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