Spreading the love for fabric compositions.

Experimenting with more fabric compositions has lead me up to my final compositions and imagery for this half of the project, which is now all handed in *smiles* ! I have also tested a few of my images onto cotton poplin which I feel have been a bit of a let down with the colour being drained from the prints, but this is all within the developmental testing I guess!
But overall I personally prefer my paper based designs, but am still a little bit stuck with how they will be produced as end products! Will it be paper based or fabric? I would like to possibly print within ceramics, as this is an area which has been suggested by a few of my friends. I have also thought about canvas bags, as the 'gypsy' is a known traveller, the thought of bags is a thought of travelling around, so it makes a good link.
For now I shall leave you with some images of some more compositions, created both by hand and photoshop and some draped images of my prints on ceramics.

Gypsy Martha, Play me that sweet song.

Gypsy Martha likes Tea.

Travel with me and we can drink Tea.

Ideas for final pieces.

Fabric Compositions

I have been playing with fabric scraps, which relates to the gypsy theme, as within the vans I visited I noticed a lot of mixed colours and a bit of a 'mish mash' of fabrics, so I have taken this aspect and have started to use it within my own work. I have been making lots of compositions and making small story lines with my imagery.
A few examples:

Gypsy Tea Party.


Fond of tea?

MIRRORS.

After a print workshop last week, I was introduced to printing on aluminium plates with disperse prints from the digital printer. My tests worked well and it was something I wanted to pursue with as I am using shiny foils, metallic polishes and chrome imagery within my work.
So this week I have been taking advantage of the heat press and knocking out some test plates using silver mirror, gold mirror and matte white plates with single placement and repeat designs in different sizes.

So far I have only had chance to photogrpah my silver mirrored designs, but expect more to come soon! The photos aren't too great, but it was hard to get them at a good angle as everything around me was reflecting off them.

Enjoy!

Colour Palettes.

Here are some of the colour palettes I have been working with. The colours have been taken from my own photographs from La Rosa Campsite.

Gypsy Treasures

'Gypsy Treasures' is the title of my current project. I am inspired by the surroundings of traditional and vintage gypsies, looking at living arrangments and quirky objects they own. Finding traditional gypsy caravans was tough, I managed to locate one in York but my imagery wasn't providing me with what I wanted, so I wondered off on my travels again and came across La Rosa Campsite in Whitby. This campsite is amazing! Vintage gypsy homes, chrome exterior, different themes in each van... I was simply in my element! Each caravan told it's own story with objects from all over inside them. My photos from La Rosa are my most used primary resources, which are drawn from by hand, illustrator and collage.

A few photos from my travels; drinking tea by the chrome van, gypsy trucker van and a mini caravan for the pet cats.












With my illustrations, I am aiming to produce a scrapbooking collection, although I am going to test my images on fabric, which will decide whether they work as well as paper based products, which ables me to design fashion prints too.
At the moment I am particularly fond of illustrator and adding colour to my drawings. See a few examples below;

Summer's been & Gone, Now I need to think... WORK!

With summer almost over and a project to start, I seriously had (up until just a few weeks ago) no inspiration to start any drawings for my first 3rd year project. With 3rd year being my final and most important year, I wanted to choose something that will keep me occupied up until Christmas and that I would love and enjoy seeing everyday!

Being stuck with ideas, and a deadline for my project proposal, I started to panic and simply didn't put down a theme and just stuck to the plan of 'everyday objects.'
With this all done and handed it, I started gathering some inspiration... finally! =]
So with inspiring ideas heading my way, and changing my theme, which means I actually have a title too!

Gypsy Treasures.

Not the everyday gypsies that you see, (in normal caravans with cars), but the old-fashioned traditional gypsies with the dome shaped roofed waggon caravans with wheels, usually pulled by a horse (Vanner).
I can't put my finger on it, to where this idea came about, most probably when I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean, and my friend calling pirates; Gypsies of the Sea, which I also find fascinating.

So there's my ideas laid out in the sand, so all I need to do now is to get on with it and start drawing. I have an appointment next week to go and photograph an old-fashioned waggon in York and other areas for primary research will be jewellery, lucky charms, coins, flowers (heather) etc...

Kate Moss in a fashion shoot not so long ago with the 'Gypsies.'
I love this image, the traditional caravan in the background and the natural colours and swirly patterns on the front of the waggon.
An inspirational image towards my own work.

T-shirts

Here's some images of the t-shirts I've recently been printing.
Using the screens from my last project I have created a collection of designs for t-shirts and bags (more images to come).

Vintage Appliances

My final project in my second year was based around vintage appliances such as typewriters and old telephones. Inspiration for this project came from watching 'The Science of Sleep.' Primary sources came from Bradford's National Media Museum (they have an amazing collection of old recording cameras and televisions), Vintage Boutique in Leeds, and my own material.

With the photographs I took, I got them into Adobe Illustrator and used continuous line drawings to create a body of drawings to experiement with for final ideas for my collection.

I used a range of medias throughout the project including, screen printing, digital printing, dying, heat transfer printing and stitch. Some of these medias being new, I soon picked up skills which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Examples of my illustrations & final prints: