Self Initiated Project

For my self initiated project I am going to look at designing for interiors. I plan on learning more about digital print, photoshop and working in a new illustrative way. I also want to explore a new material I havent yet ever properly worked with.

I am going to base my project on Fauna, mainly insects.

I plan on spending 3 weeks on this project.

Research

London Natural History Museum 

Exotic tropical insects have become my favourite insects to look at due there amazing colours.

Kari Herer Photography

Kari Here is a photographer who uses flowers and insects together t create a unique way of working. 

I personally love the way she uses flowers to make the images more eye catching and pleasing to the eye. 

For my self initiated brief I really wanted to design for an interior context, however I personally believe that insects in the home on either wallpaper, or fabric is very limited and can be very unpopular. I think this way of working and introducing flowers is a very clever and simple idea.

Alex Konahin

Alex Konahin is an illustrator who creates these amazingly detailed images using influences from the Renaissance period using simple tools such as fineliners and pencils. I love this way of working and how he blends the two completely separate styles together, it gives a unique way of working.

Inspiring Insect Interiors

Cole & Son 

Talia Greene wallpapers

Grey damask Bee animal insect wallpaper

              Buggie in Flashy Cadet - Abnormals Anonymous

Cheery Wallpapers

Christopher Marley

Barbara Medo

Finding my own style.

In previous projects I havent excelled myself with drawing, I plan on expanding on this and creating a new way of working. I love working in an illustrative way, I looked through lots of previous work and found one of my favorite projects from a few years ago was one I did titled 'doodles'. This for me was my best way of working, Illustrating what ever came into my head. Im going to spend a week of so trying my best to create a new style of drawing for these insects using limited tools like Alex Konahins work.

Using fineliners and pencil i have created images of bugs and then worked into them with small detail using any ideas that came to my head. I wanted to try and expand on the idea of introducing flowers to my work to make them more suitable for interiors.

Using collage i created these 2D illustrated insects. I really like how these have turned out due to how unique they look. However I believe that they are still very flat and boring.

#MoodBoard

3D Tropical flowers

To make the images seem more life like and unique I bought a range of fake tropical flowers, also this helped me with creating a colour palet.

I then expanded on this idea by using real flowers from my own garden.

I love how pretty these bugs now become with the use of flowers.

Prints & Photoshop

Thinking of an interior context

I edited this image using photoshop lightening it and repeating the pattern I really like how this turned out and can imagine it in a wallpaper context. 

Using my colour pallet I created these bright designs to be repeated 

I then tried to create other more neutral toned prints

Lazer Cutting

During making and designing these prints I have been inducted onto the lazer cutting machine. This technique is something I am going to work with during my 3rd year on my course. Due to my limited 3 weeks on this project as much as I wanted a few samples of how it could work within interiors for my work I dont think it is fees-able with the time restraints, however it is something im definitely going to look into 

Ethos

Whilst creating and drawing my digital prints I was inducted onto the Ethos Multihead machine. This machine has slowly become my favourite way of working but due to how long each design takes and my limit of 3 weeks per project I was limited to how many samples I could do. I firstly started with basic shapes and designs then I moved onto embroidering my favourite illustration of the project.

I then tried something I hadnt yet done this project of really looked at, butterfly wings, I interlocked them and layered them to create an easily repetative pattern. I used colours I had been using throughout my project, (tropical colours) and also used white on white to create a more textures design. This machine is something I 100% want to develop with and continue to work with in third year. 

Ethos Designs that I didnt have the chance to embroider

With these designs I was thinking of using them in an interior context for example heavily embellished cushions.

After producing these samples I also could a fashion element to them. For this whole project I decided I wanted to work with a fabric I hadnt really used or worked with before so I used silk. This reminded me of SS14 fashion and I think these designs would fit well for a commercial fashion audience. 

Few outcomes of digital print onto fabric.

I chose to print a detailed design onto two seperate fabrics to see how the digital printer initially worked. I wanted to see if the detail in the drawing was captured and printed well onto the fabrics, I chose two fabrics, Heavy Silk Habotai, and a cotton blend fabric. The cotton blend printed best and had sharper lines however the silk habotai didnt have the clearest lines but i thought it gave a nice effect to the fabric. The silk habotai sample would have been perfect for a fashion context aswel due to the light way and the nice drape the fabric had, however the cotton blend was very stiff and didnt really have its own drape. This was a good process as I learnt alot more about how things would print in the future if I did want to develop this way of working in third year.

