Designer Research: Signe Rand Ebbesen

Signe Rand Ebbesen

When I recently came across Signe's work I was immediately blown away. These inspirational fabrics are created on a Dobby loom and combine exciting textural surfaces with fun yarn choices. Signe's work sits in the market in a similar area to how I envisage my own work; high end fashion. Signe also designs for haute couture collections which is an area I believe I would like to sample and experiment with further into Unit X. I find Signe's collections to be fresh and lively, and I would like to incorporate these themes through my own weaving. I find Signe's work very influential to my own weaving practice, as he pushes the boundaries of contemporary weaving. I would also like to follow in this direction and experiment with more structural surfaces. 

RCA Postgraduate Samples 

Collection | Two

Silk Woven Collection 

In order to develop my work further for Collection Two, I have looked thoroughly at designers who are working towards the same context as me and I have made a point of finding out exactly what it is that I am drawn to and how I can produce the samples I need in order to get to where I want to be. I was determined to choose an easy warp after the mistake of choosing something so complicated for my first collection. I wanted to have a single cloth so that I was able to experiment more and have time to learn a new technique, this being extra weft. Using extra weft is something that I have always wanted to try and envisaged using in my work, as I feel it allows me to use a huge amount of colour and because of this it adds more depth to my designs. I was really happy that I chose a simple warp as it enabled me to push myself and develop a lot within a couple of weeks, and I have produced samples that I am happy with. 

Detailed photographs of a few of my samples 

For my second collection, I chose to use a range of colours of 2 60's silk. I began with an end on end warp of gunmetal grey and black. I wove this collection at 60 end per inch and threaded on a point in order to get the shapes that I wanted in my collection. When designing this collection, the intricacy of the patterns was something that was important to me. I wanted to represent the bustling busy streets of Morocco, and show what I experienced there in terms of colour and style, through my woven samples. I believe that my samples demonstrate the chaos and energetic nature of the markets and streets of Morocco. I also feel that the collection embraces a sense of embroidery which is also a significant part of how I like to work. 

Detailed photographs of a few of my samples

I feel as though, like stated in my learning agreement, my samples do embrace my key terms for this project such as ornate, busy, repetitive, vibrant, cultural, and fancy. I envisage these fabrics being used for clothing such as jackets or skirts.

Photographs of my samples working well as a collection 

Designer Research: Margo Selby

Margo Selby

I have found Margo Selby's 2014 tribal collection to be extremely influential to my second collection. I feel that our work shares similar qualities, such as repetition, strong patterns, vibrant use of colour, and is for a high end market, although not fashion related. The busy nature of her designs is something that I want to incorporate into my own sampling, and I find her use of repeat pattern  striking. Another aspect of her work which I feel is influential to my own practice is the faint structural qualities found through her compositions, for example I like the way the stripes sit with other shapes in order to make the designs look more three dimensional and geometric. Using new techniques such as double cloth are also something I would like to experiment with further into the next unit. 

Margo Selby | Interior Collection of Tribal Fabrics 2014

Designer Research: Dash and Miller

Dash and Miller 

Dash & Miller Woven Collection

I have chosen to research into Dash and Miller's woven collections as I am interested in the use of extra weft throughout many of their samples. Dash and Miller's work I feel fits similarly in relation to my own practice, as they produce fabrics for the global fashion industries. Their samples are interesting and unexpected; and they make use of several fancy yarns. A quality that I like about their work, is that is is risky and experimental yet remains professional and sophisticated, and these are qualities I would like my own work to possess.  

Designer Research: Maja Johansson

Maja Johansson: Woven Textile Design

I first discovered Maja Johansson's work on the Royal College of Art website. Maja graduated from the RCA in 2012 after specialising in woven textile design. I have found her work to be very inspiring, both the innovative nature of how she creates her pieces, as well as the pieces themselves. Something that I really like is her quote," A sophisticated result through an experimental approach" which guides her in order to produce her samples. Corresponding to my own work, it is easy to acknowledge her appreciation of the use of strong colours which I feel is something I can relate to as I love to work with bold and brave colour choices. The element I found most interesting is that she combines unlikely materials and yarns, and creates new surfaces which are completely original. In my future collections, I would like to consider taking a similar approach and become more experimental with my yarn choices and approach to weaving in general. In the past, it has been my experimental samples which have always worked best. 

