It's been a long time since I've posted an update but in the meantime I've been busy completing my final modules and in June I received my HND Textiles qualification. It's been a lot of hard work but a lot of fun too, I've loved every minute of it.

Look at all those Units on the detailed record! Phew! I know I did them all but it seems an incredible amount when listed like that. It really was a very busy two years! The photo might be too small to read so here are the Units completed:

Graded Unit 1 ~ Graded Unit 2 ~Art and Design Project ~ Creative Project for Artists and Designers ~ Digital Imaging Project ~ Observational Drawing Portfolio ~ Printed Textiles: Advanced ~ Surface Decoration for Textiles: Advanced ~ Textile Techniques: Advanced ~ Textiles for Commission:Advanced ~ Design Semantics ~ Designing and Producing a Fashion Garment: Introduction ~ Digital Imaging ~ Fine Art Textiles: Introduction ~ Life Drawing ~ Millinery: Introduction ~ Observational Drawing ~ Performance Costume: Introduction ~ Portfolio Production ~ Printed Textiles: Introduction ~ Professional Design Practice ~ Surface Decoration for Textiles: Introduction ~ Textile Techniques: Introduction ~ Textiles for Commission: Introduction

In addition I managed three other major achievements for which I am incredibly pleased and grateful, they are:

1) The dress I designed and made being included in the Fashion Futures Fashion show at the closing ceremony of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 

2) The Nine Trades of Dundee Tailor Trade Award

3) An unconditional offer for a place on the BA Design and Creativity course run by Grays School of Art, Robert Gordon University.

I start on 1st September and am really looking forward to it although I know it will be an incredible amount of work, full time, 5 days a week!

So, to catch up on my update I'll post up some photos of my final semester. Unfortunately I have no photo of my finished dress but here are pictures of the paper design

The Module was 'Advanced Textiles for Commission' with a live brief to design and make a dress to be entered into a competition to be included in the Scottish Textiles Academic Group's venture 'Fashion Futures' - a fashion show to be part of the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games 2014 to held in Glasgow. The inspiration was to be taken from the V&A Museum London and the department I chose was 'Ceramics'. 

I made a sleeveless shift dress with a soft white cotton fabric. The zigzags are in a green ombre-dyed cotton appliqued on with an invisible machine stitch. I decided to make the wiggly lines by free motion machine embroidering in a mix of black, grey and silver threads. Finally, in embracing the 'less is more' school of thinking as encouraged by my tutors I left off the white flowers altogether. I was a bit reluctant to begin with as I had several ideas for hand making the delicate white blooms, but in the end I have to agree ... the finished dress doesn't actually need them.
You can watch the fashion show on BBC at the closing ceremony of the Games on Sunday 3rd August, I think 6pm.

Next, a few photos of the Graded Unit.The theme was 'Urban Elements' and I chose 'Bridges'
 

Next, 'Textile Techniques'.  We spent a lovely day on the beach at Broughty Ferry, Dundee sketching and mark making for later development into designs. Following are three of my final pieces for portfolio:

And finally, a few selections from my 'Printed Textiles' portfolio. My inspiration was piano keys, organ stops and music scores, but the printed designs are very abstract. A mix of techniques including masking, collograph, lino cuts and screen printing:

If you've read this far, well done and thank you for your interest and support. I think you can see how much I've enjoyed the last two years and this is just a very small selection of my work out of the huge amount I seem to have produced!
I'm thinking of putting some of my samples up for sale so please contact me if there is anything you've seen that you like. I can also offer prints of originals which would of course be a less expensive option. Or what about cards?

As always I welcome your comments an opinions and am always up for a critique. Please comment below, I read all comments and emails and always love to hear from you.  

Over the last couple of weeks I've been experimenting with using ink and bleach to draw with. I'm using black ink, and once it touches the bleach it transforms into a glorious golden colour. Using different types of brush, sponging, spraying and drawing with a feather creates amazing effects and I have to confess to being ever so slightly obsessed with this 'new to me' technique! All of the photos below have just happened by chance - nothing was planned.....

