Skirt construction

At the moment I am working on the construction of my skirt which I designed about two weeks ago.
The theme is jellyfish and I have tried to incorparate the lightness and transparency of a jellyfish throughout the skirt.
The skirt is a circle skirt/skater skirt in shape .
 It is made from organza and an irridescent type of plastic.
I have spent the last two days embroidering the organza with black jellyfish using the free hand machine foot.

Organza underskirt

The start of the front of the skirt

My circle skirt pattern

Imagery for front of sketchbook

I made a recent trip to Christ Church Cathedral in my home town city of Dublin.
I took some beautiful images of the stained glass inside the building which was spectacular.
The color scheme I chose was deep burgundy red and brown.
The red in the stained glass windows was so deep almost the color of blood which I found to be really fitting to the project.
I used the image of the stained glass window as part of the front cover on my sketchbook.

I also came across a red velvet chair in the church which I took a picture of as I thought the colour was also very matching. I also like the texture of the chair as it looks like quilting a technique which I used in this project and in my final 8!!

Fabric boards

Machine embroidery circles on lining and tulle

Satin printed with muslin and covered in organza

Printing stitched with fabric underlay also weaving with organza bows

Quilting with wadding satin and organza

Muslin organza and satin layered then cut into to reveal organza

Thumbnail drawings

These are some of my thumbnail drawings from the textiles project. They were drawn from different weights and textures of fabric on the stand

Ink and marker

Paint and ink

Watercolors and ink

Fabric Manipulation

This project was all about fabric manipulation and creating our own fabrics using the sewing machine , embroidery , hand stitched techniques dying and printing.

Setting up for assessment

Images of knitwear samples , notebook, knit piece etc for assessment

Manipulating shapes in fabric

The shapes from brown paper were then transalted into three different weights of fabric.
Light - Tulle
Medium- Calico
Heavy- Oil cloth

The result was very different compared to the paper.
Tulle was stiff which was nice as I could create structured designs with it.
Calico draped nicely
and the oil cloth was my favourite as it had the most structure which I like the best.

Images of fabric on stand

 

 

 

Knitwear

On the Tuesday we had Liz for knitwear. We learn't many new techniques such as fringing , tassles, how to make fancy yarn , multi yarn , pom poms. how to knit with jersey and also with shredded fabric like cotton.
The day was intense but I really like working with different yarns which I was new to.
My favourite yarn was the fancy wool which you gather three or more wools together and then loop different colors in for a fringy tassled look to the wool.
I decided to use the fancy wool to make my neckpiece/shrug for assessment.
The only thing I would say was it took so long to make the yarn and then I had to knit it also which took plenty of time but I felt the outcome outweighed all of these obstacles and I was glad I used the fancy yarn in the end.

Some images to look at

 

 

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Manipulating shapes on the mannequin

After coming up with an array of diffrernt shapes from our object , we chose two of our favourites and then cut them out in brown paper.
Some shapes were small scale others were larger just to give us a better idea of scale and more variation to design from.
I really enjoyed working on the stand as it was new to me.
I also took loads of photographs of the work which I then used to design garments in my notebook.
Here are some photos of the paper design work.

 

 

 

Begining the Fashion elective

I have decided to use jellyfish as an inspiration for the fashion elective.
Jellyfish appeared in my sensing space project as I was looking at marine life,
I find the jellyfish to be a very interesting creature with many shapes sizes and colors to draw inspiration from.

Here are some photographs I found online .

Tip Toland

Tip Toland is an american ceramicist working in Seattle.
The artists work usually consists of life sized ceramic human figures.
Toland looks at the life cycle of human life often creating elderly people through ceramics.

 

 

 

Ai Wei Wei

Ai Wei Wei is a chinese contemporary artist whos works include sculpture ,photography and also Ceramics.
Wei Wei is said to be a strong political activist who has drawn attention to the many injustices attributed to the chinese government.
Sunflower seeds was an exhibition of Wei Wei's which I went to see whilst in London . It was held in the Tate Modern.
The installation was thousands upon thousands of hand painted ceramic sunflower seeds.
It was an amazing spectical!

Sunflower Seeds 2010

Coca Cola Vessel

 

 

Richard Notkin

Richard Notkin is an American ceramicist working in Chicago but originally from Kansas.
Notkin is well know for his anti-war pieces often reflecting the destructive effect war has open us.
I love the detail of Notkins work!
Richard Notkin is said to be influenced by chinese yixing pottery.

Some examples of Notkins work

 

 

 

Notkin at work in his studio

 

 

Takeshi Yasuda

Takeshi Yasuda is a Japanese ceramicist who's works are said to be very avant garde and risque!
Born in Tokyo Yasuda experiments with throwing and is well know for his high fired earthenware!
I really like the originality of Yasuda's work.

Here are some examples of Yasudas work

 

 

 

 

 

Ceramics Elective

I began the Ceramics elective last monday. In the past week I have learned so much about ceramic practice, form development and techniques.
Last week we chose two objects from a selection and created ink drawings which were informed by these objects!
My objects were a husk off a fruit and a wooden lemon zester. After the ink drawings we used wire and paper to further inform the studies and create 3d pieces which would then be translated into clay.
The objects were placed into the kiln on Friday morning to fire over the weekend.
Today we will be glazing and hand painting our pieces.
Paul Klee is being used an inspiration for color in our pieces.


Paul Klee

Inflatable Sculpture

The Finished piece (Easter Island Head)

Ironing the pieces together

I took part in a project which fourth year sculpture students were involved in which was called inflatable sculpture.
I really had no idea about this technique until the day of the workshop and I also must admit to seeing it outside in the front gardens at the start of the year .
The construction of these sculptures is pretty spectacular.
The material used is like an industrial plastic mainly used for rubble collection. The plastic is cut to scaler and shape after it has been designed , the pieces are then ironed together amongst a sheet of tinfoil so as not to melt them.
The whole procedure is very quick and has a profound effect in large scale which it is often used for.
I enjoyed the experience thoroughly and came away without and burns ....success!!!!

Exploring Felting

Exposing the inside space and it's contents

Cutting into the centre of the ball

Sampling the felting technique with different colored morino wool

Larger scale felted piece around plastic bag which was filled with scrap pieces of knit room then cut into

Small felted balls with trapped threads

My most recent explorations have been in the area of felting. One of my tutors Liz kindly took some of her time out to show me how to use this technique and relate it to my project.
I absolutely loved this technique and made many little pieces.
Using a tennis ball and a golf ball as a structure i wrapped the morino wool around them and trapped different fibres and wools inside which I then cut into to reveal the inside space