Final Garment/ Evaluation

    This is the result of my final garment. Admittedly, there are some more finishing touches I need to put on it however I think it turned out fairly well in my opinion. Using the bright shower curtains definitely made this dress pop much more and adds much more perspective form the subtraction cutting process I used for this piece. The shape of the garment is very abstract with itself, but it is adaptable to change when you begin to pull fabric from within the dress to add more shape and potentially colour depending if it is a different shade or not. This is very accurate to how I saw my designs and I think the lei's and lanterns make it look very childish and can certainly relate back to some of the memories I had as a child. I am so proud of myself the fact that I actually used a bright, vibrant colour for once! It is such a nice feeling to be able to expand on my creations and ideas, even if it is only with colour but I feel that this will make my portfolio much more expansive and interesting to look at, hence I feel that my assessment will go fairly well with the new variety I have added to my portfolio. It is a shame that I didn't get to show it for my last interview I had, but I would have rather not rushed it and made it will proper focus.

    The hardest challenge I had with constructing this garment was that it had a lot of fabric to work with. Not only this, but I was rather gutted that I wouldn't have been able to make a whole garment out of wrappers as I think this would have looked very effective, although I don't think it would have equally represented all the words I chose very well… In addition, my favourite part about the project was the ability to heat press. Some plastics were not as flexible as some which I would say was the only problem or that others melted too quick and caused most of it to stick to the paper protecting the iron as oppose to the other plastics hence it would have taken much longer to have completed a full length garment, thus I went with a more realistic idea and I think all my work came together nicely.

    This project as a whole has been very interesting and relates a lot to the '3 Words' project we had previously. Again, the thing I liked most about this project was that it enabled me to use a new kaleidoscopic range of colours and this was mostly inspired by Gerhard Richter and the interior of corner shops. Without these 2 elements, it would have been likely that I would have created something much more toned down and not as eye-catching. In addition, I really like the range of processes I used within this project such as collaging, illustrating, heat pressing and much more and this will really benefit me for not only the Final Major Project coming up, but also in the long run for future projects and experiments I might face.

    Overall, the project was very fun to do as I didn't feel completely pressured the whole time as we had an extra week to complete a garment. Despite this, I had a lot of other things going on such as interviews, FMP proposals and portfolio reviews, hence a lot of time was taken doing that. Despite this, I feel that I tried my best to catch up with this project and to make sure that I had practically everything done for this assessment. The only thing I would say that I would like to do perhaps next week is to have a photo shoot using this garment to make the project seem more complete, although the model I had in mind who would be perfect for this project isn't coming back till the 14th of March, but we will see if I have anything else pop up, whether that being a model or another idea for a final showing.

Final Ideas

    These are my final designs which I would have for a capsule collection, however it has to only be one as I certainly do not have the time to create all of these. I am really happy with how these came out because I think they represent the words I chose at the beginning well. You can see Richter by the abstract shaping, Alice in Wonderland from the different scales upon the garment, Childhood memories from its simplistic innocence in terms of detail and technique and then corner shop from the sweet wrapper structures on the garment. I really hope that my garment will turn out well once constructed, but I also hope that it won't take too long as it is quite a hefty process, but I want to challenge my skills and abilities to make this the best project yet!

   Furthermore, I have not coloured these in yet because I don't know where the colour placements will be. Despite this, I assure you that the final result will most definitely be bright and bold! In addition, I plan to have a photo shoot alongside this post-project to make it look much more interesting and I plan to do this in an actual corner shop with the model looking fairly innocent like a child looking around in the shop and playing around. I think that this would symbolise the project very well in terms of childhood and fun, which is what I am trying to do. I only want one model for this piece as I want her to look abstract from the shop to also relate to memory and how she has come of age and no longer blends in well with the shop and all its excitement.

    Overall,  if I could have done anything differently it would have been to have perhaps created more designs, but I just want a minimalist capsule collection. Plus, I don't have much time left to complete this project as I feel that I may have let the interviews and portfolio organising get ahead of me unfortunately, but I will try my best to catch ahead before my upcoming assessment.

