Roll On 2nd Year!

So, here we are back at uni after a long, hot and slightly boring summer! I spent my summer doing office work for a temp company - good money but boring work! Oh well, you can't have it all.
So the first day back we met our new 2nd year tutor Gemma who seems really nice- we also received out VERY PACKED timetable! I was quite shocked at how full it was, I don't know why though because I knew that things were going to start getting tougher.
We are not in now until Friday for PPD2, I'm looking forward to starting back properly and getting back into the course again.
My week won't be wasted though as I've recently got a new job with Urban Outfitters, which I am really chuffed about-Start tomorrow!Wahey.

The Best Bits

So here are 15 pieces of work from my 1st year that I feel are my best pieces so far!




I really enjoyed the shop report and felt that I learnt a lot. I learnt about how the finish of a garment, the quality of fabric and even advertisment of a brand can be reflected in the price of the garment.

I feel the trend boards are one of my best pieces, as I decided to use CAD because I wasn't very confident with it. And In the end I was really quite pleased with the results.

This research page is from one of my favourite projects "Creative approaches to fashion". I achieved my highest grade so far on this project and really liked using collage as a form of drawing.
I learnt a lot outside the Fashion discipline in Fashion,Art and Culture and I think this is why I feel its one of my strongest pieces. I was able to experiment with unconventional materials and be completely free with it.
This is my final photoshoot for Creative approaches to fashion and I feel that it really captured the caption "it fell from the sky". I've always enjoyed photography, which is probably why I liked this project so much.
This is a research page from Container Culture. I feel its one of my best as I was able to use quite simple but effective shapes to get my design and ideas across.
This is one of my final pieces from my Jewellery Elective, and although at first I didnt enjoy it towards the end I really started to get into it. I was pleased with the outcome and feel its one of my best as I was able to create a Jewellery piece based upon the art deco era within a week with no previous experience.
Another page from Container Culture but this time its showing design development, I like this page as it is clear where I got my ispiration and ideas from. I had never really done any proper design development before and so was happy with the grade I got for this project.
Another exciting research page from Container Culture. I like it because there's so much going on and it includes different textures where I have sewn into the research to create more ideas.
Design Ideas for Container Culture, taking one object and changing it into something different and wearable.I feel like the layout of my pages have really progressed over year, which is why I'm so fond of the research in this project.
I feel like this is one of my best pieces of illustration work as I really struggle with drawing, but after an intense week of drawing I felt a lot more relaxed about it. I used marker pen to create this image and am really pleased with the result!
As I had development a slight fear of drawing I decided to use CAD and collage to create some of the final images for our first project, this is one of the best.
This is one of my research pages from creative approaches to fashion, this project was a lot like how I worked on my Foundation course. I was able to lay-out and research well in this project and it is one of my best this year.
I find working and experiementing on the stand really helps me to get my ideas flowing. I created this piece for out latest project and was really proud. I havent done much pattern cutting and I was able to create half a garment in a day with no help!
I love this final garment as its innovate and I found the project really exciting. I was able to use moulage for the first time successfully and create something I'm really happy with.
So here are 15 pieces of work from my 1st year that I feel are my best pieces so far!

So that sums up my first year nicely!

Well worth it!

So, with metamorphosis handed in all that’s left to do now is my PPD presentation. I have to say, all that I’ve done is chosen 6 of my 15 best pieces of work, Ian is right about the sunshine being a distraction, I’m well and truly burnt! I will crack on with it though; it shouldn’t take long as everything has basically been done. I’m not sure now I’m going to do my presentation but I want to do something that’s a bit different not just another boring slide show! I’ve been jotting done a few ideas for it “The Life Cycle of a Dawn Shindler”….I think it would all be quite entertaining! We’ll see how it all goes.
I got my results for fashion, art and culture and was quite disappointed with the 61% that I got because I really enjoyed the project and learnt a lot from it. I suppose deep down I know that I rushed into my final piece, but I think that’s because we had a crit about a week before the deadline and I was advised to change my outcome which I had basically made by this time. I think crits are a really good idea and they help everyone out loads but I just don’t think it’s a good idea to have one so close to the hand in date because it makes everyone panic. The feedback really helped me to understand why I got the grade that I did, and I suppose as long as I know I can improve on it.
This time next week I would have finished my first year….*sobs*, I’ve really enjoyed it and although its been difficult at times, its been well worth it in the end!

