It's Been A While..

It's been a busy few weeks trying to get on top of everything ready for my degree! I've spent hours embroidering, designing and making and now the end is in sight. Recently a friend took photos of my work for my digital portfolio so now pretty much everything is done and its just tweaking a few bits to make them complete.

I was so pleased with the photos as it has finally made it feel like I actually have work. The pieces that I have been working have been running with my theme of pastels shades and flowers; hand drawn and photos. 

Here's a selection of what I've been doing:

Untitled

Daisies

Daisies - Detail

I am now in the process of trying to work out how I want my work to be displayed at the degree show and for final marking. I will try to remember to take a photo of my work all set up! I am going for a Vintage Haberdashery look by having an old cabinet filled with old sewing bits, embroidery's and books. I am then mixing this with my work which has all been done on mainly old scarves as I like to reuse things within my work. The idea of it is to have this cross-over of old and new and of getting people to question which bits new and which bits old.

Inspired Hand Drawings

From having a go at cutting out flower heads to use a design, this inspired me to do more drawings. I have been taking more pictures of flowers of different varieties to mix up what I have, here's some of the more recent photographs..

Carnation 

Chrysanthemum 

Lily

I really love how removing the background from these flowers changes the impact of the image. I thought about trying these out with my own hand drawn designs. Some of the drawings I have done are based on the flowers I have recently taken pictures of and some are from previous photos.

Hand Drawn Flowers on Fabriano Paper

Florals

After the last Blog post, I looked a bit closer at the particular designer behind the beautiful floral dresses that have inspired my work; the designer Christopher Kane.

I loved the way that he used images of real flower heads to create a pattern for a fabric..

Spring/Summer 2012

S/S '12

I have already done drawings to a similar style, where I have just drawn the flower heads and really like the striking impact these had. I thought that I would have a go at using my own images of flowers to see how they would look. I had a look through all the flowers pictures that I have collected over the years and selected the best few that had whole flower heads. I then removed the backgrounds of them to leave just the shapes. To see what they would look like on fabric I printed off the flowers, cut them out and scanned them with a variety of different fabrics behind, still keeping with the pastel colour pallet I have chosen to use.

Green Stripe Flower

Yellow Flower

I would like to now have a go at combining these with my drawings of these flowers to see how the hand drawn and digital works together. It was my birthday earlier this week and I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers so they will be making an appearance in work in the future.

Influences

Its got to that time again when I'm feeling a little bit lost. When this happens I like to look back through my research folder and point out to myself which artists are influencing me at the moment. I usually find that it helps me to focus more clearly on what I am doing and I usually come across something that inspires me to do more!

The first of those artists is Georgia O'Keeffe, I know at first she doesn't seem that relevant but I find her work a great inspiration. It is her floral pieces that I am most interested in. She has a way of painting flowers that captures their beauty in a way that isn't always completely accurate but you know exactly what that flower is.

Hibiscus with Plumeria

This way of not painting exactly as the object is, is something that I have been trying to translate into my own work. Through doing lots of blind drawings has also helped this as it has made me feel more confident about drawing. This is an important element for me, the drawings, and if I'm to create something unique then I just need to keep on doing more and more of them.

This may not be an Artist but has a huge influence on what I am doing. The Collection S/S 2012 The Vogue Edit was a pull out Magazine from one of their issues early this year. The keys trends for Spring/Summer that I picked up on were Florals and Pastel shades. This is the main theme within my work. Choosing to work with these 2 main areas has helped me a lot to be able to refine what I am doing. I like to look through the S/S Magazine as I find it very useful to get ideas on different patterns and layouts. I think that I will have another flick through later to see if it can give me and more ideas about how I start using my own flowers.

Priscilla Jones is a Textiles Artist who's work I cam across about 3 or 4 years ago now at an exhibition at Walford Craft Mill. I instantly loved her work for its delicate nature and loose lines. I was delighted to be flicking through Embroidery Magazine (Nov/Dec 2011 issue) and came across her work featured in there. It had been a while since I'd looked at her work and was happy to be enjoying it once more. If you see any exhibitions of her work around, I would highly recommend!

Priscilla Jones

It's Bird Time

I also paint birds for my other subject and I have been really getting into painting them. I thought that I would update you with what I'm doing..

My idea now for art is to work with the stamps that I have bought and divide them into countries. I am then going to choose a bird native or found in that country and paint it alongside the country made of stamps. I am still looking at the idea of migration, so when I research a country if there is a bird that migrates between two of those countries I have stamps for I will probably do something with this.

