Tiles and Piles!

Hello again!

Gosh it's been a while since I blogged last! Last time I told you I had plans to do a shoe, and a kitchen theme as well as my existing dog and jumble themes. So here's what has been produced!

To begin with I arranged the kitchen utensils I drew into a similar pattern that I did with the dog and jumble drawings.

I wanted to create a different sort of pattern to create more interest in my range so I layered my drawings and arranged them in a more random way

With my shoe drawings, again I firstly arranged them in quite a uniform pattern

I also arranged them in this uniform pattern, I quite like the way these shoes look like butterflies!

I think they look even more like butterflies in this layout

I have designed a braver and more contempory pattern for the shoes which is this big pile. The shoes are all different sizes so it is less literal and more surrealist.

Here it is in a room setting to give you an idea of size

I've just started working on a very different style of pattern compared to what I have been doing which is this tile effect

As always, let me know what you think!

Queen's Jubilee Scarf Competition

Today I've been distracted from my current project. I've been designing a scarf for a competition run by Selvedge Magazine, it needs to be to commemorate the Queen's Jubilee but also influenced by your time at on your course studying textiles. It needed to be 50cm x 50cm and have a border or edging.

Anybody who knows me in real life or virtually, even if you've only read my blog once, will know how much my dogs mean to me. At the beginning of this final year at university our tutor gave us a talk telling us the importance of taking a break from our heavy load a work to do the usual hobbies or things we do, saying that it will help us clear mental blocks, and give us thinking time. For me that hobby is my dogs. Spending time with them is like therapy! The Queen's Corgi dogs are iconic and I thought maybe the Queen and I have our dogs in common! So I did some pencil sketches of Corgi dogs...

I wanted to give it quite a traditional look so it would stand the test of time and luckily that fits in with the kitch sort of style that I like. To keep with that traditional and kitch theme I stuck with the red, white and blue colour palette, and created a simple striped border. I also gave the dogs a blue wash of colour. This was my first attempt at combining the border and the dog drawings...

I felt like the dogs arrangement was too uniform so I played with the size and scale of the dogs producing this design...

Remembering that the scarf was 50cm x 50cm I thought the dogs were a bit too large, so I came up with my final design which I think will be the entry I submit...

Do you agree that this should be my choosen design? Would you buy my scarf?!

Just a quick one today!

Just a quick one today!

Another little update of work on my current collection. I've started to find some styles and patterns that I really like within my work now so I've put one into a room setting here to see what it would look like.

What do you think?

This is quite traditional, chintzy room decor which I like and I think this wallpaper would suit. Although I can see it in a clean, very modern room setting too.

If you look on my previous blog post you'll see I have this dog theme, and a "jumble" theme of scissors, dog collars, and glasses. I'm working on two other themes to compliment these which are shoes, and kitchen.

Here are some of my sketches from the kitchen theme as a taste of what's to come.

Progress?

Hello again! Here's a little update on the design work I'm doing at the moment. Have a peek at previous posts to see what I've done before this. 

The patterns below are some of my favorite so far, I can see where they're heading now.

I've used the drawings of my dogs to create a more random pattern. This pattern below is a working repeat.

 Here's how it works when it is repeated.

I've done the same with the objects from my home that I drew. I like the tonal changes in colour, rather than making them grayscale and all the objects having the same tones.

 And here's how this one works as a repeat. I think I need to work on this one more so the repeat is not so obvious.

 I also used the hand drawn objects to create this busy random repeat pattern. I can see this on a thin, sheer fabric such as silk. 

Here I combined the objects with the dog lead pattern I created. I really like this, even as a stand alone piece.

This is the same as the pattern above but in a red and black colourway.

And here it is in a red and blue colourway.

I've made the above pattern into a repeating pattern. I like the busy-ness of it.

I've made the pattern a bit less busy here by using the red objects on their own in the middle of the pattern.

Here it is when it is repeated. I think it needs more work to make it look more continuous.

I originally started designing  for interior fabrics and wallpapers but now the patterns are developing I can see some of the simple black and white patterns on tiles. And some of the random repeats as gift wrap. 

As always, let me know what you think!!

BRING ON SUMMER!

So last week I booked my ticket for Kendal Calling. Kendal Calling is a music festival which has grown from very small beginnings in my home town of Kendal, year on year it's got bigger and booked more impressive acts, and now it's held in Lowther Park which is near Penrith, about 30 mins from Kendal.

Unbeknownst to me, and to each other, my two bezzy mates Amy and Becca had also booked their tickets on that same morning last week - total excitement!

This is the three of us on my birthday night out in Chester last year (me, Becca, Amy)

I have been to V Festival quite a few times, once with Becca which was 2 years ago. 

(Me and Becca at V Festival)

My original partner in crime for V Festival is my very best friend who I've grown up with since we were 3, Lucy. She is THE best moshing partner ever! The only time I've been without her is when I went with Becca, Lucy had a bun in the oven!

(My fave pic of Lucy and I in our lion & monkey hats at V)

I've also been to Kendal Calling the last 4 years. For two of those years I took my son Ollie. We had the most fun time ever, he was like a little celebrity, with strangers asking him for high 5's and to have their photos taken with him! But going with a child means you can't drink! 

(Ollie raving it up in Kiss makeup, with a group of my friends)

But the three of us, myself, Becca and Amy, have never had the festival experience together. I can't wait to go with these two girls because we always have the best times together. We're so comfortable in each others company and know each other inside out so I'm 100% sure the banter will flow all weekend and it will be full on fun!

Not to mention the amazing live music we'll be jumping around to! This year I'm really looking forward to seeing Feeder, Dizzee Rascal, and Shed Seven, and then raving until the early hours in the hot and sweaty Glow Tent. We also get to see someone we know in actual real life perform this year! Amy's lovely house mate Jim will be on stage as Bad Bad Me, he has the most amazing voice to make your knees wobble so make sure you don't miss him if you're going!

BRING ON SUMMER!

Kendal Calling's website is http://www.kendalcalling.co.uk/

"In My House..."

Sometimes I feel like I'm making loads of progress with my current design project, then I look at how many weeks I have left until the exhibition and I panic! 

In a previous blog post I showed you my initial ideas of line drawings of things that are important to me, composed in a similar way to tattoo designs. Since then I've decided to call the project "In my house...". So I've been doing lots of drawings of people and things in my house and now I'm at the stage of putting very simple and basic patterns together, these will be further developed into more complex and impressive designs in the next few weeks. These are surface pattern designs to be used on fabrics and wallpapers for interiors.

You've already seen my "doggy" composition and here is a composition I call "jumble". It's a collection of line drawings of my glasses, dog collars, and scissors.

I did some more drawings of my dogs, this time with their bodies, not just their heads! Here is a little repeat pattern I made up with them.

Here is a pattern I've created with many different drawings of dog leads, it reminds me of worms!

I combined the dog leads and the dogs to make this repeat pattern

I've used a photograph of my carpet to create a textured background, here is an enlarged section of this pattern

Let me know what you think so far!