And then there were more...

Hey!
I'm very excited about this post,coz I finally get to show you some final/refined work!YAY!If you've been reading then it will all make sense but if this is your first visit , then WELCOME and dont worry!You'll soon catch on!
So, following on from my marathon painting session for the past couple of days, I finally have 15 design concepts for my Kitchen Accessory collection! I was pretty happy with all of them and after my review with lecturers and the designers from the company I have to narrow down to a collection of 10 designs which I then have to apply to kitchen products : aprons,tea towels,pot holders and oven gloves!

I chose to present the 15 designs as three mini collections ... 

Here's a peak ;)

 Painting away...

Collection one - This one was based on a large scale florals and origami birds...



Collection two - Inspired by a traditional Chinese style of pattern called 'Chinoiserie'

Collection three- A BOLD + Dark colour story with a strong circular theme...

Close up of a few of the patterns (all hand painted as it was done in the old days !)

Just a pretty picture...

Hope these colours and patterns made your day happier! It always does for me!!!
Next step is to sit myself down and translate these hand painted ideas into computer generated / technically accurate textile designs!

So why start with the hand?

Well,to put it simply, the imperfection of a hand painted piece of work sets the mood and feel of a design in a way a computer never can. Now that I have all these lovely hand drawn lines/flowers/patterns its quite easy for me to replicate them on the computer... But if I had started on the computer in the first place, this collection would have had a VERY different and in a way 'STATIC/GRAPHIC' feel :)

The 'hand generated mark' is so unique to each designer and thats what defines our signature style!

What do you think mine is ? :)

Until next time...
T

Back to where it all began...

REMEMBER THIS ?                                                                                                                      

Haha! I don't blame you if you've lost track! It happens...(to me too!) Just a quick refresher, this project is for a kitchen accessory collection that I'm working on...inspired by the FAR EAST.

Last time I blogged about it, I was through with mixing my colours and tried to leave you in suspense of what I would do with them a.k.a keep you wanting more(hopefully!)

So,as promised here is a sneak peak of the designs coming together...

These initial design ideas are called CROQUIS (pronounced : crow-key) which is a French word that translates to 'quick sketch'

For accurate geometric patterns its easier for me to do them on the computer, print it out onto watercolour paper and then add in hand painting...

The best part about hand painting , is filling in a boring pencil drawing with colour and watching a pattern come to life!

Trialling a floral pattern...

*Please excuse the not-so-clear photos...these were taken very late one night under some good old yellow light globe lighting!

I'm working on this all day tomorrow so I will definitely have some better shots to show you and hopefully you and me BOTH can get a better sense of how the collection is looking!

Until then, thanks for reading!

T

Take a walk with me...

What I do (a.k.a textiles) has somehow,over the years become part of WHO I AM.Its extremely difficult for me to NOT see pattern and colour in anything and everything!My minds eye seems to be in tune with everything that is in colour, has texture or has a repetitive pattern...and funnily enough, these are the fundamentals of textile design!
Its not uncommon for me to stop abruptly in the middle of the CBD , crouch down to walking path level and take a photo of some random pattern  or texture thats caught my eye. It probably is as weird as you think it is and I often get stares and glares from the Armani-wearing,Gucci-smelling corporate folk and sometimes I care, most times I don't!
I've learnt over the years, to REFUSE to make excuses for doing what I do,doing whatever it TAKES to do it and being proud of it! :)
Cool? Yeah!


This post is unrelated to my current projects and I thought it might be nice to show you something different! Even I get bored of looking at my own projects all the time so I wouldn't put you through the same!

So, take a walk with me today through Melbourne hidden lane ways and hopefully you can see it the way I do, through the eyes of a 'textile designer'! Hope you enjoy the view!


A photographic documentation of the beauty in the abandoned and overlooked!

*All photos taken around the Melbourne CBD*


Until next time...
T

Major project : open for inspection!

Hello All!I believe I owe you an explanation :) yes, the big question of  what 'my major project is all about'!
Its a little hard to explain it in all its entirety within the one blog post but Im going to give it a crack ;)

THE PROJECT : Instanostalgia (you saw the cover in yesterdays post!)

