Personal Statement for Textiles In Practice

T E X T I L E S

The continuous self-reinvention of the fashion and textiles world and the fast pace at which it evolves in a spherical motion, continues to capture my attention. Textiles are a way of communicating the knowledge and ideas of creatives to the outside world. This industry holds the ability to encapsulate the voice of a whole generation, movement or feeling in a single garment or image.

The work I have submitted I feel best represents my desire to be different, as I am the type of person to think 'outside of the box'. My mind is always bursting with new ideas and most recently it has been cultural influences which have inspired me the most. It has been difficult to decide what to present in my blog to best show the sort of person that I am, as all of my work is very different as I tend to follow my intuition.

When I came to visit Manchester Metropolitan University, I felt extremely comfortable there. The atmosphere was so welcoming and it made me feel full of enthusiasm about university life. The open day visit was so inspiring, I absolutely loved Manchester and the buzz I got from being there. After speaking to the tutors and listening to the talk, I just wanted to begin the course and start there and then as it sounded as if it had been tailored for me.  It was everything I was hoping for and more. 

I currently have a position within the clothing industry in Superdry, which has inspired me even more to seek a career in Textiles and design, as I have been able to witness first hand how everything works together; the layout of the displays and store itself. It has been interesting to participate in putting the different textiles and fabrics together. It has been very helpful to also understand how lighting and positioning of items, helps to display them to their full potential. I feel the knowledge and experience I gain whilst working there, will benefit me on the textiles in practice course.

Wall hanging

F E L T  &  S I L K

Below are photographs taken of my finished piece. This wall hanging is based on 'The beauty in nature'. To create this piece I have felted the background which is based on a mounted canvas silk painting. For this piece I decided on pretty pale colour tones and married my colour scheme as tightly as possible. I am really happy with my final piece as it fit my brief better than I had anticipated. 

African Wall Hangings

A F R I C A 

Most recently, I have become much more interested in fashion and textiles throughout many cultures and so I have chosen to design and make an original wall hanging based on an eastern influence. Due to its eastern influence the colour range i will be using is going to be bright yet natural as the colours used in Indian and African textiles are made from earth pigments. So far, these are a couple of my design ideas for the wall hanging.

Human Body Garment

H U M A N  T R A I T S

This project was based on the human body and bone structure. I have explored various artists such as Giger to influence my work and I also attempted to explore the question of, what is it that makes us who we are? Through this research, my final piece was a mixture of all of these ideas. The material objects which can be found on the photograph of the front of the vest are the material objects which I thought best described the person the project was based on. The writing and labelling on the back of the vest comes from the back of a pyriton bottle. My client Ciara is allergic to all fruit and vegetables, this means that because she comes into contact with them daily, pyrtion seems to have become a large part of her life. Due to this, on the back of the vest i have displayed the instructions of taking pyriton as if it were a tattoo- a mark of her unique being. It is also a symbol of entrapment as she cannot fight her allergies. The objects on the front of the vest briefly portray Ciara without words. Roses represent her middle name, leaves represent growth and also her eye colour, marmite represents her most favourite flavour. Ballet shoes represent her dancing passion as a child. The graffiti styling on the top portrays the idea that people can 'draw' on your life, as they can influence and affect the choices you make. I created this garment by putting all of my research together and constructing several photo shoots, first of objects and then her body structure.Using Photoshop to mix these ideas around I came up with my final piece and had it printed onto a stretch fabric to fit her.

 

Textile Illustrations

I L L U S T R A T I O N S 

To the left and bottom left are a range of my design ideas which were based on the previous season. They were developed from a hippie/indie based theme and aimed at ages from young teens to early twenties.

Textiles

                                                                                     

H I S T O R Y

  The first image displays a few of my sketches after researching fashion and textiles through the ages, from 1830 onwards. I looked at how the development of women's fashion in the nineteenth century exemplified the male view of the ideal figure.

The dress on the left hand side was based on the Pre-Raphaelite period.The top half of my dress was made using several different strips of fabric. Firstly I cut up several strips and then drip dyed them using similar pink and blue tones. Following this I used hand stitching to create the rougher theme that I had designed and sewed each strip together. After making each side separately I added a braid to define either side of the bust in a darker shade. I made the two parts of the skirt separately. The bottom part was easily dyed in a lilac tone and the top part was drip dyed and also crinkled using twists in the fabric and heat. 

   The second dress on the right hand side was based on a masquerade theme and was made for a dress up event. I used peacock feathers to influence my colour choices. The top half of the bodice was made using boning to hold it upright and I also used interfacing to strengthen it. As the outer side of the bodice was made using satin the feather decoration had to be hand sewn very delicately. The bottom half of the dress was made using chiffon and I cut up several lengths and strips of white. I then drip dyed them the appropriate colour variations and stitched them to the waistband.

Natural Beauty

N A T U R E 

This section of my blog was based on a natural theme. Below is one of the sketches from my primary research.

To the left hand side is my first final piece I created from this project. This dress was made in two halves. Firstly I made the corset using felt and inserted an open ended zip into the side. Following this I then needle felted an abstract design of colours used throughout my project which was influenced by artists such as Claude Monet and his "Water Lilies" and Gregory Christeas abstract pieces such as "Masterpiece". I also looked at Chuck Close's work which is mostly based on a grid as an underlying basis for the representation of an image. He uses process and collaboration which I used to influence this design. Next, I made the skirt by using two layers, the top of netting, and adding bows and gathers to add volume.





My second final piece was taken from the same project and so had been made using all the same research but looked at from a different perspective. I designed my rug using mostly my primary research looking at the natural curves and shapes of trees in different lights. I then went on to look at work from artists such as Peter Doig as the colour combinations of his work had matched my earlier research. His image of a sunset behind trees, then inspired me to further refine my ideas and end up with this finished piece.