Crafty craft

It was another textiles weekend for me, helping Helen Foot with the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, in Spinningfield's Manchester.  It was lovely to see her again, and the new products she has launched since my Internship. Brilliantly bright patchwork cushions filled the stand, which got a lot of attention. The fair was also a great chance to show the new Festival scarf, Newcastle.  A deep colour scheme, perfect for winter (it may be sneaking onto my christmas list very soon) 
www.helenfoot.co.uk

Here are a few photos I took on the final day.

Newcastle Festival Scarf 

The stand-look at all the colour!!

Lavender bags and Needle Books- hello stocking fillers!

Within the Great Northern, there were a few stands featuring work from final year and graduate students, some from MMU.  The pieces looked equally as impressive as the surrounding designers' and seeing these has inspired me to look into the possibility of exhibiting my work, perhaps in local galleries. I'll keep you posted. 

Tent

Whilst in London, I visited the trade show Tent, located in the East of the city, at the Old Truman Brewery.  The show consisted of small designers and creative art-types, displaying an ecclectic range of products.  It was a total contrast to the stands exhibiting at Top Drawer, and felt more like a gallery rather than a trade show with n increased number of the general public coming through the doors.  Here are a selection of photographs I took on the day.. 

Annabel Williams, woven textiles.. love the combination of fabric and light.
The delicate and transparent features of Annabel's work are what really appealed to me.
Also, the contrast between her soft furnishings and her lighting products, when displayed together.
annabel-williams-textiles.com

Another great representation of innovative woven products, this time from W&Q.
The process of bamboo weaving is used to create these pieces. Take a look at the website
http://cargocollective.com/wandq

I want this chair- W&Q

A few examples of some really beautiful light products.. Above, MacMaster Design and their
Flux Pendant Light Display
http://www.macmasterdesign.com/
The stand below from Curiouser & Curiouser was one of my favourites... 

Zoe Murphy Printed furniture and accessories
Colour, colour colour!! 

Lizzie Mary Cullen, amazing illustrative work-
her ink work and delicate style caught
 my attention straight away 

Internship number 2....

I have returned up North, after being down South interning for Je Vous En Prie, a company specialising in 100% silk products, which are also completely made in Britain.  The collections are completely unique, consisting of striking colours and graphic patterns. www.jevousenprie.com

I was lucky enough to arrange my Internship to fit in with the London trade show Top Drawer, which the company exhibited at.  It was a great experience to be part of, gaining an insight of what it is like for designers, buyers and exhibiters taking part in a Trade Show.

I also worked at the Surrey studio for the remainder of my stay, taking on tasks such as product making, weaving, general paperwork and updating the website.  It was a valued Internship and I gained lots of experience as well as advice regarding my own work and career aspirations.

The stand got so many comments at the show.. It looked brilliant! 

Test pieces for the new collection, using soft lambswool rather than silk

The second warp, nearly ready to go


















A few lavender bags that I made, ready to be sent out.

I love the pink and purple colourway, Blush 

Interning with Helen Foot Design

Way back in July (I can't believe it is OCTOBER already) I travelled to Shrewsbury and spent a week interning at Helen Foot Design.  Helen specialises in beautiful woven scarfs, cushions and at the time of me working with her had just started producing lavender bags.. With the loom out of action the week was mainly spent concentrating on getting as many lavender bags made as possible, and we made a lot!

Cutting, pinning, sewing, stuffing, sewing, bundling...and repeat!

                                                        

This was just the first batch.

                                                       

All labelled and looking lovely

                          

A screen shot from Helen's website.. take a look- www.helenfoot.co.uk

Finished..

Pin-up for assessment..Done!

Visualisations

To be presented alongside my work, I have attempted a number of visualisations.. Here are the most successful.

Working with wool

I haven't updated this for a while (again) but wanted to show how i created a range of samples weaving with wool rather than linen, in order to enhance my portfolio. It was a interesting change from the linen as they both have different qualities, and i quickly got used to the softer texture wool has to offer.

Current samples

I've been working with twill structures in my current warp, to relate to my Blackpool pier photos. I've been trying to keep the designs simple and concentrate on repeat pattern. So far I am liking the results!!

Experimenting with monofilament yarn. I love how you can see the blocks of the warp clearly against the spacing sections.  Using such a delicate yarn resulted in some of the warp threads moving, creating spindly lines that work well.

Warp float sample

Interiors

I have been looking into woven interiors in relation to my own sampling as i am creating a range of linen based samples for table runners.
Alison Morton is a weaver who also uses linen in a very effective way to maintain a  natural finish to her pieces. I also found an article in Selvedge magazine about Alison's work, which is where i found the image below
http://www.selvedge-drygoods.org/images/cmsUploads/pdfs/Alison-Morton.pdf

Roger Oates' designs runners for stairs, halls and also rugs. I have found him an interesting designer to look at for repeat and simplicity, as i have found some of my design work lacks this at times.
These photos were sourced from http://www.rogeroates.com/

New inspiration

  Since I last posted, I have been concentrating on work based on photos I took whilst in Blackpool, which include a lot of colour and structural elements. I've been doing work in a sketchbook but think some of these photos would work better on a larger scale, which is what I aim to do in the next few weeks.

 

Design 1 pin up

A little bit of work

Because this is my first post, i thought i'd show some of the samples i created at the start of our first project: Design 1, Research and Testing.  Based around architecture and building structures i have tried to reflect space and linear qualities.

Some drawing work relating to the samples: