Kirstie's Handmade Britain

Last night I watched Kirstie's Handmade Britain and it was the second episode of the series and it was all about paper crafts. The idea of the show is that Kirstie travels around Britain entering different craft and baking competitions. This week she was in Wales and entering into a craft competition, where she made a embroidered card, a paper bird and some paper rings. 
On the show she has some help from artists, and crafters and helping her with the embroidered card was one of my favourite artists Claire Coles, she used a selection of old wallpapers and fabrics to create the card and then sewed into using a sewing machine with a  darning foot to create the fluid and flowing lines. 
She also created a paper rose ring, with the help of paper artist Phiona Richards, using paper from an old book and a quilling tool (I will have to get one), it was really simple but they looked really pretty and vintage.
Here are some pictures from the channel 4 website; 

Rose Ring, Inspired by Phiona Richards

Embroidered Card, Inspired by Claire Coles 

Rose Rings, Inspired by Phiona Richards 

You can watch the program back any time on the Channel 4 website

Wild West Final Prints

My second brief at uni was to design six fashion prints with the theme of the Wild West. We had to use a mixture of Photoshop and also Illustrator for this brief, so it helped having some lessons in photoshop because I had only used it in the past for editing photographs. 

I decided that I wanted to design a collection of prints for womens fashion, mainly targeted at the high street, because in my research I found that a lot of high street shops had already included the wild west and native patterns in their recent collections; such as H&M, Urban Outfitters and also online on ASOS. 

I started my own work by going to Manchester Museum and taking photographs of lizards, snakes and native clothing, I then used these photographs to draw from as part of my primary research. I then looked into fashion designers and shop collections that have used he Wild West as an inspiration, such as D&G, Hermes and Ralph Lauren, to help get inspiration and ideas from. I used the original drawings scanned them into Photoshop and manipulated them and changed them to create the prints. My prints were inspired by the wild west with the skulls, lizards and snakes, and also native patterns, such as dreamcatchers and feathers, and also cowboys with the horseshoe print. 

Here are some of the final prints; 

Manchester Museum

I love Manchester Museum, and I went there to take some photo's of the lizards, snakes and native textiles as part of my research for the Wild West brief I was given at Uni. I then printed out the photo's, next I drew them as part of my primary research, and some of the drawings were used for my final prints.
Here are a few of the photo's.

Wild West

A few weeks ago I was given my next brief, the wild west. I had to create six different surface prints for fashion each in two colours ways, all with the theme wild west. I had to use mainly photoshop and Illustrator, I found it better than the first brief (interiors) because I had more confidence in using Illustrator and some more lessons in Photoshop were also useful. I started the brief and my designs by drawing things from the wild west such as; cowboy hats, boots, cactus , lizards, snakes, feathers and guns, I used a fountain pen and ink to draw them with to get a scratchy and rough effect.                                       

   

  

                             

H&M

I'm a huge fan of H&M clothes, but recently they have introduced H&M at home, their are collections for the kitchen, living space, bedroom and the bathroom, including ben linen, cushions, curtains, towels, and storage. The collections include many different prints, textures, fabrics and colours. I've not had the chance to see any of the collections in the shops, but I have had a good look online.

These are my favourite designs because they remind me of the interiors brief that I have just finished. I like how the imagery on the item links in with the room that it would be in, for example the shower curtain with the bottle of toothpaste and the toothbrush would usually be found the in bathroom. I also like the antique and vintage feel that each piece has and the simple colour palettes used in each design.  

 

The Sketchbook Project

I really enjoy creating unusual and intricate skecthbooks (although I usually don't have the time to create them for the briefs) and I was looking into different sketchbook artists and came across the Sketchbook project. The project is run by Art House Co-op, which only started five years ago, and is designed to bring art to the masses. Any artist can sign up, it costs $25 dollars, and then you are sent a specific sketchbook, and you also have to choose a theme form the ones listed or are sent a random theme, and then you can start! Each sketchbook has a barcode, when scanned shows the artists name and details, and will even text the artist when someone is looking through their sketchbook.

Once all the sketchbooks have been collected they then go on a world tour, exhibited in galleries all over the world. In the past they have sent over 28,839 to 94 countries and 10,000 sketchbooks were sent back completed and all were exhibited. All the books over the years are kept at the Brooklyn Art Library where they have a permanent home.
Time is running out and you have to sign up by the end of October, and the tour starts next year, and will be in London sometime in 2012.

I think that it's a great idea and would be a fantastic way to have a piece of work in a big exhibition, although I don't have the time to sign up for the next couple of years it's something that I would like to get involved with in the future! And I would like to go to the exhibition in 2012.

Jane Blease Design

Also at the Craft Fair I also saw the work of Jane Blease a artist who specialises in lighting using plywood, acrylic and veneer to create lampshades, jewellery and framed artwork with intricate embroidery detail. I think that the embroidery detail was a great idea because it i a good way to use light because the light shines through the holes with are placed in pattens and shapes around the lampshade. Her inspirations are nature, landscapes and the outdoors, all of her work is based around organic both in the designs and the materials she uses. 

Jennifer Collier

I first saw the work of Jennifer Collier at the Craft Fair in Manchester, she specialises in using recycled papers to create delicate and intricate sculptures. Using papers such as maps, stamps, old books, letters and wallpapers. Using a range of different papers she creates interesting sculptures such as; cameras, typewriters, shoes, dresses, sewing machines, and tea sets. Each piece is unique using different papers and different techniques, like stitching, wax entrapment and layering creating unique and delicate sculptures, creating a vintage and classic feeling. 

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

On Friday the 21st of October I went to the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair at Spinningfields in Manchester. It was the first time that I have been to the Craft Fair and I was really impressed with the selection of different artists and designers there, it included jewellery, pottery, ceramics, glass, lighting, textiles and paper work. 

I found it a great place to go for inspiration and new artists and designers to look into and research more, it also gives an idea of the level and standard I have to achieve myself. 

Study Designs

All of the designs were created using Adobe Illustrator, which I had not used before, so I found it a bit of a challenge, however the use of Photoshop in the past was an advantage and some lessons on Illustrator. There had to be two different designs in two different colour ways. These designs were for the Study, I found this room the most challenging because it was a difficult room to research because many studies are painted in block colours and don't have many patterns or prints. I also found the colour palettes for this room the most difficult and challenging out of the three designs. I decided to look at paperclips because it is something that I have not seen before and I thought that it would be different and also fit in with the theme of the room and what the room is mainly used for. 
Here are my designs;

Kitchen Designs

Another one of the rooms I looked as was the kitchen, I decided to look into kitchen utensils because they are a common object in the kitchen and would translate well onto wallpaper, blinds, or tea towels. These designs were inspired by Lucian Day, and were probably my favourite because I liked the colour palettes and thought that they were most suitable and fitting for the room.
Here are my designs;

Bathroom Designs

As part of my first brief for Uni we were asked to create designs for different rooms of the house, Bathroom, Study, Kitchen, Living Room, and the Dining Room. Out of those five rooms we were asked to choose three rooms, I decided on the Bathroom, Kitchen and Study because I thought they they would be iteresting rooms to design for and also a challenge, especially the study. 
For the Bathroom I based my designs on a hand mirror, because it is an item linked with the room. 
Here are my designs;