I am unsure whether to pursue these designs as a repeat or a placement print... I could do both? Is this a professional way of creating a collection of prints though?

I am unsure about the background colours of my designs, I have experimented with changing the colours after seperating them in AVA which has helped me answer my questions. I think I am going to have a variety of dark and light backgrounds with dark and light shapes on top.

I am starting to think further about how the design will fit onto the body. I still like the idea of having splices of skin showing in the shape of the components in my designs as this links with the idea of negative space. I am unsure whether to have panels of my design on the garment rather than covering the whole of the body.
 I have been using photoshop to quickly see the design on the body by just creating a negative stencil, so that the design comes through from underneath- this helps me consider scale and how the design works as a garment.  I need to thin further about the context and whether it will go and who would where it... what is my audience or "muse" who would wear it? I have also been hand drawing outfits, using a layout pad and a body template to help create shapes that fit on to the body. Using my negative space drawings has helped me connect the shapes together to build up a garment to then apply my drawings into.

Today, I masked off areas of the large scale prints using masking tape and newsprint. This would mean that the background of the drawings would then gain colour, complimenting the bold design on top. I aimed to skew the screen slightly, so that the print was off centre and didn't line up so that this made an interesting design.

I found that this was fairly difficult due to the large screens I had to use,  it initially went wrong after using a squeegee that was not washed properly, meaning I had a pink line down my drawing. I tried again on another drawing, this still didn't go to plan as I found that the paper was to thin meaning that the water content made the paper curl and crease.

I used thicker paper and also use pigment, this seemed to work more successfully but I still found that this didn't work as I hoped.

Today I played with cad embroidery onto my fashion samples that have been sublimated with collaged papers (also using cut out resists). I layered some pieces of laser cut fabrics and knit on top of the printed fabrics and secured with vilene. I created some CAD designs using scans and drawings on photoshop but also found it useful to hand draw the design straight onto the Generations software. I found that this created cleaner lines and also shortened the clean up time of the design.

I designed  fairly simply shapes, just keeping the outline so that the the shape wasn't filled as I didn't want block colour or block stitch on my print as I thought this would take away the simplicity.

 I still feel that the CAD was unsuccessful in some ways, this may have been down to the choice of stick length and density but also the colour choice and positioning of the stitching. If I could do it again, I would use neutral colour thread and loosen the stitches by changing the density even more as well as working on less white fabrics (changing the ratio of colours).

layering the laser cut fabrics, that were sublimated

before the fabrics were stitched into

From yesterdays print session and tutorial with Nick, I realised I should change my colour palette by adding in some more neutral shades, exploring tone of colour more and using neutral browns/nudes/pinks as backgrounds. This means I must either create some more printed papers in the print room to further develop my colour palette. I need to do this by referring to further colours found on the street. I want to find some more grey tonal shades to suggest sophistication.

I also want to further refine the colours in my fashion projects, well aware that the design process should be starting very soon. I need to ensure that I include more neutrals in this project too. So that the colours that are present are pops of colour.

My tutorial with nick about all projects has made me realise that I am over complicating things and necessarily matter. I also have realised that the things that have taken the longest are not necessarily the most successful.

Also I need to change the colours with my interior designs, I knew they weren't working but couldn't understand why, nick suggested to change the colours to more neutrals and also play about with the idea of shadow (floor and wall context idea). He also made it clear to me that the idea of the magnetic wall panels was unnecessary, and did not fit with the the context. The panels would have had to be on such a large scale which would not have worked. I showed Nick the magnetic board with the panels or formica printed panels. Although time and money was spent on this, I feel as if this wasn't wasted. This has helped me understand the structure of the wooden panels.

I am pleased with how Nick responded to my fashion project and he is liking the colours of these and the designs. This is what made em realise that you don't have to sample to be so literal with ideas, not every idea has to be tried out but can just be suggested not necessarily demonstrated- abit like the magnetic formica for my Interior Project.

I have the CAD booked for tomorrow, so I now need to reflect on the ideas and thoughts from this tutorial and build on them, developing my designs and samples. I need to take time designing and planning the CAD because of the length of time it takes to complete in order to make the most of my time. I am going to use cad to stitch outlines of shapes from my drawings to attach other shapes which are the bi product of my laser cutting session yesterday.

Today I have been experimenting with A1 scale using cut outs and negative spaces from photographs of my found, organised objects. I struggled initially with the size difference and found it hard to use colour in this size- especially when most of the A1 papers were white- I had some pre coloured ones but now I am not to sure on the overly textured coloured big size papers. I tried to work with the white papers and I thought it worked quite well, the colours really popped against the pale background and the shapes looked cleaner and more refined than my previous drawings. Nick mentioned to work back into these drawings with screen printing, blocking and masking out the areas I had already applied college and colour, then slightly skewing the screen to create white areas and coloured areas around the design.

After spending the afternoon drawing large, we had an AVA session where I aimed to learn further colour separation techniques. I found this so helpful as my drawings are fairly easy to tonally separate  and is useful to do this to see the drawings/designs in different ways.

