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!