The New Designers Exhibition!

Me and 8 other students took part in the New Designers Exhibition in London last week. It was amazing!

This is our stand...

We were all very fortunate to get interest from several companies in different parts of the world. It was amazing and definitely beneficial experience and I would definitely recommend doing this if you are reaching the end of your creative degree.

I enjoyed every moment of this experience and it was great to meet new people and make new contacts. From doing this exhibition everybody now has decisions to make regarding their next steps in their careers.

Well done everyone and Good Luck for the future!!

The Degree Show!

This is what my final degree show at Bolton University looked like.

I had 3 canvases, two of them were embroidered by hand and by machine and are intended for soft furnishings or as they are. I also made a throw which was quilted and patchworked together.

Everyone has worked very hard and our effort has paid off with the amazing work we had on show. Did you come to see it?

Now I think a well deserved break is in order before New Designers and GRADUATION! :)

The Embroidery Stitching.

This is a shot of me on the sewing machine hard at work. The machine stitch wouldn't have taken that long if I didn't have to keep on moving the embroidery hoop around to keep it tight.

 

 

really enjoyed doing this part of my design because I can't get enough of the sewing machine. The only downside is it hurts my back after a while. I can't wait to have the chance to do it again.

The Printing.

Woohoo!

It was so exciting to see my final designs printing to their full size. It didn't take as long as I thought it would either because I managed to get my designs steamed as well in the same day and ready for washing so i could embroider them.

Have a look at how it happened...

 

 

 

Don't they look good. I am so proud of myself haha.



The Final Designs.

Number 1.

 

I am very happy with this as a final design. I think it is a suitable design for a throw and it will be of a higher market level once embroidered. I love the structure of this design and the combination of floral and geometric elements.

 



 

 

Number 2.

I love the stemmed flowers in this design and I like how I have combined them with the offset leaf idea. I like the way I have added the geometric background because I think that is what makes the composition work.

 

 

Number 3.

This design I love for the different geometric patterns on either side of the floral composition and the offset leaves I believe are what makes this design successful. Once i have added embroidery to this design I think it will rise higher in the market.

 

 

I am so pleased with all three of these designs and I love the colour palette I used. My inspiration for these designs came from websites like Designers Guild and magazines like Linum. 

The Next Inspiration.

http://www.next.co.uk/shop/category-bedsets-0 

 

I love these bed linen designs by designers of Next for the colour, simplicity and choice of flower. I think these are great and I would love to have a kind of structure to my designs in this way. 

 

 

 

 

These designs from Next are at the lower end of the market when compared to Selfridges because there is a great difference in price of product. I think my work has the potential to be at the higher end of the market but I would like to cater for all if possible.

The Design Ideas.

My plan when creating my design ideas is to create bespoke, one off pieces that are one large composition. I want to do this because I obviously prefer working this way and I don't like always working in repeats. I believe that working with one whole composition allows you to show off your embroidery skills in every way you choose and that isn't always as easy when dealing with repeat patterns.

At the start of this module I had three collections but now I am down to two collections instead. I am only designing for two collections now because I am looking to manage my time effectively and if i want to do embroidery in my work then I can't give myself too much work with not enough time.

I am designing my Beatriz Milhazes inspired collection to suit the outcome of a throw and my embroidered florals collection will be geared towards a bedding outcome.

So... Let's get designing!