I also prepared for laser cutting on illustrator, creating shapes to be cut out to create cut out negative space pieces. I used the shapes from my drawings and prints to then duplicate the shapes in the print. I also prepared for CAD which I have booked for Friday.

Today I used sublimation papers to cut up, create resists and print onto fabric. I used polyester cotton for this as I felt that this was the most suitable, it was stiff enough but also draped ok and obviously contained polyester so that the sublimation process could work. I used freezer paper and other papers to resist areas, carrying on the idea of negative space.
I also printed on the polyester knits from the domestic, using plastics to fuse on top of this to then able me to cut out shapes from this using a craft knife. (shown in video below)

This makes me think that I could use the laser cut fabrics (that is booked for the near future) to resist and then apply the print on to the other fabric. I will fulfil this idea after the laster cutting session.

I am visiting York tomorrow for a family trip which means my whole weekend will be busy meaning that I will not get anything done, I was hoping to get further with my research report but I know that this is not realistic. I am going to have to make time of this in the week.

Having already researched Jane Bowler for my interior project after experimenting with materials in order for me to gain some interesting prints and drawings, I learnt more about her at todays lecture. I found her ideas and relaxed attidtue inspiring and learn that it's who you know and making contacts that is vital. I also recognised that she makes a lot of garments that are necessarily wearable  which has made me think further about my fashion project- maybe I could make a statement piece that isn't particularly practical? In relation to my Research Report, Jane mentioned that she has started making earrings out of the materials she is using by connecting them together and selling them in Topshop to connect to a different type of audience and demographic. This has made me think about how you don't have to focus on just one audience when creating products or garments.

After the lecture a couple of us from the Craft Co group, took the promo photograph using my camera and tripod. We took various photos using the tools each one of us will be using to suggest the outcomes we will exhibiting and to hopefully cause some questioning for what we are making.

I also had my research report draft feedback with Jill, which has reassured me that my writing isn't as bad as I thought and has made me realised that I just need to continue with it in order to gain further feedback from it from my Sam Epps tutorial.

Today I visited London with my housemate who studied Fashion at NUA. We visited various farbic shops and then visited the Material Lab so I could study formica and other materials for my interior project.

There was lots of inspiration here, there were samples of Formica that I picked up as ell as other laminate flooring brands. I also found a designer who used wooden shapes and magnets which inspired me to use magnets in my work. I could use magnets to change the compositions in the designs in the hostel.

I also visited Liberty and found inspiration from here on their floors. They used a parquet design with multiple colours and also multiple printed materials. They also had plain pieces of wood in the design to break up the pattern.

walls in the material lab

Bobenna design

liberty floor

liberty floor

I learnt how to machine knit this week, in hope that this would help me further develop sampling for my fashion project. David taught me the basics of domestic machine knitting and the taught me the duibed knitting. I found this so difficult and time consuming but I am happy to continue to learn this process, I started then creating windows of empty space by casting off then knitting then casting on again.

I started using the domestic machine further and using white polyester yarn so that I could print on top of this.

I am unsure whether this process is worth my time and whether I should continue doing this, I want to create the empty areas and negative space in knit or fabric. I could try this further by using other cut out processes like laser cutting and bonding other materials together and cutting out areas or printing on top?

initial inspiration for this idea

my sampling using fine wool on the dubbed

casting off areas to create negative space

After volunteering for Craft Co, we had our initial meeting and have been thinking about how this could co-inside with my current projects. I need to make a quality product which is unique and intriguing as well as showing my ability, skills and innovation. I want this to be an opportunity to test ideas and get my name out there. I am initially thinking of using my wooden planks as an idea and some how making these into jewellery, coasters or tiles. I was thinking maybe the print on these items could tesselate and match up or maybe not match up? A problem I might come across is fitting this into my schedule as I did not initially fit this in to my timetable so I need to find out how make time for this project. I am excited about this opportunity and I think it will beneficial and link with my research report.

I have had such a hectic weekend, doing uni work almost every spare minute I have had. On friday I spent the afternoon indigo dyeing some tote bags that I aim to sell at the Christmas Market- which didn't go too successfully. So on Saturday I spent a little while trying to decide what to do with them, I have ironed the ones that worked better but some were very pale, which means I will have to re dye them, meaning I will lose the shibori pattern!! I plan to make some labels (to patch on the front) using sublimation this week in preparation for Thursday where I hand them in. I have spent all of today (Sunday) trying to get through some of my research report, which again, hasn't been particularly successful. I am finding it so overwhelming, as I know how big it has to be at the end. Because I have such a large amount of research, it is so difficult to be selective and edit the most accurate and relevant information which I can analyse well. Using Pat Francis' advice, I have been trying to WIDEL but this is hard when I have goals to meet and practical work to do too!
I have been drawing for the fashion project, mainly my photographing collections of objects then editing them using photoshop to develop them creating more "drawings". From the sticker stencil idea from Nick, I have been using spray paint over objects to create negative space drawings. I quite like this concept and have further developed this by printing out the developed photographs and used a craft knife to cut out the spaces, leaving the negative, outer space behind. I have been using both parts of the cut out creating negative and positive space when spray painting over them. Tomorrow morning I am booked into the print room, to play with resist on screen with some stencil thats i have created using acetate and card.
This evening I have been researching into colour palettes, on WGSN, tumblr and instagram to create a solid selection of colour palettes to help me tomorrow in the print room. I plan to print mainly on papers but I will use some fabrics too- I am thinking about using the CAD embroider soon to develop my designs in to samples. This might not be the path I choose but its an idea- especially after attending the advanced CAD workshop the other day.

