colour: TANZANIA

Here's some of my visual inspiration for our colour project, taken from my trip to Tanzania this summer.
I was so struck by the ground there- the vibrant oranges, the earthy browns, the plumy reds speckled with yellowing leaves...and the way these colours swirled together in the powdery dust...it was amazing. The colours were so earthy, yet so strong and rich. I can't wait to start exploring them during this project.

Feeling inspired!

Friday was the opening of the Chelsea degree show. However, as I was welcoming on the front gate as a student ambassador, I didn't actually get to look at any of the work then! Today I fixed that and went back for a good wonder round all the textiles exhibition. It's strange to think that in 2 years time, it will be some of my work showcased there! But anyway, enough of me. Here are some snaps of stuff I saw that got me excited and inspired. Pretty much everything was of an amazing standard though, and is so varied and different- get along yourself for a good nosey if you can!

this was a really fun, colourful collection. The pieces were unisex, as the project was all about equality and breaking down boundaries

Loving these slouchy trousers! 

 The lookbook seems like it was a real laugh to shoot- I love to see happy models!

Unfortunately the details haven't come out too great on this image, but this was some pretty stunning knitwear. With the florescent yarns running down the front, and the florescent pink stripes on the sleeves, it definitely caught my eye!

 Samples! Couldn't keep my hands off these. Different print techniques/finishes are a joy to look at and feel for the contrasting textures.

 digital print onto a shiny nylon. I need to test out this affect myself at some point!

I loved the concept of this project. Taking inspiration from their local allotment, the girl made garments/accessories for the different people she regularly saw their, and involved them in the design process, so each piece is highly personal- like this floral gardening jumpsuit!

 sample prints onto materials found in the allotment setting

 A bag for the beekeeper

Another amazing bit of knitting. I may be a print student myself, but this sure excites me!

These garments were beautifully printed- but it was the painted clothes rail that really made me smile..

Adriana Jaroslavsky's wonderfully bold dress collection

laser cut acrylic cuff tassels- YES PLEASE! (I'm always a fan of the playful approach)

 More tassel power

conceptual 'weave' pieces. It was great to see some 'weaving' that used laser cutting as a basis to create large, 3D pieces that can be assembled and reassembled. I can't remember this guys name, but he is heading off to do an MA at the Royal College next, so good luck to him!

strangely bizarre yet fascinating stitch pieces.

amazing textures on this dress

and finally- some pretty cool goggles/glasses!

A year's work!

Wow, how is the first year of my degree practically over already?! I haven't really been very active on my blog here since the first term, but I'd like to keep it up for next year....as a place to collect ideas, post progress and remind myself of sources of inspiration.

For now, here are some pictures summarising of my work this year...

Technical Project

Fashion Project

Installation Project

 My Winning T-shirt Design!

Wow, a long post with lots of pictures. Hooray to you if you have made it to the end, and I hope you've enjoyed this taster of my college work so far! :)

Stop & Bloom

Here is a short video showing views of my paper installation actually placed within the little bus stop 'garden' on my road- I think it really made things there bloom!

Unfortunately the video quality isn't that great as it was such a bright day, and I don't really have any experience video editing, so it was a learning curve just putting this together! Initially I imagined creating an animation as part of this project outcome. This was something I didn't have the time/capacity to explore further than my experimental gif edits (shown in the post previously), but even just taking on these simple moving-image tasks makes me feel like this is definitely an area I'd love to pursue further in future projects. The prospect of bringing ideas to life- almost quite literally!- through the use of video and animation seems like a really interesting way of communicating my ideas.
Finally, I wish I'd been able to capture some of the people's reactions and expressions when they came to the bus stop and saw what I was doing there- I had some great comments from total strangers, and it was a really fun thing to do!
I hope this little clip gives a tiny taster of how my flowers looked in location however. A place to stop- and bloom!

Gifs for 'Stop & Bloom' project

I wish I'd blogged my processes all through this current project- I've had so many ideas and references and directions to look into, it would have been great to have an accessible record of all that here. I'll just have to make this my aim for next year's projects!

But for now, I thought I'd upload the gifs I created as part of my idea development and exploration for my unit 3 interiors/exteriors/spatial brief. I wanted to play with colours and a sense of movement in the patterns I was creating, and the gif format was a fun way to do so. My project is all about bringing colour/imagination/fantasy through floral imagery to the urban environment of the bus stop on my road. For my final outcome I constructed lots of paper flowers, and made them into an installation for the community at the bus stop. I created digital patterns from my photography of these paper flowers, and then used the prints to visualise a pattern render onto the bus shelter as well. 'Stop & Bloom' seems like a good name for my project.... I let my imagination run wild with the simple floral imagery of the flowers I found in the bus stop garden, and tried to create outcomes that would really make people STOP at the bus stop, and smile at the 'blooming' (!) floral installations around them.

So, here are the developmental gifs that I created along the way: