Visiting Liberty London.

 Liberty London

This weekend I visited London and went to Liberty to research and take photos of the products.

I started by looking at there rugs which featured lots of interesting designs, one of my favorite being rugs featuring Chinese dragons.

After I went over to the where the wallpaper samples where, these where all very similar in style and had multiple design of the same patter just in different colour ways which where really interesting to look at and which ones I thought complimented each design. Looking at the William Morris patterns was helpful as I thought about other styles I could draw in and how you don't have to draw in the correct colours you see things in, for example William Morris produces things in unnatural colours for example flower in a bronze colour and red leaves.

When I was there I also looked at other ways pattern can be used in products; bedding- duvet, pillows, throws, quilts, cushions. They also covered place matts, cutlery holders and table clothes.

Liberty's specializes in high end fabrics, and you could tell, the room was covered floor to ceiling in fabrics, cotton silk and more. The fabrics ranged from bold, contrasting colours to more subtle toned down colours. The fabrics floral, animals and architecture. I also had a look at there designer fashion, and I was shocked to see how much patterns I saw. 

Overall, Liberty's was a really nice experience and everyone who worked there where really welcoming and helpful.

Week Two.

 Week Two

This week we started off in Pattern Cutting and Construction by learning about different types of seams. I learnt how to make a French seam and a Flat Fell seam which was really useful as I had never made these before or even heard that terminology before. We also had an induction to the Industrial press which I learnt gets you very hot quickly. I also, for the first time, used the overlocking machine which i think is very useful to quickly stop material fraying as the machine is very efficient, even if I was a bit apprehensive to use at first. Later on in the week, we learnt how to make a Double turn hem and a Pin/roll hem which was tricky trying to keep the curved edges neat and to catch all the fabric whilst stitching the edge. At home I also tried to identify different types of seams and hems. 

                                            

In photography we started to create our Photograms which I thought was really interesting the way that they came out in such a contrasting black and white. This was my first time using the dark room and its equipment and I enjoyed it. Before going into the dark room to prepare we where taught what each part of the Photogram machine was which aloud the light to develop our paper. In my photograms I included scissors, bobbins and unpicker's as I wanted my photogram to relate to textiles. I arranged these objects in a uniformed way with the scissors creating angles and shapes, which I was inspired by the Bauhaus use of lines. We also looked at a video which was made by Oscar Schlemmer which was a Bauhaus Ballet I was fascincinated by the use of colour and costume in this.

This week in Fashion and textiles we starting drawing fruit and vegetables from still-life. I found this fun as I got to use new medias and try techniques I hadn't done before. We did this because we got given our briefs which is for Liberty, which is very pattern and floral based. I enjoyed drawing and i found it relaxing. When drawing from still life we tried to draw using your preferred hand, your opposite hand, drawing whilst not looking at the page, using two pens in one hand and drawing continuously. My favorite was drawing with two pens in too hands because I liked how it created the double lines especially when I did it with two different medias, for example a pen and graphite creates a different type of mark and texture on the page. I least like the drawing with chalk because it was hard to move around the page smoothly and created more jagged lines, I also think it smudges too much that it's hard to create fine details. I also really liked how the oil pastels worked out and how I managed to create a gradient. 

This week we also had our first lesson of stretch where we started looking at Wraptious an art competition where we started to think about different types of artwork we could create for the competition where they, if you're selected as a winner and put your artwork onto a pillow for them to sell where you would get a commission.

 

Week One.

Week One: Fashion and Textiles

This week was my first week as a fashion and textile student doing a Btec and I really enjoyed it. To start with we learnt all the health and safety requirements and induction for the new course. I enjoyed meeting my new teacher and classmates even though I was a bit nervous to start with, everyone was really welcoming. 

During the week I have worked on mark making using many different media’s including acrylic paint, graphite, oil pastel and ink. A new media I used was bleach it was really interesting to see how it interacted with the ink.

I also for the first time drew with oil pastels and I really enjoyed it and how buttery it was, luckily I had a few tips from YouTube to help me navigate it- will definitely be using these again in my work.

In first photography lesson ever, I learnt about different lights and their purposes, we also went in the dark room in preparation for up-and-coming projects. 

At the weekend I visited the malting for the Unravel Festival, and I purchased another felting kit ready for Halloween which I am looking forward to making! Next week in pattern cutting we are looking at seams and when to use which types which will be useful.