Old wisdom

New future

mydressingroom.com - our business

Enterprise and innovation
The enterprise and innovation lectures I find quite slow sometimes; I feel like we keep going over and over the same thing, I suppose that way it is sinking in though. I am not really a fan of the lecture format because it doesn’t give us the opportunity to talk and discuss the topics that the lecturer is talking about, so sometimes I feel that I don’t understand and just end up switching off. We do have seminars but they are so spread out by the time it comes round to the next one you have forgotten what you were confused about so don’t have the chance to discuss it and understand it.
For our next seminar we are to do a group powerpoint presentation on how we spend the cash we were awarded in our previous seminar. We are to focus on set up costs not launch costs, so we have to consider every detail of our business so that we give ourselves the best start.

Contextual and theoretical studies

Critical studies
This year critical studies has been a lot more enjoyable, for two main reasons, the lecture we now have in the morning, gives us a focus for our seminars in the afternoon, so we can go in prepared and ready to talk and discuss what we have just learnt, and also I now have more of an understanding of what the different concepts and terminology mean So I find it a lot easier to understand what’s going on and I don’t feel in over my head.
I think the new format of this module is a lot better than last year, I feel a lot more comfortable having our sessions in the fashion studio as well, It feels a more comfortable environment, and actually having the seminars at 4 – 6 is a time when I am most awake and alert so I feel that I am getting the most out of the sessions.

Innovative cut. starting the module

Innovative cut
We are now half way through our taught sessions for innovative cut, and I am really enjoying it. I like the freedom that comes along with this module, and the fact we can go in any direction and make something crazy at the end of it.
The two main themes that I chose were; New future and Old wisdom. I chose these two themes as I felt that they made a good contrast and I would be able to create something that may be a bit of both or in-between.
For new future I looked into different designers and architects. I went out and took lots of photos of new buildings and buildings that are more artistic and radical.
I have looked into new materials, and materials that I think are futuristic. I have a lot of shiny and metallic materials as I think that they best perceive new future.
For Old wisdom I looked back in history to ancient Egypt. I had used photos from a previous holiday, of pyramids, hieroglyphics, towns and statues. These gave me great ideas for shape and the silhouette that I would try to achieve.
I have tried to finish my research off this week so that next week I can focus on designing and sampling, then I can spend the two weeks studio practise time creating my garment.
I have some ideas in my head for my garment, and it’s getting more difficult by the minute, so I am going to have to try out a lot of ideas to see if this is going to work. I am not completely sure yet if it is what I am going to do, because I have some really other good ideas that I want to try out too. So I will see what happens after I have done some sampling to see what looks the best.

The end of one the beginning of another...

This week I have had a few days off, which has been nice to relax for a while, but it did seem strange not having any work to do for once.
I received feedback and my mark for my project on Friday, and I have to say that I was a bit disappointed, I got 68% which is equal to a 2:1, which is a good mark but I really felt as though my work deserved a first. After all the hard work that I had out into it, and my jacket and presentation turning out really well I thought that would have made up for the extra two marks to get a first.
This has put me in two minds about our next project because I am not really sure now on how to approach it, or where to start. I feel a bit lost and I think it may take a while to get back into things.
However I have started to look into the new project, I have chosen the themes, New future, Old wisdom and unconventional. I feel that these themes give scope for contrast and also to create something out there and really innovative.
I have jotted down some ideas, but I haven’t got as far as creating any sheets yet, I feel that I am just going to wait until the brief is recapped and then start from there. I don’t want to get ahead of myself and go off in the wrong direction. I am going to closely use the handbook this time and make sure I really follow the brief and include everything and every detail.
I have also started to really make headway with searching for my work placement, the weekend just gone, I sat down and found some addresses and email addresses of companies that I thought may offer work experience.
I will probably have to send out lots more emails and letters but I will just have to keep trying and wait and see what happens.

Illustrations for application of design

I found doing the illustrations very difficult for some reason with this project. Usually I can illustrate easily and I get lots of different ideas straigh away, but not this time.
I tried to illustrate in my usual style, quite freeley and loosley with inks and pens, but the style just did not fit with the concept.
My illustrations in the end, turned out quite harsh and I used a thick pencil and a combination of water colours and fabrics.

If I had had more time I would have liked the whole of the background to be fabric and the illustration was sewn on top, but I did not want to risk doing this and then it ending up in the bin like so many others did.

I may try this experiemnt however for my portfolio.

Jewellery final piece

Jewellery research

Finished the project!

Application of design

Ok so now the project is finally over. Finito. Finished. Done! What a relief that is. This project has caused me more stress than any other project in anything I have ever done has.

Working in a group near to the end of this project when we were trying to prepare our presentation was a nightmare to be honest. As I had already finished my personal portfolio and completed my section of the slides for the presentation, I was just waiting around for other people in my group to get there work together so we could finish off the presentation and actually have a chance to practise it.

I am a very prepared person and I always finish my work before the deadline, so that I’m not running around at the last minute, because you end up forgetting things and you don’t get as much done, and it’s just not good. So that’s what happened yesterday, waiting for my group on the last day to put the presentation together. I even ended up having to do other parts of the presentation myself, which i didn’t really have much choice otherwise we would have never got it finished.

I felt really unprepared for the presentation, and I felt like we needed a lot more time to practise and to go through it. But I think that it was the same for all of the groups, that no one really had enough time to get together what they wanted.

Altogether though I think that the presentation was a success, and we had good feedback from our peers and tutors, so I was happy.

I feel that this project wasn’t really timed very well, and we didn’t have enough time to get everything how I would want it. It felt very rushed and like there was always something else to do, and I think it was just a bit too much. I know that second year is a step up from last year, but I think this is too overboard.

Elective week

Jewellery elective

Last week I completed my elective. This year instead of being able to choose out electives, we were put into them, from what we did last year and the way the college has decided to change the course layout.

So I ended up doing jewellery again for the second year, but of course this time we advanced to level 2.

I thought that I was going to not enjoy this elective, because of doing it before, it wasn’t something new and exciting to learn about. After last year at the end of the elective I had really started to not like it as well, so I wasn’t really looking forward to it.

However it did not turn out to be that bad, we had a wider brief, meaning that we had a better choice of materials and types of jewellery to make.

The brief stated that we had to make a piece of jewellery that was for the body rather than just a standard piece of normal jewellery that you would wear on a day to day basis.

After researching into some designers, I decided that I wanted to create a neck piece. But I wanted it to be quite restricting, so it would force the wearer to be in a particular position.

I also chose to use fabric, instead of traditional jewellery materials, such as wire. I felt that this pushed the boundaries and really rejected the idea of traditional jewellery.

I made my final piece from dark blue/black leather. I wanted to laser cut a pattern out of it, but for that week the laser cutter was out of use, so I had to cut the pattern by hand, which did not only hurt my hand a lot, but also took a very long time to complete.

To keep my neck piece structured, I boned all of the seams and around the top layer to keep it stiff and make it so the material would not fit to the body.

I am pleased with how far I have got with mu piece, all I need to do now, is place mesh underneath some of the cut outs to add variation and texture.

Hopefully I will be finished by the end of this week, so I can then spend a nice weekend at home relaxing and not having to worry about anything.