Week Twelve

I had an exhibition tutorial with Amy and Noel to discusse what I could do for the final show. I asked them to see me as soon as they could, as there was not time for everyone to be seen in one day. I have been working on some garments, which I wanted to be hung up for the show. I thought that if I stiffened them and hung them from the shoulder they would fall and make an interesting shape rather then just having a dress on a mannequin. I needed to get their advice as soon as I could so that I could finish the garments depending on what was happening for the show. If I needed them to be modelled I would need a zip. If they weren’t being hung they wouldn’t need stiffening. I showed Noel through my work that I had with me and he suggested a lot of different things. He asked why I hadn’t made my garments out of metal, but with my making skills and time limit it just wasn’t possible. He suggested that I made them using something other then fabric such as using lino flooring. I wasn’t too keen on this idea. Although I like looking at different materials and find them interesting, I don’t really enjoy working with them. Samples are my limit with anything other then fabric! Going away from looking at what I could do from my garments for a bit, Noel loved some of my illustrations and illustrator technical drawings. I did some small illustrations in a line in my portfolio and didn’t think much of them. I am not very confident about my drawing skills. As a series I think they work well. But I am not sure about having one or two on their own. I am going to blow some of them up and see what they would look like in my exhibition. They may look better then I expect when they are enlarged. I will try the photocopier and I can try the smart board and a laptop to project the images. I can photograph this on the smart board to use in my file. Noel also suggested that they go on a slide show like a fashion show. I could have this somewhere away from my garments so that I have got my exhibition spread around. My illustrator images are some technical drawings that I did to go in my portfolio. I did them to show how my shapes from samples could turn into a garment. On a sheet repeated, or laid out together, they look good as a set. Almost like wallpaper. This could also work well behind my garments as a backdrop. I don’t think anyone else would have this so it would look different. I have got a lot of different aspects to my work and it is hard to choose one, because then I feel like I’m not showing everything I have done. I did some mood board type sheets that I sent off to Northern Design Competition, because Noel hasn’t been in a lot he wasn’t up to date with my work so I showed him what I had done and he thought that maybe I could do some kind of mood board as my back drop. Something else we discussed was to do a photo shoot with my garments once they are complete. I have got some research on a shop window display, which is very similar to my work. It has some twisted shapes running around the mannequins. This could be re created using Photoshop and it could become part of my photo shoot. It would be hard to make full scale to be in the actual shoot but I could make a small set up and photograph it and then mock it up creating new images. I could also project shapes onto the garments creating interesting patterns, this could be mocked up on Photoshop. There are a lot of different ideas that we spoke about but what I need to do first of all is to complete the garments that I have started, and then photograph them. I can then see what these are like and decide what to use. I am also going to blow up my illustrations to see how these turn out. I have got the work. It is just deciding what is going to be in the show. I went home and started to finish my garments. I needed to iron in some interfacing, add zips and then stitch the hems into place. This would or should have worked fine. But the iron I had decided to keep leaking out water, which stained one of my dresses! I thought that when the water dried it wouldn’t show up on the fabric but it stained. So I don’t want to use these now for the show, I feel as though they are nowhere near good enough. I felt really disheartened, and confused about what I was going to end up with for my show. On Wednesday I had talk with Andrea about what I could do. She said that she thought the fabric cheapened the designs in a way, and I should use something different like wire or paper. I showed her my work, and she said the illustrator work which I did over Easter is the strongest work I have done in a long time. I have done shop designs, and a file on a business I would like as well as a file on how the garments should be made. After looking at what I had done, we both thought it would be a good idea to make a series of paper garments on a shop rail, like a shop window display. A visual look. One paper garment wouldn’t look good enough but a series shows art rather then a dress. I could have tags and labels hanging from them with my shop name on, and these can be made using papers and wire mesh like some samples which I have stapled into my sketchbook. If I have time I can print up some papers using stencils like I did some sampling off to add detail to the dresses. Small sections on each dress with flashes of pattern and colour could make them more interesting. I hope I have got enough time to get this all made. I will also need to find some clothes hangers. They need to be good quality expensive looking hangers. Not plastic ones. I will also need to find a clothes rail from somewhere. I could do with borrowing one from a shop because they are expensive to buy. Lots of work to get done!