Below are a few extracts from my design report - Its a bit wordy, but grab a cup of tea and read up! I think you might find that its more interesting that it looks :) (if I do say so myself!)





THE PAST IS THE NEW PRESENT! The world we live in is driven by speed,technology and fleeting moments.

This rat race is stirring within us a desire to make lasting emotional , spiritual and tactile connection with our everyday lives , the people we meet and with the things we have.

In an age of cutting edge technology and sleek modern aesthetics , we crave for an alternative lifestyle, an 

approachable form beauty and the authenticity of a life of simplicity.

While on the one hand we seek the beauty of the past and the simplicity of a bygone era , we are still influenced and powered by advancing technology. These two conflicting and contrasting needs are being brought together with a fast emerging trend that can be termed as TECHNOstalgia - the merging of advanced technology and human desire.We are turning to new-age digital technology to give us the old-world charm of the past.

Parallel to the present being the new past, there is also the unchangeable fact that the past will always remain.While the trend is to convert the present to the past , the very concept of a nostalgic connection starts with the latter. Our past and the memories associated with it , trigger this need for staying connected to it.

For this textile collection , inspiration comes from a personal connection with a land rich in cutlure and colour.Ancient Indian architecture , all its splendour and granduer yet with the ability to establish a connection on a humble , personal level will inform print and pattern concepts for a range of fashion fabrics for Summer 2014

Insta-technology creates a ‘rose-tinted’ visual of the ordinary everyday. This ‘rose-tinted’ aesthetic informs the colour palette for the collection.

Tinted pinks , clear sky blue and light filtered tones of brown and yellow are grounded with a deep , forest green.

And speaking of colour...thats what I spent today working on!8 hours in the print workshop , an aching pair of feet later , I still need to do more tweaking until I'm happy with all the colours and get the fabric dyes looking exactly as I want them too.

It is as painful as it sounds, but I realised while working today that there wasn't anything else I'd rather being doing and even not succeeding at colour matching was better than doing something I didn't love!

I did take photos of our print workshop and our dye dungeon lab to show you..in the next post!

Thanks for your time and support everyone(you know who you are!)I really do hope you love reading this as much as I love writing it and sharing it with you!

Until tomorrow...

T

Bull's Eye!

Hello friends ....three posts later, if you're still reading then I think its time to introduce you to the BIG GUN of this semester...The one , The only, FINAL MAJOR PROJECT!
This one is a BIG deal because its going to be the feature at my graduate exhibition in December ( more on that in the months to come...)
I've had to really think this project through and now have to put in everything and more to make it work!
So,first things first.Under the broader umbrella of being a textile designer , comes my area of specialisation,pretty much like being a doctor and specialising in surgery...Equate this to textiles...Im a textile designer with a major in screen printing and surface pattern!

Image credit

SNEAK PEEK of what Screen Printing is.I won't go into too much detail of what its all about because in the weeks to come I'll have a photographic documentation of the whole process,which by the way is SUPER EXCITING to watch!

In the meantime, the first thing to do was to decide WHAT this project would be about. We had free reign to do whatever our heart desired. Normally this kind of freedom when applied to life is AWESOME, but when it comes to making a design decision, I personally DREAD IT! I like working within constraints and a brief set by someone, so open-ended projects aren't my best friends.


However, after a couple of weeks of NO ideas,lots of research figuring out what I DONT want to do...it finally came to me one lazy Sunday afternoon while I was pointlessly trawling about on Facebook I mean the internet!


Here's a peek into my design report which is a document that explains my concept, inspiration and design plan for my project.


Here we go...!

PROJECT CONCEPT!

Project title and front cover...Do you sense a theme ? Does the styling remind  you of something? :)
I'll talk more about the concept and inspiration behind my project next post,for now this will have to do.In the meantime, feel free to interpret as you wish!

