FAD Textiles Workshop Rotation 2. Getting Into Those Shadow Drawings Agin With A New Group. Striking

Amazing wearable art from AS Textiles student.

These 2 pieces are part of a student’s coursework portfolio this summer. Her unit 1 Extended Project shows her love of surface texture and screen printing. She was inspired by armour and she used the individual facets to construct her costume. Each section is unique and explores fabric manipulation techniques to develop structure. She has used recycled aluminium and print to great effect.

Her unit 2 piece uses laser cutting and is based around studies of architecture and research visits to Wells Cathedral to explore stained glass and the dramatic shapes seen in the building. She has a love of theatre, stage costume and props and this is evident in her approach to Textiles.

Photo shoot developed with technical support by Dave Merritt.

#armour #wearableart #costume #architecture #sculpturalfashion 

Plastic fantastic! Crazy, melted, recycled plastics embellished to eye-popping brilliance by FAD student. Love ‘em!

Happy days....experimenting with mixed media and textiles.

Today...lace dipped in porcelain with stitched wire....fired!

Exciting A level work, developing samples from observational studies of fruit. Fab colour palette and adventurous textiles techniques explored : )

END OF YEAR SHOWCASE -Class of 2020

Congratulations to Ellen Kinder, A level fashion designer, styling her final project based around a contemporary collection, heavily inspired by the ethos of Punk. DIY fashion, repurposing denim and strong Basquiat influences, with the experimental use of text and symbols. Ellen developed her own bespoke printed fabrics to make up into boiler-suits and garments as part of her collection.

Rock & Roll! We wish Ellen all the best for her degree in Fashion at London MET.

Excellent models and expert technical guidance with alumni Catherine Hyde in charge of photography. @catherinehydephotography 

This is what we call creative collaboration.

Exploring composition in this textiles piece created from hand dyed indigo vintage linens and painted papers and cloth. The palette and angular composition respond to studies of a bright yellow skip, tarnished and ravaged by the weather and covered in marks created by nature. Wiggly, insect tracks, rusting and graffiti inspired colour, texture and piecing the final outcome.

Amazing fashion illustrations by talented AS Textiles student.

Excellent use of ‘extreme’ paper collage on Vogue fashion imagery to personalise her own designs. Love these!

#paper collage #origami #time consuming #fashion illustration

The superstars of A level Art Textiles 2019.

A wonderful collection of experimental and highly professional outcomes. Themes include ‘mending’, recycling, sustainability and processes including spinning newspaper into yarn, dyeing, beading, dissolvable fabrics, stitch, screen printing, embroidery, beading, darning, appliqué, patchwork, fashion.... so much to celebrate and such a lovely bunch of students. 

Sooo these are the current product designs showing the development of patterns on various products that could be sold in a gallery gift shop or in this case an outdoor theatre, hence the use of umbrellas, cushions and lampshades for the cafe bar perhaps.

Getting my colour mixing mojo on. Painting outdoors in the Spring sunshine feeling inspired by the fresh colours around me in the garden and from walks in the surrounding fields, lanes and woodland.I had forgotten how much I love this!

In the late 1980′s and early 1990′s after graduating, I worked freelance as a textiles designer and also travelled to South America after winning a travel bursary award in a design competition. I was inspired by the pre-Hispanic, ancient textiles of Peru, where the Incas and other ancient civilisations used natural dyes to create their woven cloth. I travelled through Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and down to the very south of Chile and had the best time. I researched natural dyes, spending time of the beaten track, living with indigenous people and learning from them. We picked roots by moonlight and gathered plants on specific dates linked to the Inca calendar, there was lots of superstition surrounding the dyeing process but also much wisdom and understanding of the life cycle of each plant and when it would give the best sources of colour.

On my return, I spent most of my time mixing colours from gouache and saving the match pots in 35mm film canisters as sample colours. This was pre-digital when everything was hand painted and drawn out in detail for selling to design companies. I had forgotten my love of colour matching and mixing and remembered my workshop space had literally hundreds of these hand mixed colour swatches lining the shelves for reference when recreating new colour palettes.

Thes images show my process of stretching fabric, priming, layering colours over a series of days with time between to ponder what colours to mix and add for balance, harmony and also composition. Enjoying myself!