For this project, we had the opportunity to work with either
a fashion based brief, or interior based. I decided the best project for me was
the interior brief, as I thought it would be the more challenging brief, and
having already produced a lining for a bag in the previous project, and the
thought of being able to produce a fabric for an interior seemed a great
opportunity. I also felt really inspired as the main artist we were researching
was Rennie Mackintosh.
I was unfortunate in
that I didn't manage to get any primary research for this project, as all the
exhibitions were either too far to travel, or not yet available to view. For my
secondary research, I researched into artists from the Arts and Crafts era;
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh, William Morris and
Hector Guimard. I was really inspired by the work by Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh,
and loved the chance of being able to explore more into her style and work. I
took a particular like to a image I found by her of a lady with roses but was
unable to find the name of the piece. I would then go on to develop this as my
final design. It was the first time I came across the artist Hector Guimard as well
and was fascinated by his Metropolitan entrances.
From my artist
research, I really liked the study I did of the women with roses by Margaret
MacDonald Mackintosh, and decided to work back into it with elements of Mackintosh's
work. After this, I traced over the study, removing the image of the women, so
I was left with just a pattern of the two sides of the study. From there I
re-arranged the image to create a repeat pattern and re-worked back into the
image till I was happy with the pattern.
I was particularly fond of the double lines surrounded with
ovals, and tried to keep the pattern flowing with a romantic style as I was
using elements of both Mackintosh and his wife so I wanted to show that bond
between them.
I wanted to wait before I used the image as my final design
until I had seen and discussed with Alison about it. When she came she brought
us a sample of material which would be used for the hangings in the room. These
were quite plain and thought my design would stand out in the room and be more
like a feature point. I also wanted to make sure that the roses in my design
were suitable as Alison had previously said not to focus too much on the roses
and look at other work by Mackintosh, but she said they were and I went on to
use this as my final design.
Alison has also mentioned the fabric she intended to use was
either to be cotton or cotton velvet, so I tried to produce more sample on these
fabrics when in the print room. She didn't like the idea of using the colour
blue as it fades in light. The colours for the room are going to be pale grey
and the hangings were a light grey and oyster, so I needed to make sure the
colours I used matched or complimented these.
In the print room, I tried to focus mainly on producing
samples with little experimentation first, so I knew I had something to show in
my presentation. After this I tried to produce samples with a twist to them,
such as; offsetting the screens so they didn't quite match and produced
shadowing effects, using puff binder to add to the texture and devore for a
delicate touch.
This was the first project were I would be using more than
one screen, and in order to do this we had to print our design onto Koda Trace.
this was a stressing process as if the opaque paint wasn't the right
consistency it would peel or break off. Luckily, this didn't prove to be such a
problem until later. however, in the print room, my screens weren't coming out
as they should and needed to be re-exposed. The Koda Trace then proved a
problem as it had peeled off and I had to re-do three screens again quickly
using a pen. This took time out the time I could have been spending producing
samples but had the chance to dye up all my fabrics.
If I hadn't had any client restraints I would have probably
liked to have used different colours in my design, or used a satin sample as
the fabric, as the print and dye worked really well on the satin. Overall
though, I was really pleased with the design I produced and the samples too.
My design was quite intricate, and would probably be awkward
to replicate over and over as it needs to be lined up perfectly.
The problems I endured in this project was my screens not
working and having to be re-exposed but nothing to drastic. I was really
pleased with the pigments I used on my samples and thought they worked really
well with the hanging sample. if I had to do this project again, I would
probably blow my design up bigger, so it seemed less intricate, and it would
cover a larger surface of fabric.
The feedback I received was that my design was not simple
enough, and I think by blowing the design up and making it bigger, would have
solved this. I really enjoyed working on this live brief and it was a great
experience, not only working with an interior designer but also the kind of
work we could go into from this course.
