2nd Year Uni work!

After forgetting for 2 years that I had a blog, I've decided to restart it! I have just finished my first out of two semesters in my 2nd year at Heriot Watt University and so I will take account of my work done so far!

Small embroidery by Frieda Oxenham

Photo transferred onto fabric with 3D button effect 

My first class was "sketchbook enquiry project" we had to choose at least one textile designer and one artist and produce a sketchbook inspired by their work. i didn't like this project - I'm not going to lie! the lecturer was very nice but what she said never seemed to help/inspire me. Frieda Oxenham was my chosen designer, she is based in the Scottish borders and is a quilt artist. i saw her exhibition in Peebles and it was amazing! she is inspired by nature mainly and as well as quilting her pieces she does a lot of embellishment - embroidery and beading, not to mention transferring photographs onto fabric. My chosen artist was Beatrix Potter, i love her water colour drawings of animals and the natural colours she uses. i tried to combine these two themes of quilts and animals together. To be honest i didn't do a good job, i wasn't attached to the project and so i didn't put much effort into it.
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My next project was "interior design" we had to choose a interior design brand to design for and also keep out sketchbook project as our inspiration... Great =[
I chose Jane Churchill as my brand as her company designed children's interiors (i would really like to design in the children's market when i finish uni!) We had to produce many black and white motifs inspired by our themes, and then had to use these motifs as templates to cut fabric out. we had to make little samples of our interior designs using fabrics and bondaweb. I HATE BONDAWEB! it is so fiddly! if the iron touches the glue then the glue sticks to the iron and then the iron sticks to everything! the only way to get it off is to use vinegar! i used nearly all of my flatmates vinegar! we had to choose two designs and make them 50" x 50" and then do another 2 of the designs in different colour schemes 25"x25". Here are my designs:

 

 Here is a picture of my studio space:

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My final class of the semester was "Art Pieces" we had to get inspiration from.... yes you guessed it! our sketchbook project! i was told not to use my complicated motifs but to keep to the simple buttons and vegetables. i was getting a bit annoyed at this point. i was told to do print rather than constructed textiles, and yet it had been 9 weeks into the semester and we hadn't gone in!

For this project we had to produce textured fabrics via printing methods flock, foil, pigment and puff. i was delighted as i could use quilting techniques and embroidery in my pieces to create texture. and then the bomb was dropped....

we had to choose one of out pieces to put into concrete! our final piece was to be used as a cast to make a textured concrete brick! everyone in my class was horrified.

Here is a picture of me finally in the print room!

printing is hard as it seems like everyone in the printing room knows what they're doing! i always seem to be stuck for inspiration. Here is a picture of my final work for the project:

Here is me and my friends making our concrete casts and the concrete mixture:

We don't find out our results for our work until January 2012, but hopefully it will come soon! we also don't get to see our final brick until then either! Speak soon :D x