PPD is finished! The penultimate module of the year. It stands for Personal and Professional Development and is focused on the background skills needed to succeed in your chosen area.

Not the most exciting of modules, its an online learning package, with lots of writing. Exploring techniques on problem solving, analysis and reflection.  Creating learning and action plans to keep focus and motivation.  Setting ourselves realistic targets and keeping track of our progress. 

It all makes sense and I did find some helpful strategies, such as the action planning.  I always use 'to do lists' and I used to prioritise the tasks on them in my old job, but for some reason I have stopped doing it. I have started again though.  Each task is numbered depending on their importancy or urgency, or just something that needs done at some point. It will stop me putting off the jobs I don't want to do!  I don't give myself deadlines for completing the tasks.  I have started to now though.

I already use mind maps to get my thoughts organised, so although that wasn't anything new, it reassured me I was doing something right! 

The other part of this module, was to keep a blog of my work and inspiration throughout the year.  There was so much more I should have put in! I missed telling you about my trip to London, the definite highlights being Liberty and the V&A.  Then along comes February and a trip to New York which I haven't mentioned.

Im going to keep my blog going, I've enjoyed looking back through it, although I need to work on my photographs. I need to use my 'proper' camera rather than the camera on my phone. Writing the posts gives me time to think about what I have done and about the decisions I made and why I made them. Its a good habit to keep.

So I hope you've enjoyed reading so far, I'm off to focus on my last module, the wallpaper designs. I'll have some drafts to show you next week...

Behance

Have a look at Behance. It's Adobe's online gallery type social media.

There are amazing pieces to view and be inspired by. The artwork posted is from professionals, amateur artists and students from many disciplines, from digital art and graphic design to sculpture and fine art.

My username is Lesley-Anne Pace. So when your account is up and running follow me and send a message, I'll make sure I follow you back.

Growing a photo

I worked on something similar a few months ago. I really like the idea of growing a photograph and wanted to try it again.

Here I zoomed into the centre of one of my photos and cropped.  Ive now stuck it into my sketchbook and I'm drawing the rest in.

This time I'm using a black and white print and drawing in colour. The opposite to what I did last time, variety is the spice of life and all!

It's coming along really well and I'm enjoying drawing it. Im thinking of what could be produced if I didn't stick to what was really there. Mixing up some of the drawings and photos. The centre of one flower and the outer of another? It's something to look at next time.

Screenprint Positives

Here are the screenprint positives cut ready to place on my screen.

There is a slight issue with one of them. As in the linear design and silhouette design don't match size wise!!

There's a lesson to learn, what's that old saying? Measure twice, cut once.

Anyway, rather than just writing it off I'm planning on using my artistic licence to produce some slightly different to what I originally planned.

Sketching

More pencil and fine liner drawings.

I'm looking forward to manipulating this drawing in Photoshop. I think it will lend itself perfectly to a background, curving and curling it's way around the main design.

I've prepared the positive drawings for my screenprint. See me being organised!

Drawing Ink

The best part of a new module is looking for new materials to try out! Enter, drawing inks!

I went a little wild and bought both the Henry and William sets from Windsor and Newton.

The colours are beautiful! Strangely the blues are my favourite, usually I tend to avoid those hues.

Stop being a wuss!

Apparently leaves seem to be my thing for this module!

Although, one thing I must address is my fear of working directly into a sketchbook.  I tend to work on single pieces of paper and then blutack them in, which is great, it works, but it looks a mess!

I want the pretty sketchbook pages without the mish mash.

I will make efforts in future, it's something I am very conscious of, so technically I am working on it.

Sketchbook fun

The drawing element of a new module is when all my pennies disappear!

Enter Promarkers, see the tulip below, I complained all the way through drawing this that I didn't like the Promarkers, they were too harsh, they weren't blending, they were bleeding blah blah. By the time it was almost finished I'd really started to like them.

However, they are harsh, it's all or nothing. Once you've made your mark its there and it can't be taken back and that's what I don't like about them. I don't feel brave enough to use them and they force me to make strong decisions. Which is probably exactly why I need to stick with them and find more confidence making bold decisions.

Therefore I definitely need to up my collection!

The other new product I tried was gouache. I loved it!

I've only recently become comfortable with watercolour, as you'll know if you've read earlier posts. So I'm getting used to a brush rather than always reaching for the pencils, but I loved the colours from these!  They seem to be more controllable (is that even a word?) than watercolours. The colour has more pigment and much more vibrant...and the little tubes are really cute!!

Leaves leaves and leaves.

I have a new module!

I love this part, receiving a new brief. Reading through my mind is whirling with all the possibilities.

It's a wallpaper design task, there are three options to choose from, dense floral, think Liberty and William Morris, illustrative or an abstract street art type style.

After my initial research, I quite fancied opting for illustrative, thinking I should broaden my drawing horizon. Then after a few days of planning and initial sketching I have opted for florals.

I love drawing flowers and I can draw flowers and everyone knows my favourite fabrics are always Liberty. Therefore it makes sense to build on what I already know and have ability in. Rather than using a live brief with a looming deadline to test out new drawing skills.

I seem to have been influenced more by foliage, I've completed initial drawings in a variety of media, but they are all leaves.

Well currently they are, I've returned from Marksies with a beautiful bunch of tulips.....

Tyvek

I really love watching Tyvek react to heat.

You'll know all about the grid sample if you have read Tyvek and Silk sample post. This was my accident which worked really really.

The top largest sample was distressed with a hovering iron, then when bubbling had occurred, I flipped it over and  ironed it as I would a pair of jeans, The sample was flattened and some of the bubbles burned through giving a futuristic lace effect.

The bottom sample was a Tyvek, scrim and rusted cotton sandwich, machine stitched, slashed and heat distressed. The distorted Tyvek pulls the cotton out of shape.

Im working on making my sketchbook more interesting. I have a tendency to cut something out very neatly and lay it central on the page.

I have a Pinterest board, you can find it here full of interesting sketchbooks to give me inspiration and get away from my boring sketchbooks.

Finished, now the written work.

Following on from the Tyvek and silk sample there came Lutrador and silk. 

Lutrador is constructed of spun polyester fibres, it comes in various weights and reacts really well to heat distressing, giving an interesting textural effect.

I rusted the Lutrador, but since I was using the lightweight Lutrador 30, the colouring was very faint, but just enough to knock back the original white colour.

I layered pelmet Vilene, patches of silk, silk noil, linen, scrim and cotton and then overlayed with the Lutrador. I then machine stitched the layers into place, using an angular design reflecting the architecture from my initial drawings.

Then the exciting bit. The heat gun. Lutrador doesn't need much heat before it starts reacting. I love watching the fibres curl and shrink back against the base fabric.

The collar is given structure by a layer of chicken wire and backed with Tyvek.

The layers are then hand stitched with crochet cotton, which I also coloured using the same rust method I used on the cotton and silk.

I would have loved to knit a white vest to rust, I thought it would have worked well for display purposes, but I just didn't have time. I made do with cotton Jersey from good old H&M instead.

It's finally finished, I can rest my poor tired gnarled hands, stitching through 3 and four layers of fabric and chicken wire takes its toll! Here are a few sneaky photos, full effect photos to come in a few weeks.

Dusting off the embellisher

A couple of years ago I bought a Jamome embellisher. It looks exactly like a sewing machine, but doesn't take thread. Instead in place of your sewing needle, it has a unit of 6 needles which are barbed.  You press the foot peddle, just like a regular sewing machine and the needles go up and down through your fabric and the barbed needles felt your fabric.

When I first bought it I made a few book covers and a wall hanging, using recycled sari ribbons, which give great results. Since then it's had a rest while I have worked on other projects.