Week Eleven

Over Easter I had been designing on illustrator and have come up with some good designs which I am really pleased with. I haven’t used illustrator before so I think that I have done well to get the designs looking so professional. I showed the lecturers what I had done over the holidays and asked if they thought it would be possible to make one. I had tried over the holidays using fabric and card to see how it would work but had no luck. The card didn’t bend in the places it needed to and ended up looking old. I haven’t got time to do a lot of experimenting, what I need to end up with needs to be the first thing I try. There are only five weeks left till the deadline and I still have a lot of written work that needs to be done. I sat down with Janet and went through some possible methods that I could use to create the garments. We went through all different types of materials such as foam, card, paper, stiffened fabrics and even what I used to begin with, metals. Foam would be a good material but because I haven’t got time to get to grips with it testing out different ways, I don’t feel confident about using it. I have tried card and it was too think, and creased in the wrong places, paper would be better as it is smoother, and can bend and curve. I don’t want to use metal mesh and wires like my sample, as I am worried that it wouldn’t look good enough. I am not very good at using those types of materials and prefer to use fabrics. I like to do my samples in different things as I like structure and form, but I would find it hard to make a whole collection. I showed Janet some designs that were by Calvin Klein, spring/summer 2009. This collection contained garments, which were structural in shape, but they hadn’t been stiffened to stay the way they were cut. The folds fell down loosely draping. With the talk with Janet I decided this was the way to go. It would be much simpler then having to test out different materials. It is a material I am familiar with, I have my designs, and can come up with something interesting. I went to the fabric shop that afternoon and got some cheep cream fabric to use to mock up a garment. I thought it would be good to pin together a dress, and then use the shapes from this as my pattern when I am using the actual material for the garment. This would save me making mistakes using expensive fabrics. While I was at the fabric shop I also got some samples of fabrics that I could use, and some samples of interfacing so that I could test out what worked for if any sections of the dress needed stiffening. I spent the rest of the week making two garments. I did test ones using cream fabric and then I went back to the fabric shop to get some nicer material, and then used this to make the garments. I stitched the sections that I could, and left one side open, for if I needed to iron any interfacing inside. I would like to have the garments hanging up at the show from the shoulder, so that they fall to create an interesting shape and they create a more sculptural piece rather then a dress on a mannequin.

Easter Week Two

On Monday of this week I went to Staffordshire University’s library to look if they had any trend magazines as I had heard someone say before that they thought they had Textile View magazine. They had Textile View and View2, which both contain up to date trend information including colours, garment shapes, and fabrics. They had lodes of relevant information that goes with my project. I looked through the latest issue, and some of the past issues. I know that these are technically out of date when it comes to trends, but they have some good information to go with my work. I got quite a lot of images of technical drawings to help me do some more of my own. I have done some on illustrator, and I am really pleased with them. I think for my first attempt they have turned out well. Last week I ordered a book on illustrations which contains information on ways you can do them, such as using Photoshop, Illustrator, or by even using inks and stitch. This got be thinking that it is about time I did some illustrations of my own. I used my designs that I did on the mannequin, and my own drawings to layer them up on Photoshop to make new interesting images. The mixture of lines works really well. I am still not sure that these are going to be good enough to have blown up for my final show. I don’t want to draw an image from scratch and have it blown up, as it will show up any mistakes. I am not a confident drawer so I don’t think this would be the best idea. I think that using illustrator and Photoshop to make more of a graphic image will be the best thing. They look more polished. This week I have also stitched into some of my photographs that I had left over of my wire samples. I thought that this would make them have a bit more texture, and change them into something new. I think they look good. The stitch adds to the image. I have also stitched some small pieces of wire mesh onto them to show that they are made from. I need to mount them up for my portfolio. I thought that I could stitch into the illustrations that I did on Photoshop. This may make them a bit more unusual. I’m not sure whether it will work or not but I can give it a go. There are a lot of things I want to try out and have in my portfolio but I don’t think any are right for the exhibition and I am getting a bit worried that I’m not going have anything to show at the end of it. Because I cant make the garments I have designed in the time that I have, I have done a file on how they could be made. If I were a fashion designer in industry, I would have a whole team. Someone would pattern cut and someone would make it for me. I have looked into manufacturing processes and different materials that I could use. There are a lot of new technologies around so I have included some information on the new types of materials around today which fashion designers are experimenting with. This still leaves me with nothing for the exhibition! If it was any other project I think I would have enough work by now and would be able to concentrate on my written work. I will have to ask the lecturers to look through my work when I’m back at college and see if I have already got something to work with. Hopefully I have got something. If not I’m not sure what I am going to use.

Easter Holidays Week One

I think that this week I have done more then I usually do at college. I have got lodes done, and probably confused myself more with different ideas. I started the week off by entering the Northern Design Competition. There are different categories and winners are chosen from each and then overall. It sounded really good and my work that I already have could be submitted so I decided to enter. To enter you had to send four sheets and a written explanation of the project. I used Photoshop to make the sheets. It was quite hard to decide what to put on them as I have got so much work with carrying on the project. I have got years worth of work to put in four sheets. I broke it down into four sections. Research, samples, development and outcome. I am going to print the sheets off for my portfolio as I think that it will be good to show at my other interviews that I have entered a competition and did some extra work to send. It took a long time to sort the sheets out and get them looking right. Because I haven’t made the final garment I had to do some mock ups of them. I had some images of Sarah from an old project where she is wearing one of my old garments, so I used these and photoshopd my new ideas onto them. They worked well seen, as I haven’t actually finished any designs yet! So these can also be used in my portfolio and be used for my project. Because the sheets worked well I did some more which are just simple mood/colour boards, which I can use within my folio or sketchbook.