I have been working mainly on a fairly large scale (well for me anyway!), roughly A3 sized pieces. I have recently just completed a mini series of birds and stamps of Britain. I am going to try and get these three pieces framed as I'd like to see them finished.

Robin

Wren

Blue Tit

At the moment I for once know what I am doing in Art, and enjoying it! Lets hope that the ideas hit me the same with Textiles soon...

Digital Prints

I have been working on some digital prints, I have now got 3 printed. I have enjoyed doing them as I have finally been getting my head around Photoshop. The first that I got printed was an A4 repeat of the hand drawn flower design that I posted about last time. The next are developed from this print where I have taken the rose from the design are put this into a half drop repeat.

I have taken the first print that I did and embellished back into it with hand embroidery. I have taken the time to split the threads down so that they aren't too thick and chosen a colour that matches the flower. Just to get an idea of what the embroidery looks like I have started off by just embroidering one of each flower. This is so that I can look at the type of stitches that would be suitable for each flower.

Digital Print on Cotton 

Here are the two Rose prints that I did..

Rose Design on Silk Georgette

Rose Design on Silk Cotton

I'm not really sure what I want to do with these prints yet; I might embroider the one on a coloured background to make it into a piece of textiles art that could be framed. With the other I might just cut it up and reorder the flowers to make a different pattern.

I was in a way, lucky enough to have extra copies of the first print due to smudges of ink across 2 of the. This has meant that I have had more to play with. My first thought was to have a go at ironing one of the extra prints onto bondaweb and cutting each of the flowers out individually.

Flowers Cut Out and Ironed onto Bondaweb

Flowers Laid Out

I really like the flowers just piled up or laid out. I can see the ones that are bagged up being as part of a set to make your own cushion or something along those lines....

Finding My Way

I think that I have finally found out what I really want to do and am now on a massive flow of getting things done. Through getting frustrated with the Disperse Dye Printer not working well for my prints, I decided that I would have a go at drawing a design that I could then just simply scan and have a go at digitally printing. 

Pen Sketches of Various Flowers

After I completed this drawing I felt really happy with the outcome that I had and it really gave me a lot of confidence about having a go at getting a print done. I had set myself a day when I was going to go up to University and attempt to get my designs printed. At first I thought choosing Friday 13th wouldn't be a bad thing, I got up and ready without anything going wrong and then I got to my car. I don't have the best luck with cars. A while a go someone knocked my wing mirror off and since then it has been carefully taped on and had no problems with it. Being parked on a road full of student houses was only really asking for disaster. Well anyway, I went out to the car to defrost it and found that my wing mirror  had come unclipped; me being weak couldn't push it back in. So after all my efforts of getting up early and ready to go up there, I couldn't. I had a tutorial booked for Tuesday where I was hoping to get help on my Digital Printing anyway so thought that I am better off leaving it now. 

I had a tutorial with my embroidery tutor and just from talking to her made me feel so much more confident about the work that I was doing. During the tutorial she gave me a quick run through on how to use Photoshop, only a few basic skills but it was enough to make me feel better about having a go. I then went to a Digital Print Refresher the following day and this just made me feel more relaxed about having a go. I have still yet to send anything to get printed but I have been busy working on my presentation. I'm going to another Refresher session on repeat pattern tomorrow so hopefully after that I will get printing!

In the mean time whilst trying to keep sane over writing my presentation I have had a go on the sewing machine to create a similar effect that I create through hand embroidery.

Machine Embroidery

Although this technique allows a much faster result than hand embroidery, I think, as the lines are solid it doesn’t quite have the same effect. I do think that this would be easy to try and overcome, simply by changing the colour of the top thread. Choosing a thread that matches the background may help to give the illusion of broken up lines like with the hand embroidery.

Hopefully next time I'll have some Digital Prints to show!

Prints Gone Wrong...

I had a go at doing some prints on the Disperse Dye Printer.. Not much of a success! Now this is probably down to the quality of my images or not leaving them under the heat press for long enough. I tried out 3 different images, all with the same problems.

Firstly I tried out printing 2 images of flowers onto fabrics. This was to get me used to the printer and to hopefully test out whether the technique would be right for what i wanted to do. Here's those 2 images:

As you can see, I had huge gaps in the fabric where the images just hadn't printed. I thought that really instead of wasting these that it would be a good idea to have a go at embroidery back in what was missing from the print. I thought that this would be a good idea, until I realised how long it would take to get done. I stuck with it though and am pleased with the results..

This then gave me the confidence to have a go at printing my own designs with the printer. I took the image of the large blind drawing that I previously posted about and had a go at printing it.. Again, another failed print.

