Week 7

Tuesday

On Tuesday I went to Shepherds Bush to get some fabric samples. I knew roughly what colours I was looking for wine red, burgundy and maybe a burnt orange. I wasn't completely sure about the exact fabric I was looking for but some that I wanted to look for were a sweater shirt material and quite a thick wool. I was really pleased with what I found as I thought I may not find the fabrics I wanted in the colours I fabrics I was looking for. Luckily I was able to find everything I needed. I've decided to use a jersey for most of my collection as I wanted quite a heavy fabric that can be use in a way that drapes over the body without showing a lot of shape which will contrast with the peek-a-boo cut out which reveal typically 'sexy' parts of a woman's body.

Wednesday

On Wednesday I had my first session with Dan learning how to use photoshop to create a digital textiles pattern. At first I found this lesson quite boring as I learnt how to use photoshop at my previous college and already knew a lot of what Dan was telling us. However, he did teach me new things that made some things I already knew how to do quicker than how I was doing them before. I felt that this day would've been better spent if I could've developed my own project and final piece but I'm glad I had this chance to further develop my photoshop skills and learn new techniques that I could use in the future.

Friday

For our homework we had to develop 3-5 prints using research from our projects to influence them. I had a lot of fun doing this and found it interesting to see I could use prints in the collection that I've already started to create. Then we were put in groups of three where we had to find a way to make our prints work together. Me and another girl in my group had similar colour schemes and as our prints were all quite different, we decided that colour would be the link between our prints. Then we printed two of prints and worked with them on the stand to create a garment. I found it quite difficult to work in group as I found it hard for three people to work on one stand, like there were too many cooks in the kitchen. I decided to take a step back and just give my opinion every now and then. There was one person in my group who I felt to charge but not in a leader way, more in a way that was overbearing and taking complete control. I found it difficult to work with her which is why I felt it better not to push my opinion too much as it could have ended in conflict. I think this task of getting us to work in a group was useful, especially because our next project will be a group one, as it showed me what it is like to work in a group. I find it easier to work in a group when everyone has some idea what their role is  rather than everyone trying to do the same job. Hopefully I will be able to bring this into my next group task.

Week 6: Wednesday

 On Wednesday I carried on with my own development but this time in 3D. I started the day by practicing making pleats which is a technique that has featured in several illustrations. I decided to use pleats as most of my garments are quite simple shapes so I wanted to some texture them to create depth. I want to use pleats along the curved edges but I wasn't sure whether I should do this by cutting the fabric in the right shape then pleating or doing the pleats first then cutting the shape out so I tried it both ways. The second way worked best as when I cut the shape out first the pleats changed the shape of the fabric. By doing the pleats first I was able to get the exact shape that I wanted. I found this useful to do as it helped me to figure out how I would be able to make these pleats before I start to make the actual garment in the real fabric. When I bought samples last week I got pack of several different fabrics that I could by so I went through them and decided to use duchess satin to make the pleats. I like this fabric as the shininess makes it look quite luxurious and also it is quite stiff and strong which is good because I don't want the pleats to look flowy and soft.

Next I continued my 3D development by draping fabric on the stand using my illustrations as inspiration. In my drawings the dress were unfitted and loose but when I was draping I found that I preferred the dress when it was more form fitting so I added two darts, one in the back and one in the front. I originally wanted to do a dress that wasn't fitted as I wanted to almost hide the woman's body which can seem unflattering but then expose one of the sexiest parts of the body, the breast. I was surprised that I was able to create a shape that fitted the body but was not too tight that it exposed more of the body than I wanted to show. I also think the length is quite modest but I may make it longer. I had also planned to have a sleeve to cover the wearer even more and to highlight the exposed breast but since it is quite hard to drape a sleeve I left it sleeveless which I quite like as I don't want the garment to be too asymmetrical. 

To progress I'm going to take this dress apart, make a pattern from it and remake it properly so I can see exact what it would look like. Then I will make adjustments depending on how it turns out.

Week 6: Monday

This week is a time for my group to do development work on our projects and start working towards a final piece. I decided to use today to just work on my designs so I did loads of designs and started to select a few that I like and think  could be developed further into a collection. I started with my knitwear samples, even if I don't think I'll make a knitwear piece it could still be used in drawn mini collection. I found this day useful because up until this point I've mainly doing research and development with a few designs here and there but I hadn't thought about how I could develop a whole collection. I've done quite a few pages of designs so I'm going to visit some fabric shops and get some fabric samples. I'm going to look for quite a thick jersey, duchess satin and maybe some silk satin. 