Gerhard Richter vs. Alice in Wonderland

     I wanted to make a contrast between both Gerhard Richter and Alice in Wonderland (AOW) to see how I could link the both for a final piece. I began off by making a layered drawing inspired by Richter and cut out pieces to make it look more abstract. Not only this, but I have also drawn around the shapes I cut out to resemble growth, again resembling AOW this time by how she has the 'Eat Me', 'Drink Me' items within the book. I really liked doing the drawn collage as it enabled me to work with the colour whilst resembling it to AOW and I would like to push the bold colourings further for concept designs. 

     Below is my representation of using AOW in contrast to Richter. I did this by using the bright vibrant blue fabric, but cutting them in a much more minimal, abstract shape to relate to Richter. I think this works well as I am planning to do subtraction cutting and it would resemble this very well. Despite this, the colours are not there, which is why I wanted to use Richter as a word in the first place because the colour blue is so cliche in regards to AOW. 

     In conclusion, there could have been more ways in which I could have related and contrasted these 2 words further, although I am coming closer to my final concept ideas and designs, hence I want to narrow it down as much as possible to get a clear idea as to what I want to create for a final garment. Thus, the next step would be to create some concept ideas and then hopefully that will lead me to final designs, although with subtraction cutting, you never know what shape they will turn out like exactly, which makes it even more fun! 

Alice in Wonderland Sampling/ Experimenting

    Above is some research into Alice in Wonderland which was in one of the categories I had to chose from. I felt that I had been spending too much time on Gerhard Richter and it was time to focus more on this… In terms of Alice in Wonderland (AOW) I was more interested in the fact that she shrunk and grew which I think resembles childhood quite a lot, not just because children are smaller in general but the fact that kids always wanted to grow up and be more mature. With this, I created a series of samples, predominantly with blue and I also managed to do it using a shower curtain! I really liked these samples as I tried to copy the shapes and structure from the melted samples I did previously. I would have liked to have created more samples but I have another process in mind which will save me the hassle of doing these individually, but still look more eye-appealing. I have thought about a final concept idea and that is using the process of subtraction cutting. Subtraction cutting is when you sow 2 pieces of fabric together but leave one side open, from this you cut away circles from 2 parts of the fabric and sow them together and keep doing this process 3-4 times. With this, you end up with a dress that has massive bulges and points hanging naturally and I think this relates well to Richter for his abstract art, Alice in Wonderland for scale of parts of the garment, Corner shop for the bright range of colours and Childhood memories for also the colouring and innocence of how it looks as it will be very bold and minimal yet have a lot of definition to it. 

    Overall, I am happy that I now have a much more solid idea for a final outcome and I will need to begin constructing it very shortly. I do feel that I have worked rather hard for this project and I hope it pays off, however there is always room for improvement and I think one of the things that I wish I could have done was to make a full scale wrapper dress, but I would much rather have something more practical whilst still using all the skills and processes I have made up to this point. 

Wrapper Samples

    I have finally got to the stage of where I get to experiment with moulding wrappers and packets
(which I consumed!) by using the heat press. I thought that this process was very successful as the plastic was fairly easy to melt. Despite this, some plastics were not as flexible as some which I would say was the only problem or that others melted too quick and caused most of it to stick to the paper protecting the iron as oppose to the other plastics. I have to say that these would look amazing as a whole body garment or accessory, however I do not have the time or stomach to consume that many wrappers but I am glad that I got to trial with other mediums. Moreover, my favourite heat press samples would have to the Hula-Hoop packet combined with the Haribo packet as it has a flow of colour and has the most interesting texture, whether that being bubbly, frayed or melted in general.

    Overall, I would have really liked to of been able to make a massive sample of these wrapper packets, but I need to come to the stage of producing final concept ideas and designs using something much more realistic to finish the project in time before assessment. Instead of using plastic wrappers, I am thinking about using plastic shower curtains instead. This way, I can have both the scale and colour if I go to the right shop, thus I won't have to eat any more sweets for a long while! On top of this, I feel that the shower curtains will be much easier to use via the sowing machine whereas the plastic samples have become thicker due to the layering as they melted and I fear that they could ruin my sowing machine.

