The Class of 2014

Proud to be featured in this months Embroidery Magazine Volume 65 Nov/Dec 2014 as part of the Graduate Showcase 'The Class of 2014' one of 11 student's selected:



This makes me think I should really stop creating relaxing crochet Hippos and blankets and get down and do some stitching again!

Graduated!

First class honours degree!

FACETS The Final collection for my Degree!

 

Sustainable fashion....

The sewing machine is feeling the strain, telling me it needs a service (I don't blame it).  The CAD software is in meltdown, flakey at the best of times, is very temperamental.  This has taken me three days and still needs hand embellishment.  My poor domestic machine is not designed for this amount of stitching abuse!

Nearly there

I'm now in my final timetabled week of stitching with two more weeks after this to hand-in.  Samples are on a large scale literally, I am taking over the house, and the creation is feeling very industrial!

Five weeks remaining!

Count down to the final hand in (well one week before and a week contingency).  I think I am  progressing well, with about half my samples well underway.  I even think it looks like a collection.  The CAD has certainly taken over which is a bit of am surprise, and as a result my samples are much larger than previous projects.  The remaining samples are more hand stitch focused however, so I think will be more in keeping with my other projects and will be much slier to create.  Here are the latest samples: 

Facets - CAD designs

Surprisingly I've been creating designs and samples with my CAD machine.  I initially thought that I would use the CAD as backgrounds for my hand stitch, but I have found that it is taking a more of a prominent position in my designs.  

Takes ages though, especially with re-positioning of the fabric for repeats and needs a bit of baby sitting, a bit slack on realising that the bobbin thread has run out which is a bit frustrating! 

I'm at the point of making my decisions for my set of final samples, need approximately 15 to be created over the next five to six weeks.

Facets

Working away on my sampling for my major project, now entitled 'Facets' taking inspiration from imagery derived from jewels, facets and scaffolding, these are my favourite paper collages.  Some of the paper folding has been created from the instructions in  'Folding Techniques for Designers' by Paul Jackson (Top book!).  

Photo Shoot

Getting prepared for our last project including photo shoot of my best portfolio pieces for promotional materials for end of year show and New Designers Show 2014.

Major Project

I will be creating for my final project a collection of embellished, stitched textured textile design / craft pieces.  I will use my preferred textile techniques of hand and machine stitch and embellishment. 

I plan to create a collection of stitched textile samples which will be initially inspired by two current exhibitions

 (1) The Cheapside Hoard London’s Lost Jewels at the Museum of London.

(2) Pearls, V&A and Qatar Museums Authority Exhibition at the V&A

The imagery from the two exhibitions will provide me with the subject content for my collection and will be the starting point for my information gathering, idea generation and drawing exercises. 

I will create a collection of stitched textile pieces based upon my chosen theme of luxurious jewels and precious stones. 

This will be a sustained body of work.  The fabric samples will be created from natural fibres.  I will use threads and yarns with lustre and shine to interpret and represent the elements of the precious stones.  The fabrics will be embellished and embroidered by hand and machine.  I will also create CAD embroidery designs.

In addition to fabrics I will be stitching and embellishing non fabric surfaces.  I intend to experiment with wood panels, stainless steel gauze and vintage slate roof tiles. 

The final collection will comprise of textile fabrics and complimentary non fabric pieces.  I will present some but not all of the experimental surfaces in the final collection and these will be chosen based upon those that best compliment the fabric samples and subject matter.

Restoration & Degeneration

An eclectic mix of stitch, machine and hand, traditional crewel yarn on stainless steel mesh, silk and papers couched to vintage slate roofing tiles...