Week Nine

I am really pleased with myself this week! I have done so much work! I felt as though I was never going to get anything done, and this week I have got back on track and back into my work. I started off by scanning in some figure templates which I then used to layer up my own sample photographs. I used Photoshop to cut out the shapes from the photographs and made some simple and quick ideas of where they could fit onto the figure. It was a good way to start thinking about where the shapes could be used within a garment. They didn’t look very interesting or exciting though, and the figures weren’t my own drawings. So once I had done this and though about the shapes more, I took some photographs of a mannequin, and then used these to layer up with the images of my samples. Even though they hadn’t been drawn by me, and they were still photographs, the photographs were still my work so it seemed to work a bit better. The shape of the mannequin is a bit more simple then that of a figure with a head and arms and it doesn’t distract from the shapes of the samples. I did quite a lot of different ideas, placing shapes in different parts of the body. As well as placing on the body, I mixed some shapes together from different images to make some hanging shapes. On Photoshop I cut out shapes from my photographs and layered them together, and changed the lighting affects and made some of them slightly see-through, to come up with a kind of sculptural form which would look good as a hanging piece. I made some shapes which would work well both hanging, and on the figure. I placed the images on the mannequin images and I also photoshoped the shapes into images of architectural spaces as hanging pieces. I am really pleased of how they have turned out. It really got my ideas flowing. The shapes worked well on Photoshop but they somehow seem a bit, fake. So as well as the photoshoped images I decided to hand make some of the same type of shape ideas as I had done on the computer. I got the photographs printed of the mannequin, and then cut out the shapes from the sample images and layered them up the same as I had done on Photoshop. I think they look good made out of photographs, I think I am going to stitch into the images to give them a different more handmade look. I have started to do some drawings from the shapes. I have layered up some photocopies of my wire samples and then extended the shapes with drawing, and then used paints to work into it. It looks great. Like I have painted the whole thing. I wouldn’t be able to draw or paint the shapes perfectly from scratch so using some photocopies is type of cheating that works really well! It looks good as it mixes in different materials into one image. On Wednesday I went with Briony and Lucy to Staffordshire University for an open day and met with Rowena to talk about the top up course which I have applied for as I wanted a bit more information about what is actually involved. She explained through the blocks of the course, the projects and modules which is involves. It sounded better then I thought. I know that it isn’t a fashion course. It wouldn’t be like going to Salford and making lots of garments which would go on a fancy catwalk. But it is an option where I can write my own briefs and make the modules into fashion. The university have just employed a fashion specialist to help with the course, and she came into college on the Thursday to meet us and talk about the course. She spoke about how we could make it into a fashion outcome. She was really lovely and very enthusiastic. She was full of energy. She made the course sound exciting and was full of ideas about what people could do. She had a look through my portfolio, and she gave me some really good feedback. I was relieved that someone seemed happy with my work and I seemed to have a lot of things in common with her about different designer’s work that I like. She looked at one page of my folio and asked if I look at Hussein Chalayans work! He is my all time favourite fashion designer! Collette was another lady from Staffordshire University who is also involved with the course but she isn’t a specialist in fashion. She also looked through my portfolio and was really nice about my work, she loved my sketchbook and made some good comments which has made me feel more relieved for when I have got to take them to interviews. Sam suggested that I look into flower shapes, as she said my work seems very organic with the shapes. So all Thursday afternoon I looked into different plant shapes and found that the carnivorous plants and calla lilies have something very similar about them to my work. The curves and shapes work really well for research. Some of the carnivorous plants also seem to hang down like a sculptural form. Dried up old leaves also reminded me of my own work. The shapes are very similar. I don’t want to go into looking at just flowers, but they are quite architectural in the way in which they are made up. The colours are good within them as well. Sam suggested going to the botanical gardens in Birmingham so I am going look into going there in the Easter holidays to collect some more primary research. One thing she said I needed to do was collect some more images myself for research rather than just books, the images I have taken myself she said I must label them more and make them more obvious that they are mine so that people don’t miss my work. Later in the afternoon on Thursday I had a tutorial with Amy about the exhibition. This was to talk through my work and get an idea of where to go next so that I am ready for the exhibition. Also I want something sculptural and hanging. I don’t want to make a big metal sculpture as I’m not a 3D maker, and it wouldn’t look very good. I don’t want to spend a lot of money making something that turns out to look rubbish. I want it to look really sleek and professional. So rather than making it, I have got to cost up how I would get someone else to do it for me. And then for the show I can have some images of it mocked up. I am going to do some illustrations next using my images, and then if they turn out good enough I can get them blown up on large banners and get them blown up and hang them for the exhibition. I could also mock up some images of them hanging somewhere. I could take the images of the place myself so it is my work and then mock up the piece hanging. This would need to be done really well though so that it looks professional. For the illustrations I want to go in the photography studio and get someone to model for me. I want them to do a lot of different poses, and all they need to wear is underwear, or shorts and small t-shirt, as I will Photoshop an outfit onto them and collage, and work back into the figure using different materials. I think it will look really good to lighten the figure image more than the shapes of the garment so that the garment stands out more. So I need to get booking into the photography studio soon as possible and I am also going to make a couple more wire mesh samples, but make them a bit bigger and a bit better and photograph them again. Lots to do!! But bin a great week!

