Mineral Spirit

Further from my tutorial on Tuesday, I’ve been working to the bone to get my collection completed and up to standard. From having manipulated my original croquis designs and mixed those with the marbling techniques I had tried out, I when on to further create the rest of my collection.

I did indeed experiment with machine embroidery on top of my hand-printed dendrite patterns and I really like the result. I feel that the now I have seen the embellished print, that there is much more elegance and interest with the added detailing, making it much more suitable for my client. From here I went onto to create two digital repeating structures that feature the dendrite patterns again, albeit in different layouts and colours; I also added some of my marbling technique which giving it more interest, can be seen better on a larger scale.

During this last week I haven’t really had time to overthink what needed to be done to complete my collection; I seemed to have acted on instinct, my ideas coming faster the less time I have to ponder them. Having been really happy with my dendrite motifs, I wanted to compliment the hand printed and machine embroidery version with some digital embroidery, which I got stitched out in two different colourways. I find that while creating my designs, what has been asked of me (different colourways, repeats and co-ords) seem to natural progress through the designs process.

Having completed ten out my twelve designs, I started to look at some of my fabric manipulation but I wasn’t happy with how they looked, or the feel of them and I couldn’t really see how I could alter them to have more of my spirit and be acceptable to my client; so I went back to the drawing board. Or rather back to my original inspiration; minerals. Using the book I was given during my first work placement with Richard Weston, I found an image of a quartz that was quite abstract but intrigued me. I could already picture in my mind the different processes I would use to create this design, so I ran with it. I found another image to compliment so that I had my last two designs, then set to work. The quartz images were quite textural, and as such I thought that adding in some of the marbling I had done would be a good way to show the difference of colours and texture with the quartz itself. I then appliquéd this onto backing fabric, used free machine embroidery for detailing, and added organzi material in-between to show how the minerals grown and how the different fissure and interest within the minerals com in different layers.

I have to say that I really love these last two designs, they are beautiful and abstract and taken right from the source of my inspiration; the mineral itself. The abstract nature of the quartz has now been mirrored in my designs.

I’m really happy with my collection. I feel that while not all of my designs necessarily match, they all have the same overarching theme of minerals. I feel that I have explored different designs avenues so as to find the best fit for myself and the client I am working for.