Maja Johansson | Samples from her final collection at the Royal College of Art 2012 

Seeing her work made me realise that I need to push myself in a similar direction in order to progress, and consider making my own yarns to weave with again, and being more experimental. 

The context of Maja's work is for high end womenswear, which I think is evident through the photographs of her collection below, because of this, her work is useful for me to look at as it is aimed at a context similar to my own practice. 

Maja Johansson | Samples from her final collection at the Royal College of Art 2012

Designer Research: Dries Van Noten

Dries Van Noten  

I have found Dries Van Noten's work to be extremely influential to my practice this year and two current collections. In terms of context, Van Noten's brand sits exactly where I want my own practice to be; high end fashion both mens and womenswear. Dries Van Noten's collections continue to consist of several colours, but the pallet always works really well, his work is not overpowering; instead it simply immerses you to look closer, which is a quality I want my own work to have. The collections flow really nicely, each piece is individual yet could not belong to another collection. I feel as though I am developing my own collections of fabrics much better after following examples like his. 

Dries Van Noten | Ready-To-Wear Spring/Summer Collection 2015

For my own collections, I am aiming to create a balance of busy and calm samples, which I feel Van Noten also does, his pattern on pattern busy designs sit next to a relatively calm stripe or plain beige. However, it is not just the designs themselves which keep my interest in the brand, but also the style. Dries Van Noten's work is brave, bold, ethereal and also feels cultural which is largely shown throughout my own work. The feel of the brand is fun and risky but also simple; his work is made interesting through the use of colour and the cut of the clothing. 

I am currently in the process of researching further into Dries Van Noten's brand, as I would really love to gain work experience with a brand I feel so closely links to my own work and which I feel passionately about. 

Dries Van Noten | Ready-To-Wear Spring/Summer Collection 2015

Re Evaluation of project

Re evaluating my work

This week I have begun to question myself and my work, in terms of the outcomes that I am producing. It has helped me this week to take a few days away from the loom to re evaluate my ideas and think about how I can make the very most out of my final year. So far, I am relatively pleased with my samples, but I don't feel like I am pushing myself to my full potential and so I felt like I needed time to think about what it is I'm trying to achieve and how I can achieve it.

Being able to experiment is the reason I enjoy textiles so much, and I feel that so far this year I haven't allowed myself enough time to experiment or challenge my ideas. I have been too wrapped up in producing X amount of samples rather than really thinking these samples through. I need to stop being so fixed by time frames, as I believe it is imperative to my practice to produce outcomes that I am happy with rather than satisfied. Enclosing myself to time frames isn't helping me be creative or enjoy my project.

In the future I am aiming to be more experimental, possibly in Unit X when I feel like I have got to grips with techniques and sampling. I would like to produce much more innovative fabrics and play with materials such as clay, furs, chunky ribbons, and not being overcautious with my colour palette despite wanting to be more restrictive, I have already found that being too restrictive is stopping my work being the best it can be.

Collection | One

First Collection 

For my first collection of woven samples, I have been looking primarily at patterns found in Moroccan landscapes and architecture and drawing through use of layers. With this in mind I designed my warp as a single cloth with two brocades, the first one being copper and the second purple/indigo. The feel of the fabric was very important to me, I wanted my samples to feel luxurious, fancy, rich and ornate. These samples were produced for a High end fashion context, specifically targeting menswear. 

Close up of inlay through my intricate extra warp patterning 

I selected yarns which I felt were appropriate to the market area, 2 80's cotton, and I threaded up at 80 ends per inch to allow my cloth to be extremely fine as my context of these samples is for linings of jackets/ trimmings or edges.  I finished weaving being relatively happy with the outcomes I had produced however a large downside to weaving so fine was that I feel I spent more time fixing my warp than actually weaving it. This meant that I couldn't experiment or push myself as much as i'd have liked to throughout this collection. At the end of the warp I began to come to grips with how to fix it quickly, general maintenance of the warp, and this therefore led to some more experimental samples using inlay; an element of intricacy and embroidery which is an important factor in my work. 

From Left to Right: Ted Baker Menswear, Hackett Menswear London, Dashing Tweeds Bespoke woven fabrics. 

