Locating Tutorial Four

Due to the lack of work I did last week, I realised I needed to plan my time a little more carefully in case of things going wrong. Also, today’s one on one tutorial gave me a good chance to put across my ideas for my live brief as well as come to an agreement for a good self-initiated brief with Rachel, as I feel I have been giving more of my attention to the Bradford printed textile piece.

After doing more drawings this week, I experimented with portraying them on garment shapes, naturally composing them to create different designs. I also used Photoshop and Illustrator to mock up some garment shaped screen design ideas.

First Screen Designs

 However, I believe this will limit me when I am in the print room and have therefore decided to create screens with repeated motifs on so I can experiment more in the print room with different techniques. After today’s print room tutorial, I am interested in practicing the technique of devore and creating some samples from my designs. Hopefully using the devore technique will give my samples more of a high end appearance in order to connect with the context I am trying to stick with, influenced by the works of Valentino.

I have researched into the designs that explore devore techniques by Alberta Ferretti. Her designs are more free and playful in contrast to Valentino’s precise patterns. The use of white on white and devore on white fabric alone has also inspired me to take forward similar ideas. I will work with white fabrics alone as well as fabrics I have digitally printed on.

Alberta Ferretti

This week I have also been playing with creating textures in which I can use for a base digital design for my sample backgrounds. The marble textures on the cathedral walls from my Florence photographs interested me and I believed I could create some nice textures for my samples. Therefore, to mimic the marble textures, I chose to use marbling inks on paper and fabric; however, this seemed too obvious and not original. Therefore, still experimenting with inks I brushed black, green and red inks to create the same colours within the photographs, on fabric. The texture I created was quite original and more interesting than the initial samples. To further these samples, I hope to edit them on Photoshop, layering and experimenting with effects and finally creating digital prints from them in which I could devore/dye on top of.

Rachel and I spoke more about my self-initiated brief that I haven’t thought much about. Due to the time I have left on both the projects, I have decided to create a fabric book. Using different fabrics combined with digital and screen prints as well as embroidery, I will create a sample book. Therefore, this week I will research into how and what to do in order to create a solid fabric book.