Uncategorised – Chiodi's Textiles Blog

2nd Feb 20218th May 2021

Client Profile

This week I have been thinking about who I want my work to be aimed at. I have put together a client profile to hopefully show who my intended customers are.

TARGET MARKET

The target market for my project will be female. The age range will be young adult, 25 – 40. I have chosen this age as I want my products to be aimed at people that may be furnishing their homes for the first time. I would like my products to be affordable so they will be appealing to my target audience.

CLIENT PROFILE

My customer is bold and bright with an eye for design. A busy independent female who knows what she wants and what she likes. Her personality shows through her outfit choices, she is not afraid to be daring or to wear bright clashing colours. She loves to entertain and socialise whether that be at home or out in bars and cafes. Hobbies that she enjoys are cooking, going to see live music and yoga. In her down time she loves to read a good book. She is definitely a sun seeker and tries to spend as much time in the sun as possible as well as going on trips abroad. Travel and culture are important to her, experiencing new places and immersing herself in new cultures is definitely something that she is good at. Making the most of everything and living life to the fullest is a motto that she stands by. Being active is important whether it be working out in the gym or strolling through the park, she values her health. She is part of a big family that are all quite close and love to see each other at big family gatherings or days out. Her favourite past time is to watch the sun set, she has a fascination for the sky. The countryside is where she grew up however to follow her dream job she is now living in the city. Work is important to her as she is trying to gain loads of experience to allow her to move up the ladder and eventually have a higher position in the company.

18th Jan 20213rd Feb 2021

MoodBoards

Here are my first initial Mood boards created on the theme of Modernism and the Abstract Expressionist Movement. I am particularly inspired by shape, colour and form and I want to be including lots of different textures in my work to add layering and depth.

9th Jun 2020

Final Self Reflective Statement

Second year has been a busy year full of ups and downs but overall i feel that i can happily say that it has changed me as an artist and made me realise a lot about myself, my practice and the way i like to create.

I went in to this project very confused and nervous about the outcomes as i just couldn’t see how i was going to be able to do everything that was set but i have come out the other side with a portfolio of work that i am proud of and that shows my journey to becoming a designer.

At the beginning of the second term i was rushing my work and thinking that it looked good and creating connections in my head that didn’t really make sense. When stepping back and actually looking at what i had produced in second term and then what i have submitted in the third term the change is massive. I think that Lock Down has made me realise that i don’t need to rush my work and that there is plenty of time to get things done. When everything is at a slower pace i feel that i produce better work as my thought process is less cluttered. I started to realise the mistakes and how disjointed my collection was, this then helped me to start a fresh and begin making patterns that fitted in to the collection properly.

I have found it very strange not being able to be in uni and getting others opinions and speaking to the tutors as those brief conversations make a difference to your work. However it has also allowed me to have space and to figure out what works and what doesn’t and to come up with solutions and ideas myself. I feel more independent as a designer and more prepared for what third year has to offer.

I have had the time to really discover myself in this project and when we were at uni i was doing a lot of experimenting in the stitch room. I have found a new love for digital stitch and am excited to get back in there and to start creating. I enjoy how the whole process of how you can transform a drawing into a beautifully neat digitally stitch sample.

I am very proud of my collection, i feel that i have used a range of different layout styles and scales to ensure that it wasn’t repetitive. I wanted to do something that had bright bold colours as my previous projects haven’t been. The colour scheme matches throughout and the colour choices in certain patterns make them seem elegant rather than in your face bold. If i was going to change anything now looking back at my collection i would perhaps change the age range of my client to lower as i feel it may be better suited. Possibly i would target a younger market starting at age 8. I loved how my digitally printed fabrics turned out, that when thinking about embellishing them i felt to nervous as i didn’t want to ruin them. If i was do to this again perhaps i need to be more brave and modify my fabrics to add more textures and details to them. I really enjoy mark making but didn’t included it in my final collection as i created them all digitally on Photoshop. When using Photoshop to create my patterns i forgot about all the lovely textures and marks that i had made. My next step would be to include my mark making in to my final collection.

Overall i have really enjoyed this project and feel that i have learnt a lot and grown as a designer.

9th Jun 2020

Digital Portfolio

20141694_ChiodiBurton_BATextiles_MyDigitalPortfolio

Creating my digital Portfolio took a lot of time and planning to get everything just right. I began with photographing all my work outside on a sunny day. Then i had to make a plan of what pages were going to go where and it what order which after lots of swapping and rearranging i had decided on the structure of my portfolio.

I chose to create all my pages in photoshop as i new the software and wanted to edited some of the pages. This part took the longest because i had to decide on the right layouts and what worked well on each page.

I used Adobe Acrobat to then combine all of my pages together. This software is completely new to me so it took me a while to understand how it works. The software is pretty simple and once you get the hang of it, it is fairly easy.

Here is my final Finished Digital Portfolio which shows you a journey of how i got from the begininng to end of my project. It shows the different techniques i used and my final outcomes at the end which are in a look book format.

