INK IN WATER

Last week I had fun developing a new print, I wanted to photograph ink going into water. So trusty photographer Alexander Jordan filmed it so I could take stills from it to work with in photoshop.

We did two different videos, heres the first very quick test we did.


video test from alexander jordan on Vimeo.

And here are some stills...

I will upload the second one later....Its pretty good. 

PRINT DEVELOPMENT

FINALISED PRINTS

Once again I am awake thinking about my collection. I find it hard to get to sleep at the best of times so at the moment Im finding it seemingly impossible what with the endless list of tasks i have to complete by the end of this week circulating round and around in my mind. I have however made another step forward with the finalisation of my print choices. After endless nights playing around with colour and scale i now have 6 slightly different variations of my print which will be made up into a dress, pairs of leggings a top and the linings of jackets etc. 

There has been an on going saga at uni the past few weeks with the printing facilities and technicians. Introduced this year was the digital fabric printing machine which is an amazing facitilty to take advantage of, making the cost of printing a hell of a lot cheaper saving some of us a couple of hundred pounds! The disadvantage of it being new is tutors are still yet to learn the ropes properly and problems have occurred, including the print technician telling us a few days ago printing on jersey wasnt going to be an option on the printer as the stretch made it too difficult. Of course almost all of us wanted some sort of jersey so we were not impressed at the delayed announcemnt that this would not be possible as it is too difficult. After a day or two of panicking trying to find a company to print it in time for our deadline, and the money to fund the printing in the first place, lucking a solution was found!

There are two different ways of digital printing onto fabric one is the printer laser printing the ink directly onto the fabric which has to be a specially coated fabric. The second and cheaper option is whats called dye sub, to print using the same machine onto a transfer paper which then goes through a huge heated roller along with a pollyester fabric, once pressed through the heat reacts with the dye on the transfer paper and the fabric soaks up the ink leaving you with a really great quality print. Quite impressive really. Anyway a girl on the course managed to find a lycra that wasn't cheap and shiny and was suitable for the Dye sub which printed really nicely when tested. So with that we sent two people off to go and collect i think 40 meters of this fabric to solve our problem and save us money. So all being well this week i will have my prints. I hope to God i do anyway.

PRINT SAMPLES

So im lying in bed with thoughts of fabric and print going round and round in my head, over and over. Today i spent the day running in between the print room and the dye lab trying to digital print onto fabric tests for my final print. After problems with the machine and freak outs on the technicians i think i have decided on the final ones. I was also dying fabric which i couldn't get in the right colours anywhere so i have to go through the slow process of mixing dyes to match the the right shade. Not a quick job. But they are getting there.

Now i have plenty of samples I am heading back into london tomorrow to purchase some fabrics and my leather skins so i can match it all to the print. Its going to be an expensive day. The thought of buying my final fabrics excites me, but also scares the shit out of me! There is so much riding on this collection it has to go ok! Heres a snap of the fabric printed today. 

I need to start things rolling now my tutor claims to be going grey and panicking for us as the year is so far behind. We are meant to have four outfits sewn up by next week. Most people haven't started sewing the finals yet! God help us. 

FINAL COLLECTION PRINT DEVELOPMENT

I haven't been posting too much about my collection on here recently! I dont want to give everything away so every now and then ill give a little insight! I really enjoyed developing prints for the river island project so I am planning on incorporating a print into my collection and im currently playing with ideas about how to do it! I think im going to use some of the photos i took for the river island project as the lights can fit in with the halucintation part of my concept and i love them and would be a shame not to be able to actually use them! I want to work on top of this with insect wings and maybe some eyes, Tilman Kaiser the artist im looking at for the inspiration behind my collection has insects and eyes worked into his paintings so its a good reference i can use.

Above is a pattern I'm making with a outlined drawing of a flies wing, i placed each on in different positions which took me ages and sent my eyes funny! I want it to end up being a little trippy though!

Then above and below are some quick examples of how i can incorporate the wings and lights together. I put filters on the edited pictures of lights and took different sections i liked tiled it and added the wings on top to accentuate the shapes.

I dont think these will get used it was just to show the idea and a starting point. I think i need to town down the colours a bit but i think once I've worked on them over the next few weeks i should have something pretty hot! Let me know what you think!

HANDED IN

FINALLY! managed to over sleep this morning, woken by my housemate shouting at me to get up in time to make it to the printers before hand! So glad thats another thing done and dusted. Now back to the collection. So much to do never enough time!

YESS I HAVE FINISHED!

I can happily say that i have now completed the River Island competition print project! Its 4.03 in the morning which is a good time to finish before a hand in i think as I actually get to have some sleep!! Thought I'd upload a few things I'm handing in tomorrow first below are my

illustrations...

My illustrations were created using pen, scanned bits of fabrics, my prints and photos mixed up with some different filters.

My range plan above showing the whole collection and print variations. The gap at the top is wear i will be sticking my fabrics.

Heres another close up of an illustration i really hope i manage to get these printed ok!

and finally above is a quick snap of my book i got printed yesterday which cost me over £100 RIDICULOUS! at least it looks good, i did my layout so i had the print to the left my working drawings on tracing paper which had the print positioning underneath so you can see it clearly with out the drawing on top! (i think thats why it was so expensive!)

Anyway my alarm is set for seven in the morning to get everything ready! i wish i could sleep after but its back to working on the collection as i have an assessed review for that in 2 weeks, and there is ALOT to do! But now sleepy times, Good night.

ILLUSTRATIONS

On the last part of my River Island project now hand in tomorrow! Trying to finish my illustrations and range plan which I'm going to have to try and get printed first thing in the morning, nothing like some last minute stress before hand in!

Heres one of my illustrations I've been working on today!

RIVER ISLAND

So this is what I have been looking at the past week, photoshop and indesign trying to complete my print project for the River Island competition and finally I have almost got there!!...I just stupidly forgot to code each design with a production number so I have to go through 293 designs and label them, funnnnnn. NOT. It has been a long and boring process at times and with laptop saga's bringing me to tears with stress I'm finally there! YESSSSS!

After long days and even longer nights trying to get it done so I can carry on with my collection I finally have something I'm kind of happy with! Just have to find a printers that can do it in time for my hand in. So by thursday i will have handed in this project, I've already handed in a 5,000 word draft of my dissertation and then the only thing to left to hand in before xmas is our pre collection development! (i say only, this is a lot of work which i still have a lot more of to do)...oh shit i forgot about 2,000 words for marketing.

PRINTS

Last night me and my housemate with the camera went out and took some pictures of fireworks, lights and sparklers in order for me to create a print. Heres a few initial prints i made last night by edditing and playing around with the images on photoshop.





Still going to play around more but i managed to change the colours into some really beautiful combination's.