Body Design

So here are some photos of the moulage work I did in the session about a week ago. I worked with Victoria on this as there weren't enough stands to go around- but it all ended up quite well and I learnt a lot from it!

In the end I decided to moulage my final design as it was be the best way to achieve what I wanted. My final design is based around the body, organs and tissue etc-now you may be thinking how does that have anything to do with metamorphosis? Well, I looked at how the body changes food into energy, taking minerals and vitamins from it-therefore changing it.
I chose to do my final design in jersey because of the way in which the fabric fell, and then incorporated knit around the neck line. The back of my garment mimics the spine by using elastic to gather, creating a spine-like shape, the front is a mixture of pin-tucks and knit based upon tissue and arteries.

I’ve almost finished my final garment just a few final touches, but I think I’ll be done by the end of the week! Wahey! Then its just binding my sketchbook, illustrating and evaluating-but we’re doing that in class tomorrow, so that’s alright.
Working with my 3rd year is going really well and I’m having a great time. I’ve done a lot of different things while working with Jennifer such as sourcing fabrics, sewing tags, tracing patterns, I think is a very good experience. Its basically like being a studio assistant and would look great on a CV.
A few days ago I received my elective result and I got 66%-which was a shock. I’m doing better in Jewellery than in Fashion! Uh Oh! I also got my crit essay result and I got 58%-I was a little disappointed with the grade as I put so much work in, but my tutor explained why I didn’t get any higher and so now I know how to push my grade up, so that’s okay.
Oh and I’ve bought my tickets for GFW, which I’m very excited about.
This year seems to have just flown by!

Dawn Hurry up!

So I now know how to moulage and then pattern cut my moulage! I dunno if I'll actually be using this technique but its good to know. I think I have a final design now and I'm trying out some different samples with knitwear and dropping stitches etc etc. As regards for my 3rd year things are going well but I still feel like I'm really slow and if anything I'm holding her back!I had to trace some of Jennifers patterns last thursday and it was such a struggle and took me about 3 hours-oh well!Hurry up Dawn!

More timed tasks!

Here are some of the photographs from the Hussein Chlalayan exhibition I went to see at the Design Museum.

I absolutely loved seeing Mr Chalayan's work in the flesh, I think he's a really talented and unique designer.
Today we were set another task, to create one side of a garment from our design pages. At first I was thinking “oh dear, how an earth is that even possible?!”, but after I got started I realised that a lot of it is just logical thinking. I managed to get it done in the time allocated but I feel if I could I would do things slightly differently in order to create a better effect and save time.

If I was to re-do this garment I think I would stuff the arm slightly instead, as I found it difficult to find wire or boning that would support the shape I wanted to acheive. Although, in the end I used both boning and wire I feel it is far too delicate and could only be worn for a short period of time.

It was a brilliant exercise to do though and I learnt a lot about translating drawing/designs from 2D into 3D. Tomorrow we will be continuing to work on developing ideas but I think I’m going to try out one of my other designs and see how and if it works successfully.

Bank Holiday Weekend

Jennifer Read is the 3rd year I’m working with every Thursday until the end of May. I think we were put together as we both came to Leeds from Exeter and I think she may have been in my life drawing class. Anyway, I absolutely love working with the 3rd years, I imagine it’s a bit like being a studio assistant. On Thursday I had to go and find 5 pairs of white denim trousers and then unpick them, I felt like I was really slow it took me nearly 2 and half hours!!! It’s all good practice though and I really enjoyed it.
On Friday (our private study day) I went to London with Ella and visited the design museum to see Hussein Chalayan’s exhibition, he’s one of my favourite designers so it seemed only right to go! I thought it was amazing it was quite small but I suppose that’s because there was a lot to take in. I’ll upload some photographs once I’ve found my camera!!
So it’s been quite an eventful weekend so far and I’ve also been working on the metamorphosis project and now I feel I’ve got my head round it. Everything seems a bit clearer!
The rest of this bank holiday will be spent doing more samples and designs for metamorphosis...well that's the plan anyway!