I made this sample with it today, inspired by some colour block pieces in my futuristic research. I used a backing fabric of burlap, and in stages added wool tops and fabric strips, embellishing one section until it was fairly secured in to place, then adding the next. When the area I was working on was covered. I worked over the whole piece to felt it more securely, this also helps blend the fibres together, making it look more like one piece of fabric.  Depending on the fabric, I may not work a certain area as much, for example, silk roving, I tend to lightly work those areas as I like the feel of those parts.  I especially like degummed silk cocoons for those lighter areas.

You can also flip your sample and work from the back, this means the backing fabric will pull through to the front slightly. It gives and interesting effect. Especially when working with textural opposites like silk and burlap. Or use the back as your front!

The fibres are not permanently attached, if you wanted you could pull them apart. If you were creating a piece to be used as a book cover, I would recommend some hand or machine stitching to help secure it. Just in case.

Rusty knitting

I always think of knitting as finding the colour you want and then knitting. Not knitting and then colouring afterwards.

So inspired by the knitted transfer paint samples I did earlier.  I knitted plain cotton yarn patches and rusted them exactly the same way I would other fabrics.  Im pretty pleased with the results.

The top left, more orangey sample is rusted using vinegar and wrapping around an old rusty can.  The other two are created using tea and wrapped around rusty cans, this give more grey/silver colouring.

For my final piece, I would have loved to have knitted a vest to attach the collar to, but I really didn't have time and I'm not that good at kitting to create a garment. Although I haven't ever tried, maybe I should put that on my list of things to do...

The final sample you can see below, was knitted florists wire. It looks great, has great movement, but was really hard on my hands! Therefore a small sample, never to be repeated!

Photoshop Insomnia

Continuing on from yesterday's class. t's now 6 in the morning, I've been working on this design since 5.

I wish this was a longer module, there seems so much to learn, yet it's so short!

I was struggling to fit all the motifs onto the canvas, at least I've fixed that problem!

Chenille

I love raw edges, raggy jeans, unfinished hems. Much to other family members despair. So a chenille sample is right up my street.

Layers of four to six fabrics are machine stitched together.  Choose fabrics which will fray well, in this sample, I used my rusted cotton, for the top and bottom layers.  Then for the middle layers, I used white brushed cotton.

Ensure the bottom layer is not affected, cut between the stitching along the length of the top fabrics. Do not cut the very bottom layer or the whole thing will just fall apart.

Use embroidery scissors as they are easier to get into the small area between the stitches, but you can also buy a chenille cutter, it is super quick and just wooshes along the fabric without the fear of cutting through something you shouldn't be.

Lutrador and Rust

This has now topped all the others and become my favourite sample.

The first version of this was one layer of Vilene as a backing to give the piece some structure. Then a layer of rusted cotton, with a top layer of rusted Lutrador.  I then machine stitched a grid pattern to secure them together and using a heat gun distressed the Lutrador to expose the rusted fabric underneath.

It looked good, but I decided to make another, using the same backing, this time I layered smaller pieces of rusted fabric, varying the type. I used cotton, linen, silk and silk noil, making sure there were plenty of raw edges exposed!

I then followed what I did previously, overlaying the Lutrador, machine stitching and heat distressing.

This was a much more interesting sample, a great textural piece. Definitely one to use in my final piece. I love it.

Fabric Collage

Moving on from the paper collage, I selected four interesting squares.  I have translated these into fabric pieces.

Really simple but effective.  I overlaid the fabric and adhered them together with Bondaweb to hold them in place while I stitched.

A strong possibility to use this technique in my final piece.

Tyvek and silk sample

So all of a sudden the fabric manipulation module is taking off.  Finally, i was starting to lose sleep!  

Initial sampling is going well, I thought I'd share my current favourite.  I have 9 samples up to now, one only half prepped, so technically 8, but after a quick run through the princess pleater, it will take a little hand embroidery to finish that one.

