placement advert for information exchange

Using the techniques I learnt last week I made this poster to advertise my work placement for tomorrows Information Exchange. It is so easy and quick and looks so much more professional.Impressed.

I'm now working on colour palletes and mood boards for my RSA employing the same techniques. As from yesterday I now feel re-motivated. At last!

I found this website by designer Shelly Fox today. Although the clothes aren't overly inspiring the website and the fact that for each collection you can see sketchbook pages etc of what insipred the garments is very interesting and insightful. I really love looking at other peoples sketchbooks and artbooks.

I havent done much else recently. I've been too stressed out about the RSA but I'm going to get my head down and tackle that head on next week and then get back to this. Hopefully my time management and planning will all work out...

moodboard

quilts!

some quilting links ... quilts!,more quilts, and something about textile art.

i think i want to use quilting and applique techniques in my fmp. i find the word quilt really funny for some reason. maybe thats not a good start.

so yes, quilting and applique are the techniques i want to get good at first...to the library!

agatha cristie

I spent saturday curled up in bed feeling sorry for myself but I watched Agatha Christie's 'Murder With Mirrors' on ITV and although the film was pretty poor some of the costumes were quite good in an 1980's, old lady kind of way.Unfortunatly I can't find any pictures from the dramatization on google but they were good.

I've also been filling my sketchbook in a lot but I'm worried I have too many inspirations and I don't really have any idea how im going to narrow it down to form a coherent idea for a collection

problems

hmmm after publishing the last post the patterns colours are different when used as a layer fill and also the lines of my garment are 'blurry' when imported from illustraor to photoshop. something i will have to solve!

shirt with pattern

pattern taken from Viewpoint magazine (exact details here...)


i like the patchwork, cut out effect, collage. could easily create patterns and images on garments with scrapes, patchworked fabric.applique. i also like the niave, childish, look.

CSS and KIaxons

two of my current favourite bands to dance to at present...



CSS from Brazil(ia)



and Klaxons

and and To My Boy just for a bonus!

i found a lot of images at home from old girls annuals i'd cut out a while ago and id forgotten how much i liked them. i had a search on ebay to try and refresh my memory as to where the best ones were from and they're from 'Twinkle'. i just dont know how i'd incoporate them into my collection?

i made the basic grid block for easyfitting knitwear top garments today as i came in early as im busy this evening. also going to talk to Jo whilst im in today.

i dont feel like im being very productive at the moment.

Plans and things to do

Since my last post I've found quite a few articles on Hannah Lamb which ive been photocopy and keeping in my folder, ready for my sketchbook. Theres also a nice article on the history of the lomo on the flasher website. I've been writing, well actually scrawling, a lot in my notebook recently (where have I been for the last 18 months without one?!? thats what went wrong...) about ideas etc, so yes..im just going to transfer those to here in a more coherent fashion.

- look at technical books on embroidery and handicrafts and start learning the basics. DONT TRY TO LEARN TO MANY AT ONCE! PACE YOURSELF!

- look through old journals especially on vintage knit and embroidery (started this today and wasnt very impressed. might look at knitting and sewing magazines for the homemaker rather than professional/academic journals)

- playing with ideas of mixing contempoary knits with vintage styles ? or maybe vintage knits with contemporary styles?

- talk to Janey about an industrial knit refresher, would like to do most by hand I think but maybe would be quicker/more efficient on industrial.

- talk to Jo Newton about the possibility of using the screenprint facilities, if not then how to go about digitally printing just placement prints and not whole quantities of fabric.

- start collecting vintage fabrics, curtains, vinatage feed sacks, buttons, etc and also old knits to unravel (could do with a colour idea?!)

- all fabrics, trims, printing inks etc have to be from non-animal sources. i think this is extra important

- mixing knit with other fabric (prob. jersey) in one piece?

- make blocks for easy fit knitwear/jersey, one and two piece woven dress blocks and hoodied bodice (Thursday morning)

Oh yes, on another note im enjoying these photographs from less common.

This might be repeating some of the above but this is another page from my notebook containg ideas:

- vintage/recycled fabrics - skirts/dresses - quite 'stiff' - cotton/cotton and faux silk blends? (research this option)

- knits - slouchy, cardigans, jumpers, hoodies? knitted front OR back with other knit/jersey side?

- screen print motifs. dress or knit? placement prints?

- recycled AND/OR organicly sourced wool

- vintage vs grunge

- bikini kill - rah! rah! replica

Inspirations

I've been thinking quite hard today about what insipres me and what and where I could possible find inspiration for my final collection and I've been stuggling. Well I know what things inspire me, what I like, but how I could turn them into ideas for a collection which doesn't just reproduce either their ideas or something that has been done before is troubling me. And I've been trying to find an image for my lesson with Fiona this evening but I really can't find even one garment that I like that I want to attempt to recreate or take inspiration from. I think thats a bit rubbish. Anyways some of the things that insipre me and that might (you never know) start some other idea rolling are (some old things.some new)hannah lamb,The Wolves in the Walls, zines,looking at how everyones ears are different, the Kabuki comics ,

photographs of ordinary, beautiful things, lomography (username: wannadisco my old lomo home...it hasnt been updated in an age.maybe nows the time to start again?), vintage swimwear and drinking tea. I'm sure theres more but I've just realized how long I've sat here and I really should do something on my RSA now.

Flats and CAD!

I got a book in the post the other day called Fashion Computing: Design Techniques and CAD by Sandra Burke (ISBN 0-9582391-3-4) and whilst waiting for my tutorial I managed to do the above using Illustrator. Pretty basic I know but it will make doing specs and especially my flats so much easier, quicker and it looks a lot more professional too. I think I'll be getting some practise in. Hopefully I also improve my skills on Photoshop as I want to start deisgning possible surface prints to print digitally maybe for my final collection. Ah I might end up a computer geek after all!!

Wooo! I have a blog...

I also learnt to do this ... this is the wgsn website!! (click the wgsn!!)

Basically write what you want, highlight the keyword associated with the link, the click on the hyperlink button and enter the link! lets go!