All done for the summer!!...?

So its been 3 weeks since my last post pretty much ! oh dear... so anyway i have finished at Courtaulds design studio in London :( it was really great to be designing for M&S, i got a chance to design for Hunkemoller too which was fun, all kinds of prints from flowers and feathers to birds.... and more flowers.. apparently you can never have too many flower prints. But i had a great time and would definitely reccommend the company if anyone doing textiles print are looking for work experience !

2nd prize to Suki!!

Suki just one 2nd prize for the prettiest girl in the dog show!  well done suki!

Week 9 and last one...

So this week is the final week of my internship with Livingstone studio, sad to be leaving as i simple love the space a couldn't have asked for a better placement although is is my time to move on! The next plan is to do a few weeks work experience at Courtaulds Design studio in London just off oxford street. Looking forward to it although it is going to be completely different to Livingstone studio.. we'll see what happens! I have felt so welcome at the studio and everyone has been great especially if i have had any questions to ask they are happy to share their experiences. I feel my work has improved in terms of time management, gallery management and some of the most simplest ideas and hints i have been given have been so helpful into realizing that loosening up and sometimes doing a really crappy little sketch isn't such a bad thing, as it can easily be a small piece of great work to come!

Livingstone studio - 6 weeks in, only 3 left...

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here so far in London. I have felt very welcome by all the artists in residence and the gallery management. In terms of preparing for my 3rd year of uni, my inspiration is expanding quite well. My travels around London have been extremely helpful for primary research and it has given me a lot of time to go and explore more museums and galleries.

In the past 6 weeks I have been able to create a time plan and a diary of research gathered. This has helped m to determine and control the use of my time as i understand that for my 3rd year i'm mostly on my own! I will have to produce new innovative ideas for fabric with only the help of all my research from the summer, so i plan on making the most of it... i.e. seeing all the parts of London i possibly can (making the most of my travel card as well!) as the experience isn't going to come along again anytime soon and the price to get up to London isn't cheap, which i was originally aware of, luckily!

I'm not sure quite where i would like the research to go yet, as i know that i still have 3 weeks left in London so i feel that i can find a lot more interesting places, and plus i have all summer so who knows what the outcome will be?!

The gallery work has been great fun to create a better understanding of the textiles industry and to think about my possible future business in textiles. I have had the opportunity to meet and work in the same studio with some amazing designers. And also meeting the famous actress Emma Thompson when she came shopping in Livingstone studio one day.

M&S Lingerie design competition won!

Earlier this year i entered a design competition for Marks and Spencer lingerie limited edition collection. I have been informed today that my designs has won! Very exciting as it was my first competition entered during my time at uni. The designs are created using my own drawings and other digital manipulation inspired by S/S trends and my own research of textures and feathers.
These were the two designs that won: 

Final Unit Year 2

All done with 2nd year print and am happy with this years outcomes. The final unit was based on London and included a closer study of colour and print texture. Collage was the main use of texture and shape in my initial samples.

Now am currently starting an internship for 2 months at London's Livingstone studio, studying the business and creating my own research to go towards my final project in 3rd year of uni ! Time has simply flown by! 

2nd year Unit 1 complete... happy days

All done with the new unit for the second year... dragged out a little but was worth all the hard work. Quite pleased with the final piece although there's always room for improvement. The project was based around the idea of "compare and contrast" and so after doing some research and sketching i finally chose to work around a fox skull found in a wooded area where i live and some interesting feathers...

And so after 6 months of sketching, sampling i came up with a final art piece using Velvet, Silk Satin and Bamboo Silk and as the piece shows stages, as does the print itself and gradually begins to fall apart. And after being introduced to Devore this semester i can safely say that this technique has been abused alot but all for good purposes...

The piece is 3m tall ad 1.15m wide all together and overall uses 6m of different fabrics to create the different layers. the idea of a visualization was for it to be shown in the natural history museum as a representation of the stages of life and fragility of the objects within the museum, the green and earthy colours also take a part in creating a more natural element to the piece.

All prep work with this project can be found in "UCA Work"