Creative Live with Bonnie Christine online workshop

Recently i have been watching the Surface Designs from Scratch online workshop, on CreativeLive.com
I had never heard of it before, it just popped up on my facebook. Being the newly organised person that i am, i put it down in my diary and set a reminder on my phone, and yesterday i sat down to watch the 8 hour live seminar, which in their time is 9am-4pm, but for me thats 5pm-midnight. Im totally a night owl anyway, so i dont mind so much!

This course is all about illustrator. Im a photoshop girl. I do things in photoshop that i should definatley be doing in illustrator. We got taught at uni by a woman with an unbeliebaly monotone voice, i never got into illustrator. Ive always had photoshop on my laptop (dont ask how or why!) so im just used to that. I really need to learn illustrator!!

Anyway - we just finished 'day two', and its just into the early hours of Friday morning for me. Ive learnt SO much i cannot tell you!!!!! I was doing all sorts of things wrong, even looking back at my uni work and tutorials where we are forced to use illustrator. I actually dont understand how this programme is free..

So i thought i would share with you my first ever illustrator work which i have created using Bonnies helpful tips. Okay so its super simple, and it took me about an hour, but im really happy with it!

We were set some homework, to think of a fabric collection theme and story, with some brief ideas for about 10 repeats. We needed photographs to work from, drawings in line form, and also some sort of typography. Well ive been drawings lanterns and edinburgh based items for one million months though, so for the sake of this i thought i would try something completely new. 

I currently work for Clarks shoes. Its actually really great, i get to meet lots of people everyday and i spent most of my day telling the children how cool their socks are and getting them super excited for back to school, searching for light up shoes in the stockrooms, and organising one million sale shoes! So i thought - what a brilliant place to start this idea up. I spend all day in there, im sure i can come up with something! Before i started, i was not a shoe person. i am a bag person, duh! but oh jesus help me im converted. This is bad news for my bank balance!!

So, today, i did my homework!
I have finished for the evening with this vector of one of my favourite shoes we stock. Its a brogue shoe, patent with a random fabric bit in the middle which is like a flecked woven material, with big bits of colourful material woven in. This post is in no way affiliated with clarks. I just love this shoe!

You can find more info about the shoe here: http://www.clarks.co.uk/p/26103980

And here is my image!

Thankyou to Creative Live and Bonnie Christine for this workshop :)

New Sewing Machine

Hello again!!
This past week i have been without a sewing machine and it has been the worst thing EVER! It worse than no phone or internet! Ive been playing mario kart non stop. NOT very productive!!

So at the end of last week i visited Franklins, a sewing store in Ipswich, though they are all over the east of england. I looked at some machines, i went in with a budget of £250 for a janome.. and came out with a £369 computorised beast!! Its AMAZING! And i took in some leather to check it will sew through the thick layers i need, the same materials which actually broke my old machine.

You dont even need a pedal, you push go and it goes! theres even a button for 'needle up' and 'needle down; for turning corners, so you dont put your wrist out using the turny thing on the side.. amazing!

It has taken me a little while to get used to the fact the reverse pedal is no longer there.. or the foot pedal.. but its an adjustment im happy to make.

The brand - ive got a Britannia instyle 16. I was really nervous about buying a brand that id never heard of, and its not one of the 'top six' either, but im assured that this is a new product which is high quality and Franklins are replacing all the Janomes in schools with these, which does make me feel a bit better about it!

Ive also bagged reduced servicing costs for life.. Although ive been told this bad boy wont need a service for SEVEN years!!!! mental. Its better than a new car!!

Anyway, Here is a picture of my new machine!
Its a snapshot of my instagram upload.. oh you don't follow me on instagram!? Get on it!
Search @LouiseRichardson_
(dont forget the underscore) :)

And also here is the listing for the product, if you would like to know more!
You can part-exchange a machine, though its for 'disposal' so they only give you £30, or more in parts and accessories

http://www.franklinsgroup.com/fgl/?controller=product&product_id=472

July update

Woopsy.. i have not posted for a LONG time!! I have been extremely busy and the last 2 months have absolutely flown by!

Heres a few pictures to sum up those quick months..

Degree Show at Nottingham Trent University

I had this unit custom built by my grandad - bless him! It fits all my bags perfectly and has little clear shelves too

thanks to Rhea Clements for this shot of my degree show space!

Photo Credit to Ananya for this close up of my backpack

CREO shop

We then opened a pop up shop in nottingham city center

And finally.. i got chosen for new designers!! YAY! 

My stand and me at our balcony space at New Designers, Business Design Center, 2014

New toiles

I've been back in Nottingham for one week.. And what a week!! Mainly one of sewing til 2am every night! Here are some photos of my recent toiles :)

Backpack.. Well.. The base.. Which I love!