Over all my 3 week project worked out well I think. I achieved what I set out to achieve and learnt alot about other areas of textiles. I really enjoyed working with the ethos machine and i plan on expanding this next year 100%! I also really like the world of digital print I think the market of digital print is growing very popular at the minute and its something I would like to look into more. Doing work with an interior concept in mind I found was very challenging, trying to produce work that would be subtle for a home I found hard but exciting I also got to broaden my knowledge on many more designers. Before this project I had no Photoshop knowledge at all, and over the 3 weeks have pushed myself into learning more by tutorials and reading up on different things the program can do. I really enjoyed working on this project as I got to have an aspect of illustration which I always enjoy, however, I personally think I would have much prefered to have had more allocated time on the ethos machine. I would have like to have produced alot more samples with digital print to give a new way of working. This is something I am going to explore in 3rd year bringing both textiles worlds together. 

Evaluation Of Intentions

For this project I really liked my work. I really enjoyed working in a new way. Fashion for me was never an option and I would always say no. However I am really glad I pushed myself through the barrier of saying no and explored a new world as I think this is in which direction I would like to carry on the course. I learnt so much from Pinterest, Fashion Designers, Fashion Illustration and I have a brief knowledge into the different fashion weeks of the year. Embroidery is 100% for me however I think if I had managed my time better I would have been able to explore other textile worlds a little for example Print. I really wanted to have my images and prints blown up large and digitally printed onto fabric and then me embellish over them, unfortunately time caught up with me. I really enjoyed learning new techniques on photoshop, new machines and new detailing for fashion, for example zips. I personally think I could have done alot some sampling if i had managed my time better. My work compared to last year has improved so much and I think all of the technique classes at uni have helped push my work more. I feel like I have in this project found a new style in which i work well and comfortably. First year for me was a blur and I didnt really have a direction to go in. Second year so far has been so much more intense and helpful.

INTENTIONS

Urban Environments

To stars this project off I have started by taking photos at night of differnet lights and differnet illuminous objects in the environment. I took photos in Newcastle, Manchester, Blackpool and a few in London.

I wanted to capture the urban environment in a bright way during the night aposed to during the day when things can all seem dull and have more of an dark urban colour scheme. My main inspiration firstly came from when I went to visit Blackpool Illuminations at the start of October.

New Castle, Manchester, London;

For help with these photo graphs I worked with a family friend who is a working Architech in London. I wanted my photos to come acorss professional and I also wanted to have someone elses in input into the photography as normally it isnt one of my strong points. However I love how these photos have turned out.

Starting off point: Blackpool

 

 From my photos of blackpool I really want to pick up on the colours that the illuminations were showing.

Ink Drawings;

The only material I could think of bright enough to create images of blackpool was drawing ink

Using an abstract way of painting I picked up on the colours and the forms of the light of the illuminations with creating shapes that I can see in the photograph. I purposly left alot of the black background out to see how well the colours stood out

I again used ink to develop from the first ink drawing. I then worked into this more by using acrylic paints and then I added small bits of glitter to liven the drawing.

I started this normal painting of blackpool using acrylic paints however I didnt enjoy working in this strict way. Also painting Blackpool in the day I found the colours wernt interesting me enough.

 

I then went back to working how I was before and used thick indian ink to create and base then worked ontop with acrylic paints in a small controlled way only using the bright colours I saw. This one differs from the other samples due to the way it has more of a form and resembles the photo more.

Larger ink developments, in a strickt rectangle. I like this way of working of trapping the colour and keeping the idea restrited to a certain space.

Sampling;

For my first samples I wanted to carry on with the idea from my Summer Project of heavy embelishing. I wanted to used beads and jewels to create the blackpool landscape.

I started with a basic calico fabric in an embroidery hoop and selected beads that were involved in the Blackpool photos.

Intergrating small bits of hand embroidery;

French Knots

Developing further..

Finished sample. Creating this took 2 hours but I really like working in this small embelished way.

From the way Im working I really want to work in a fashion context.. maybe looking into designers and current fashions for SS14 that are concentrating on heavy embelishment and embroidery like myself.