Disperse Dye Print of Blind Drawing

As you can see, it hasn't come out as I would have liked. This is down to the paper that I originally drew on; as it had a slightly browny colour this has been hard to edit out. Also because of drawing the flowers with face paint has meant that there are gaps in the lines making it hard to be able to select just the flowers. Again, I didn't want to waste this print and so thought I might as well have ago at embroidering back in the flowers. This was even more time consuming than the last as there was a great deal of stopping and starting to try and follow the lines. 

Embellished with Hand Embroidery

Edited to form a Design

Now that I have embroidered back into the print I have been able to form a design ready to have a go at printing, either digitally or again on the Disperse Printer. I want to be able to now have a go at printing some designs digitally and so am going to continue to draw to create images that can be translated into print.

Large Blind Drawings

I wanted to have a go at some larger scale blind drawings so that I could explore the scale of the images and repeating them to make patterns. As I wanted to work on a bigger scale I thought it would be better to try using a different materials that would leave me with a thicker line. It took me a while to decide on what to use, when I came across a set of face paint crayons that I have and then had a go with them!

At first I was a bit scared of the size of paper that I was working on so started off doing a couple in materials that I felt comfortable with; pencil and coloured pencils. I liked the quality of line that the colour pencil gave but thought that the lines were too fine. I then had a go at using watercolour and biro but the watercolour was hard to use with the type of drawing as the paintbrush would run out of ink so you'd then look at the image to rejoin the brush. This is when I had a go with the face paint. I think out of all of them this is the one that gave the best results.

Large Blind Drawing on Lining Paper

(Sorry for the poor quality of image!)

I now aim to try and turn these designs into a suitable print. To start with I am just using the disperse dye printer so that I can get a better idea as to how the pieces will look if I printed them properly. With these sample prints I do I would like to start embroidering into them and see what they will look like.

Here Come The Birds!

As I said I would, I thought that it would quite good to show you a bit of my art work. My art is mainly based around birds; an obsession I now can't get away from. I briefly mentioned in my previous post that it was after seeing the work of Treacle Jack Designs that I first got interested in stamps. 

I didn't look any further into the subject but then stamps just seemed to be appearing everywhere, especially after going to this exhibition, Velvet Moths. I visited the exhibition with my Nan and she remember that she had a collection of old stamps that she was willing to give me some of. I was over the moon at the number of stamps she gave me; all from different countries and years.

A Collection of Stamps

It was a while before I thought of what to do with the stamps but I knew that I would somehow have to tie them in with my original idea of the birds. Whilst researching birds and stamps, it came to me that I can use the stamps almost as the postage for birds that migrate. I wanted to get working straight away as I had finally found something that I really wanted to do within art and here's the piece I created:

Swallow on American Map - Acrylics

I am really please with this piece but not so happy that I did it in my sketchbook rather than on paper as it would have been a nice piece to exhibit. Never mind though, there is plenty of time to be creative and make some more! Since this piece I have just been exploring combining the stamps with the bird theme and drawing lots of birds.

Hand Embroidered Swallow on Stamps

This piece is made up by stitching the bird onto paper with the stamps printed on. I think the idea of stitching the bird as I feel it resembles the lines that are used to map bird flight paths but feel that the stamps themselves are too bold in colour and over power the bird. What I plan to do now is it just carry on with the drawing and sampling of work in the aim that eventually everything will fall into place. Fingers crossed.

My Current Influences

I've talked a lot about my work and what I want to do but I think it's time to give you a little bit of background on where my influences are coming from..

I keep a reflective journal where I take notes on the places I go, exhibitions I visit and notes from tutorials that are useful. Writing everything down in one place really helps me to gather my thoughts and see the ideas taking shape. So far this year I have been a little slow at keeping on top of this but I will eventually get it up to date. Here's a couple of pages so far...

Pages From Reflective Journal

At the fair mentioned above I came across Treacle Jack Designs. I instantly fell in love with her work, maybe that was something to do with the birds and the flowers though but could resist buying this...

Bag Tag by Treacle Jack Designs

And I suppose that this is really where I became interested in stamps, however, I've decided to use the stamps in my art work which I'll post about later!

So other than being attracted to all things pretty, I have also been working on a lot of research into different artists and ideas. This I keep in a folder, ready to flick through when I need some inspiration. Whilst having a quick look through, deciding who has influenced my work the most at the moment, two artists stood out the most.

