Long time, no see...

Yes it's been forever, but I'm determined to do this again!
Since my last post, I took a gap year, found that I really wanted to make costumes, signed up for a FD in Fashion and Costume and bob's your uncle!
I'm now in my second year and it's pretty tough, but I'm learning lots. It's almost worth being in debt for the rest of my life ;)

In the first year we focused mainly on commercial and worked alongside George designers to design a collection for SS13. I even won a work placement which I was really surprised about (my sketchbook was god awful!).

Mattisse inspired life drawing

We worked on life drawing which I really enjoyed, although I didn't expect so. I had some really tough weeks when I couldn't draw but really got into it on other occasions

I was excited for our next project because we got to choose fashion or costume, but the brief for the costume pathway wasn't exactly screaming out at me. so i decided to play around with the fashion brief and made it a bit more costumey. We had to design for high fashion/haute couture and choose from a number of trends. I picked 1920s/Egyptian. Don't ask me how or why I chose that combination, but in my head i thought it'd work. It kinda did, I did some designs i was really happy with, but look back it's not exactly haute couture :P 

In our second year, we also got to work with some photography students who wanted to photograph our white projects. This is one of the studio shots and I LOVE it :)



I started my print project for year 2 in the summer. I was basing my project on Pride and Prejudice so I visited museums, I went to Bath, I watched Colin Firth diving in to that lake more times than I'm willing to admit...

Regency puff sleeve. Veryveryvery puffy

I was determined to get a good start on the research and start drawing, but I got a bit bogged down by it.  And designing was hard. There weren't a lot of silhouette variations in mens or womens wear from the period. I got a bit bored to be honest. 100 designs is a lot, especially when all the dresses look the same...

Shibori on some of my prints

My final Lizzy Bennett dress for the Netherfield Ball

I worked from authentic patterns and adapted them for my garment. Did a bit of winging it but we don't talk about that!

At the minute, I'm starting work on my Negotiated study. I'm designing for a Pantomime version of Cinderella based on 18th century fashion. Basically combining my all favorite things. Panto, fairy tales and Georgians :)

I'll keep you updated!

creative visions evening

got invited to an awards evening for design at my school. i knew i hadn't won anything, but i'd been nominated and my friend had won so moral support and all that.
our work was also on display and there was free wine and food (though in hindsight, they weren't a good idea the day after i'd had a stomach bug!)
i got roped into singing with the choir for the last time which was nice, though i only knew one of the songs so i winged it for the rest of it :P
also found out that my tutu won 3rd place in an award given by the embroiderers guild, i very proud of it :D

procrastinating to avoid procrastinating

i haven't done anything for the past two weeks. literally nothing! unless you count watching gilmore girls and eating too much. i couldn't muster up any inspiration for anything.
but before i hit the crafting wall (which i think is made out of quilts and crochet) i made these :)

they're earring hangers. i've seen a couple like these over the internet and i though i'd have a go. they're just muslin stretched over an embroidary hoop and sewn into :)
the owl one i made for my friend who is making me a flower corsage in repayment. here's a link to her etsy shop, cupcakes and corsages :)

mug cosy

i'd been looking for a crochet mug cosy pattern for ages but i couldn't find one i liked so i decided to just make it up! i'm by no means good at crochet but i can make a good granny square so that's what i based it on.

throw on a wave edge and i was good to go!
this is actually the first crochet thing i've completed so i was very proud of myself :P
it's a little to big height wise for my will and kate mug as you can see but it's perfect for using on disposable coffee cups :)
i may post the pattern at a later date when i remember what i did!

previous school work

i took textiles for three years because my first year sucked! to be honest, so did my second first year but i'm holding out for my third! (results to come)

in my first year, i made two art pieces. one based on the seasons and the other on fruit. they were pretty awful and have since throw away the former, but the final piece from the latter project is still in my room...somewhere.

i retook this first year, so with the knowledge of how much work i needed to do, i started with enthusiasm! i made two garments this time. the first project based on 'around the world in 80 days', the book by jules verne and the second about ancient egypt. it's clear from the first project that i didn't learn from my mistakes of the previous year but i was super proud of my second project! i made a belt thing that egyptians used to wear which i would totally wear out in public if it could fit around my tummy :P i got a b for my egypt project and it almost made me forget about the e i got for the other one...

this is my lovely friend emily modelling my practice waistcoat for the first crappy project. no joke, this is actually better than the end result!

this is the egyptian belt...thing! the actual belt part is entirely pin tucks and is 3 metres worth of fabric! safe to say, it took forever! but i love it :)
there is some lovely detail on the back but i don't have a good enough picture.

so, i'd finally reached a2 textile art and my personal study! i chose phantom of the opera to study because it gave me an excuse to watch gerard butler as the phantom. i got really really into it and it paid off! I didn't get a good grade for it at first but hopefully my mark has improved a little after i did some work it. my final piece was a tutu and leotard and i also made a matching pointe shoe as part of my back up work.

then came the exam project. i chose to do the planets because i'm in love with prof. brian cox. i've never done so much back up work for a project! but i'm rather please with my art final piece :) this is the end result of a 15 hour, 3 day long exam where we had to remain silent! it was horrible, and the invigilator had an annoying cough!

and thus ended my textiles course! sorry for so much writing, i got too into it :P

new blog :)

i'm determined to actually make this one work!
so, i'm nicole. i'm 19 and have just left sixth form after a year too many! I took textiles (among many other subjects that the school forced me to take) and it's want i love to do. i'm particularly interested in costumes and if i ever can be arsed to go to uni or the like, it's what i'll be doing.
this blog is basically to showcase the stuff that i have done and am going to do. let me know what you think, i love a comment or two :)