Since the theme is futuristic, I wanted to use more of the synthetic and man made fabrics.  Trying to manipulate these is like trying to put tights on an octopus and I'm reminded why I love good old cotton.

I also aimed to use fabrics which I have coloured by rusting.  I just love these so much, its painful to cut them up, I keep hesitating before using them, touching and stroking them, then popping them back in the pile and 'doing a little tester' on some commercially coloured fabric I have bought.

When I did take the plunge, this sample is the result. I cut a stencil from mount board, the grid design came from the collage from my previous post.

I used Tyvek, a non woven synthetic fabric used to make those white forensic suits you see on CSI. It's perfect for heat distressing.  I laid the Tyvek square and the mount board grid on top, placing them both on a sheet of silicone paper and laying a sheet on top and put the sandwich in the heat press.  

I was hoping for a flat grid design and bubbling, which is what Tyvek tends to do when heat is applied, in the open areas of the grid, but I stupidly way underestimated the heat of the press. When I removed it, even though it had only been about 5-10 seconds, the open areas of the Tyvek were completely burned through.

My next stupid move, was to not place a silicone sheet between the tyvek and the mount board! The heat had fused them together and I had to ease them away from each other with a plastic ruler.

In order to salvage something of the sample, I loosely bondawebbed some of the rusted silk to the Tyvek grid and heated to adhere them together.

Then out of the overheated promise of a what not to do a sample came ...

I am so pleased I finally started using my precious rusts and that it wasn't a waste.  I love the tradition silk and modern Tyvek together.  I decided to allow the bondaweb to lay across the silk to give a lace effect over some of the squares and not others, so I could see which I prefer.  I've decided I like it better without, but glad I tested, so now I know. 

Now I need to decide how I'm going to use it in my final piece.  I have some thoughts of cutting an elaborate godet into the back of a straight skirt, but not sure this technique would work with that.  I probably should be looking more towards pleats and ruffles.  Then again, she who dares....

Collage

Collage is finished, I like the feel of it, but it needs an extra layer. Some kind of plastic maybe.

Manipulated cotton

I can't believe how easy it was to achieve a good example of this technique.

Fabric manipulation in its simplest form.

Dampen some cotton, and lay it over a grid or wire basket, I used a plastic fruit carrying tray, with even square holes, it worked perfectly.

Poke the fabric slightly through the holes in the grid and leave it to dry, before removing it, cut a piece of Bondaweb to fit the area of fabric and iron to fix it to the fabric.

Thats it! Remove it from the grid and the Bondaweb holds the manipulation in place. However great this looks, it won't withstand a quick whizz around the washing machine, so only suitable for non wearable projects.

Futuristic mood board

I thought I'd show you my mood board for my current module. I need to keep working on these, I have seen some lovely examples online.

The images are my own which I took on a trip to Switzerland, a selection of fabrics, Tyvek, rusted cotton, polyester, bubblewrap and rubber, all of which I felt fit into the futuristic theme of the brief.

I have added rusted objects and images I cam across in my research, I have decided to make an avant garde collar. Something big and over the top. The brief states 'wearable art' so really, I can pretty much make whatever I want!

Swimming pool drains

I chose not to draw the gunk and bacteria lurking around this drain! Still creates an interesting pattern though. Much prefer the clean, germ free version!

Frosty fences

Switzerland provided lots of futuristic inspiration, a covering of snow completely changes how a boring wire fence looks.

Futuristic Rust

I'm hoping I can get to use some of the fabrics I rusted during the summer. 

A few happy days were spent smelling of vinegar after an inspiring workshop with Alice Fox.

Futuristic Colour Palatte

So after a little shopping trip yesterday, my colour palette seems to be developing.

I'm looking forward to using these beautiful cotton and rayon threads from Oliver Twists.

