Printing Day

Spent some of today in the workshops printing on the sublimation printer.

Materials: Polyester sourced from charity shops including curtain netting.

What worked: the mixture of polyester and some sort of coating on the netting created softer colours which was what I was wanting to achieve. Hand painted dysperse creates better tones for the colours I'm trying to achieve.

What didn't work: the colours weren't what I wanted. Some of them were too acid or murky so I experimented with dysperse dyes from the pot with water enabled the colours to become pastel tones.

As much as I like the literal representations such as fish and teapots, I don't think this ties in with the sculptural, textured feel I want to create in this project. I'm thinking literal representations can be reserved for the embellishments or kept very simple such as a half drop repeat with a simple background. This way it won't be too much with an embellishment. The other direction I'm also thinking of going is sticking with textured prints rather than conversational so that the embellishment flows with the fabric.

Development:

Stitch and bead onto seahorse and shells.

Experiment with burning patterns into the large prints.

Experiment with foils.

Consider placement on shirts.

Work Placement continued...

This week I have been dealing with the Star Wars exhibition. Sitting in whilst people look round, talking to the public. Whilst doing that I have been continuing work on the favours for the Surrealist Soirée. Finger knitting with wire has been fun, results below!

Inspiration Boards

Collected images from my Pinterest boards that have initially inspired me within this project. Mermaids, textures, sea-life, encrustations and adornment...words that create ideas for me.

The Blue Planet

Watching this for inspiration. Loving the intense colours and textures of the magical land under the sea...

Vintage Lace Mermaids

When searching through the loft we found my Mums ballroom dress that was handmade when she was 13. Vintage lace and subtle sequins, teamed with layers of faded netting. It is gorgeous! Reminds me of mermaids, got me thinking how I could create ruffled textures via up-cycling so I started to cut pre-hand dyed net curtain and finger knit with it. The result has the same slightly worn quality as the dress. Something I want to develop further perhaps with beading and sequins added in.

Latex Embellishment and Experimentation

I have been exploring Latex as a material for embellishments. I collected shells and found items from the beach and elsewhere and have been making moulds with the latex.

I've found this really exciting, the potential for this material is endless. It has good qualities such as it's bendable yet has elasticity and therefore memory. Once dry it is waterproof so it isn't paintable unless the paint is mixed with glue.  Glitter and ink can be poured into the latex whilst it is wet and it's great for trapping things such as buttons or beads.  I will continue to develop these moulds merging them with stitch and other fabrics and processes such as melting.

 

Sketchbook Work...

My own photo taken at Old Hunstanton beach- Instagram

After seeing Karen Casper's work at the NEC it's a bit like a lightbulb has flicked on in my head. I am as interested in texture, as I am colour and pattern. To begin reflecting this I decided to have a session working textures and colours in my sketchbook based on sea-life from initial photos and the sea-life centre and the coast (fish scales, dripping water, limestone marks on cliffs).



My own photo on the beach at Old Hunstanton- Winter sun

I went crazy experimenting with Gesso creating surface texture by sploshing, embossing, drying and dabbing at the same time.

































These all worked well to give tactile textures so I developed further by adding colour into the Gesso with ink.



















I also decided to add laces, found scraps such as net this is my favourite due to the depth added via the netting- drawing takes on a sculptural feel.

Collage and papers have continued to be key in my drawing, after looking at Kurt Schwitters this has inspired me even more. I layered vintage embossed wallpaper, newspapers and book pages and added more texture and colour using Gesso and ink.

Again the more texture the better because of the 3D quality. The flatter single colour pages are definitely something I will now start to move away from.

 

I will use these drawings as reference points for embellishment texture as well as developing some of them into sublimation prints for my polyester shirts...

 

 

I will use these drawings as reference points for embellishment texture as well as developing some of them into sublimation prints for my upcycled polyester shirts...