summer school and GTS - a very busy(and fun) week

Wow!! what a blast the last two weeks have been.  As you know in march I completed the ABSPD module 1 course and since have been working hard creating patterns.  Well I also signed up for Summer Camp.  I have enrolled on all three routes (beginner, intermediate and advanced).  This time round I only managed to complete the beginner and intermediate routes although I did work on the advanced I didn't manage to create anything I was truly happy with.

So what is summer camp?  Well every two weeks we get a professional style brief. All three were following the megatrend of impulse which is current for spring summer 2015.  The beginners brief was much more like what I normally design so this came together faster as I was much more confident in this area.  All three were following the megatrend of impulse which is current for spring summer 2015.  We were given the theme of tropical paradise.With imagery, keywords and prompts, the lovely team at Make it in design (MIID) had prepared the perfect starting point.  I decided to go for tropical fruit and incorporated stripes.

Taken from http://makeitindesign.com/

Here is my work (centre) along side some other artists participating.  I love how we all interpreted the theme in our own style.

I wanted to include influences from these beautiful  Horrocks' dresses that I was lucky enough to see on a recent visit to the Fashion and Textile museum in London.

For the intermediate brief we were given the theme of retro geometrics.  A little out of my comfort zone as I have not really included many geometrics in my designing.  Nostalgia and interlocking along with a nod to tropical fruit I went for a watermelon inspired theme but then in my final piece adapted it to a more retro and modern colour palette.  I have included both as a sneaky peak at the design process, and a glimse of  some of the other interpretations of this theme.

Taken from http://makeitindesign.com/

I was unable to complete the third brief with the theme of water rays, and more on the reason for this to come below. I strongly advise you to check out all three of the galleries on the MIID site.  So many talented artists and stunning patterns.

Well the reason for not completing the final piece was that Global Talent Search started on Tuesday.  I initially was not sure about entering- as is the case for so many artists- but felt that it was best to be brave.Well I have submitted my design this morning and now there is no more that I can do with this piece.  I am very proud of this work and hope to share it with you soon.  Wish it luck

taken from http://lillarogers.com/

lets make patterns all day, everyday

Week 4 of the pattern design course (ABSPD) has been and gone and it was so much fun.  As you know I love patterns so taking in what I have done in week 1-3 I started making some patterns.  My work to date has been very much unlayered so I found layering quite difficult.  Placing a motif over another and hiding its prettiness seemed wrong, so imagine my surprise when the designs actually looked so much better when layered - seems so obvious now but my designs were really lacking this.  More layering in the future for sure.

We had some really cool and informative tips from the very awesome Marie Perkins, of Print & Pattern fame,  I am such a fan of her blog and try to read it everyday to stay up to date with current trends. We also started to think about describing  our own work.  This was tricky but will get easier as I create a large body of work.

We ended the week with a scarf project themed celebration.  I thought I would try something a bit different so went with a Mardi Gras theme using green, gold and purple as my pallette.  I know the edging is wrong.  Shhh dont tell anyone I'm sure they wont notice.

I also entered a competition run by the lovely ladies at By Hand London.  My design was not shortlisted this time but I am still really proud of it