Week Eight

I am a bit disappointed this week. I have been ill and have been signed off work for two weeks as I have got a trapped nerve in my neck and am finding it hard to do much. I wanted to get quite a lot of my project done this week and just haven’t been able to. I wanted to do another photo shoot this week with the wedding dresses, and I wanted to photograph my samples in the studio. I still need to do this and am going have to book in. I wasn’t sure where to go with my project after doing my samples, so I spoke to Lorna and Janet to see what they thought. They suggested looking through my photographs and seeing how they could fit onto the figure. I am not very good at drawing the figure so I think I am going to use Photoshop to layer the body with the images of my samples. I can cut out the sections I need and layer them up to create some kind of garment. This will show what I am thinking of doing, even if they are not of a high enough standard to use for illustrations. I can put them in my sketch book for ideas. This may help me to think of where to go next. I wouldn’t mind not even having a final garment for the show. I would like some photography if it is good enough. Or even a sculptural piece which I can show could be used as a garment but in the show it is just shown with some photographs. I will just have to see how things develop. I am not that confident at using the materials I have chosen. The different wires and meshes. They are not something I am used to. I am glad that I am experimenting but I am finding it difficult to show what I would like, and to think of how I could transform them into a wearable piece. As I am not used to working with the materials I don’t think I would be able to make something suitable for someone to wear, as it would either fall apart, or even hurt them. Luckily it won’t be needed for a catwalk. Once I have done some Photoshop images of my ideas using my photographs, I think I need to upscale them. I could use the mannequins and papers and cardboard, to show them almost in “real life” or “real scale” I could then use these to help work out whether my ideas are going to work on the figure or whether I’m best sticking to photographs and a sculptural piece. In my samples I have used papers, plastics, wire and metal mesh. So in the Marquette’s on the mannequin I can use different papers and card for the different materials, if I get something of similar properties, I will be able to work out which work best. I cannot buy the mesh and wire before I know what will work as it is too expensive to waste on testing and sampling ideas. The mesh I used for my small samples was £4.99 for an A4 sheet. You can get them in A3 sizes, or you can order other amounts if you ring up and speak about what you need. But it would cost a lot to make something at the scale to fit the body so I need to be sure it will work before I order anything. Something which I have got done this week is my portfolio ready for interview. I sat with Andréa and went through my work from this course and the BTEC to see what was suitable to take. I have re scaled some work down to fit into my A2 portfolio as there wasn’t much point in carrying an A1 for just a few sheets work. Also with my bad neck I wouldn’t be able to! I have also found work from my final major project on the BTEC course and mounted it up, as when I did the project I didn’t have anything on sheets it was all loose, or up on the wall for the show. This is the best work I have done, and something which I am most proud of so I wanted to show what I had done. I think I might redo the shoot from the project. The images I have I do like, so I would do them the same. They are on just a black background and the model has geisha make up to match the Japanese theme of the project. The only problem with the images is that on the ones I have, you can see some of the background as I used fabric not paper. And some of the makeup isn’t perfect either. But I think that if I was to use the photography studio they could look really amazing. When we do the fashion shoot for the wedding dresses I will try to do that at the same time so that I have help off other people and they should come out really professional. I have ordered some photo books this week. They are done online, you upload the images you want to include in the book, and they get printed up and sent back. I have done two with my samples in from the project to go with my work. And I have then done two of the wedding dress glam rock project to show that we did the show. With it being a quick project that we did and wasn’t something included with my own work, I hadn’t got any sheets to show the time I had spent on the dress, so I thought that if I don’t get time to mount anything up, I can take these books to interviews and talk through what I did. They should also look very neat and professional.

