Fabrics.

Following on from my Morocco Project, i had to work with them further to create fabrics which could be shown at Indigo, the trade fair in Paris. I prefer to work with paper, so i found this quite a tricky project and it wasn't my best. Colour was still the main aspect to this project and i felt this was the most important. I wasn't sure how i was going to come up with my final designs, and as i think to make things, i ended up making fairy lights. This is because lights were such a key aspect out there and there was plenty of market stalls that sold lanterns and lots of decorated glass. I began by making my fairly lights, i used cutouts as the main focus of them and created little cubes which had been spray painted and then areas were cutaway. i found that these created some really unusual shadows, so i took pictures of them on different surfaces. I then transferred these images to Photoshop and worked with building up the shadows in different layers. This blue piece is an example of how one of them looked. I then used this process several times creating different pieces in different colour pathways. These were then digitally printed onto silk. I was happier at the beginning of the project crafting and making things, but i found choosing the fabric rather tricky, especially something which was going to be exhibited.

Why are you studying Printed Textile Design?

After my A-levels i still had no idea what i wanted to do, but i knew i wanted to do something creative. After discovering printed textiles as i possible course, i knew that it was right for me. I have always had a creative flair and i always make cards for friends and family. I also felt that there were more employment oppertunities with it, as i could work either with paper or fabric. I have always worked with paper, mainly because i haven't had the oppertunity to work with fabric. I do feel that this degree has widened my ideas and given me new ideas and techniques to work with.

Inspired by Morocco

Following my trip to Morocco, i began to work with the idea of the highly detailed amount of pattern that you can find over there. Colour was another important aspect of my work and i think it always is.

These are some of the samples which i created. I especially like the origami papers. I had screen printed the designs and then folded the paper up into two different types of stars. I thought that stars would be appropriate as it is a Muslim city. I wanted to make a shape which fitted with the theme of Morocco.

This black image was a cut out which was done on the laser cutter and mounted onto white paper. I also did this is reverse and i think that they look very effective next to each other.

I was happy with how this project turned out, yet i think there could have been a lot more scope for me to try new things. Even though i took a lot of photos out there, i think i was a bit limited to ones which i could actually use within my work.

Morocco

Over the summer holidaysi visited Morocco with a friend. Firstly to get a bit of sun and secondly to experience a completely new culture. I have never been anywhere like Morocco and i found it the most exciting place. It was full of colour and pattern. Everything was highly decorated, from the lobby entrance of the hotel to the little glasses for minty tea. The colours were so rich and vibrant, from earthy tones of reds and oranges to the cobalt blue which comes from the Atlas mountains. The souks were in a world of their own, alleyways of stalls. We went to the tannerys and witnessed the locals making shoes from camel leather, as well as going to the dying souk, where we got a turban. 'Fish and chips' was the local phrase for us, we did look like tourists with our camera's at hand at every oppertunity! The textiles pieces varied in size, there were small wall hangings to massive carpets which would cover a whole room. All in all it was a fantastic holiday with so much to do and see and plenty of photo oppertunities. I would recommend it to anyone.

My photos

This is an example of how i could arrange my photos. They are overlapping each other which partially conceals some of the photos. They are all pictures of things that i was curious of.

I then went onto photoshop and repeated it, as it is a random shape the repeat pattern isnt as obvious.

I have played around with ways in which i could arrange the photos and then mixed them up on photoshop by layering lots of different parts. I think that they are really successful and think that they would be very interesting on furnishings. On photoshop i have drapped it onto a wall and also a bag, both of which i think work quite well.

Adrian Brannan

Adrian Brannan is a photographer who looks at different ways to present his photos. The place that is being photographed is monitored over a long period of time, up to 2years.

The intention to is to show the vibrancy and life of a city. All of the photos are arranged and layered up by hand. The images are fairly large about 90cm x 60cm.

I like that you can still tell what the pictures are of but as they are jumpled it gives an extra texture to the piece. There is also the randomness of the photos as they are not layered up straight. I would like to do something like this but i would have to choose an area very carefully.

Lomography Exhibition

For my final project i wanted to use my lomography cameras to take pictures of objects that i was curious of. I will use a variety of different film cameras including a fisheye camera and a coloursplash camera. One of my ideas to present my work was to fill a whole wall in lots of colourful photos.

I then came across this exhibition that was held in London at trafalgar square. People from across the world were invited to send in their own lomography photos, in the end there were about 100,000 snapshots.

http://congress.lomography.com/

This website shows more about the exhibition and other photos of how much wall space was covered in photos. I think that this is very inspiring and i would like to create something similar to this which is visually very interesting.