Liberty's British Design Open Call.

Today I entered my Cottage Jungle fabric design into the Liberty's British Design Open Call event. This is an event which the company runs every year and it allows new and established designers to show their product to the buyers at Liberty and compete for a chance to have their product actually reproduced and sold on the Liberty's shop floor! To enter I needed to select one of my products and send a photograph of it. If I were successful I would be able to take my product to Liberty's, in London and have it analysed by the buyers. This would be a great chance to get some tips and feedback about my designing, making and product range.

So fingers crossed!

New work to come!

After a busy couple of months of preparing and showing my work at the degree show and New Designers I have finally had time to come back down to earth and start to think about a new project! I've decided that I'd like to stick with florals again, but this time i'm going to try my hand at a more fashion lead project. To get me started I've decided to work on a mini fashion fabric collection, following the Photographic Florals trend seen on the catwalk this summer by the likes of Dolce & Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli. Bellow is a design I started yesterday, all of the blooms seen are taken from my own photographs.

New Designers

Between the 24th and 28th of June we exhibited as a university at the New Designers show at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. It was the best opportunity we could ever ask for as students. We were all given our own 100cm by 274.32cm space to display our best work. The show was open to industry experts, press and the public and it was a great platform for us to meet potential employers, make industry connections and gain some valuable feedback and advice. I enjoyed exhibiting at New Designers very much and I have been presented with some very exciting opportunities since returning home.

  

The Degree Show

On the 22nd of May we showcased our work at our university degree show. It was lovely to finally see everything we had worked for laid out in front of us. The show was open to industry experts, press, family and friends. It was a great evening with lots of congratulations and positive feedback for all of us. Bellow are some images of my stand and items on display:

Finishing Designs

I have decided to add a small amount of embroidery to some of the designs in my collection. I wanted to do this to add a bit more depth and texture; to give a more overall considered, finishing touch. I chose French Knots and Pearl Beads as they are quick to sew. I wanted to chose something less time consuming as highly complex embroidered peices tend to price highly.

Bradford Textile Society Design Competition.

In March I entered one of my designs into the Bradford Textile Society Design Competition. The competition is very recognised and has run for a number of years; it has many categories and I chose to enter 'P2 Prestigious Textiles Award - For a Printed Interiors design for the Domestic Market.' To enter the competition I was required to submit two boards. A Technical Board (left), displaying inspiration and technical elements for the structure of the design and a Final Design Board (right) clearly displaying the final design, colour pallet (including a maximum of 16 colours) and an example of a final outcome. I am pleased to say I gained a commendation for my entry so I am very pleased and filled with confidence!  

http://www.bradfordtextilesociety.org.uk/index.html

Bellow are the boards I entered and my name presented on the website:  

Fabric printing.

I spent a full day getting all 16 sample designs printed and finished. I decided to use the Mimaki Tx400 at university to print my fabrics as I felt more comfortable overseeing the process as I could ensure there would be no misunderstanding or mistake. 

When using fabric for printing it needs to be a specialist type which is coated in a gum that reacts with the printer dyes. I bought my fabric from Whaleys Ltd in Bradford. I chose a cotton canvas as I wanted a fabric with a large weave to excentuate the brush strokes found in my designs. I also wanted a fabric with a similar texture to an artist's canvas to convey the idea that the design has been painted straight onto the fabric. The cotton element to the fabric was important because I still wanted it to be soft and drapable as one of my final outcomes was designs for curtains. The cotton canvas is a very versitile fabric as it is also durable enough to use for upholstery, making it the perfect fabric for interior design uses.

Bellow is an image of the Mimaki printer at work. It is the same concept as a traditional ink jet printer but the heads and inks are adapted to print on fabric. The printer is also very large to allow large rolls of fabric or paper to be mounted.

After printing the fabrics have to go through a finishing process. This involves first steaming the fabric to fix the dyes. The dyes react with the heat of the steam which causes the dyes to fix into the fabric, this also further develops the clarity of the colour and overall design. Steaming takes 20 minutes. 

The fabrics then need to be washed to get rid of any excess dye and stop any further running. Again this needs to be done in hot water to ensure the dyes react enough to fix. This can be a long process as all of the excess dye needs to be washed away, other wise the colours run as the fabric drys.