Day & Night Of The Show

On the Thursday of the fashion show, I was the taxi driver so I went to pick everyone up from all over the place and eventually got us there at the Bethel City Church. We had to do fittings to check that everything was ok with the dresses, and to style the models to check that things such as their shoes matched with the garments. So this was the first thing that we did once we arrived so that we had as much time as possible if any changes needed to be made. Luckily everyone’s was fine and fitted ok. I met my model, Abby, and got her to try my dress on. It fitted perfect. I had been worried that it wouldn’t fit right as I had tried it on myself to try and work out what size it was; I said I think it’s a big size 10. And I was told that my model said she was a 10 but the girls that had seen her said they thought more like a 12s. Sarah and Vanessa had also tried my dress on at the photo shoot. Sarah is a size 8s and it was bit big on her, and Vanessa a 12 and it wouldn’t zip up. So my model needed to be a 10 and no bigger. It couldn’t have fitted her any better. I couldn’t have changed anything on it. Perfect. I was so relieved. I didn’t have to make any changes what so ever. The model was also relieved that it fit her; it was as though she had had 20 fittings during it being made. She also had got jewellery which matched the colours exactly right. I’m glad it fit her as she was a bit difficult to work with. I had been warned she was a bit of a diva. She was nice, but you wouldn’t have wanted to disagree with her. She wouldn’t show me what shoes she had with her, so I just had to hope that they matched the dress ok. She said they were just black strappy things so they sounded right. But what she said seemed to go. Where as the other models that were wearing the other girls dresses, were trying all different options on to let them decide what they wanted. Once the fitting was done there wasn’t much to do and everyone was saying they wanted to go for dinner and as I was driving them around I had to take them. So I told the other girls where we were going and I said we would ring before we came back in case they needed anything. We rang after dinner and they said we weren’t needed and that there was nothing to do. I didn’t think there was that much to do as there were so many people there on the day, but they were still there, so there must have been something to do else they would have gone home. So anyway we all went home, and I texted again to check whether I was needed to help at the church. I wanted to help out for some experience, but again they said no and said they was about to go home. It seemed as though for some reason we was not wanted. The other girls wanted to be in control. So instead of arguing about it I thought I would just get ready and go back earlier then I was going to, so that I could help out. I arranged to go back with Sarah and Vicki as they were going back earlier then the other girls. But they took longer! They were an hour later then the other girls. Just my luck. I was really annoyed that I had spent most of my day waiting around for people and not been able to do what I wanted to do and to help out at the event. Luckily there was a lot to do on the night. We stayed behind the scenes and helped the models to get changed in between outfits. Lacey was in charge of the dress which was going to be worn by Nicky Graham from Big Brother. She was the celebrity who was helping to host the show and model the final dress. Lacey had spent hours making the dress and on the day she had waited around all day for Nicky to arrive to do her fitting. Hers was the one dress which wouldn’t fit easily and would take ages to make any changes but Nicky didn’t turn up until 5 o’clock which meant there wasn’t much time to change it anyway. It fitted, but not perfect, it was a bit big at the top but she said it was fine anyway. Half an hour before the show was going to start, she didn’t want to do the modelling any more. Lacey was really upset and everyone was gutted for her. Nicky thought she was more famous then she was by the sound of it and had let everyone down. The dress was only a size 6 and was tiny. People kept trying it on to see if we could get anyone else to model it else it wouldn’t be able to get shown. No one could fit in it. Lacey was the only one it fitted but she was too upset to do a catwalk show. All of a sudden someone dragged one of the hair and make-up girls down the stairs shouting “she’s a sixxxx try it onnn” the poor girl had been dragged from what she was doing to become a model for the night. It fitted her and she was really nice and said that she would do it. She could have said no, and then no one would have been able to wear it. Once Lacey dress was sorted it was back to helping all of the other models. Once the show started, it was mental. So busy. The show went so fast. Felt as though as soon they had got one outfit on they had to change again. My model was such hard work. Lacey helped me with one change as she was too demanding. I think my model thought she was more famous then that Nicky did. Once all of the outfits had been on, the wedding dresses were the last ones on the show. So as soon as we helped them into the outfits we ran out to the front of the stage to see the final part of the show which was our own dresses. It was brilliant!! They all looked so good. Couldn’t have been any better. In the time we had they had turned out really good and I was proud of us all. It would have been even better if we could have done it for our own project work for the exhibition. It would be good if I could do another show for the exhibition, or if we could get hold of the video that was being recorded at the event and show that. I think it could also look good if someone from the graphics or film course filmed the photoshoot, behind the scenes kind of video which you see on the television. I think it could work really well at the exhibition to show the other things that we get to do.

