think with the design and the colours the velvet really works well with them to create a great sample of even a final scarf design. Some i have worked into with devore and some i've left plain. I would like to try printing some on silk viscose to see and compare the different effects.

Oh It's been a while

Hi, sorry its been a long time since i last blogged i haven't forgot about you just been really busy :) and also productive woohoo!

After spending three whole days in the print room i ended up with alot of samples and ideas for fabrics. I used different techniques like foil and flock and devore. Heres a few images of some samples i have been working on

Here on my background screen i used a few different colours of pigments to get the effect of different colours showing which i thought worked really well along with the bright yellow flock on top :)

Experimenting on leathers with pigment and foil using a simple half drop repeat. although as you can see the leather did not like the heat press so all the foil stuck in its square but it still creates a different effect

Creating different textures and marks with pigment and flock

Working on different sheer fabrics to see what outcome i achieve.

Doing the same with PVC

Creating textures overlapping with pigment and foil

Experimenting with a different leather but as you can see it didnt like the heat press to so the flock has also stuck to the background pigment but it still creates a nice effect.

These are three of my favourite most successful samples, i have used pigments and flock onto leather and sheer fabrics and then cut into the detail which i think works really well so i will be experimenting more with this next week.

Evaluating my problems and successes of my samples and showing my ideas and how i plan to develop them in my sketchbook

Screen Printing

I Spent today in the print room with Suzan our technician to learn how to screen print properly. I was very excited to get my image on screen and experiment with different fabrics and techniques like devore, foil and flock, aqua span and simply pigment colour design through screen.

First of all we printed off my image onto acetate, we made sure each line was thick enough otherwise it wouldn't come through properly onto the screen.

We then turned on the machine as it takes 20minutes to warm up to expose our screens.

We then went to the printing room where Suzan explained all the different typed of meshes for the screens, for example one may have 42 threads per inch and others 61, or 71 threads per inch. This is so when you are doing specific techniques you can produce the right screen for that technique. For example the 42 tread screen would be used for thicker heavier dyes or substances, in my case texiflock and aqua span which are thick heavy glues and the less threads there are in the screen allows for the glue to pass through easily where a 71 thread screen would be more suitable for pigment and devore as these are alot thinner substances so the more tighter threads prevents it from spreading.

Suzan also showed us how to correctly mix pigment colours and gave us a sheet with the correct recipes on to follow and showed us an example of how to weigh the Magnaprint FF binder with the inks.

We then went into the dark room where the screens get coated with light sensitive emulsion called Dirasol, when there dry the screen goes into a Nat Graph Self Contained Exposure Unit along with the acetate underneath. 

once the machine is on you clamp down the lid and put a vacuum on to hold the screen in place. The acetate is in position under the screen face up so the design isn't backwards. It then gets exposed to the UV light for 20 light units which is about 1.5 seconds a light unit. Once the timer stops you remove your screen and take it to the washing area keeping it in controlled lighting all the time so it doesnt expose anything on the emulsion.

Then we washed the screen using a hose and sponge, because when the black design on the acetate blocks the light from exposing through to the screen, the emulsion stays soft and doesn't dry so when you wash it the emulsion comes away from the screen leaving your design exposed onto the screen as you can see on the image below :)

Tomorrow i will be experimenting with screen printing on different types of fabrics with different techniques which i am very excited about :) Hopefully also have my digital printed fabrics printed so i can see how the finishes are on those and maybe devore into a couple. I also want to produce another screen which is all textured moth wings and pattern so this could be a background before i print the bugs and insects on top. Hopefully i will have a very productive day!! I shall update my blog tomorrow to let you know how i get on :) 

Work From Yesterday

My Productive day wasn't so productive, i managed to finish one worksheet but the time and effort that went into that worksheet i think was well worth it. I Love the colourful insects and the different lines and textures of the wings that i had drew and i will be producing a few more to go along with these as a collection. I think they will look great on printed fabrics for fashion with the vibrant colour and texture. I took some close up shots so you can see the detail and texture. Hope you like them :)

Visual Research

From all my research i have collected i started to draw more unusual organic forms and flowers on these few sheets i have used a mixture of water colour pencils and gouache paint. i really love experimenting with scale and colour and i think the colours in these images all work well as a collection for a colour palette. 

I started with drawing unusual organic flowers and forms and also insects. I had decided to make it different and develop it further to draw bugs and flowers mixed together its quiet difficult to match a bug to a flower but i will be experimenting more with this to produce a collection of different bug flowers.

Today i have to day off work which is very unusual :) so i plan to spend it well and spend the whole day drawing :) Here is a sneak preview of what i'm working on today...

I LOVE the colours in this moth i have drawn, i love how bright it is and how i have created different textures with different marks hopefully by the end of the day i will have produced a few more :) if my day goes as productive as planned haha! fingers crossed.