All of the above were created on paper, the first three are on plain white cartridge paper. The last ones are on K9 white board and I've combined the bleach and ink technique with drawing with a blade, you can see the score marks which the ink collects and pools into. I've also added some black stitch.  These are based on beach scenes.
Playing with amounts of ink and bleach and the order you put them down changes the way they react with each other - the first ones are very brown and gold, the last few are smoky blue and beigey brown. It's worth experimenting!

And so finally the hat is finished! 

I bought all my materials from the wonderful Edinburgh Fabrics, they have such a huge selection it's really difficult to choose. Initially I was very keen to use turquoise or peacock blue but I found some black and silver lace that was just asking to come home with me and be part of this hat! After trying the lace over various fabrics I found that it looked best over a deep shiny pink ~ the blues looked very dull under the lace. The one I chose was crepe backed satin and it's lovely to feel and to work with. 

The body of the hat is made from buckram shaped over a wood head block. Here are photos of the hat in progress ~ sewing the fabric to the brim and sewing the binding on.

My college tutor was the well known Milliner Alex Muir. For me the process of making my first hat was fraught with difficulties but I finally managed it with the help and encouragement of Alex and much needle stabbing of my fingers and thumbs.

I stayed with the design shown the in the last blog post. With the theme of Dangerous Dames I thought that my dame would need to have her hands free at all times so would keep all her accoutrements in her hat band instead of carrying a handbag. 

In her hat band are cigarettes which I made from silk; a matchbook made from card 'from The Gin Palace' with cardboard matches that I dabbed on one end with red nail varnish; a hand made address and phone numbers book - in which I added numbers such as 'Jim the Hat' and 'Fred the Fixer'; a small perfume vial (or is it??!!!); money; a nail file; a syringe (it used to be a pen!); a key; a long cigarette holder - I bought this for £1, painted and stamped it and made a silk cigarette for it, I poked some wool in the end and burnt it so it resembles ash.


Leaving the top partly open (perhaps to hide a weapon?) was a nice idea but firstly it would have been far too difficult to do properly, and secondly I didn't think it needed it in the end.


So here is the finished hat:

And here are a few photos of the hat being modeled by a college friend, the lovely Karen Smith, who is also wearing the corset I made last semester in Performance Costume, the corset is unlaced at the front for a touch of decadence but probably looks nicer laced up:

The hat and the corset will be on the catwalk at the Dundee College Fashion Show, Friday 31st May.  Details on the college website if you are interested in going........ and no, I will not be modeling! 

I managed to get all work completed for assessments and passed everything with some lovely comments from all my tutors. Very pleased! So that's it now for 2012.
I'll finish the year with a few photos:

First up is the corset I made for 'Performance Costume'

It's not a great photo, not a good colour representation, but I took my camera to college to photograph the corset on a mannequin and then forgot to do it!

Having never made any clothing before I found this quite challenging but very enjoyable.

Next, the 7 Deadly Sins project for which I chose 'Greed'. This was a fun subject to play around with. I made 2 wrist cuffs (very greedy to have 2!) and each was over the top with lots of colour and embellishments. Cuff 1 was made from hand dyed habatoi silk embellished on to prefelt. Cuff 2 was wet felted and embellished onto various sheer fabrics. 

I added things like padlocks to protect the wealth and money bags to keep it in, an extra large flower, price tags, beads, coins, and 3 watches all on one cuff. Here is my A2 presentation board: (I found the top 2 photos on the internet which seemed to fit perfectly but I can't claim credit for them)

Lastly I thought I'd include some sketchbook work. The subject is 'Design Semantics'. The interpretations are:
Colour, Line, Pattern, Texture, Rythym, Shape, Form, Balance and Scale and each is made up from cut out magazine photos, fabrics, threads etc. 

That's it folks!

Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year to all

Assessment day is Wednesday 19th December and I'm almost there, quite a few boxes have been ticked and most projects finished:
Observational Drawing.............10 A2 presentation boards completed \/
Surface Decoration.................10 A2 presentation boards completed \/

Textile Techniques ................ 10 A2 presentation boards completed  \/

Design Semantics ................. project completed, presentation boards still to do

Textiles for Commission ......... project completed, 3 presentation boards to do

Performance Costume ........... still to finish corset but almost there

And I need to complete a few bits and pieces in my workbooks. Hmmm, I'm glad I listed that .... it all seems a bit clearer now!! Best get on with it