Sarah-Louise Williams 1206704
* When handed the focus project brief it was
immediately obvious that we were able to create our own project under the title “pattern fantasy�. From this initial brief I began thinking about the wonders within the word pattern and the many different ways this can be interpreted both through man made patterns and geometrics to nature and how the world can create beautiful and unique patterns that are delicate and striking
* When exploring the word pattern I decided to
angle more towards natural patterns and head in that direction. I came up with a few ideas and just began collating images that can be placed in my research file just to get a feel for the project. I also made a mind map of all the different key words under a pattern fantasy heading which fuelled my ideas and inspired me to look into different areas.
* When completing my initial research I found
the northern lights images fascinating. I love the combination of colours and the way they blend so effortlessly together. This stood out to me so I chose to pursue this as my theme. After looking at many different images and also history of the lights I picked upon the metallic shimmer this again is something I wanted to develop further perhaps through pearlescent ink .
* To achieve the metallic look I wanted I dripped pearlescent ink into coloured drawing ink and experimented with different ways of drawing with it such as bamboo sticks and ordinary brushes and tissue. I always found layering changed how strong the shine was. I enjoyed testing this medium but wondered how the ink would react on fabric and a range of different fibre contents.
* When adding the dye to fabric I firstly tested
the separate inks on calico so see how they would stand normally and found that the pearlescent on its own is quite vivid and sits on top of the fabric. However, I was looking for a lightly more blended ink so I attempted dipping it onto damp fabric and found that this worked well. I also tried dripping the inks onto other fabrics some were too sheer and some worked well as can be seen below.
* Research was on going throughout my project
to give me new ideas and inspiration and partly because I was interested in how the northern lights appears and where this can be seen. This enabled me to develop a Mood board and from this I was able to select a colour palette as can be seen. This was an important element of my research as I have mostly been sticking to the same colours this has given me options and ideas to carry through designing.
* When colouring different papers I decided to
used these to bend different shapes on the stand. I opted for the swirl shape as looking at different images led me this way and I think that it will be a flash of colour again a background and some how looks dream like. I positions many different papers on the stand and took photographs from which I will be able to design from.
* From
working on the stand this led me to create some initial ideas. I then used images on my stand word and created variations of this design beside it. This really began the designing thought process for me and led me to make some thumbnail sketches and developments for different areas of my product. This them blossomed into combinations of these items, a working range and also a final range.
* After creating my designs I wanted to test and sample how they would look. I did this by creating a replica of one of my designs using the gorgeous shimmer or polyester satin. This gave the sheen I was looking for and also was easy to work with. By creating this mock up I was able to test out ways of creating the product and also to think about construction techniques and how this could be done in industry easier such as printing the wave of colour.
* For my final range I have added the colours
from my colour palette into my Photoshop designs. This had made the pattern stand more out from the background fabric which I think is striking. I have also included a range of different styles of garments such as dresses of varied lengths and also some trouser and short bottoms. Overall I am pleased with my final range and could picture people wearing the simple yet stand out garments.
* Overall I have enjoyed learning about my
chosen theme and I think I have also picked up some skills such as pattern making as this is something I have never done before. I think that if I were to peruse this project any further I would look into other techniques such as printing closer and perhaps learn about the way in which these processes are done. I think I would also make more samples to get a broader view of what the possibilities are.