The first of which being Rachel Waldock. I came across her work a while ago and liked it a lot but it wasn't until I began to think about what I wanted to do this year that she popped up again in my research. Looking at her work now has a strong correlation to what I would like to do. She has printed her own paintings onto fabric. What I like about them is the subtly; not all of it is painted but through the lines that she makes it suggests what should be there and makes them pleasant to look at.

The second artist is Claire Coles who I came across whilst watching Kirstie's Handmade Britain. Its a programme that I watch every week as I love what she does but when I saw the work of Claire Coles it really stood out from the rest. The elements of her work that I like the most are that she combines different materials with embroidery. With the ideas that I have, putting my designs onto wallpaper is something that could be possible, although at the moment I would rather work with fabric. Her work uses simple cut out flowers, leaves and birds and are then machine stitched onto a background to make the image come alive. For such a simple way of working it has a large impact.

Take a look at the links that I've put as their work are definitely worth a look..

Where I See This Going

At the end of this year I aim to have a collection of work that combines my own drawings and images with embroidery. To get started with this idea, I thought that it would be a good idea to start doing some embroidery. The first thing I did was to embroider a simple rose onto a piece of fabric...

Chain and Straight Stitch Rose

I then realised, my work isn't going to be solely about the embroidery as it was last year so then thought that I should just start embroidering over existing printed patterns to give me a better idea of the sorts of stitches and techniques that work best. Here is an example of this:

Hand Embellished Fabric

It is hard to see in the image what exactly it is that I have done but I quite like the subtly of it. I'm not using the embroidery to alter the work but just to embellish it. In this photo I have added lace to one of the flowers to add a finer detail, stitched detail onto a couple of the leaves and created a woven rose from embroidery thread. Maybe further down the line this will change but at the moment it is just there to add another dimension to the work.

Blind Drawing

So as I said I thought that I would explore some more blind drawings. I started off with a few smaller scale ones but have now ventured into my A3 sketchbook to work a little bigger. Here's what happened...

Carnations - Selection Fine Liners

Carnation - Biro and Fine Liners

Carnations - Fine Liners

I really like the pattern that these create just by simply layering the same shape drawn over and over again. When I was drawing the flowers, I tried to break them down so that I was looking at them as a shape rather than a flower. This helped me a lot to be able to feel more confident in what I was doing.

Since doing these I have bought some lining paper and done a few larger scale pieces that I hope to try printing onto fabric. I will try to get some decent pictures of these and upload them shortly!

Where It All Began

This year for my final year of uni (far too scary to come to terms with!), I have decided that I want to push myself out of my comfort zone and be more experimental. For my second year I worked mainly with hand embroidery as this is something that I really love to work in and was happy with what I created at the end of the year but felt that I could have taken it a step further.

It has always been said to me that I need to be more confident, this is pretty much the story of my life! This time I have decided that it's about time that I listened to what people are saying, especially as I am so near to completing my degree. My sketches have always been commented on before for the marks that I make. I have decided that I will use my painting more within my work so that I can use the delicate, fluid element that I really like. I saw the last year's Degree Show and was really inspired by the number of printed textiles from hand drawn or painted images.

The first thing that I thought was important to do over the summer holidays in preparation for my final year was to get drawing. First I started with some life drawings...

Watercolour and Pencil Carnation



This is the very first sketch that I did in my sketchbook. After this I got a little distracted and uninterested in drawing flowers so thought I would give blind drawing a go as it is a technique that I have enjoyed before. I didn't really think too much of the blind drawings so returned back to life drawing. After having a couple of tutorials it became obvious that my blind drawings were a lot my intriguing than my life ones. I thought that I would have a go with experimenting some more with this technique... 

Fine Liner Carnations

And this is what I got from experimenting! This I hope to expand on further, experimenting with colour and different ways of adding texture.

What Is My Work About?

I have two passions in life, flowers and birds; both of which I’m sure you’ll soon come to notice. The majority of my work is based around these subjects in one way or another. I tend to work on a fairly small scale focusing on details. My course title is, Creative Arts: Art and Textiles. For both of these subjects I have different themes going on.

Art:

In my artwork I am using birds. My idea this year is to study the flight paths of British birds and to combine this with a collection of old stamps that I was given earlier this year. I intend to combine these two elements with maps so that the birds are almost using the stamps as their transport between different locations. The materials that I am going to be using are paint and mixed media.

Textiles:

I aim to turn my hand drawn flower designs into patterns that can be digitally printed and then embroidered over. I have yet to decide whether these are going to be purely designs or whether I will turn them into soft furnishings for interiors, I guess time will tell!

This blog is going to be mainly for my Textiles work but from time to time I will add in the occasional post about my art to keep you up to date on how my bird obsession is developing!