Images Of My Glam Rock Dress

Glam Rock PhotoShoot

We have all finished making our dresses now for the fashion show which is on the 4^th March in Stoke. We were asked to customise wedding dresses into the glam rock theme. Everyone chose a colour scheme to work with so that they are all different. We were given a wedding dress and £10 for any materials needed. We got at college early ready to start the shoot. Sarah, Vanessa, Vicki and Lacey were the models as all of the dresses are really small fitting, and they are the smallest in the group. First thing was hair and make-up. With the theme being rock we messed up the models hair, using hairspray and back-combing it to stay in place. For the make-up we used black eye shadow and mascara to darken the eyes. If the make-up was too subtle it wouldn’t show up much on the photographs. I was in charge of styling the shoot, and I also decided to take some behind the scenes images. So I was on standby throughout with my safety pins and camera. We had 12 dresses to get through on the shoot so we had to work quite fast. Kev, a lecturer who teaches photography helped to set up the room. A photographer came from another course, and an assistant photographer was also there, so two cameras were being used throughout to get the most images in the time we had. We were also given two boys in suits! The models got into the first of the dresses to start the shoot. After a few test images we were on the way. They looked great. We had some accessories to use to make the dresses look more styled. Stockings and hold ups worked really well, and we had different jewellery, hats and hair accessories to work with as well. I had to pin some dresses into place with them being all different sizes. We had to pin bras into place so that they were hidden, and pin things shut so that they stayed up. I quickly got the needle and thread out to make the straps on the dress that I had made more secure as the bottom half of the dress was very heavy and weighed it down. Towards the end of the shoot, some people started to get a bit selfish and wanted to wear their own dresses more than the others that people had made. I think that it could have worked better if each dress had a time slot. Because when the photographs come out I think that some dresses will have a lot more photographs then others because they were warn more. As I was playing the role of the stylist I tried to suggest which dresses to use, but I felt as though I wasn’t being listened too. My dress was only warn for about 5 minutes where as some where warn for about an hour. Vanessa didn’t mind trying other dresses on but we were struggling to fit in them with t he sizes being so small. Some said size 12, but they were more like an 8s. So I had to get Briony to come down to the studio and model here own, as no one else would wear it. Because she wasn’t really expecting to have to model she didn’t have many photographs done either, so there won’t be many of her dress. I think that the shoot did work well and there will be some good images, but I think it could have worked better if there weren’t so many people fighting for the limelight. I think we should have done the photo shoot using the models that are being used for the actually fashion show. Then there would have been one model per dress. Other then this I think each dress should have been given the same amount of time. Maybe a bit more planning was needed. But the whole project has been a bit rushed and has had to be completed within less than a week so I think that everyone has done really well.

