Friday workshops

After having my tutorial the other day I have been relaxing on how I could create something that would be suitable for a card design, although I am not focusing specifically on how the card will be made as such but what would be a realistic and interesting piece that someone would like to purchase.

I originally planned on working in the stitch room today to learn more about fabric manipulation but got caught up experimenting with printing, I investigated more into acid dyes and shibori techniques. I also expeimented with some filing at the end of the day, I used a holographic film and the effect was very effective especially when the sample catches the light. I will be working on some new designs during the week to experiment more with the negative space of the design and see what the result is when I apply foiling again.

Aside from not sticking to my original plan I feel as though today has been a productive day, I will be devoting more time to stitch on Monday to establish a time scale and get a better understanding of my ability within stitch for this module. I feel as though the dying process and printing was successful, I will be focussing on mark making and bold lines within my designs as these have proven to produce better results when screen-printing.

Below results of todays workshop:

28.10.2015 Lecture Professional Development

Todays Professional Development session was quite an interesting one, there was a lot of emptiness put on the importance of reliable information, facts and knowledge about the company you are research or potentially are being interviews for.

Another point that was made was SWOT, this is something that I had never heard of prior to todays lecture, SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. I feel as though by learning about this it will make it easier for me to remember and apply this to my analysis’s in the future, we were also asked to question the companies U.S.P’s (Unique selling points) this is something I am already familiar with so I was able to identify these during a exercise we were given to apply these techniques to. Over all I feel as though todays lecture was a insightful and helpful one and will help me to strengthen my research throughout this module and hopefully in the future.

Monday work shops

This week I was planning to start working on my samples after researching the various ways in which I can manipulate silk and what printing techniques can be used on it. I was disappointed to find out that there is still no silk in the print room but there is some in the stitch so I have decided to focus on fabric manipulation in stitch for the next up coming workshop. I will also ask the stitch technician if I can have some samples of silk for print.

I put my mood boards up today and I am very pleased with them, to continue my aim of being sustainable during this model I recycled last years mood boards by removing what I could and covering damaged areas. My boards have a variety of key words and fabrics which translate the message I am trying to portray. I want the client to be able to interact with what he/she see’s before them, I feel as though this is an important factor as it related back to my main material I am researching with the concept of silk being a fabric that people want to touch.

Overall today has been successful, I have overcome issues and I look forward to the rest of this week when I can present my work and continue experimenting with this fabric.

Reflection of Subject

This overall experience of subject has been a very eye opening experience. I feel as though I have gained valuable skills which will benefit me in the future for example learning how to create accurate repeats by hand opposed to relying on computer software. I have found working with the theme beetles quite difficult as a lot of people have been creeped out by my designs and have commented they wouldn’t personally choose them if given the choice of alternative designs such as florals est.

I feel as though I am much more confident with photoshop this term as I have come to realise the errors I was making before which I couldn’t figure out. This has given me a massive confidence boost with CAD because I feel as though it is one less thing I can stress out about next year. I feel as though my presentation skills have improved and I am ow taking a lot more care with my samples as well as the planning and organisation of these designs. I did originally struggle with coming up with a variation of designs but once I had overcome my issues with photoshop I found that I was able to create a number of new and interesting designs by manipulating or isolating particular ares of the beetles to create more interesting designs which could then later be turned into repeat patterns.

I have had some technical issues with my own personal printer when trying to match the colours from my Mac to the actual hard copy but this hasn’t bothered me it much as I know now how to adjust the settings to avoid this in the future, unfortunately I did run out of my colour cartridge which prevented me from reprinting my alternative work. I feel as though this isn’t too important though as the focus should just be on the design and to overcome the issue of printing my final designs I paid for them to be printed in university.

After helping out during the buddy experience I feel as though I have learnt some lessons which I can put into practice next year to avoid tears and mistakes, for example buying a bad and top coat of white emulation to save on time. I also learned to plan in advance, stay organised and always to have a back up plan encase something goes wrong. It was a nice experience to see the final results of all the hard work that the third years had put into their degree show and was interesting to see the variation of designs and techniques used by the students. I also found the variation of display styles very interesting as some went for extravagant props that tied into their theme and others kept their space very crisp and minimal. I was also given advice by a number of the third years as I was quite inquizative about what modules are set during third year and if I should prepare for anything in particular. All of the girls were very helpful and friendly and answered all of my questions, also whilst working in the exhibition area I also learnt a few tips myself which I hope I can pass on to my level 5 buddy next year to help them make working with me easier/ more efficient. Over all it was a very pleasant experience that I would recommend do any second year student to help towards preparation for third year.

I am yet to plan and decided what my theme for third year will be and I am looking for something which will spark an interest for me. I hope to design something new but I have a strong hunch that florals will be incorporated into my work one way or another. I will be traveling during the summer visiting exhibitions and places of interest to hopefully find the inspiration I am looking for.

I feel as though my final collection of designs do offer variety in both pattern and colours, I have tried to avoid focussing specifically on beetles as I had come to realise they weren’t to everyones taste. I have offered both large scale designs and very intricate designs which do not suggest that they are beetle designs until they are observed very closely an example of this would be my spiral design. I have experimented with both textures and nature, I believe the samples where I have isolated areas of the beetles to create new repeats have been the most successful and interesting. Six of my samples have been digitally printed and I am very pleased with the final result as I was warned the colour black typically bleeds into the fabric, this is something I didn’t realise until after they had been printed. My other six have been printed onto paper and again these a lot offer variety and I believe they look good too.

Overall I have gained many skills during this term and learnt a great deal all of which will benefit me during third year and has left me feeling excited about starting new projects as I now feel a lot more confident with CAD and creating designs by hand. I have learnt a great deal from my field experience which had influenced my main studies within subject such as understanding I colour and behaving in a more professional manner.