Gerhard Richter Illustrations

    These are some illustrations I created in response to the Gerhard Richter inspiration I had previously. I wanted to see how it would look on a model illustration and I think this worked very effectively with the abstract shaping and also the bright, vibrant colours. Despite this, it only seems to refer to his work and none of the other categories which is a shame, but I really wanted to try this out to experiment with because as I have said in previous posts, I have never really worked with this amount of colour and I find it incredibly exciting. The image below has the same concept, however to exhaust it further I repeated what I have done in previous times and layered a piece of tracing paper over the top. I think this helped to link in the other words as I tried to make these look more like wrapper packets for a garment. I think the next stage is to trial out with some samples and physical experiments, perhaps by going back to the idea of the words 'Corner Shop' and 'Childhood memories'… 

    Overall, I am happy with how these turned out. I would say that I would have liked to have done more, although it does only relate to Richter, hence I want to broaden it even further to relate to all the category words that I have chosen. I feel that this project is finally getting a sense of a potential ending and I think that I am pushing more towards making a garment, but it depends on how much time I have left to complete it. In addition, I want to make my final piece really bright and Richter will be the one representing that, but he could also represent it by the abstract shapes, similar to his paintings. 

Gerhard Richter Experiment

     In development to my research I wanted to create my own original style of Gerhard Richter's paintings and I did this by using a multiply variety of pens from sharpies to pro markers, letrasets, highlighters and many more. I think this worked very well as you can see the journey of my pen strokes, similar to his work but with paint strokes. In addition, I wanted to make my creation a lot more brighter in contrast to Richter's paintings as I feel that they have a lot more emotion to them, whereas I am trying to bring the fun out of childhood memories and corner shop sweets. I want to make some designs from the pen drawing I made, however I think that it could also look good blown up on a stand to show shape and structure of potential designs. 

    I am very excited to start making out of book samples now to really make a head start on materialisation and structure. I am still not sure as to whether it will be a garment or accessory because I feel that I may not have enough time due to all my portfolio preparation going on for interviews. Despite this, I will still try put 100% effort into this project and make sure that is fully complete before my assessment coming up fairly soon. I think that it would be interesting to make a shoot post making my final outcome to finalise the shoot even further but again, that all depends on how much time I will have to complete everything. 

    If I could have done anything differently to the examples I made below, it would have probably been to expand on scale, colour and perhaps even the orientation of which I am pulling the pen from a certain direction which could have added another perspective. Nonetheless, I am happy with how these came out and I would like to experiment with these further and see whether I will take anything from them and use/inspire me for the final outcome. 

Photo Illustrations

   These are some illustrations I made via taking pictures of sweet wrappers and scrap objects such as cans, boxes etc… I found these to be the most fun without a doubt and I also tried to style them with a hat each! I feel that this concept collection has a nice variety of colour which isn't too over powering, thus is it much nicer to look upon to see the unique qualities with each design. I hope to be making more things similar to these, especially when it comes to experimentations.

   I feel much more confident when it comes to drawing these illustrations as I have a regular flow going, despite this I feel like I need to do more research to develop these and my future ideas further along. I would like to focus a bit more on the idea of Alice in Wonderland this week and see how this effects my work till this point, whether that being her dress size, scale or the objects within the story?… Nonetheless, when I have developed my work further, I will try to create more of these using photography and perhaps even layer it with some experimentation samples that I will be creating very shortly to add even more colour, detail and texture to the illustrations.

Fashion Illustrations ft. Wrappers

    Ill keep this short, but sweet… (oh the irony!) These are some fashion illustrations I managed to put together using collage with actual food wrappers I have either consumed myself or collected relating to both words "corner shop" and "childhood memories" as these are major components to both category. I can definitely see potential with heat pressing these to resemble this as a material construction to create either a garment or accessory with, thus I am really excited to start working out of my book and experimenting. In addition to this, I am in love with the bright, bold colour scheme that seems to be amongst these individual wrappers which in a way, makes them seem to combine as one. Considering I have never really used this bright of colours, it will be interesting to see how my previous work adapts to the colour change and perhaps it can encourage me to push myself further and work on new processes or developments which I have never used before within this course. 

    I would also like to create some more fashion illustrations using the prints that I made at the very start of this project as it is much more original from using my own experimentation and also experiment with the variety of colour they have also. If I could have done anything differently, it would have been to have perhaps used more of a variety of wrappers, although I feel that this is only the beginning and perhaps I'm going to gain about 20 pounds from consuming the rest! Not only this, but if I get samples of my future experimentations, I can also use these on top of my fashion illustrations to represent process and texture of what a potential piece could end up like. 

Print Illustrations Part 1

    This is an example of some illustrations I managed to create using cuttings from the prints I made previously by blending a photo of the interior of a corner shop with an additional layer of a painting by Gerhard Richter on top. I think that this worked really rather well combined, although it didn't seem to add enough detail or represent both category topics in a way… Hence, I layered over some tracing paper and tried to replicate some of the structures within the shop, whilst also adding shapes that I would imagine coming from wrappers or packets of food and drink. I would like to create more of these as I think that they are rather interesting as a concept, but I need to spend more time experimenting with different process and mediums. From my previous project of 'Detail', I wanted to take some aspects from that and incorporate it into this project and as you can see, I have added seam details, tucks, pleats and much more to make it look much more detailed to represent all the elements combined. 

   The next stage is now to look at different mediums and textures, I want to now get into heat pressing some of the plastics together to create something much more structural and perhaps even do a few digital prints here and there to develop more work. Not only this, I will soon need to be focusing on doing some stand work to help me push these illustrations and designs further with shape and texture in mind. Moreover, I want to expand on this bright range of colour so I will look into doing this with different mediums. Overall, I think that this project is going well so far, my portfolio for interviews however has seemed to become a bit of a bother but I will try not to let that interfere with this project as I still have a long way to go with this project. 

Quick Sketches

    Pushing this project further, I thought that it would be a good idea to carry out some quick sketches of various parts of garments, below I have sleeves and collars. I feel that as a designer, it is crucial to have this stage of development earlier and furthermore throughout your book to show the changes you have made from different processes and experiments. These drawings are inspired by wrappers that I have collected and I have focused generally on the little details or overall shape of the wrapper to create these quick sketches. I really enjoy doing these as there is no right or wrong as to how they can be made, however it can become rather tedious when you are no longer inspired which is why I had multiple sweet wrappers in front of me whilst I was completing these. 

    I have drawn many more of these as these are just a couple examples, however I hope to create more after I complete stand work and other experiments to inspire me with not only shape but texture also. In addition to this, I will create illustrations using these design ideas to see how they may potentially look on a model. Despite this, these are only draft ideas which I will exhaust further to get a final line up of design ideas. 

     In regards to a final piece(s) I am still not sure as to whether I want to create a garment or accessory piece as I feel that I have a bit of longer time, yet I want to spend a lot of time on making something much more elaborate and unusual, whilst also relating to the words that I have chosen for this project of "Pick 'n' Mix". Thus, I will try make concept ideas for both potential end products. If I could have done anything different it would have been to of produced more of these sketches but perhaps even collage them via a photocopier to create different scales or more details to them, hence exhausting their original design further which could inspire me for a new process within the project. 

   

    Overall, I am happy that I have started to develop some design ideas as this will help me produce some 3-D stand work which will then reverse and further help me to create new ideas for quick sketches and design illustrations. I also need to carry out some designer research to see whether anything catches my eye, whether that being fabrication, materials, shape, texture, colourings and much more. 

Experimental Prints

   Above are some print samples I carried out using a photograph of a corner shop which was then layered by a painting created by Gerhard Richter. I then used this concept and exhausted it through Photoshop changing the hues, saturations, brightness, contrast and much more to develop these print ideas. I think these would work very effectively as a digital print whether that being transferred onto plastic or fabric. Nonetheless, this is just an experimentation and if I have extra time, I'll see as to whether I can convert these into physical print or not. Moreover, I feel that it is still too early in the project to be thinking about developing prints… I need to focus more on observational drawings, primary photos, stand work and physical experimentations using different mediums to enhance my general feel towards this project. 

    Further along with this project, I would like to use these prints to go alongside some illustrations to see how they would look on as a garment, although I'm not sure as to what shapes or perspectives I want on the garment, hence I think it will be a good idea to create some flat drawings of garment pieces whilst resembling them to sweet wrappers, cans and such items. If I could have done anything differently, it would have been to of perhaps used primary images for the photoshop, although I have not yet had time to go out and explore yet, but I will get to it eventually. 

Research

    Above is a mood board representing the Creative column for this project, hence it is referring to Gerhard Richter and Alice in Wonderland. I really liked the merge between these 2 concept ideas as I see them having a lot of great potential. Not only this, but they each give me an advantage into different materials and mediums that I could use for this project such as paints, plastics, drawings and much more. I want to make an adaptation from secondary photographs and layer them with Richter's work to make a scene of a corner shop to develop this idea forward. In terms of Alice in Wonderland I want to make a way in saying 'Eat me', 'Drink me' in some way, but I am not sure how I will do this yet. 

    Below is some further research I found on corner shops and it is a woman called Lucy Sparrow who recreated a whole corner shop which was made entirely from felt. Each individual hand-made felt item could be sold, similar to the initial point of a corner shop and there was over 2000 of these items made. This gave me inspiration into using different materials to replicate an item within a corner shop and items that specifically relate to my childhood and I would do this by making something relating to what I used to get after school as a treat.

    Overall, I have a really strong motivation for this project and I can't wait for it to develop further along into an accessory or garment piece. The next step will be to use photoshop and see what I can make out of something very simple. A good idea would be to go around various corner shops near my area and take photographs of them to get primary research for this project then use those to start up my developments and concepts. 

Pick 'n' Mix

    Today we embark on the beginning of our new project titled, 'Pick 'n' Mix'. Since our 'Detail' project, I have been very eager to start this project, especially after reading the brief. The initial point of the brief was to choose works from different columns similar to our '3 Words' project. I wanted to be much more experimental with my words in contrast to what I had done before with the '3 Words' project. Moreover, I wanted something that would encourage bright colours which I haven't seemed to have used within a lot of my projects, so I want to make a stand with this one. I am not sure what I want to make in regards to an outcome whether that being an accessory piece or garment(s) but I am sure that I will work hard to achieve a final outcome. Below is the list of words I have chosen from the columns to make a start on this current project. This project is 3 weeks long however I have a few interviews within this time, hence I will try not let this push me away from the project and continue to work strongly for an accomplished final piece of work.

Personal Column: Corner Shop & Childhood Memories

Creative Column: Gerhard Richter & Alice in Wonderland

Process/Focus Column: Stand Work & Heat Press

Materials Column: Plastics

    I really like the words I have picked for this project as I already have lightbulbs going off in my head as to what materials and processes I want to start off using. I am really excited to start experimenting with this project as I feel that there is a lot more research and experimentation available to use within this project. Initially I will start off by getting cans, sweetie wrappers, childhood accessory pieces and more to get the general feel of childhood and corner shops. Nonetheless, Gerhard Richter and Alice in Wonderland tie in very well together with the 60's kaleidoscopic hippie looks, whether that being the colour pallet, drugs, movement of the brush and much more. Hence, I think the bright vibrance from the food wrappers will relate well to both Richter with his art and Alice in Wonderland being a childhood book and film, also her reference to tea parties and food within the story. On top of this, I feel that stand work and the heat press will be most relevant for this project in regards to what materials I have in mind to use, whether I will melt them together, stitch and much more.

     Overall, I am ready to begin this project as I feel fairly confident from our last project of 'Detail' and now I want to put as much work, if not more into this new project to make it a real hit for my assessment coming up next month.