Glam Rock Fashion Show (week seven)

We were asked at very late notice to help out with a charity fashion show which someone was organizing as part of their university course, kind of like how we have had to organize events for our modules. The fashion show was all ready and organized, location and models were all sorted, clothes were ready, and they had even planned to have a celebrity at the event. Nicky Graham from Big Brother had been booked for the event to help host and model at the show. The man who was organizing the event got in touch with Lorna just a week before the show to ask if we could customise some wedding dresses, which he wanted in the glam rock theme, and then he wanted people to help with the styling on the night. When Lorna asked us about whether we wanted to help at the event I was a bit worried. We have got a lot of project work to do, and I already felt behind and as though I was struggling with all the files we need to get done as well as the practical work for the exhibition. But it sounded fun and exciting and would be something good to talk about at any interviews. I half wanted to do it and half got talked into it! It turned out that I didn’t even have a week; I ended up with two days to do the dress. By the time I was given a dress, and with working weekends, I had Monday and Tuesday to get the dress completed as there was going to be a photo shoot on the Wednesday morning, and the show was on the Thursday. When I went in college on the Monday and got given my dress, I nearly had a heart attack. I think I was left with the worst, most hardest dress to change in the entire world!! People agreed! So it must have been bad. There was sooo much material and it was covered in sequins and beads, which just didn’t go with the glam rock theme. It was very girly. I hadn’t got a clue how I could change it in time to fit in with the theme. I decided to use pinks and light purples, as everyone else had chosen there colours and that was a colour theme that no one else had chosen and it was colours which I liked. I started to have a play around. I took off the flowers first with an unpicker and some help from Lucy and Amy else I would have been there for hours. I thought straight away that I could re make a bigger flower which would be funkier and I thought that I could use some inks and other materials to change it and make it less weddingy. I then started to play around with the length of the dress, I pinned up the front and left the back long, this looked quite nice and I thought that this is how I would have it, but as I started to try and work out what to do with the rest, it still seemed too girly and there was still too many sequins on show. I then started to play around with pinning more of the fabric up at the back and sides to make it more rouched. This looked really good but was still very cream. Well I say cream it was more of a pinky horrible cream colour. Vanessa was using black netting on her dress, so I borrowed her fabric for a bit, and had a play around to see how I could use something similar to cover up the sequins. Everyone agreed that this would be a good idea to get some netting in a darker colour to cover the dress, this worked well with the glam rock theme. Sarah and Vicki had to go Hanley to get some more materials so I asked them to bring me some back. In the mean time I started to play around with the flowers which I had cut off the dress. Lucy helped me to dye them using fabric inks. I used burgundy and red fabric inks and a bright pink ink which I had brought in with me. I then stitched the large petals together to make a new big flower. I then had this to play around with as well as the dress so I could get more of an idea of what to do next. Once Sarah and Vicki where back with my black netting fabric I started to play around with where to put it. I covered the front of the dress to hide the sequins, I also twisted it over one shoulder to create a strap as the straps on the dress weren’t very good. They were way to thin for the dress and didn’t work with the theme. This was working really well. I then had to decide what to do with the rest of the dress. I carried on playing around with the length. I rouched up all of the dress and pinned and stitched it into place which took ages. But then I had all different coloured pink bits of fabric, and some pink netting. So I was working out how to use these. I pinned different pieces under the dress so that they were trailing behind. By now it was 8 o’clock at night so I had to go home and have a think about what I could do as I needed to get it done by the end of the next day. On Tuesday I did some more playing around with what to do underneath the dress. I didn’t know whether to make a trail for the dress. Or whether to have just the pink netting under the dress. I also needed to make another strap as I had only got one so far. I didn’t want both to be the same as this would be a bit boring and not very interesting. My flowers weren’t very rock chick either. So I got my rock chick head on and started to try and darken the dress up a bit! I stitched the black netting onto the dress. I had only put it on the front but I then added it to the back as well and used bits of scrap on the flower to make it match and more dark. I used some quite dark pink ribbon rouched up with the black netting on the flower, and I used some beads, dark purples and blues, in the centre of the large flower to add some detail the dark colours worked with the pinks of the flower and the netting and ribbon made it more textural. As I had used some ribbon within the flower, I thought about where else I could use it. I had some of the same colour used within the flower left, so I decided to use this for the other strap. But it seemed a bit too thin. It just didn’t balance right with the other side. It needed something else with it. I had some sequined type of thick ribbon, which was actually an old belt. So I used this underneath the ribbon and it looked really good. I thought it was just right. It added a different texture, but it was still quite bridal. I then used a smaller flower on the front of the dress, and rapped a dark purple ribbon around it to make it more interesting. So I decided to use the small flower on the front, and the large beaded flower that I had made on the back of the dress. So that was it. The dress had been decided. I was worn out. So I thought, quick! Sew it before I change my mind. I spent hours stitching everything into place and trying to find the pins to take them out! I had pinned everything everywhere to keep it into place and then it took ages to find them all so that the model wouldn’t get cuts all over her! I was quite impressed with myself once I had finished making the dress. I had worked really hard and had completely changed it within two days. It looked young and funky and worked with the theme. I think if it wasn’t for the black netting it would have been too feminine with the flowers and ribbons, but the black balanced it out and made it all work together. So my dress was ready now for the photo shoot and for the event. Hopefully everything would fit! And would look good on the catwalk!

