Society of Dyers and Colourists

This semester our project brief comes from the ‘international design competition‘ and is set by the Society of Dyers and Colourists. The theme is ‘Material world’ our projects should show the following;

• colour as an integral component of the design process

• development of the designs, from concept to final product

• excellent presentation and clarity of ideas

• innovative approach to incorporating this year’s theme of ‘Material World?’ within the original design and final application.

I have been thinking about this brief throughout the winter break and have done some research into what kind of thing I want to be doing. Below is a selection of images sourced from Tumblr and Pintrest, I wasn’t able to find the original source for many of the images so they have not been included in this post.

Hand in

Today I set everything up for my final hand in, which will be assessed on Monday morning. I’m so relieved to have gotten it all done! Now all I have left is my textiles futures module. I had one final print to do this morning, a two meter version of my repeat pattern on sandwashed silk

Screen printed repeat

As well as my digital prints for the repeat pattern project, I wanted to have a go at screen printing. I am not the most controlled when it comes to screen printing so I knew it was going to be a challenge, and a learning curve. I am really happy with the way my first print turned out, much better than expected! I was printing on silk chiffon, which is super thin. It got stuck to the table as the dye dried, what a panic! But I got it off, thank heavens!

Making a repeat

After playing around with the imagery in my RSA sketchbook I started piecing things together and trying to work out how make a repeatable unit. I tried several different shapes of unit, then photocopied the sketches multiple times so I could piece them together.

I felt that these patterns were pretty resolved, and there wasn’t much room for development or variations. I decided to keep them in mind, but ultimately move on to something different, on a bigger scale. I had quite liked one of the very first sketches in my Pattern sketchbook, so that’s where I continued from.

Repeat patterns

Our latest project brief is all about the repeat. Going back into our RSA sketchbooks and pulling out the more successful pieces of pattern. Starting out working with quick sketches and then black and white photocopies; collaging and adding more detail, I started to have ideas about what my repeated unit would contain.