Birthday treats!

Last Saturday was my 26th birthday - crivens!! Px and I went out for brunch to the wonderful Circle cafe in Cannonmills http://www.thecirclecafe.com/ .

(Picture from http://edinburghcoffeelovers.blogspot.com/ thankyou!)

This is becoming a bit of an annual event and the bit of my birthday I look forward to most! I had ciabatta with spinach and parma ham topped with a soft boiled egg and a pile of tasty leaves whilst Px had a juicy pork, lemon and thyme burger. We followed this off with their excellent coffees (beans supplied by Artisan Roast I believe http://www.artisanroast.co.uk/ top quality!) and a heart warming apple pie - well it was my birthday after all!

Before she went back off to Italy at Easter my big sister Sarah left me a little bag of delightful treats which I (amazingly) managed to resist opening until Saturday morning.
Such pretty trims! Am looking forward to putting them to good use on some new projects I have in mind for after I finish Uni - next week!!!

I really have no excuses now......

Anyway thank you Sarah for my very special little gifts (and for the double sided tape of course - not so photogenic I'm afraid!!) xxx

Lovely blog award!

I have to thank my lovely big sister....

 http://www.sarah-eliza-beth.blogspot.com// 

who has not only inspired me to start blogging but has also nominated me for a 'lovely blog award'!  Thank you Sarah! 

In order to qualify for the award the rules are I have to tell you all 10 things about me that you might not already know.  I'm going to do this one day at a time as I've got lots of uni work due in so am a bit pushed for time! So here goes.....

Number 1.

I am currently working at a lovely ladies fashion boutique in the Scottish Borders called 'Inis'.  At Inis we stock a range of inspiring brands including Noa Noa, Sandwich, French Connection, Inwear, Avoca and Hobbs.  I have worked at Inis on and off for a number of years and am currently assisting in the web office and sometimes in the stores  (there are 3 stores located in Hawick, Peebles and Galashiels).  I really enjoy the work and am very proud to be a part of a great team and most importantly I love and am passionate about the products we sell and hope you will be too!  Please have a look: 

 www.inisonline.com

Ziiiing its Spriiing!!

What a pretty sight! Look at Zing staying extra still - pretending to be a crocus so Tala the Wolfchild won't spot him and come cover him in lickery kisses. Zing loves the Spring, he especially likes mini-egg treasure hunts, cherry blossom showers and the bouncy feeling in the air.

ZIIIIING!!

Meet Zing the Polite Cat. Today Zing is in the potting shed looking at the birds on the lawn. He's intrigued but I don't think he will chase them, incase he offends any of them. He's really very polite.

Knitted fabrics for fashion

This is a little page from my sketchbook for our most recent project - designing a collection of fabrics for fashion. I began by looking at recent catwalk trends on WGSN and my fave site and new fave designer Bora Aksu http://knitkicks.wordpress.com/2009/12/29/bora-aksu-spring-summer-2010/. I was inspired by this spring's trend of 'underwear as outerwear' as seen here http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/trends/2010-spring-summer/100114-lingerie.aspx# and wanted to recreate this mood through my designs.

These are two of my final samples. I've used stitch transfers and smocking to create the diamond shape which is a continued theme throughout my collection.



For these two samples I knitted really really long tubes - stocking stitch about 5 stitches wide which naturally rolls in on itself to resemble a long tube - which I've then handknitted to achieve this chunky effect. It was a lot of fun knitting the grey cable sample with the biggest needles you've ever seen! (15mm Brittany birch needles)

For the second part of the module we've to take these fabrics and use them as a basis to design a garment for a chosen icon. I think I will chose Jenny Lewis who is a lovely folksy singer from California with amazing auburn hair and quirky, indie style. When she's not lounging around in her smalls she wears the cutsiest little high-waisted shorts, 70s style blouses and sharp hats. http://www.myspace.com/jennylewismusic - have a wee listen!

Yarn Making

Dragging myself into the new year I am faced with a new module - yarn making- and our (if you ask me , lame) topic is 'stringy things'. Finally getting some direction with it and decided on 'drystane dykes' an my inspiration.

This was my very first attempt at yarn spinning - both combining different yarns and spinning slivers of unspun yarn. I tried adding in various materials such as lichen, string, wire and horse hair to achieve a rough and natural effect. I loved it and can't wait to try out some more lovely messy ideas! I can see that spinning could be very theraputic once the basics are mastered.



This is my new research wall - its slowly but surely coming together. Am going to do some colour studies this week and perhaps some paper collages. Enjoyed doing my initial ink studies think they captured the random creeping lines of the wall pretty well. I've just been drawing from my photos so far but hope to get outside at some point this week - providing its dry and light enough.

Sketchbook Enquiry

This is my final presentation for our sketchbook project for which we had to complete a number of phases over a 12 week period:

• selected a fine artist and a textile artist and prepared a presentation on each - selecting 10 words to describe their work - I chose Eva Hesse and Christien Meinderstma
• chose one word which links the two - the word I chose was 'Organic'
• selected a group of objects which represents the chosen theme - pine cones, coral, honesty, sheep's skull, dried orange slices and produced a series of drawings of these which were then bound as an individual sketch book
• made a small bound book following Rachel Hazel's instructions and was in keeping with the theme
• used a variety of materials such as potato prints, feather drawing, grass prints to produce a mark-making sketch book
• produced a sketch book using only paper manipulation
• took elements of the 3 sketchbooks produced and combined them to fill the small bound book using text to highlight the chosen theme
• combined all the elements and techniques used to create one final sketchbook which is to be a piece of artwork within itself
• produced a one-page-book which sums up the entire project

I really enjoyed the creative freedom we had with this project and discovered some new techniques and ideas which have been the inspiration for a number of different pieces.

A mobile for baby Ethan

I made this little animal mobile for my beautiful new nephew in Australia whom I have yet to have the pleasure of meeting! Apparently it has served its purpose and has given mummy some precious moments of peace! There's an owl and a pussycat, a dog, a wee mousy and a koala of course!

Weave for Interiors

Final display - double cloth woven fabric intended for use as blind or curtain material.

Sketches and initial paper collages taking inspiration from designs by Belen Mena





Colour and pattern inspiration - a contemporary office block in Slovenia from Wallpaper magazine.

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

Collections

Weaving - Art Pieces

Our initial brief was to create 3 8x8" 'art pieces' inspired by the research we carried out over the summer hols. The topic I chose was 'collections'.

My first ever weave!

Mood board inspired by vintage postcards found in an antique shop in Stockbridge.

A beautiful rose in Mum's garden shed bed.




This is my final display including sketchbook, research and technical files as well as our reflective journal - and of course a pair of roses 'borrowed' from my boyfriend's garden! (click on the image to see the pictures close up)