Experience & Exhibitions

Creative Festival / UCLAN Degree Show -  June 2012

Nominated for the Creative Focus Fashion Award. Showcasing my design work. The exhibition ran for a week. I met with press and spoke to people from industry about my work, also speaking to prospective students and other visitors.

The Beauty of Diagrams Exhibition - May 2011

'Beautiful Disaster' this was a textile exhibition based on maps as a diagrammatical translation of space and weather.

The piece to the left is a series of cocoons hosting a storm of destruction within. They are made up of laser cut fences, live stock, textiles and maps. It is an interpretation of how weather can change the geography of a map through destruction of environments due to natural disaster. For this project I collaborated with another student, Bridget Denson, as it was group work.

The piece on the right hand side is a tornado made up of laser cut strips of old and new maps I had been  collecting. The tornado Is attached to a music box in the shape of a house and visitors were encouraged to wind up the music box and see the tornado moving. The idea was that the tornado had been ripping up the map/land and is about to destroy the house, the movement of the piece is very slow and the happy music gives it an eery atmosphere. This piece I made in addition to the group work.

This experience taught me to compromise with others as my vision might not fit in with their plans so an agreement was made. Working in a team took the pressure off as the jobs were divided evenly.

Wedding Invitation Design - April 2011

Self initiated project working with a couple engaged to be married.

This involved coming up with design ideas based on feedback, working to a colour scheme, making prototypes, developing final design, making the items and individually hand embellishing. The main challenge was to stick to a tight deadline as I only had a matter of weeks to make them once the couple had selected a design they were happy with.

I made 50 invitations, 100 order of service, 30 menus and over 100 place names. In addition to this I made a canvas table seating plan, hand painted and embellished. 

This experience taught me to time manage and prioritise to a tight scedual as I had to plan ahead and book to use the laser cutter and make sure I was left with enough time to embellish the invitations afterwords. All of this took place in a couple of weeks once the design was agreed on.

Placement - July 2010

During an eight day placement at Dorma design studio (now Brookman Home) I was given a project based on Horrockses Fashions from the 40s and 50s. After completing a number of sketches I started to paint the design into a repeat in the traditional method of pattern making. The art work was selected to be used and is now on sale at http://www.horrocksesfashions.co.uk/horrockses/product.asp?design=1427 and other individual boutiques.

This experience made me change my degree course from Fine Art to Surface Pattern as I loved working with the design team and putting my drawings to a purpose/object. This was the first taste of design for me and I was thrilled to see the bedding in production and on sale.