I choose drawing over computers anyday!

Today- a start of a brand new week and we had a very fun, fast-paced drawing workshop this morning which i thoroughly enjoyed. We had to draw observational flowers, the print market today is made up of 90% floral designs. I do love florals as they are quirky, beautiful and easy to draw. However saying that i do not want to do my degree to make up that 90% off people, i would like to stand out in my own right with my different designs and be part of that 10%.

We made about 7 or 8 different drawings off different flowers in different perspectives concerntrating on the marks that we saw. What was interesting about this exercise was it was a way of teaching us how to understand different types of prints and what better way to just do and not think. This way of drawing has opened my eyes up to the possibilities and opportunities im missing out on spending time bein precious with my work,when some of the work i deem most successful is when i havent had time to question my thoughts and i have just 'done it'.

We then had to trace over our drawings several times, in order for us to make a half drop repeat enabling us to still see underneath it.

 

 With our drawings traced out and drawn we could then play around to create our repeats, this is what my outcome was:

I quite like it due to the combination of chunky designs mixed in with linear prints as it allows each design to be accentuated within it's own right. I would like to put this onto a screen though i will talk to the technicians about it to make sure that it would be successful or not too do it. Fingers crossed i will be able too! I would have to be taught how to print a half drop as a lot of calculations go into printing a full drop! Because i enjoyed this so much i decided to make some of the half drop repeats onto some of my previous drawings:

This is not a half drop repeat but it is a 'mirrored' repeat something else which we briefly touched upon but i wanted to take it further to widen my knowledge.

Half drop of 2 types of flowers.

 

 

Photoshop.

The second part of our day was learning photoshop skills. Well this was certainly a challenge i spent the hour and a half being able to work out how to cut and copy using mac software (something i am not familiar with) and learning shortcuts and am still not confident enough to be able to just 'do it'. So i was not going to be defeated by a computer and took the learning sheets home by emailing them to myself and going through step by step on my home laptop on photoshop cs5 (rather than cs6 - what the university has installed but i am reassured that this is practically the same system!) It still hasn't been easy and has been harder without someone elses knowledge to steer me in the right direction but i have made one half drop repeat design. It is very basic but didn't want to 'run before i could walk' so with new drawings that i will make, and newimagery hopefully i will build up my confidence to produce more effective repeat prints. Photoshop is such a good skill to have, due to the complexity only few know how to use it. Most industry, companys and business who are in the design industry will make full use of its potential.

 

It's a combination of pegs and flowers! Part of my original drawings and new drawings made today. Tomorrow i am going to look into it's negative space as i have learnt that this is just as important as the subject matter itself.

3rd day - getting into the swing of things

 

Today,we had a print and dye induction where we were taught how we technically repeat a print pattern. It was definetley a lot to take in! I wrote down everything i possibly could in my pdp book where it explains how you measure up your screen in comparison to the table and fabric, what screws you need like t-bars and screws from screen to table. We also were taught how to wash our screens properly and how we apply the ink well without smudges, or joining marks. It's all very complicated but i have every faith that once were in there we can get on and it'll make more sense; i think it's the typical thing until you do, you won't fully understand! It does seem to make sense in a weird non-understanding way as it will make the repeating printing process much easier and quicker to actually try and do.

We also finished our kodatraces so they are ready to be exposed ready to be printed a week on tuesday! With that knowledge and the induction this morning we thought it would be ideal to start testing dyes out on our fabric as we have to have our fabric prepared ready to print straight onto.

What i like about it, is that you can see two different tones so you can get a feel and an idea if what it would look like before its even been printed.

Us hard at work working onto the top layer of kodatrace. We had to be really steady handed as we need to align both kodatraces together and and the design underneath as we wanted areas that weren't just block orange and detailed blue we wanted to interact with the colours and have them intertwining between the design and fabric. In order to do this we had to remove one of the kodatraces at one time to be able to pick up details we wouldn't have otherwise seen.

Some of our dye samples.

Some more of our dye samples. (will upload more photos when i take them!)

I had forgotten until this afternoon how long the dyeing process takes! We looked into warm colours with lighter and darker tones, i don't think were all convinved still on our final colour palette but we are going to use some of the colours we tryed out today so we know what dyes they were and how we got that outcome by recording them into our pdp journals.

