Eight Weeks to Go

not joking. eight weeks to go until my degree collection is finished and up on display for my graduate show!!!!! HELP!! okay i think i will be okay but heres a quick update from the last 6 weeks!!

I did a fabric shop in London.. well its got to be done hasnt it!

My business plan is handed in.. that a 150 page report of research and final written plan!

Colours im working with at the moment. some changes to be made

Organisation :(

Well i visited my favourite fabric shop in the world :(

some drawings

In the print room again! - printing onto my digital prints with gold.. YUM!

Beadwork

Just adding beads to one of my cotton sheeting fabric designs!

I intend to use these kind of designs of little items like purses and brooches perhaps, nothing thats going to get as scruffy and thrown about as usual luggage collections do!

Loving the matt black beads which you can see, just about, in this first image here.

Just an experiment, and the best thing is i can sit infront of the TV and do it! 

First digital fabric samples are out!!

The first eight prints of my collection! I say collection - I havnt decided quite what's in and what's out yet.. And I get a feeling I'm going to be using about 25 different prints!! 

I have so far printed onto cotton sheeting, cotton canvas, bamboo fibre and also a beautiful linen. All suit different purposes and products, of course, and I'm so happy that the cotton canvas has turned out okay because that's the main one for all the bags etc! The sheeting is too thin, and the bamboo is only for products which won't see a while bunch of wear, as it's super soft. The linen is perfect for smaller accessory items, as Long as it's interfaced with heavy vilene, which it will be :) 

I have included here two of my fave prints as well as the stack of eight. Eight more next week after some lino printing hopefully this week!! 

:D

Digital Fabric Printing

Having my first tutorial this year tomorrow! Im quite nervous because they either send me on a motivational high where i work work work or bring me down to a state of depression which means i just want to sleep, eat chocolate muffins and watch big bang theory everyday for about 4 days.. soo.. yeah, nervous haha! Ive missed the last two weeks because ive been visiting London, including a trip to Top Drawer which was really great, i saw some great designers, and it gave me an insight into smaller trade shows which i could more than possibly exhibit at this time next year! Also good to see layouts as im thinking forward to my degree show, and trade prices was interesting to see too!

The shop featured in the next few photographs is called 'Miss Katie Cupcake' - an adorable little shop absolutely filled to the brim with handmade and vintage-esque goodies, my mum and i stumbled accross this little shop when we were wondering up to the royal mile. its no bigger than my bedroom and we probably spent an hour in there! Anyway - i fell in love with a little linotype tray filled with goodies, got a good photo, bought a brooch and then went home to draw up from my photograph! And it features in my print below :)

Miss Katie Cupcake - Shop in Edinburgh - Photo by MacLean Photography :)

 Visiting Top Drawer in London was a great eye opener! We turned a corner to see some lovely scarves, my flatmate nudged me and said 'Hey! you can make scarves.. they would sell so well, definately get on that!' anyway.. 55 stands and about 1200 scarves later we decided its er.. its already been done. ive never seen so many scarves at a show!! maybe i wont bother with those then!!

Top Drawer London!

Oh and the fabric design - im getting somewhere - but SO slowly... I have to work at it for hours and hours and then just before i quit photoshop i have this idea.. and it comes from there! Also i havnt got illustrator so i cant make vector files, which means i cant reeeeally use these as theyre not good enough quality. when means all the work im producing, is infact, a waste of time.. but i figure ill go through like this, and then when i know my final designs ill re do them in high quality! A decision im sure ill live to regret! 

This is my latest design featuring picknmix bags from the christmas fair, in my colour palette blue tone, with drawings from miss katie cupcakes shop over the top. a continuous line drawing created in pen. Its a little different i think i quite like it.. and it does feel more surface design than fabric design.. i can see it on notebooks etc.. we will see! the white is a layer inbetween just the break up the colour and line.. but i quite like it. hmmm.. i havnt slept on this yet though! 

Samples Samples Samples

This evening i am drawing a few things in my sketchbook and thinking about materials. there is nothing i love more than a fabric delivery, and even though these are just samples, it does get me excited! Though, i spent £10 at Merchant & Mills and got what can only be described as 'scraps'. The fabric itself is good value once youre on there though, so hopefully there's enough there to get some little prints onto.

Drawing inspired by the glass roof of the Edinburgh Waverly Train Station. At a certain time of the evening one side is in darkness and the other reflects the sunset.

This beautiful offcut is actually the selvedge of Harris Tweed fabrics. I love it because im going to be using some Harris Tweed, but this is such a lovely eco-friendly way to re-use what would otherwise be scrap. That is, if i get round to doing something with it!

My samples. they look quite big here but they are about 3cmx10cm

Love the packaging. LOVE the packaging. I have 100 of these bags at home.. Hmmmm might be nice to print up for some up and coming craft fairs hey!


I want to print onto wool this term which i am very excited about. Im looking into the properties of Oilskin. i was sort of hoping my sample would give me a bit of a better feel of the material but perhaps i need to buy a meter. clever that!

1, 10, 1000 - the beginning

New University Project!

1, 10, 1000

For this project we have to decide whether we want to be:

1. An artist; creating bespoke, one off pieces which are very high quality, expensive to make & also expensive to buy, at the high end of the market.

10, A Craftsperson; creating a batch of products, using batch production methods, not overly expensive to make, and sell as a high quality set of products at a reasonable price on the market.

1000, A Designer; producing designs which are suitable for mass production techniques. Made using mass production techinques. Dont need to actually create 1000 products but use methods that make it possible! 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I am torn between Designer and Craftsperson. I think i am a craftsperson, but as i intend to screenprint and create, one day, alot of fabric. that is a designer! But i want to design it and print it myself, all of it, therefore.. i am a craftsperson.. see the confusion?!

This project, for me, is about creating a quirky fabric. Four fabrics, that create my first fabric collection!! Ive been in fabric shops weekly for about 3 years now.. and i certainly have my favourites. I think the best ones are the contemporary ones from designers like michael miller, clarke&clarke, all the classics! For me, these designers bring things back to basics in brilliantly quirky ways; This is michael millers collection theme called Ahoy Matey. As you can see, 2 of the eight fabrics and the same design, the rope. Just a simple rope pattern with circles as a feature of the stripe. This is a great example of where my first theme, Back to basics, has come from.

Click to enlarge this beautiful ahoy matey collection from MM

So, now i have a starting point for drawings, i wanted to look at actual themes. Clearly this theme is the pirate theme that is so popular for little boys at the moment - MM create most of their fabrics for quilt use - something i intend to do to - but perhaps more heavier fabrics that are suitable for more durable craft use.

My chosen theme, was Sewing Notions. I sew most days. if im not sewing, im thinking about sewing. I spend way too much of my student loan on things i just *need* - new rotary cutters, bias tape makers, pinking shears - you name it, ive pretty much got it when it comes to fabric crafts! With that decided, i started a little sketchbook (yes a tiny sketchbook - my tutor was NOT impressed!) over christmas drawing all the things i use on a daily basis.

I am currently at the stage of making my drawings into digital images on Adobe Illustrator, and making them into screenprints. I burnt my screen yesterday and it will be ready and waiting for me in the racks tomorrow - where ill do some test prints and try to get a picture on the blog!

Thanks for reading!

Louise :)