Final Project-Moodboards

I found it useful to initially build mood boards on Pinterest of other artists work, but there is something quite rewarding about having a paper version that you can transport and always have on display. I started with my holiday photographs and I looked in the back of Fired Earths catalogue at the tessellating tiles they have and recreated these by cutting into paper so I could get an understanding of how they work.

The second mood board I created consisted of artists research which I collected off my pinterest or from magazines and shops. 

Final Project-Florence Cathedral and Duomo

My main inspiration for this project was Florence Cathedral and the Duomo. Every section contained a different pattern and whilst I took well over 400 photos there are still patterns I didn't capture and missed. Quite honestly I could fill my blog up with images just of the Cathedral, but I will spare you all of that and post a selective few.

My favourite areas are the squares around the circle windows as I love the way the pattern stretches all the way around and almost begins to disappear as the pattern moves further down. 

 Every pattern was either cut out of stone and tessellated together or carved into the stone. It really was fascinating to see so much detail on a large scale and to stop and think of the tedious hours people spent creating this building.

Final project-Tuscany

My final project at Norwich University was called Printed Tiles, in which I wanted to create a range of fabrics suitable for the interiors market.
Last year I went on a 2 week holiday to Tuscany where I visited Lucca, Florence, Pisa, Pistoia and Cinque Terre. I was so inspired by the variety of colours and patterns these places had to offer, particularly Florence Cathedral and the Duomo. I decided that this would be the starting point of my project.

The first photo is of a little square in Lucca. Very much a peaceful and unspoilt Italian city, no cars are permitted to drive in the city walls unless issued a permit by the council and there are no fast food chains, the restaurants are all locally sourced and run.

The following two photos are of Cinque Terre-5 villages built into the cliffs along the coast line and connected by train. Each has a little harbour and a mass of colour from the boats to the houses.  

INSPIRATION

I was going to tell everyone to buy GoodHomes Pattern & Print magazine, June 2014. Packed full of exactly what the title says 'pattern & print'. Featuring monochrome buys, blue and white schemes and an interview with Caroline Gardner. However when I was googling images of this magazine this photo caught my eye and I found it much more inspiring and interesting than what I was going to say.

Modern folk is the title for this collection of images, a fantastic opportunity to showcase tile patterns, Moroccan prints and earthy colours all in one photo!! After years of art school teaching me tonal scales and the effective use of shading it seems a shame that I am drawn to block colours and patterns that involve no shading what soever. I feel my talent is slightly wasted. But I couldn't be more drawn to this mood board of basic colours and complex patterns. 

HEARTS AND HANDLES

My little sister brought this lovely, sparkly heart for me a few christmas's ago and I still love it as much as I did the day I first saw it, if not more! It's huge, about 80cm tall and it really is a statement piece, the kind of thing that would dominate anything else you were to put on the same wall it was hanging on. It was brought from a pop up christmas shop in Norwich-rather tacky shop full of tinsel and singing christmas dogs. I hadn't seen anything like it until very recently I saw a tiny red version in Next Home.

When you look up close you notice the glittery tops sitting on wood shavings moulded into rose flower shapes. The centre of the flower is a little piece of wood doweling. Looks very effect however very delicate! 

Just as I was uploading the photos of my glittery rose heart these little chest handles my mum recently brought caught my eye. She spent ages looking in various stores and online shops for the 'perfect collection' of handles to add to a new Ercol chest. They look lovely all sitting in a line-or in a small cluster in a pot as I had originally found them. 

NATURAL DYES

I have been researching natural dyes like crazy the last few weeks, ordered several books and visited countless websites/blogs to find out as much information as possible. It's half term next week so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to have pots of dye bubbling continuously!

These are a list of ingredients to buy-that can be found in your back garden or nearest supermarket:

• Brown and red onion-skins
• Strawberries, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries
• Roses-petals
• Lavender 
• Red Cabbage
• Beets (beetroot)
• Turmeric
• Avocado-skins and stone
• Cowparsely 
• Pomegranate
• Birch bark
• Foxglove-flowers
• Bay leaves
• Celery leaves
• Paprika

To fix the dye to the fabrics several methods can be used. Through research I have found these fixatives:

• For Berries use 1/2 cup of salt to 8 cups of cold water
• For plant dyes use 4 parts cold water to 1 part vinegar
• Roses and lavender it is best to activate alkaloids by using a bit of mint and lemon juice
• You can also use Alum or Cream of tartar which can be brought in the cooking ingredients isle

I will be posting my results very soon!

DECORATING LEAVES-SCARF DESIGN

This is from a fairly old project at university. The brief was to design a scarf based on Norfolk. I knew everyone was going to go with the obvious cobbles and the markets, so I wanted to assure I had something completely different. I went down the route of Norfolk outdoors. So I developed drawings of architectural details and markings and moved these onto leaves I collected from woods in norwich. 

From the drawings on the leaves, I scanned them into my computer and played around with layouts and composition on photoshop. I came up with lots and lots of final scarf ideas but for me, two stood out. 

This photo below is my final scarf, I can assure you it looks far better in person and the quality has come out really bad in this picture. However you get the idea. I got this digitally printed and then frayed the edges (after sewing of corse).