Second day at uni la la la LA !

We came in today fully focused on what we wanted and got on with editing our design ready to transfer onto kodatrace. We covered up some of the tartan like lines so we could add bulk and interesting marks. We picked up some of the textures from our drawings and continued these into the background to link our drawings in with the overall design. I feel much more positive about our print now and cannot wait to start printing with it.

We added in more drawings,a bird, umbrella,show and a peg that we later added in extra detail.

Our final revised design with detail in there and marks made in the background.

I feel it looks more successful as a repeat print as there is more going on compared to previous where it looked a bit weak in design as the lines didn't add much character or attractiveness. Adding in the drawings also added in more focal points to the overall design.

Once our design was in place we could start applying our design onto kodatrace. Everything that we wanted printed had to be made opaque in order for it to be exposed onto a screen. We went with the method of applying block colours on one kodatrace and on the second one we would add highlighted areas and detail. Lets hope it all goes to plan, and we can edit parts and make it more interesting with the lines we will create.

Embroidery!

I really enjoy hand embroidery and although it is VERY time consuming,i have made time around working part time to hand stitch into some of my printed fabric...

These photos are close ups of my work before i added another layer on top of this: thermochromic dyes. I wanted to create texture within the prints which i think i achieved with a variety of stitches including chain and long stitch.

This is what my printed/sewing piece looks like, i don't like it as much now i have added the thermochromic dyes onto them. However i do like how it has enhanced the texture of the print, as it shines through subtly (body&neck) but i don't like how the colour is more purple than pink so contrasts with the print and stitch colours!

Close up of embroidered flamingo.

I trialled this piece out with a very contrasting mint green, which i thought refreshed the whole piece and made a statement piece, however now that the thermochromic dyes have been put on i think it does dull it down now.

This is just a cotton sample with pigment dyes and hand stitch. But i think it works well, better than previous due to the colour (i feel) brings out the print more, and they work together to accentuate shapes rather than flatten or dull bits down.

Close up of feathered textured stitch, building on the idea of layers not only within drawings and samples but now within stitch also. I will definetley continue to play around with this idea, i'm thinking plastics to layer on top of a print. This then makes the fabric slightly waterproof, enabling me to use hydrochromic dyes!

Wish me Luck!

Pigment and Procion Printing...

I have been printing most of the day today trying out different layers and techniques and colours and scale and compositions, the list goes on although this doesn't show visually i have mentally been doing this as i have been going along. My aim: To have a 'neat' print! This evidentally didn't happen but i had fun experimenting and i hope by working into them i will change it's appearance.

Heavy weight cotton withprocion dyes.

Polyester

heavy weight cotton, pigment and procion dyes.

Light weight fabric, with flock.

detail of flock.

Flock texture detail.

Using a blank screen

Lightweight fabric, with tye-dye effect print.

Neat-ish print using pigment dyes onto lightweight cotton.

procion print dye and foil.

tye dye flock onto polyester adds weight to it.

flock onto tissue paper.

layered print.

detail.

layered print in flamingo colours!

print onto polyester

Happy accident with printed plastic and puff binder.

Puffbinder and print onto plastic.

Close up textured surface of puff binder onto plastic.

Puff binder melted together under the heatpress, i quite like it as it reminds me of little gathers.

This print went wrong, the composition is very unbalanced!!! But it shows how all the prints work together.

Delicate puff binder use onto printed fabric.

foil negative.

Overlayed printed fabric

using the negative bit of foil onto tissue paper and then printing on top of the clear plastic. Making the most out of the materials!

This was supposed to be my neat print and i was so pleased with it(until the splodge) i used a pearl pigment binder as a background, which was quite discreet and subtle but added texture.

detail.

Repeated pattern of flamingos using a different shade of pink pigment. Again using a textured pale background with a darker colour on top.

 My 'neat print' that i completed last was 'perfect' in my eyes but when i got home i found ink on it !!! I was so annoyed, i tryed so hard to protect it from other dyes so will have to go and do another one!!

Tomorrow my aim is too work into them with stitch!! It'll be a long day that goes fast!!

Jess x

ps- will blog tomorrow