Due to the time constraints and the unusual theme of our Fashion Collaboration Project I have been having difficulty with drawing. Searching through pinterest and referring to our group moodboard I have experimenting with imprints of materials. I have used printing inks to create a peachy nude tone, rolling them onto lino to making interesting mono prints. I varied the thickness of the inks in some areas to get an uneven texture, scraping the ink off and laying it back down again, smearing it in different directions. Texture is a vital part in our project as there isn't much pattern, this is why "drawing" was initially difficult. I have experienced with transparent materials such as tracing paper, acetate, cellophane, brown tape and melted bubble wrap, layering these with skin colours to replicate our idea.

I have also used our concept of losing identity in 2036 by editing images of peoples faces on photoshop. Smudging and blurring their faces out and pixilating their eyes and mouth. I have layered faces up so different faces with different skin tones are merging together, I managed to do this quite simply by playing around with the lasso tool and the opacity. Playing around with the brushes on photoshop has also allowed to me paint over their eyes and mouth, showing our idea of having to cover eyes and mouth for security and identity reasons. I really like how the paint stroke on the eyes are slightly translucent which is exactly our idea, be able to see through the second skin but not entirely so eye recognition will not work.




I have also used photography as a drawing tool, using the sunlight to cast shadows onto my skin. I used a variety of materials with holes and negative space in, such as, mesh and anti slip material. This  backs up our idea of embedding a brand into the second skin to gain back identity in 2036. I created pattern on my skin and also pushed shapes into my skin leaving an imprint, also demonstrating this idea.






I have really enjoyed replicating our idea for 2036 as I love the concept and ideas behind textiles and design. It feels like my work has a purpose and it explains an idea without using words. I love using photography as  drawing tool, next I will combine the photographs I took of the patterns in my skin with mono printing and other materials .I might even try to print y images out onto acetate and layer them manually instead of using photoshop?



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Our group has been slightly behind at fully deciding on a theme four our Fashion and textiles collaboration project. I have been unwell since Monday evening so I feel like I've missed out on this week completely!!! We met up on Thursday briefly to discuss everybody's research and their favourite ideas. Luckily, our group members are very pro-active and had so many ideas which was brilliant!! Combining ideas of spray on fabric, seamless garments, technology and communication and a "second skin" trend from WGSN we had a loose idea of our theme or "story" for 2036!

Jess talked about how technology and privacy will become corrupt in 20 years as there are already more and more extreme password protection technologies by brand such as Apple and Microsoft, such a finger print and face recognition.
Louise talked about covering of the face and hands like the future trends in WGSN.
Nina showed visuals of imprints into the skin made by zips etc, which we all thought was an interesting idea.
I initially found spray on cloth in a book called Material Matters which, linked well to everybody's ideas!!!
We agreed to look into latex and neutral colours, and further investigate in to a range of skin tones, creating a "second skin".

After having a tutorial with Jill, she said we needed to refine our idea further and it wasn't clear to her exactly what we aimed to do. She said to create  story of what happened in 2036 which made the fashion change, which is a great idea. We sat down afterwards for a while, taking it in turns to explain what idea we liked the best, we managed to combine all of our ideas and made up our story.

In 2036, internet security will corrupt and al personal data will be public, eye, smile and finger print recognition will be everywhere meaning that there is no escape of personal invasion. Every body is rebelling, realising that the internet, and technology is taking over, meaning humans aren't safe anymore. Health risks are high as many infections can no longer be treated with antibiotics and everybody's immune systems are at an all time low. For protection against data invasion and germs and infections, an extra "skin" is worn made from a frosted, translucent (latex like) material which acts as a barrier against fraud data theft and bad bacteria. Everybody looks the same, and person identity is lost as the face is covered, people begin to customise their extra skin embedding objects, creating imprints and manipulating it to be able distinguish one another.

Being able to replicate and demonstrate this idea will be a challenged, especially in less than a week!!! We have began to source materials and have booked into the print room on Monday to experiment with translucent binders and clear foil.

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I had a great opportunity to attend the private view open studios, at the forum yesterday, as Aviva offered to add me as her guest! Hooray! It was so great to see all the wonderful talented artists in and around Norfolk. It was so inspiring to see how their artwork was priced and how it was displayed/presented. I stood back and spectated for a while, taking a real notice on who's art work was looked at and complimented the most. I thought about the positive aspects of the pieces and what was good about them and how I could apply this to my work. I would love to feature in the open studios one day and I am so pleased that I had the opportunity to see what it is all about!

We were given our brief this morning and put into our groups of 4. In our group there is only one fashion student, Louisa and three textile students, Nina, Jess and me.
We sat down and discussed our interests and our strengths and weaknesses and went off to research materials and further technologies. We plan to meet tomorrow at 3pm, which gives everybody time to come back with some research

I searched the library for books investigating materials and technical/future textiles.
I also looked in to predictions for events happening in 2036 and searched through WGSN looking at trends.
We also thought it would be a great idea to see what people thought would be in trend now, in 1996 (20 years ago) to see what kind of things they thought of and the reasoning behind it.