After mind mapping and researching this weekend I had some initial ideas which evolved around the idea of found objects as I touched on this in my interior project and wanted to take this futher. I had a little look in the library and found and incredible book called Everything We Touch by Paula Zuccotti. IT IS AMAZING. The whole concept is brilliant and truly intriguing. I think I am intrigued by it because it explores humans in a specific way just by looking at their objects which gives a small insight into their everyday life, it feels like you understand and know the person just by looking at the gorgeous photo of the objects laid on the white back drop. The photos are taken with so much care and are considered well which has inspired me to do a similar thing to get my fashion project started.
In the group crit today, Nick also liked the book and made me realise the different ways the objects were photographed. Some are in a grid format, some in a more collaged fashion. I love how all the objects are photographed together in one go which gives you a bigger picture and a different insight compared to if they were photographed individually.
Nick and the others also seemed excited about my initial ideas. He mentioned about artists who dismantle and crush found objects and things the only exist in the moment? He also said about photographing my personal items together in one go but also trying to photograph then individually. I was unsure how I would transfer these drawings (or photographs) into designs for fashion. Nick mentioned about photographing my clothes against a white background then printing these onto another piece of clothing and skewing it slightly so it was shifted out of place, which I thought was interesting. I could tape my objects to walls or tape outfits onto walls or even project an outfit onto somebody. Which could be interesting for final designs. I said that I wanted to tell a narrative in my work- a bit like the book I was inspired by. Some peers in the group mentioned about asking people about their belongings or even asking a certain amount of people what they had in their pockets. Nick mentioned that this could narrow down the path of my project which I completely understood when he said this. As most people don't have important, meaningful objects in their pockets these days, so I would end up with snotty tissues, pennies and old receipts. I still want to develop the idea of getting others involved (as almost a human experiment), I just need to think further on this idea.
To get me started though I will begin photographing my personal objects in a taxonomy style, looking at different combinations of objects creating collections of colour, material and function. Nick also mentioned about using things as stencils as resist (like the bi product of a sticker book) and using spray paint to get the negative b. I will use this concept and try to think of doing this with objects that I have.

Its time to gather my designs/drawings/sampling and think about designing the final pieces. I have many mini designs on wood and I have started manipulating imagery/collage/drawing/material experimentation on photoshop and overlaying these on a scan of the wood I was using, to quickly visualise the design on the wood. I am not planning on using the wood as a final material. I was going to use the wood as part of the design as the texture and colour pay off works really well, I plan to apply this to floor and wall vinyl for the final samples. I  will show this by presenting the design on paper then suggesting the vinyl that it would be used on, in a hostel context. I need to think about how I present my designs- do I have the floor and wall design as one whole design with spaces of plain wood/design in between to break up the design and pattern so it sits better in situ? I have done some visual research to help me decide with this (below). I think hints of the design and pattern would work really well as a statement floor and wall design piece- almost like an installation but on the wall and floor so it has more purpose.

I have printed out lots small wood designs to then build up a whole floor and wall design physically rather than using photoshop, just so I can get a feel of how this would look. I have been photographing them but I could stick them down or even put the design against different flooring and walls to see how they would look in context. I much prefer being hands on and my work having a handmade look which I guess links to my research report. I try my best to use little digital process because I like the unique bespoke concept of handmade work. However, digital process doesn't mean that they won't be bespoke and have handmade process too. My final designs will be digital but will be made up of many handmade processes to get to the final design.
I have also used the physical printed wood pieces to create larger parquet designs to see how they fit together- I quite like how some of the designs/colour carries on to the wooden piece next to it as it looks like they fit together well- I could intentionally do this on photoshop so the design flows but still has a patchwork vibe to it?

playing with overlaying and stacking wooden design- using the idea of collage

sublimated wood designs placed into to a "sort of" parquet design

using the printed wood to replicate a interior space- looking at floor and wall- continuous

sublimated wood designs placed into to a "sort of" parquet design

sublimated wood designs with melted tape placed into to a "sort of" parquet design

close up of small cut out of scans/photoshopped designs placed into to a "sort of" parquet design

close up of small cut out of scans/photoshopped designs placed into to a "sort of" parquet design

close up of small cut out of scans/photoshopped designs placed into to a "sort of" parquet design