First Year Embroidery Project: Free hand machine embroidery with applique elements producing small stitched scenes of popular places and local sites in Nottingham. Placed inside hand -knitted frames. Using calico and found fabrics, with cotton yarn dyed with turmeric.
Second Year Commission Project: Eplored the use of felt and hand-stitch alongside the use of natural dyes. A series of small forms inspired by the natural world to be placed in multiples. Hand felted from wool tops.
Natural screen printing inks: Created from natural dyes of beetroot, coffee and black beans, contentrated down to stronger colour, and mixed with indalca gum to create an ink suitable for screen printing with.
Natural dyes Created from weld, coffee, beetroot, red cabbage, tea, onion skins, black bean dye and madder root. 100% wool, tested different strengths.
Relief prints created from vegetables and leafs I enjoy using relief prints as a base for creating repeat patterns, as they create interesting forms to work with on photoshop and illustrator.
Lino Print Although not suitable for printing on fabric, interesting textural forms can be used by printing a lino print with black ink onto paper, and scanning the print to create a design, which can be transferred onto a screen, to allow me to print the image onto fabric.
Screen printing: Mixing my own colours, printing layers of colours, printing a number of colours in one pull of the squeegee to achive the colour mix effect.
printing a number of colours in one pull of the squeegee to achive the colour mix effect. Can produce striped effect, by doing each squeegee pull with a different ink colour, or place blobs of different colours across the screen, and squeegee all in one pull, to achieve the mix of colour seen in the top images. Creates a really interesting effect that has added excitement to my work.
Printing over found fabrics and scraps adds an extra layer of interest to designs, full of history, suggests memories, passing down, adding to patterns. Works especially well with a heavy screen print layer, so fabric design is more distorted and hidden.
Repeat Pattern Over the year I have learnt methods of creating patterns, both by hand and computer. I now feel confident in being able to make my hand drawn images produce a repeat pattern, as well as creating set layouts, tossed layouts, and linear layouts
Knitting Fair isle and itarsia used to create images within a knit piece. Although I did not take this technique into my final pieces, as I felt it would complicate my overall look, I feel confident in being able to use it in my later work, if I needed to.
Machine Embroidery Freehand stitching gives a drawn like quality to my work, I love the way it gives an organic, free feel to my designs, making the pieces seem more individual, and bespoke, with a hand quality, as opposed to mass produced.
Hand Embroidery Using hand embroidery stitches on hankerchiefs to create textural designs, using a variety of colours, with embroidery floss.
Quilting Machine quilt stitch to create depth in layers. Using hand ties to keep the wadding in place, adds textural interest. Cotton yarns. Work better when in a set layout, rather than trying to fit in with the design.
Using wadding to stuff and add layers to the design, interesting effect, but I dont think this will work iwth my brief, as it distracts from the simplicity of the designs. Using quilt ties within the design adds texture, but won’t work the whole way across my designs.
Machine and hand sewing Putting together prototypes and products (cushions, bedding sets, quilts, small pieces) and hand quilting fabrics. Experimented with a variety of fabrics (linens, muslin, cotton, calico, polyester, silk.
Degree show experience of putting together a range to exhibit, putting together a cohesive range, displaying products, selecting which of my designs to place in the smaller space, and what to present in the studio. How to convey the story of my work.