Exhibition: New Designers 2012

I was so proud to have been exhibiting my final years work at the New Designers exhibition at the Business Design Centre in London.

I initially went there with the idea that I would just create some interest with the viewers as I want to carry on pursuing textiles as a business, but as time went on, I came to realize that I had fallen in love with Jewellery a lot more than Textiles now, I love the fact that you can just create art pieces with metal, kind of like, wearable art. I would love it if I could incorporate both textiles and jewellery into a uniformed and cohesive pathway.

I was so honored to meet new people as well as see what the other Universities have been up to as well- from what I can see, there is quite a lot of  fierce competition, and I came to realise that my work isn't quite commercial enough to fit in with this kind of environment, BUT I would love it if I could get myself into these kind of events.

Final Major Project 2: Marine Biology- Fish

This is my final piece for my project, photographed in the Farnham Maltings (thank you, Burton & Laura!).


For this project, I was inspired by the fish at the Horniman Museum in London, and the wall hangings at the Lost in Lace Exhibition, in Birmingham. With the fish, I was more interested in the colours and movement of the fish, which I thought was best effective through the method of ikat, the method of binding yarn to get different colours and patterns within the cloth.

I found this to be a difficult project, because of linking my ideas to my ikat, and the constant tangling of the threads due to the nature of the yarns used, but I'm glad that I stuck by it, because I know that I could overcome something, no matter how challenging it was!

I  wanted to create three wall hanging pieces, changing in the spacing of colour, and thought that it would be suitable for somewhere in a bohemian/ethnic type restaurant, because I thought it would be better than a corporate building, because I have always tried to stay away from this, because I'm quite free-spirited and my ideas are really all over the place. For that reason, I thought a vibrant restaurant, like a Moroccan Restaurant would be more appreciated.

I do prefer the tie-dye technique in comparison, but I would like to continue with the fabric manipulation post-graduation, and possibly create a ready-made textiles range from it.

Ikat Planning

I have started designing ideas of my ikat, as I am trying to figure out how I can piece together my work as a final piece. I initally thought that I wanted to do a variety of patterns and colours for wall hangings, but realistically, it isn't realistic, especially considering that after this easter break, I will only have 4 weeks to finish my final samples AND start on my final piece, it would be better to choose one pattern, and create different colour combinations with the ikat that I would be able to do on one warp, so that I won't have to keep changing warps, because I want everything to flow a little smoother, and be coherent, but still creating that sense of movement of the fish that I want to make with my work.

I will also need to start cartooning 3 really good ideas that I like and choose 1 that I could progress with, and do some visualisations. I had been looking at different contexts of where my work could go, and I could really picture my work being in the canteen of the Horniman Museum, which I thought was a good idea, considering that the Aquarium there was where my inspiration started. I would though, like to keep looking for ideas, just to make sure that this is what I definitely want to do.