Development of colours for mood boards;

Photoshop

I have taken it upon myself to start using photoshop, with a few help from tutorials online, in uni and on the photoshop app Im slowly getting to grips with how it works..

This image is a mirrored image of my embroidery beaded sample of blackpool. I love the way it creates a new pattern and gives that small sample a more fashion based idea. It also helped show me in which way my work could develop for example this patteren repeated everywhere on a heavy embelished garnment.

Designers

-

TOM FORD SS14

I loved Tom Ford's SS14 collection. The materials used to create the pieces relates well to my work. I love the use of mirrored fabric to create an illumiated look. Also the way the garments look to be collaged.

Emilio Pucci SS14, Milán Fashion Week.

This dress by Emilio Pucci is amazing due to the heavy embelishment. I love the way it looks so much like grafitti and also has an elegant feel to the dress due to the choice of small beads.

This helps me in a way of creating a fabric for a garnment. Would I use multiple repeated meblished patterns? Would I repeat the same pattern all over? Would I want something a little less embelished?

LOUISE GRAY

Louise Gray interested me due to the way her garnments keep with the outragious colourful collage feel. Her garnments look like walking moodboards which I love and her choice of frabics that drape well with the outfit. The choice of colour involved is also one of the key facters in this aswel.

Mary Katrantzou SS14

I love the embroidered dress by Mary Katrantzou. The bright summery colours look lovely together and I also like the idea of how there are small detailed patches of embelishement using other materials that are identically repeated around the dress and then two long embelished panels at either side of the dress. The choice of colour for this however is the key part in why I like it. Using to bold colours is just as eye catching as every single colour from my images.

LFW SS 2014 Peter Pilotto

This dress caught my eye during fashion week due to the choice of abstract colours.

I really want to develop this idea of concentrating in a small section, zooming in and reprinting then distorting and again re printing.

COLOUR CONTROL

picking out colours;

Current Ideas.. How to develop.

Shape.

From images of lights at night and the beading sample I really like the idea of condensing things into a small area. I think to develop I have to have a base to go off not just colour so im going to try and push things forward with the idea of shape. The shape that occurs alot throughout my work so far is circles. If its not the circles from the focus on the lense of the camera of lights, its the circle shape of the beads.

Circles

##

Colour 

From the colours I have used to far I used ink to splash them all onto paper. This helped me by having most of the colours on one board infront of me. I did multiple pages of these however some didnt work very well due to the dark colours running into each other.

I then put the colours into circles. Selecting certain images and using ink again to recreate them. This gave me again more to work from and helped me think of new ideas for embroidering. From Fiona's drawing workshop I had more fun creating these as I did them outside and took inspiration from us having a day drawing remembering things don't have to be as strict.

I needed to develop my fashion knowledge as this is the route i want to go. 

choosing fashion was a risk for me as i had no idea how the fashion industry worked.

I started off using magazines such as vogue and elle to look into upcoming fashions trends and colours. After selecting all of these i then put them into a mood board.

this helped me again so much as I felt all of my work was connecting.

I needed to keep developing my ideas of fashion so i used Pinterest to look into designers LFW & PFW

##

MACHINE TECHNIQUES

Sampling.

Using influences from Louise Gray SS14, my current colour selections I made two samples using found objects that showed the colours well. However I feel that these two samples arnt fashion they are more craft based.

#

Fashion Illustration.

One main aspect of the project is to put my work into context and to help myself develop I decided to look into fashion illustrations using images I have taken and development using ink.

#

Developed Samples

Using mixed media and chosen colours.

Vogue inspiration giving me more ideas about sampling and choosing where to embroider. 

#

image maker 

Having never used print before I decided I would use the prints I had previously made and experiment with my new fabrics. 

The first attempt 

Image maker leaves a glue like layer on the top of the fabric so I decided to see if the washing machine would remove this or ruin the whole sample.. It took out most of the colour and left it unrecognizable 

2nd attempt. 

Being more gentle when removing the glue I manages to get more colour into the fabric..

Final sample ideas I want to develop these image maker samples by doing more and embroidering into them.

I also want to do contrasting final samples with the same mixed media technique just to show a mix of final outcomes to my project. 

Final samples 

I created 7 final samples 

3 mixed media and 4 image maker and embellished.