Portmeirion.. sweets... ceramics.. lace

So I am just finishing off a second week as a third year student! Dissertation is looming and projects seem to becoming only a few weeks long which is piling on pressure, but I love it :) The more pressure I feel under the better I seem to do.. odd I know..

So I'm still dilly dallying over the portmeirion pottery project and have finally started drawing, designing and researching .. I have been using combined subject matters to start off the normal process. I have used sweets, mainly liquorice allsorts as colours are amaze :) combined with St. Basils Cathedral in Moscow. I had only discovered this cathedral when researching colour, but I was very glad to as this has boosted my project completely.

In traditional Kate Dotty style I am again going all geometric! colours are bold and bright, photos are on hold ... don't want to leak too much!

 

I have been really excited to get back to uni, creating is what I love <3

 

 

Portmeirion Pottery + Ceramics

Very exciting news at Dotty Textiles today I received the new project through the post ! Very excited to start drawing and taking photos, playing with shape and colour. This project, to be researched and started during the summer, and ending at the end of October, is to design a range of ceramics for Portmeirion; a pottery and ceramics place in Wales. I'm even more in love with this brief as I get to bring out my competitive side, as this is a competition brief.

One of the judges of the competition is the writer of the print & pattern blog, which I follow and absolutely adore.

 

Thinking about using small table confetti shapes as a starting point to build up pattern ... :)

 

Print & Pattern

http://www.portmeirion.co.uk/

 

born this way

"The nexus of 'Born This Way' and the soul of the record reside in this idea that you were not necessarily born in one moment. You have your entire life to birth yourself into becoming the ultimate potential vision that you see for you. Who you are when you come out of your mother's womb is not necessarily who you will become. 'Born This Way' says your birth is not finite, your birth is infinite."

—Gaga talking about the meaning of "Born This Way"

PVC

 

This is a selection of work from my first year at university working with PVC, image transferring, stitch and embroidery. My inspiration came from my visit to Amsterdam, March 2012, from the bicycles, and the architecture. (This is also where I found an inner desire for bicyles!)

 

This is some of the more abstract work I did, focusing on the circular shapes of the bicycle wheels, using simple stitch techniques to pick up the shapes. I was creating these designs with Anthropologie, London, in mind, as we had to choose a high end designer brand to direct our work to. As Anthropologie's colour ways are quite aboriginal, cultured and bright I carefully chose colours from my images from Amsterdam to fit in with this, so that my collections were coherant with the rest of the products at Anthropologie.

 

 

 

This is a little sneaky preview of the image transfers. These were just my photos placed under the heat press on top of some PVC (or certain types of leather can be used). This was a really quick and simple technique but worked so effectively. If the PVC was un-ironed before hand some of the image would be 'crackily' which I is what I loved about it, and gave it a very vintage feel. (Also, to make it appear more old and distressed, I used an iron, because then the heat was not even, and some parts turned out brighter than others). For a smoother finish, I would iron the PVC before hand to make all the little creases smooth out.

 

 

Anthropologie's products range from clothes, jewellery, bedding, kitchen ware, home wares .. literally everything. From the nature of the fabric I was using I designed for dining ware. Mainly cotton table cloths, cotton napkins and PVC placemats and coasters.

website launch!

just wanted to take a moment to tell you all that my website is finally launched! www.dottytextiles.co.uk

fabric, fabric, fabric

I am currently designing up some magical fabric manipulated samples ready to become cushions! My mini studio is slowly becoming overloaded with haberdashery.. fabric and threads are everywhere but its all worth the clean up because I'm having a ball :P Whats the point on doing something if you don't like it aye??

 

I've decided to give you all a very, very cheeky preview of what I am up to currently .. because I am nice like that.. hehe

 

 

 

My inspirations have come from my visit to Barcelona in early March of this year, I went to the Gaudi cathedral and I am using the interior as my subject matter for this project.

 

....and the flooring from the Gaudi house gardens...

 

using lots of stich, fabric manipulated techniques to create some quirky cushions, I hope :P

 

geometry and dash + miller

for the eager eyed amongst you, you will notice I have neglected my blog slightly. However, I am back :) been rather busy with lots of different things and sorting my life out. something which I always seem to be doing.. but on a serious note, I have been given a new brief working towards fabric designs for a company called Dash + Miller, but designing for John Lewis .. if you can make sense of that! I'm all excited because it is based around geometrics which is what I base my whole textile life around!

 this is the mood board I am working to and some images of inspiration

John Lewis + Whitecroft essentials

My recent sewing purchases from John Lewis, packed by the gals at my Dad's company Whitecroft Essentials :P 

Going back to old school sewing :)

For my new project at uni, I'm looking into traditional fabric manipulation- and I have really gotten into smocking! I went a bit mad in the library with smocking and shibori books and am feeling a rush of inspiration! I was recently in John Lewis and there were lots of textured smocked cushions, so they are obviously making a real come back ;) I am very excited to get smocking or a larger scale. I'm just doing them by hand at the moment, just for small sample ideas .. but will soon be going bigger :)

Dior No.2 Lady and Miss

j'adore dior .. no pun intended !!
But seriously, I LOVE Dior, clothes, bags, make up, everything! I have just received Dior Magazine No.2 Lady & Miss through the post. Full of beautiful things. Something I am really loving this season is bright bags! I love the styles of these bags too, so even if you're shy of colour they are a great way to brighten up your wardrobe without stepping completely out of your comfort zone!

Margo Selby Competition Brief

Finally! Here's a sneaky preview of some of the work I created for our competition brief written by Margo Selby. She chose myself and four other students as winners of the competition. My inspiration for this project came from my lovely Daddy and his factory- where he makes lots of stationery and haberdashery products. I took paperclips as my subject matter for drawing and photographing.. Lots of development had to happen before I got to the final designs, eventually took my drawings into digital means and started producing them through photoshop (CS6) and Illustrator. I designed for a range of products like: wallpaper, upholstery and accessory fabrics for cushions and throws etc. This was probably the most stressful project I have ever done in my life! But was sooo worth it in the end!

 

Barcelona March 2013

I have recently embarked on a cheeky journey to Barcelona with my uni beauties. We waddled around this beautiful city, getting rather lost, but having lots of fun and eating lots of Spanish nom noms. I almost wet myself when we were in the Gaudi buildings. So amazing, the architecture is one of a kind, so delicate, intricate and beautiful. Now I am back, and had time to reflect, I'm feeling all inspired and ready for my new project - Designing for the Real World, where we will be working for a weave company called Dash + Miller :)

Margo Selby

Some Margo Selby cushions in John Lewis, I recently won a competition brief for Margo along side 4 other students :) more posts of my work for her to come

Starting up :P

Helloooo  :)

Welcome to my blog, I'm just trying to get used to blogging, so bare with! I'm studying for my degree in Textile Design, and have just finished up on a Professional Application brief, working alongside a company/ textile designer of my choice. I have created a range of gift wraps, which if I say so myself, am very proud of! Lots of pigment, love and fun went into creating these :) I absolutely love stationery and gift wrapping, so I am hoping to focus my career down that road :P my inspiration for this project came from flowers, but I wanted to take them more geometric for a clean crisp design. I was working to a self directed brief with the help of Silkie Lloyd, at Rosehip Cards as my source of inspiration and feedback on my designs.