For a lot of my work I have been using shapes which are out of my photographs of my wire samples. I have photoshopd them and mixed them together to create more shapes out of what I had. I have drew the original samples and done a couple of paintings. So I decided I needed to draw the new shapes as these have been developed more. So I did a few line drawings. Nothing fancy. I tried to look at them more and think about the figure and think about how they could be used for a garment. I scanned these into photoshop and played around with them on the images of the mannequin which I have been using. I played around with scale, and mixed them together, rotated and flipped them to create some garment shapes. I am really pleased with them and they look sculptural and modern. They could be made into some gorgeous unique dresses, something that you would see on the couture catwalks. The only thing is, imp not sure I would be able to make them or even have the time. They would need to be made from stiffened fabrics. I have done this before and it is hard to get the fabric as hard as what would be needed to make these kinds of garments. If I used wire mesh or card in between the fabric layers, I don’t know how I would sew it together. Something i'll have to think about!

I wanted to use illustrator because I no that a lot of courses that are fashion expect you to know how to do it. Which means industry will want you to know as well. I wanted to do some technical drawings to go in my portfolio to take to the Salford interview that I have in may, I remember seeing a lot of their students having them in their portfolios at graduate fashion week. I had a go of it not having a clue how it works and I think I did quite well. I have done a few simple line drawings of some of the dresses off the mannequin that I did using Photoshop. I have ordered two books which explain illustrator and how to do technical drawings so when these get delivered they will help me to do some more.

Over the next two weeks while im off for the Easter holidays I want to make some more samples with the wire mesh which I ordered, and photograph them. I need to make sure I develop them from the last ones. I also want to get some more sheets done ready for any interviews. I want to include the technical drawings and designs, and I also want to do some stitching into photographs. I have got a lot which I haven’t got anything to do with, so I am going to machine stitch into them to make them a bit different and more interesting. I am really pleased with how much work I have got done over the last few weeks, and my skills on Photoshop and illustrator have defiantly improved. I didn’t want to make a dress for the exhibition due to using difficult materials. I didn’t think I had the skills to make a metal dress. But now that I have done some designs I can imagine them made with black fabric. I would like to make one, but im not sure how. I don’t want to spend a lot of time making one and not getting anything else finished for the show, and then it ending up not being very good due to it being to technical. I have seen some on the catwalk with are similar, Dior and Hussein Chalayan have used stiffened shapes, but they have a lot of time, money and skill to develop the garments, I have got a few weeks and no help. I will have to do some research and see what I can come up with.

Week Ten

I had an interview for Nottingham Trent University this week so I spent a lot of time preparing for this. On Monday and Tuesday I was getting work ready and finishing off organising my portfolio ready for the interview on Wednesday. I decided to take my current project even though it isn’t finished as it shows how I have developed from the last one where I used the same theme of architecture. I put old projects in the back of my portfolio in case they wanted to see some more work, and also took along my current sketchbook, as I have had some good feedback from one of the lecturers at Staffordshire University about it. And I also took with me, a folder on my future progression, and some written essays. I was really nervous for my interview, as it is the first that I have had and I know how hard it is to get into Nottingham Trent as they have really high standards. The course is a one-year top up called international fashion business, which looks really interesting. This worried me a bit about what they would want to know. Would they want to see any work? Or is it more about the written side. I went to Nottingham with Sarah, Vicki and Lacey as they also had interviews on the same day. This didn’t help really having other people there as it just made me worry about whether they were better then me, or were they more prepared then me. I was the last one to be interviewed so I had a lot of waiting around to do. After each of the girls had had their interview they came out and said what happened, each one seemed to get asked harder questions. I thought I was going to be really caught out and get asked something unexpected. When I went in for my interview I was surprisingly relaxed and chatted away to the two ladies interviewing me. We spoke about different things in fashion, and different shops, and even about ethical issues. Everything they asked I answered well, but I chatted away onto something else as I wanted to tell them as much as I could, but I think this may have done more harm then good as I didn’t watch my English very well! I spoke as though I new them. They were laughing along with me and it was really good, I didn’t feel as though I had been asked anything, which caught me out. I think that if I don’t get in it isn’t because they didn’t like me or that my work wasn’t right, as they said some good things about my work, I think it would just be down to whether they think that course is right for me. Wednesday night and Thursday I worked on my black file to get it all finished off before the Easter break so that it was out of the way. I want to get as much work done as I can throughout the holidays. I would like to make some more samples and photograph them. I have ordered some more mesh from the mesh company that should come sometime next week. I sent an email to them asking whether I could get some cut in different sizes. They were really helpful, and gave me a really good deal. I got some sheets free, some with money off, and it worked out less then half price even though I was asking them to cut it me specially. I would also like to get some more file work out of the way over the holidays, I need to start my yellow one and finish the purple. I need to do some fashion illustrations to see if they can be used for the exhibition or not. I want them to be a really high standard so I don’t want to rush them. I think it’s best if I make the new samples first and take photographs as these can then be used within them. To show that I have developed them throughout the project and not just stayed the same. I have done a lot of work on Photoshop so I can always do some illustrations on here or even by hand. I will probably do both. I am a bit worried about what I will end up with for my show. I know that some of the other girls are doing more then one dress. Because mines more complicated I don’t even think I can make one. And i am not sure that I could even get it made for me with it being so technical. It would be really complicated and expensive. I might try and think of a way of doing something over the holidays.