Initial Ideas

Hooray! So pleased that I have been awarded a commendation for the Bradford Textiles Society competition! It has made me want to enter more competitions and inspired me to get involved and get noticed.

We completed our final designs and our context to go with it and show it applied to the bus interior. As a group we a pleased with our results and I am happy that we have our 10 final design conclusions.

Classic Stagecoach designs

Gold Stagecoach Designs

Eco Stagecoach Designs

As we have had difficulties and problems with sampling for bus seating, I wanted to at least have something tactile to show. I really enjoy sublimation printing so, I laid down some disperse dyes on to brown paper in the Stagecoach colour scheme. After they had dried I cut them up and began to collage, creating non repeating designs, almost using this as a drawing tool. I used my photographs and previous drawings o the market to guide me with he shapes and lines. I used masking tape on the back to construct the collaged pieces, as well as pritt stick (which didn't work so well). I really tried to ensure that all the shapes fit together like the drawings and initial designs I have already created. I ensured there was not white space by overlapping them slightly at the back and taping them in place.

I heat pressed the paper designs onto cotton polyester, as the colours still come out vividly but the material has a better quality than polyester. The samples were very small, and much like mini drawings on fabric- which I quite like. These samples were no way trying to be final repeat designs for a bus seat as this was just not doable. I will attach these little samples into my book to show development of my drawings. Where I had used the pritt stick on some pieces, it has left markings on the fabric which has taught me not to use it again!!! oops!!!

I could maybe do this same process but on a larger scale, the only problem would be having to repeat them? I have used some of the small samples as inspiration for my final design conclusions. I wish we had some more time to create more designs and sampling but we simply do not.

Collaged designs on brown paper

Small samples on cotton polyester. The markings around the shapes on some samples are from the pritt stick! I need to be more careful when choosing my materials that I work with.

Bigger samples, the middle was constructed free hand under the heat press, I did not prep this before hand and this made me realise I must stick them together in a considered manner so that there were less white gaps.

I'm currently finding it really difficult working in a group, it seems as if everything is taking so much longer than it should do and ideas and deadlines are not being met even though they have been agreed on. As we are large group, finding time for everybody to meet at the same for a decent amount of time is proving difficult. We have to have our design conclusions for every bus completed (with context) by Friday for our group presentation and it is hard to just communicate via WhatsApp. There have been some members in our group who have met the deadlines and communicated really well even if there were issues with meeting, which has been a positive aspect and proves that it can be done!

The sub group who are working on the Eco Bus have struggled to keep to the time constraints and the deadlines we set to ensure we could refine/develop the designs if needed. Over the whole project we haven't seen much of the Eco groups work as the theme of their drawing kept on changing and suggestions made the other group members weren't always taken into consideration. It would have been ideal if we meet up more often and review everybody's work as time went on; but members forgot their work continuously and we struggled to meet up frequently.

There hasn't been a clear leader of the group and this may be the problem. I have tried to give people roles when creating the presentation (so that the work load is spread over everyone) without taking over too much as I am not naturally a leader. I am just concerned that I will end up doing all of it when we are rushing to get it done on Thursday night!!! All I can do is get on with for my subgroup and complete the tasks I have been set and make it clear to other members that the work must be done swiftly.

Chloe and I have completed the 4 designs for the Classic bus and have worked on the context together using photoshop. This has been doable as we live together and can sit together and discuss what works well and what doesn't. There should be three of the group members working on the Classic bus but Chloe and I seem to be the only ones doing so which has been slightly difficult as we didn't want to leave members out but time is running out!!!

Stagecoach Classic Bus Finals Designs and Context

Aviva Leigh runs workshops for mainly weaving and dyeing. She has a 3D weaving workshop scheduled in a couple of weeks time and invited me along to her home studio to help her sample and experiment! She wanted to experiment with willow and wire using a circle loom and basket weaving techniques to then create a 3D woven piece. I have never used a circle loom before and I was really glad I tried it out. It was a long process but worked well, instead of a rigid heddle or a table loom, you had to manually weave the weft in and out of the warp. As we were using wire in the warp, it was much trickier than just simply cotton or wool, as it was stiff and hard to get the weft underneath. In the weft we used recycled materials such as found string and cord from the beach which had a lovely worn quality to it.

We sat looking out onto the river drinking tea and chatting whilst weaving away, which was wonderful, she has so much knowledge and it really inspires me. The day went so fast and we didn't get all of the weaving done but I have bought the circle loom home to continue to play this week.

I would love to continue to use techniques similar to this in the future, I especially love the idea of using found materials from the beach and using basket weaving techniques.