Final Collection of samples 

Practice Unit

Inspiration/ Visual Research 

Since the very beginning of the Textiles in Practice course, I have always been interested in culture, marvelling in traditional woven techniques and textiles from around the world. Colour and world textiles have always been my main inspiration, and so for the Practice unit I have decided to base my visual research and inspiration on my recent trip to Africa. For this project, I am aiming to design and make a body of woven textiles that explores these areas of research, and this will be focused towards a fashion based context; aimed at the top end.

Through my woven sampling, I want to visually explore my experiences in Morocco; focusing mainly on the busy bustling streets and vibrant warm colours. I intend to visually explore these ideas through an experimental approach in order to demonstrate the impact that the experience has had on my work. I would also like my work to continue in embracing an element of embroidery, and also continue to illustrate my attention to detail and intricate pattern making. 

Photographs from Morocco

At this stage in the project I am currently drawing by using found shapes from my imagery and I have also found cut outs to be particularly helpful in order to get me going. I am playing a lot through layering which I have found to be a good way to initiate the drawing process. 

Task Two

Degree Show Review

AlwaysAllwaysland 2014 

http://degreeshow.mmu.ac.uk/

Stephanie Lawton's Degree Show Work

Stephanie's work focuses on elaborate detail and intricate patterns, as an aspiring surface pattern designer, her work feels the right balance of mixing traditional with contemporary. Her work is a combination of both hand drawn and digitally drawn elements to create patterns, 'which have a very graphic and illustrative feel'. She draws her inspiration from modern technology and is interested in incorporating it into textiles and interiors which I think is clear within her work. The context for Stephanie's work is bespoke, flexible enough to be applied to a range of outputs.  

When I first walked past Stephanie's work, I found myself automatically drawn to look closer. I thought the presentation of her work was perfect, and showed it off to the best ability. I chose to write about her work as next year I would like my work to mimic hers visually. Furthermore, I would also like my work to parallel hers in terms of attention to detail. I was drawn towards her work because of the intricacy of the patterns. It reminded me of how much I enjoy to work using intricate details on a small scale. Looking at her work was thought provoking, and I came away with new ideas about how to use layers and scale within my own weaving practice. 

http://www.stephanielawton.co.uk 

Emily Otchie's Degree Show Work

Over the past year my work has been slowly working its way towards a fashion/ accessories based context, and so I thought it only right to choose someone working in a similar direction. However I am not interested in the garment making itself, I am only interested in the designing and making of the fabrics to hopefully be used for luxurious and high end clothing. Emily's vibrant work has been influenced by a 'fusion of cultural influences'. Her work really exudes lots of energy and colour, something which is important to my own work. Her yarn choices and design of the garments, demonstrate a juxtaposition between urban city life and traditional tribal textiles. The combination of such different ideas really helps to make her work original and unique.

I feel as if my own work relates to Emily's on a few different levels. Visually, our colour palettes are very similar, and when I read deeper into her work, I realised that we use a lot of the same research for our inspiration sources, for example, I am always drawn to vibrant cultures, and thats something I'd like to draw on for my final year work. I particularly liked Emily's brave colour choices and I felt that I understood her work before reading the text; something which I think is important.

Christina Hesford's Degree Show Work

Finally, Christina's work was the one that I felt most related to my own. Christina is a hand weaver and her work is focused on her interest in broken objects such as ceramics and textiles. Her work is directed at open spaces; galleries, both public and private. Christina's key interest is in exploring 'humanity's passage on earth'. Her recent work draws on the notion that sometimes things are more beautiful for being broken and this in turn inspired her intricate woven outcomes. I particularly liked  the brushing as the finishing process, which was a means of breaking down material surfaces which I thought related clearly to her concept.

Furthermore, Christina's work has inspired my own in many more ways. I thought that her work looked so professional. Her presentation was thorough, and the attention to detail was second to none. Looking further, I found her website to reflect her work perfectly and she takes such care over her work; the quality is just amazing. I loved her yarn choices for all of her samples. The pick up technique Christina used was also really interesting and I'd like to consider doing something similar with my own weaving. The subtle colour choices give her fabrics a luxurious feel. In addition, I was amazed at how much care was taken during the dying process and I will definitely have to get in touch to find out how she created such a beautiful tonal colour!

http://www.christinahesford.com