Sample development

The context of my work has been something I have really been focusing on this week. Looking at the work of Helen Yardley who is a rug designer, I have been thinking about the scale of my work and made a decision to create larger samples. Also Laura Slater and Shilo Engelbrecht have been inspiring.

 

Shilo Engelbrecht

 

The scale of her work shows the brush strokes in detail and how she has engineered her prints on the cushion show the prints in scale to the cushion.

This cushion by Laura Slater shows the scale I want to work in. The continuous brush strokes show texture and having a simple colour palette shows a bold statement.I have been creating prints by hand straight onto the fabric using paint brushes to create texture and large motifs, using my art work as a guide. by dyeing the fabric first, this abled me to discharge certain parts out.I used linen and other textured fabric so it complimented the brush strokes. Painting pigment over adds a hand painted and more textured pop of colour. This sample is large scale and would want it to be placed like this on a cushion or lampshade.
 



 

 

 



Contextual research and inspiration

This week I have been researching other products relating to my context, as I feel slightly stuck with my work. Visiting and seeing what's available in stores first hand was helpful because I was able to pick up the product and see every aspect. 

I looked at many cushions and really liked these ones from Home Sense. The pattern works well with the minimal reverse side and the fabrics used have a natural feel to them. I prefer larger cushions to small and are one of the products I like to design for.

The Marks and Spencer cushions are smaller and used for scatter cushions. It was inspiring to see how the store had styled certain cushions with other furnishings and the different contrast in patterns.

Even though my context isn't for the kitchen, I was inspired by this display from Next and love the neutral colours, materials and tones. This has inspired me to use a different colour palette which I think will work well and hopefully I will be happy with it.

Sublimation print

I have sourced a synthetic fabric which has more of a texture, looking slightly like linen, as my previous synthetic fabric was too thin and flat.

 

 

 

Keeping a simple colour palette shows the motifs better and the quality of the brush strokes.

 

 I still feel this style of print isn't working well as it is too structured and bold. I aim to research further practitioners I find inspiring and carry on with drawing to then show my drawings working with my prints better.

Experimenting with colour and sublimation print

After printing with pigment, I thought I needed to experiment with a different print type by keeping a similar 'boldness' shape print. I played around with my colour palette as I felt it was too busy with so many colours on the print at once. I was inspired by a front cover of 'Bloom' and felt that deeper, brighter tones would work best but still going for similar colours. 



 I have been inspired by the work of Anna Jacobs and like how she uses large ink, playful brush strokes and marks on her prints.

 

Work from the summer inspired me further to overlap shapes, as well as finding shapes from current drawings.

 





Thinking how I could keep the boldness but make it slightly less structured, I experimented with sublimation print, painting this onto paper, cutting the shapes out and heat transferring onto synthetic fabric. The rough edges from the brush strokes show a slightly more abstract effect but still with the shapes visible.  

 At this stage, I don't think these samples work in conjunction with my drawings or style and feel the colours are dated. I intend to test different synthetic fabrics and colour ways. 

Development- Large scale print

After the tutor crit and presentation, I wanted to test on larger scale fabric with brighter colours and bolder shapes. I took inspiration from my previous samples and developed the shapes from these further in the print room.

 Using stencils to create the motifs helped to vary the shapes, and gave the print a spontaneous, un-structured feel. I wanted to see how this would look overlapping the pigment using different shapes.

 

 Where the different shapes overlap, I find this interesting and like how the pigment shows through changing the tone. As I've printed with pigment, the fabric feels stiff and not a quality I want so need to test other options.

                                                     Maxinesuttontextiles.com
I came across Maxine Sutton who is a print designer for interior. I saw similarities between her work and mine and has really inspired me to experiment with overlapping motifs.