Cute purse... Love it!

Laptop case!

Makeup case with four compartments. Also made a larger toiletries one!

I've also made little fat quarters of lino printed fabrics :)

Well.. That's my week!

New Edinburgh drawings

This week I am home from university as it's Easter week and all the workshops aren't open anyway! I am also doing some work experience which I will post about separately! 

I went to the range - love that place - and bought some lovely papers and inks and paints and brushes and all sorts! Spend about £40! Why to easy. Here are some of my new drawings. I enjoy doing a base layer in a watercolour basic detail and then waiting for it to dry, and going over areas in pen or ink. I enjoy going outside the lines and different ways of drawing, for example blind drawing or continuous line.

This is a drawing I made from my own photograph of the scot monument, from the ground. The composition isn't quite right, the colour isn't there either and you can just see way to much emphasis on the interior detailing which is essentially the underneath of the monument, but I still love the technique.

Here is part of the piece close up. You can see the texture of the paper in the brush strokes and also the pen lines.. I used a continuous line method which simply means I didn't take my pen off the paper for the whole drawing. My wrist ached so much! And some lines are thicker and more saturated than others.. Lines meet, which shouldn't, but it gives it a bit more life :) 

A blind drawing of a small part of the scot monument, I love blind drawing because you can't fake them really!

I love blind drawing! Here is a gravestone which was beautifully adorned with concrete curves and William Morris style vines kind of..! 

A busy week!

A very busy week both at university and at home!

I organised all my fabrics and went through what i avtually need. I had a mini tutorial on monday with my textiles tutor to sort out my colour palette. i am having serious SERIOUS colour palette issues.. i just dont know whats going on and i dont know how to get these colours into my designs, decide on a final palette and make ti all look lovely!

We had a pizza party in our Dec Arts 3 studio, with a little help from out biggest glass kilns. Well it is afterall just a huge oven! 

I also came home as sadly we lost my Nanna Richardson this week and it was her funeral. It was very sad, but good to see family!

Ive also been commissioned to make a bunch of babywipe holders for the local ceramics cafe. My friend works in there and came up with the idea for the kids partys.. And theyre gonna pay me in vouchers which is perfect as my little brothers love it there! Im also going there this week to paint a teapot - got a voucher for my birthday :) So that should be good!

Some of my current fabrics!

Packing for homecoming... two weeks off uni and ive secured a work experience placement so im taking everything back! Using this lovely Ted Baker tin for sewing essentials :)

Potential fabrics for local ceramics cafe - 'Crafty Coffee'

Won this cuuuuuuute lino brooch from Kayleigh o'mara!!! Love it :)

Colour - I have been told to play alot more with colour and whether thats thread, paint, pencil, pen, fabric, ink etc. so i have decided to play with each individually. I have made one palette from kona solids, one from ink and the other in dulux sample pots specially mixed for me, so that i can play in three different ways!

One of my colour palettes has come to life with Robert Kaufman Kona Solids.

Making a mess, creating one palette in inks in the screenprinting rooms, NTU.

I have made these colour story boards which present colours on velcro so i can move them about, potential prints and fabrics, as well as physical fabric samples. Love being this organised!

And finally.. our studio.. closed for the evening! I run the CREO instagram page :)

MA Open Event!

Last week i got talking to my friend about a Masters. Something ive always assumed i will never do, because hey.. arnt those like £12,000? WELL This week i found out that actually.. not only do my university do something that i really want to do.. but its 'only' £5000! AND we can apply for a bursary type thing that gets us £1000 off, being a previous NTU student!! So £4000 for a masters. Considering BA is now £10,000 a year, that seems like a bargain to me. Its only a little bit more expensive than doing third year over again, which i thought i would have to do at some point as i totally thought i would fail it!

I went to an open event today at university, where i spoke to current staff and students, including Claire Bradshaw, who graduated from Dec Arts with printed textiles specialism, just like me. Our state of mind pre-BA-graduation seems identical. This course is for me!!

The only downside.. and i mean the ONLY one.. would be the money. you dont get a student loan for a masters, and i dont think i should be getting in more debt with my bank. Ill need £4000 upfront in September, as well as money for rent and living. Ive worked out ill basically need £10'000 for the entire year, though most of this can be earned as i go along! 

Unless i win the lottery, this seems another impossible dream. But im going to apply anyway.. You never know what might happen over summer. I might sell loads of work.. i might get taken to New Designers, and sell loads of work.. you never know :)

This time next year i could be most of the way through my MA Textiles Design Innovation!!