Screen Designs For Stew Samples

Over the weekend  I have been working on my screen designs for my Stew samples. With getting a space in the print room this term be very precious, I am trying to be very organised by planning what I am going to do every sample.

I have used this plan to help me create my screen designs. When I am in the print room in the coming weeks I will be able to make the most of my time and get the work done in an efficient way. 

I handed my digital designs in last wednesday and am booked into the print room this Wednesday and Thursday morning so fingers crossed my designs will be ready so I can start working into them this coming week ready for the stew deadline which is 10th March.

Photo-shoot Initial Shots

Today I have been looking at some of the initial shots Photographer Martin Grayling has taken of my work. I am pleased with these first shots and martin is now working with the rest of my pieces to take some more images I can use for my website.

Martin posted the initial images on his website so I could look at them and give my feedback in regards to composition and lighting.

link to Martins website:http://mgphotography.smugmug.com

Here are some of my favourite images:

Fashion & Textile Museum Visit

On Thursday I went to visit the Artist Textiles Exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. This exhibit was recommended to me by Grainne during my tutorial last week.
I really enjoyed the exhibit I paid attention to the scale of prints and the way they had been repeated which Grainne had suggested I look at.
There was also a Collier Campbell Exhibition which I found very Interesting, as I have been looking at their work for inspiration and it was great to see their work close up looking at the scale and colours used, which has inspired me to develop my drawings on a larger scale out of my sketchbook which Grainne encouraged in my tutorial.

Here are some images I took at the Exhibition

I really enjoyed seeing the work of Zandra Rhodes, I looked at this piece when working on my dissertation. The images in the books didn't do justice to the above piece and I loved seeing the scale of the pattern in person.

Collier Campbell Exhibit

I was so inspired by this exhibition I loved seeing Collier Campbell's work up close, through my exploration of Celia Birtwell, Zandra Rhodes and Barbara Hulanicki within my dissertation, I have been inspired to develop my knowledge of Artist and designers from the 60s. I feel that this era of work really suits my design aesthetic and I am hopeful that this exploration of the 60s through Ba8 will keep inspiring my work for years to come.

Stew Designs

I have been working really hard this week to get my 10 digital designs finished for stew. This has meant many long days and late nights spent on Photoshop. I have made sure each design is different or developed in some way. Looking at repeat, scale and colour in close detail. Making sure there will be a contrast in scale, pattern and colour when the samples are displayed.

I have created 10 designs, 5 A1, 5 A2. These will be digitally printed onto Silk satin, Velvet and silk satin viscose. I will develop some designs in the print room developing ideas from my experimental samples using devore and foiling.

A1- Silk Satin Viscose

A1-Silk Satin

A1-Silk Satin

A1-Silk Satin

A1-Silk Satin

A2-Velvet

A2-Velvet

A2-Velvet

A2-Silk Satin Viscose

A2-Silk Satin Viscose

Next I need to create my screen designs for which I will use to Devore, Foil and Flock the above samples.

Print Room Experiments

Over the last 2 weeks I have been using the print room to develop my first initial digital samples. I have been experimenting with devore with both velvet and silk satin viscose. I have also been developing ideas with foiling and flocking.

Things that worked well:

• Digitally printing onto velvet: I love the iridescent quality the velvet has. It works well in my collection with the foiled samples. I was surprised how the pattern came through on the pile as I had it printed on the back. But I like the contrast between the vibrant and pastel shades of colours the sample has created.
• Silk satin viscose: I like this fabric it works well when devored, however the black and white designs bleed a lot making the white more grey which was a little disappointing. 
• A combination of Devore and foiling: I like these 2 techniques together they add depth and tone to a flat digital print.
• My colour pallet: I am really pleased with how the colours have worked together they blend and contrast at the same time.

I will develop these ideas within my final samples for the Stew Exhibition.

Photo-shoot

Since starting to make my website it has become apparent to me that I need to get some professional images of my work. Because of this I have been looking for a photographer, luckily for me a friend who I used to go to school withs father has become a photographer and was seeking people to take images of for a project he is working on. I managed to arrange a trade in which he agreed to photograph my work if I would model for a shoot for his portrait project. 

This is a link to his website: http://mgphotography.smugmug.com

As I am currently working on my Ba8 samples I have organised to have 2 shoots, the first of previous project work and then after stew in march a shoot of my Ba8 samples. I have spent the weekend getting all my work together for the shoot which is taking place on Monday.

Creating An Online Presence

At the beginning of the week we had a PDP session with les discussing are up and coming exhibition at Stew. We discussed create an online presence and different ways to do this. 

• Facebook
• Instagram 
• Blogs 
• Websites

I have done all the above bar a website. After having a discussion with fellow students, I decided that Weebly would be the best website to use to set up my own online presence in the form of a website.

Here are some screen shots of my website which I am still in the process of creating:

This first page will be my home page which has tabs to navigate to the other pages. It will have images of my work showcasing my style and skills.

The next page is a statement about me and my style of working. Letting the viewer now what my goals and aesthetic is as a designer. I need to change the image on this page to one of my own work.

This 3rd page is where the viewer can contact me or leave feedback in regards to my work or offering me work.

This last page will have images of any wards I have won or been commended for e.g. the scarf competition in year 2 in which I was commended for my design. I will also include images of precious project work to show versatility. Finally i will have my cv including images from work placements. 

From making this website which I have yet to publish as can be seen in the images it is currently in a very raw state. I found that I lacked images of work which showcased my work in a professional style. Because of this I am seeking a photographer to photograph my work so I can use the images on my website.