Snapshot of the others pages. I will break them down and explain in the next few posts. Key areas of study are 
1.Colour (ofcourse)
2.Design inspiration (in this case Ancient Indian Architecture)
3.Printing techniques ( screen printing and digital printing onto cloth)
4. The final product (in this case a fashion collection - hopefully!)


Tomorrow I will be in the screen print workshop mixing colours (yes!again!) but this time in fabric dyes which is twice as meticulous and time consuming!Yay!
Lets see how I go!


Have a Happy Monday everyone (Friday is only 4 days away!) and see you soon,
T

Put a lil'paint on it!

Hey Y'all! Thanks for sticking around ! Makes me happy! :)

Speaking of happy...HAPPY TGIF to everyone! My weekend kind of begins today (CHEEKY!) because I don't have uni tomorrow but that said , I do have my very first project deadline tomorrow (more on that next time!) and today was quite a packed day as well!

However the day started off a little left off centre with me sleeping through my alarm and waking up blissfully at 9.00 am for a 9.30 class! Eeep! Lucky I've learnt over the years to take the 'Oh sh*t' out of situations like that and put in the 'LOL' into it! Works like a charm...

Anywhoo, at uni I spent some time discussing my take on the Oriental theme for my project.

I've called my project 'Akina' which is Japanese for 'Spring flower'...quite fitting I thought! 

This board is a work in progress and will get refined as my project evolves, but for now its my starting point for colour , pattern and design inspiration!

Before, the design brainstorm begins,comes the process of what I like to call 'THE ART of colour mixing'

I have specific set of colours that I have to work with and because this project involves alot of hand painting...I have to mix these colours up in a textile specific paint called , gouache (have fun pronouncing it as you like!)

Check it out !

Ready set ! paint , pantone deck , patience , iPod , iPad (+ masterchef finale!)

Colour is key in textile design. It defines the mood of the collection and is a HUGE selling point when it comes to commercial design...So its important to get it right..

We have a match! or not...it IS as meticulous as it looks but I actually find the process quite enjoyable and with time + experience it gets much easier than it looks!

I had all my  (6) colours mixed and ready to go after about 3 hours of mix and match! What I do with them ? Well, you might have to stay tuned for that one! :)

LATER TODAY...

WHO NEEDS CANDY!!! The paint section at an art store in the city...DROOL!

As weird as this sounds, sometimes I just like to stop and stare...

THATS ALL FOLKS!

Back soon,

T

Couch traveller!

I remember reading somewhere that books allow people to travel the world whilst sitting on their couch...

Sometimes I feel like textile design makes me feel the same way...I feel like I can learn and immerse myself into a particular culture or a period of the past purely through flicking through an amazing book on textiles and its connection with a particular place.

In the textile world we often look to culture rich countries for inspiration and pattern ideas.We draw on inspiration from the master craftsmen and textile experts of these cultures and attempt to break it down and allow it to inspire our own interpretation so that we can create contemporary textile designs with a traditional soul...

SO! Where am I going with all of this...?

Well, this semester Im working on a project for a home wares brand , Ladelle and part of our briefing included three themes from which we had to choose one to base our personal projects on.

The themes were Oriental, Floral and Professional. Having never done a far east inspired print collection I decided to go with the oriental theme.

The designs are for a collection of kitchen textiles including aprons,tea towels,oven mitts and so on. Its a very commercial brief so ' WILL THE CUSTOMER BUY IT' is a question I need to focus on while designing.

First step however is to : RESEARCH and so my 'couch travel ' begins...

And because words are too fancy ( and can be slightly boring ! ) I'm going to let the photo do the talking!

I love the www. but I also love books. So when it comes to researching a project I often use a combination of both....Books for some beautiful traditional inspiration and the internet is great for contemporary ideas.

Also ephemera ie:  things lying around the house that I've hoarded for years can come in handy...like that origami paper flower I've had since 2007...!)


I'll be back tomorrow with more details on my final concept board and my initial design doodles or 'textile croquis' as we officially call them !
Tomorrows a big day in the studio getting messy with paint,inks, watercolour and all those sort of lovely things!
Until then...
T