Week Six

I had made my samples over half term using different papers wires and metal mesh. I think they worked well but they had some problems with them. The glue on them isn’t perfect, as the glue gun was quite hard to control. I got the photographs developed and there are some really good images and some not so good. I need to book into the photography studio soon and take some more which look more professional to see if I can hide the glue more. I also want to do some hanging images as the shapes that I made should work well hung up in the studio with shadows behind them. I used my photographs to draw from rather then drawing from the actual sample. I find it easier working from a flat image rather then a 3D sculpture. And because the photographs are my own work, I feel as though im moving forward in stages, and using each step to help the next. I did some simple quick drawings using different pencils and pens. I wanted them to look like rough sketches and like I hadn’t thought too much about them. I find it hard to do ‘messy’ work. I cant draw or paint in a quick way. I seem to have to make everything perfect with neat edges and straight lines. So I made my self use my left hand to do some more quite drawings. These look really good. I prefer them to the right handed ones I drew. There isn’t much difference in them but they look more free and flowing. More interesting. Less perfect. I had researched the architect Frank Gehry,

who’s work is gorgeous. I think its really interesting and not like any one else’s. You can tell who has designed it and his work becomes instantly recognisable. I looked for some examples of his drawings, or designs. And they are quite similar to the drawings that I had been trying to do. He seems to use black marker pen and draws quick line drawings which consist of messy squiggles. I want to try and find some more examples of his drawings or some other architects designs rather then looking into fashion designers illustrations. I think this will help to link in the architecture theme within my drawings and could give me some more ideas.