Week Five: Knitting

Monday and Wednesday

This week were split into two groups and I chose to join the knitwear group. On our first day we learnt the basics of using the knitting machine such as how to cast on, how to set up the machine and then how to knit. We were also taught some knitting techniques such as honeycomb, weaving, drop stitch and making lace holes. I did an internship last year where I learnt how to use a knitting machine so I already knew some of the basic skills. It had been a while since I used one though so I found it difficult to remember all the little things you have to do to but after about an hour or two I got used to using the machine and it was fairly easy to do the tasks after that. On Tuesday we learnt more advanced techniques such has how to create shapes using the bubble and mountain technique. We also learnt how to change colours and how to put one knitting sample onto another. I found the mountain and bubble technique quite challenging at first because there's a lot of things to remember and if you forget something it can go completely wrong. I asked out teacher to show me how to do it again and after practicing a few times i found it easier to do. I enjoyed Wednesday session really fun because I felt like I really knew what I was doing which made me more confident. It surprised me how quickly I was able to pick up most of the new techniques we were taught.

Friday

On Friday we were given the freedom to use the techniques we'd learnt in the past week to make a4 sized samples which related to our project.

I found it hard to use shapes which related to my theme so instead I focused on the colours that I was using. In my mood boards my main colours were dark red, chocolate brown and cream so I focused on highlighting those colours. I wanted to create quite textured samples so I chose to use the fringing technique. If I developed this further I think it could make a really interesting jacket or even a small detail like a pocket. I also enlarged one of the smaller weaving samples that I did on Wednesday but I don't really like how it turned out mainly because of the colours I used. I think if fabric was a similar colour to the yarn it would look better on a large scale and the focus would be on the texture the weaving creates rather than the contrasting colours.

I really enjoyed learning how to use the knitting machine and it is definitely something I'd like to do in the future. However, I don't think I'll do a knitted garment for my final piece because it would be quite a long process to learn how to use knitting pattern to create a garment.

Week Four

Monday

On Monday we did a fashion illustration workshop where we learnt how to draw clothes in an expressive way which portrayed the feel of them.

First we had a session with Sarah were we learnt how to use different thicknesses of line to portray details, seams, fabrics and movement.  At first my drawings all had similar line thicknesses so the drawing didn't look very fluid. As I started to practice more and see the different types of lines that could be created with just one pen. I think this worked well because it made my illustrations more dynamic.

With Dan we focused more on colour and pattern rather than the accuracy of a garment. We enlarged  patterns so they took over the page and the figure was less of the focus. I like this technique, especially if the print is the main feature of a garment and you are visually portraying what is most important. I also used the skills that I'd already learnt with Sarah and combined the two. 

Towards the end of this workshop I started looking at particular details likes seams and the drape of a fabric and tried to convey these through the type of line I was using. Although I made progress from the beginning to the end I think I could work more on developing my own style and signature way of drawing. To develop from this workshop I'm going to do more illustrations using my own designs and try to create a recognisable style of drawing which is unique to me.

Wednesday

On Wednesday we worked with Sarah and Becca to develop the continual research that we're doing in our sketchbook. One by one Becca would give us a task which would help us develop on what we'd done before and hopefully generate ideas for our project.

First we worked into the mind maps that we did in the first week. This went well for me because I thought of ideas that were completely different to what my picture was about but still had some kind of relation to it. We then chose three words and I chose 'power', 'transgender' and 'female sexuality'. I chose these words because they sort of related to what I'd already been looking at but the words 'power' and 'transgender' gave me even more areas that I could research.

Then we made mini moodboards for each of these words finding images, shapes, colours, and a conceptual idea. This made me generate a wide range of ideas from just one words and it also gave me things that I could work from and develop. We also made a collage and wrote a story or poem which joined the three words together. I found the collage difficult because I found it hard to find images that related to my words especially 'power'. My concept for power is about the things that make a person powerful. For me I think one of the most powerful things you can do is the freedom to be yourself so I found images that related to freedom.

Thursday and Friday

I thought that Task three was our homework so on Thursday I'd finished most of what we were meant to do. The task was to develop these moodboards into collages, paintings, textiles, prints, drawing or image manipulation.
I made some collages where I put images of a girl in more masculine clothes/ clothes that covered her entire body, together with a girl who was either nude or hardly had any clothes on. I did this to ask the question 'What is Sexy?' Is it a woman who is completely naked and showing her cleavage, tummy and legs or is it a woman who doesn't have any skin showing but has a confidence and attitude about her. I enjoyed doing this because it directly compared the two sides of sexy that I'm researching but it was hard to do as I couldn't find any images that showed what I wanted to portray. I think it could be quite interesting to buy a men's magazine. Men are often the lookers and women are looked at so I want to try to put myself in the position of men and understand what they think sexy is.

My shape for female sexuality was lips as I think it is one of the sexiest parts of a woman. I did several blind continuous line drawing of my lips in different positions and angles. Then I photocopied this page several times and cut up and rearranged the image to create various patterns and shapes. Inspired by the Gustav Klimt print that I looked at before, I tried to recreate this pattern but instead using the lips. I repeated this many times changing the colour palette that I was using which was based on some moodboards that I'd done before.

I found this process really useful because I was able to develop one fairly simple shape into about 15 different prints that I could possible use on a garment. However, because I didn't have access to a laptop it was very time consuming drawing out the print over and over again so I could experiment with different colours. So this weekend I borrowed a laptop so that I could quickly produce lots of prints on photoshop. I also want to see how to print would look on actual garment so I'm going to try that out on photoshop.