8th Jun 2020

Hand Stitch

For this project i only used a very basic hand stitch. I used a running stitch and then just over lapped this is different direction. I stitched out loads of little diamonds in between sapphires on a fabric that i had got digitally printed.

Hand stitching takes a lot of time and patients so don’t rush what you are doing.

8th Jun 2020

Paper Manipulation

Paper Manipulation is by far my new favourite technique that i have been practising in this project. There isn’t a right or wrong way to do this as it is just folding paper is different way to create new shapes and patterns.

What i would say to bare in mind is if you want things to look equal make sure you use a ruler to mark out a grid to help you achieve that before you start cutting and folding.

I used paper with my patterns printed on to transform them in to new designs.

Here are some photos

8th Jun 2020

Book Binding

Book binding is a has a lot of steps to it but not to complicated when you get in the swing of things.

To begin with you need your collected paper pages. For this I had 10 pieces of paper that I then each folded in half. You then take two of the folded papers and place one inside each other. You do this with all the paper so you should end up with 5 pairs.

Once you have done this you need to measure where you are going to sew and bind them together. You measure 1cm from each edge and mark a dot and then you measure 3.3cm from your first mark and you repeat this from the other side as well. Once the measurements are done you use a sharp pointed tool that them makes the holes so its easier for you to sew together.

The sewing is slightly complicated. Here is a diagram that I have drawn to understand the stitch path. book binding

After the sewing you need to glue mesh to the book spine and leave to dry.

Whilst that is drying you should cut the card and the spine to match the size of your pages. Then glue the cover to the card.

Now you are ready to glue the book together. Paint up the first page of the book and place it carefully on to the cover. Then paint up the other side and carefully lift the cover over making sure the spine if at 90 degree angle. Place the cover on to the glued and then pick it up and check everything is all lined up and in the correct position. Place the book on the edge of the table so the spine hangs over the edge and put something that has weight to it on the body of the book. Leave it over night to dry and set in place.

book

8th Jun 2020

Digital Stitch

Digital stitch

The workshop lessons that I have had on digital stitch have just been refreshers on how to use the software and looking over different tools with in it. I have really enjoyed learning the software in detail and experimenting with lots of new techniques. The outcomes you get from digital stitch are so slick and consistent which i love.

Digital Appliqué

This workshop was full of little steps that you need to get in the correct order for this to work. To digitally applique you first must stitch out the shapes that you are going to applique on. Then you stitch out on to the final sample a single run line where you want to the appliqué to be. You the iron it into place using bonda web. After that the final stitches are made around the shape to attach it and then the detailing.

Here is the finished piece that I made.

Turning Angle

We refreshed on how to use the turning angle which allows you to define a shape that has a curve of a bend within it. As you can see from the picture all the stitches run smoothly and in the correct direction.

The second picture is showing where I haven’t quite got the points in the correct place so you can see that the stitching doesn’t quite flow or run smoothly

Repeat Motif Tool

This tool is so useful when you have a space that you want to fill with identcal motifs. It is simple and quick to do and the results are amazing.

All you have to do once you have a simple single colour motif is to click on the repeat tool and follow the simple steps. you can change how the repeat is formed whether you want it on a brick repeat or straight repeat. Before you stitch out you design make sure the base stitch is turned off as sometimes it will stitch these base stitches on top of the motif which creates a strange outcome.

This is a technique that allows you to repeat a motif that you have create. You can only single colour motifs for this to work.

Firstly, you create your motif like normal.

Then you group it as one

Go to image and click create motif

Save in a folder

Then click from left to right across your motif and it will be created

Open a new document and in the parallel weave options go to the fourth one across and it is called motif fill.

Draw a box or a shape that you want to fill and double click

There is an option for you to find your file, click on your file and then okay

Now your shape will be filled with the motif you have created.

Here is one of my repeat motif samples

8th Jun 2020

Digital Print

I used digital print for some of my repeating patterns for this project.

Digitally printing from fashion formula is really easy and simple to do, all you have to make sure is that you have save your pattern tile in the correct format so it will upload on their website easily.

They have a huge range of fabrics that you can chose from and loads of different sizes. You can also change the scale of you pattern before you order it which is useful to see how it looks.

Here is a photo of the fabrics i printed

8th Jun 2020

Creating my Look Book

I was putting off creating my look book for ages as i knew that i needed to make sure everything was perfect and that i had to use InDesign to create it on which i had forgotten how to use.

When i eventually sat down and put my mind to it, it was easier to create than i thought it would be. I actually had a good time making it and seeing all my patterns come to life through the CAD mock up that i created.

I wanted to keep the layout of my look book very simple and slick thats why i chose to fill pages with my CAD mocks and place them over double spread pages so you could really see and focus on what i had done rather than being distracted with too many things on one page.

I found the editing of the CAD mock ups difficult and feel that this is something that i need to work on to get right in the future. I also struggled with how i should approach the wording, i wasn’t sure if i was supposed to word it as if it was a magazine and sell my patterns or tell the audience my journey and what i had created.

Below is a link to my final finished look book!!

LOOKBOOK