Cable cars

This is a drawing from one of my Switzerland photos. This is the mechanism from the cable cars. I kind of cheated though. To help me keep the proportions and perspective, I used Adobe Shape as a guide.

A really good app to play around with and its free, so i'd definitely recommend checking it out.

Futuristic Inspiration

So a week in Switzerland has given me lots of futuristic inspiration, too cold for sketching outside, but I have returned with lots of photographs.

Tomorrow feels like a good day for drawing.

Lino print, get some ink!

I love this piece. Again using the Geli plate.

I then used a Lino I had cut to print a conker design.

I chose to stitch the white conkers, but they looked very floaty so stitching between them anchored them.

However, lesson learned from this piece. Don't skimp on materials! I needed to mix block printing inks to match my palette, but was advised that mixing a tiny so lodge of my already mixed screenprinting inks with a bigger so lodge of PVA would work just as well and save me money.

I did save money, but gave poor results, the prints were almost translucent.

You get what you pay for!

Jungle Fever

A bit of an accidental final which was my tester piece.

This was produced early on in the printroom, but a couple of the prints didn't work too well so I decided to over print to find my angle. As I didn't feel too comfortable with my equipment and things weren't running too smoothly that day.

It was then stored in the pile and not really looked at again until my tutor gave me really positive comments about it, which made me look at it in a different light and not as the reject.

Once trimmed and mounted, U was able to see the positives in it.

Pleating

Apologies for the rubbish photograph.

This is another Geli Plate sample. Printing on Evolon which held the colour of the screen printing inks really well, keeping them lovely and vibrant.

I used a lino to print the conker silhouettes and pleated the fabric for more interest.

Evolon has a lovely suede feel to it, unfortunately the inks covered this. Maybe on this fabric using something like silk paints would help to preserve the soft feel.

Primary Source?

This was a tricky one.  How do you get a primary source for drawing when the theme is futuristic? Do I need to draw spaceships and high tech computer equipment?

Instead, and probably not as exciting, but a lot more accessible, I looked at buildings and structures.  Futuristic screamed linear and angular to me so I went with it.

Initially looking around the internal beams and frames at school.

I also noted, I chose cold colours, blues, greys blacks, maybe there is the start of a colour palette there.

Sequin rings

I am really enjoying playing around with the Geli Plate, best of all its relatively quick to clean up, which is always a bonus.

I have added some stitch and sequins to this sample. Layering the sequins to give them some lift.  I like the sample, I like that its an option and a bit of variation. However, Im not a sequin person and it took forever to stitch them.  There must be some kind of knack for speeding up the process and I certainly haven't figured it out yet!

Conkers

This was a really promising and simple piece, but I used the second batch of transfer paints so had mixed which didn't turn out very well, the colours were wishy washy and patchy.

I used Bondaweb to attach the conkers to the backing fabric.

The conkers were screenprinted onto brown velvet using screenprinting inks with a linear overlay of puffbunder. This is deceptive. It screens like see through paint and doesn't look as thou it has worked. But add a heat gun and a rising agent in the paint is activated, creating a raised interesting surface with a new dimension.

Soluable fabric

Soluble fabric looks like clingfilm albeit stronger and I can manage it better and don't end up tangled in it like I do with clingfilm.

I copied my flower design onto the soluble fabric with a sharpie. I made a mistake using a black sharpie, I would recommend using a lighter colour of what you will stitch, I'll make sure I remember this in future.

Secure the fabric into and embroidery hoop and free machine stitch the design.  Stitches have to be pretty dense to enable them to hold onto each other and create a solid fabric.  Not enough stitching and they'll just unravel. A criss cross design is best to enable you to remember where you have stitched, but it depends what your design lends itself to.

When you're sure there is enough stitch. Run your piece under the cold tap, the soluble fabric turns a bit jellyish and rinses away.  This is where the black sharpie was a mistake, as it coloured some of the threads making it a dirty pink in places. In this particular piece, although I rinsed most of the fabric away, a little left helps to hold the threads in place slightly stiffer.

