Birds, Statue colour palettes, Polkadots & Visualisation

Colour has always been an issue within my work. I can never settle, and i need to graduate with a distinctive palette. I have alot of research from edinburgh but i am looking in the general direction of architecture and tourist hotspots for my concret colour, then ill let each location determine some other colours which i will weave within my concrete palette. This palette here, shown in the bird print,

Statue Palette.

Polka dot sections of a print! This would make an interesting screen-print.

The start of my visualisations. this is how i play with the surface image to create the sections i need :)

Drawing, Drawing, Drawing

I am trying to draw everyday. a sketch, a bag idea, or a technical drawing, perhaps some colour.. but drawing anyway i can! then im trying to create repeat prints.. which is hard with new drawings coming everyday, but hard in a good way i suppose! Just thought i would share some of my most recent drawings :)

Edinburgh Chimneytops

Technical drawings on dot paper to get an idea of size and pocket placement! They dont include fabric placement, but tartan and harris tweed will feature :)

another chimney sketch

some repeats ive got going on!

The Weekender Bag Progress

Its finished!! Thank goodness. have not blogged my progress because i havnt sat still for like three weeks! But i have finished and i can finally have a nap :D

Alot of coffee was consumed.

The designs are being drawn up for the final screenprints!

Working out the best position on the screens

The screens just after they have been burnt!

some fabric samples for accessories

 Sorry for the jump here - i dont have good photos of all of the fabrics seperately which i know its kinda stupid but yah - here is the finished article! It took me three days of printing and three days of construction and is all from scratch, including piping and handles etc.

The finished bag :)

Feature fabrics for kindle case pockets.

the luggage tag which comes with the luggage bag. It is the purple print on the reverse!

Bag feet. im showing everyone my bag feet.. proud of these haha!

so to conclude although i am quite proud of my creation, i have leart some very valuable lesson which i will take forward with to to third year. i also have a better design placement idea, but hell im not making another bag (They are way too expensive to make).

Thanks for looking!

Project Development

Today i had a tutorial with Kathy, our head of the Decorative Arts course and a specialist in all aspects of Textiles & Colour. This happens weekly and sometimes i leave feeling stressed out and even more confused, but sometimes i leave feeling like.. okay you know what, i know what im doing!!

And today i came out with a whole new view on my project.. not good with only three weeks to go! So the screen i was going to be creating tomorrow; yeah thats straight out the window; instead i need to go back to the drawing board and draw some more little birdies; doing something more interesting apparently! I need to choose whether i want my birds to be all on branches, all in flight, all hunting, searching, building nests etc, so that i have something a little bit different in my work, different to all the millions of other bird prints out there!

I think this will take me another week, then i can create my screen and get printing!

Also digital printing is now unavailable as one of the machines has broken down and the other one is fully booked til the end of the year. woopsy!!

Ill write again when i have some drawings of my new work; hopefully this should help with colourways too!!

In the mean time, i am making a toile for a weekender bag in calico. I am using Amy Butler Weekender Bag pattern at the moment. I know its not my own pattern, but its one that i love and i know it works. i need to start with something kind of simple, something someone else has designed first so that i can understand more about pattern making. If you cant beat them, join them! For now anyway. I need to create this perfectly, including feet, poppers and piping, before i use the fabric i have created... Urgh i just know something is going to go wrong :(