Mono prints

I love the strong colours in this piece.

I used screenprinting inks, but used them on a Geli plate rather than a screen.

The top layer is then laid over a backing fabric and I machine stitched my conker design through the two pieces. I used a reverse appliqué technique or cut and slash to remove some sections.

I thought this piece was really successful, but my Geli plate is only A4 size, so it limits the size of the piece I can produce.

I need to find a big sheet of strengthened glass.

Screenprint and stitch

I'm pleased with how this has turned out!

I really love the stitched linear design on the screen printed silhouette.

I think I'm going to ditch either the pink or the purple though.  I haven't decided which one yet, but I don't think theres room in this colour palette for the both of them!

Snippets

You know all those spare threads that collect around the edge of your work area?

A backing fabric of marbled fabric is covered with these snippets. Some of mine were a bit long so I used my rotary cutter to slice back and forwards on them to trim them down a bit. I added in small pieces of wool top and sequins, spread them over the fabric and sprinkle some bonding powder in there too, overlay with a sheer voile.  Test a few colours as some act really strange with certain coloured backgrounds.  They are definitely sheer and then look completely opaque!  See which looks best for your background.

Cover with baking parchment and iron, the bonding powder will temporarily fix the fabrics together while you machine stitch in place.

The rotary cutter is handy if you don't have bonding powder. Just finely chop some Bondaweb.

Transfer Paint

I tested out transfer paints on the usual white cotton and synthetics. Then I had what I thought was a genius moment.

I remembered I had white cotton in the depths of one of my yarn boxes and wondered how the transfer paints would work on a knitted piece.

First I painted plain white paper and laid it in a plaid type design. Then knit a square with the White cotton yard.

Using the heat press, I pressed the two together and the colour did exactly what it said in the tin and transferred the colour to the yarn.

It was a perfect result. I loved it. I also loved moving the fabric as the areas where the yarn wasn't in contact with the paper remained white, creating great areas of interest if it was used for a garment.

So, excited by this, I decided to create a larger sample to use as one of my final pieces.

I began knitting a larger piece.

The ball of yarn was coming to an end.

I returned to my boxes of yarns, I was sure I had another couple of balls of the white cotton...

Another lesson learned. I had to make another trip to a couple of yarn stores, no one had the White cotton I had used so I had to discard the larger sample and begin again with a white cotton/synthetic mix.

Lesson number two, mix enough transfer paint for your whole project! I really struggled to colour match the second time. The first time was so easy to achieve the colours I wanted! 

The final result was not anywhere near as good as the sample. The colours were almost fluorescent. There were lighter and darker patches transferred from the painted paper and in the past couple of months, the colours have faded vastly.

Quilting and reverse appliqué

This sample was remade into one of my final pieces, but I actually prefer the original sample!

I used a dense felt which gave the piece quite a high loft. I also like the very dark background felt, it helps give the piece a lot more depth.

I really love the sketchy machine stitching though, it works really well with the linear screen print.

Free machine stitch

Im trying to get used to free machine stitching on a sewing machine that isn't mine! Its strange but we all seem to be very attached to our own machines.  Its funny how in tune you get with your own, knowing exactly what speed to run it at and where its quirks are.

Im going to try out some sketching with my machine stitching. Ive seen a few examples around and I really like the over stitching look of them.

Watercolour progress

I haven't painted much in the past, I always shy away from it in favour of a reliable pencil that I can control!

I have been advised to check out some Youtube videos and try the wet on wet technique. Which I have and its so simple and obvious!! My results are much better, I actually really enjoyed working on this piece and felt much more in control of the results

Hand stitch and beading

Ugh! Beading takes forever!! I keep dropping them, there must be a way of doing this that I haven't been told about!

I like the sparse stitching on this screen print though, it has turned out well.