Week 3: Design Resolution

After a very fun weekend in London over...its back to work again!! 

Just a recap of the colour palette 

So this week involves us to review our most successful technical samples in order to produce a collection of 6 final samples. We have to consider how each of our samples will work with the other designs within the space. 

I have decided to select two materials to work with as the background. These being the gridded heat mat and wired mesh. I like how you can mould the mesh into the structure that you want. Although, I actually have to warn you, it absolutely knackers your fingers. My advice would be to put the plasters on the tips of your fingers before you start the process. Very sore! 

So my main focus will be weaving nails into these materials. I had a go at painting the nails. However, when it came to weaving them in and out of the mat and the metal mesh, it took away some of the paint giving it a more rustic appearance. Which actually ties in quite well with the industrial concept of the neglected looking walls within our chosen space, the bedroom. 

I love this sample, I think its very delicate and elegant. I kept it minimal with colour and added a highlight of the blue from my colour pallet by painting it onto the beads with the gouache paint. 

I cut away at the materials and bought some teal spray paint so that I could incorporate some colour and life into my samples. I then added a splash of colour by wrapping some thread around the nails. I like the contrast in colour proportion, the subtlety of the pink is simple yet effective.

Detail 

Looking at the sample whilst flat, I still felt it needed something else added to it. I decided to curve it into an organic structure. This could look quiet effective if there were a bunch of these forms repeated on a headboard. 

A very simple sample here. I felt the collection needed something simple to balance out the busier pieces. 

I like the contrast between the silver metal mesh and the splashes of teal in this piece. I wanted to combine two samples together but instead of cutting away at the material I created a stencil of the shape and then sprayed over this stencil to give me this effect. I have really liked working with this metal mesh, I think it can look really beautiful when its been worked into and then photographed. 

Had the camera in the hand and got a bit carried away with the snaps. I was just playing around here looking at how the mesh and the heat mat worked together. The contrast of the heavier mat and dainty, flowing mesh is quite interesting. 

Detail 

Detail 

Alternative Interior Surfaces Project: Week 2

Week 2: Technical Sampling & Textile Development

To help us think about sampling and the choice of materials we use, we have referred back to week 1's research and final colour palette. I've been really looking forward to this week as I haven't ever used alternative materials like this, and I've never designed an interior product either- so this unfamiliar territory was very exciting indeed. This experimental approach will encourage us to aim towards an appropriate fabric for the final outcome. 

My initial thought was to look at metals, however, my starting point was taking a trip around all the bargain stores in Edinburgh to see what I could cheaply purchase. I found a gridded heat mat which gave me some ideas, along with a hessian bag and some steel wool. I then popped into homebase on my way back to the good old 'Halls of Residence' where I selected various things, one of which were some veneer pins. I wanted to experiment by weaving various objects through wired and plastic grids as well as combining these with threads and beads. 

I decided my first mission was to bravely head down to the metal works in the college to see if I could find any scraps of metal. After being there for just 2 minutes, I was already wearing the attractive bulging goggles, determinedly drilling holes into some circular piece's of metal which the lovely metal man let me cut out. This machine involved a lot of muscle...good job I've been doing my weights at the gym! However, I only managed to make 4 as I maaay have broken the machine...oops!! Hope he's fixed it now! I did a pretty good effort in only breaking the drill bit once though when drilling the holes. Leaving the man with two broken pieces of equipment, I was back on my way up to textiles to get back into my sampling. The art building is massive and me being me, I got totally lost so the experimenting was on hold for a good 15 minutes while I discovered my route back to the comfort of textiles. Phew! 

I brought some tin baking trays to see if I could emboss forms successfully, however, I wasn't really happy with the finished samples as I felt it didn't look refined enough. I like this idea of repeating a shape though, so I will consider this for a final sample. 

Experimentation - playing around by weaving nails into various materials

I have now started adding in some colour, for example with these pink nails ( although not from my original colour palette). I wanted to see how gouache paint would react with metal. It worked quite well, so I will continue with this method. 

My group and I discovered these odd looking rusted metal piece's scattered and embedded all over the muddy ground at Samual Burn's Yard last week. Emma and I scooped all of these up in haste whilst Susana watched on the side line looking disgusted at our unusual enthusiasm. There was no way she was putting her hands anywhere near anything on this scarp yard. No way! Her punishment for this was to carry the heavy bag of goods priced at an expensive £2 back to college. Ahah! These unknown objects are what we have decided to use as the link between each of our final 6 samples. This will hopefully enable an obvious connection, along with the choice of colour between all of our designs for our chosen domestic interior, the bedroom. As I have chosen a headboard for my interior product, I thought that by connecting two of these shapes together, as shown above, it could make an interesting headboard shape. 

I'm happy with the amount of sampling I've managed to do this week. Its now time to take a step back and decide where I want to go from here. This however will have to be put on hold as a certain London train is calling for me to go and visit a dear friend...it's birthday party time! Very excited!! 

Sorry, this was actually meant to be my first post. Completely forgot about it. I was getting too into my first post for my Alternative Interior Surfaces porject. Enjoy! 

Let the journey begin!

Having just started my second term at Edinburgh College of Art I felt it was finally time to start up my own blog. I finished a foundation course at The University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury, near my home town last year (2012), and I bit the bullet in accepting a place to Edinburgh. September quickly came and off I was, waving goodbye to my parents about to undergo the long 8 hour train journey up to Edinburgh Waverley. Only being able to carry two enormous wheely bags and a rucksack, deciding what to bring was extremely difficult with such limited space, and for a girl with many things, this was near impossible! Not only was it daunting that I had never spent more than 24 hours in this city, the prospect of not knowing anyone either was even scarier, however, also very exciting at the same time. I can still remember the feelings that ran through me whilst on that long moving east coat train. So far I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience, so let the adventure continue!

Alternative Interior Surfaces Project: Week 1

The next project me and my enormous year of 9 people have been set is an Alternative Interior Surfaces project for 4 weeks. It's a collaborative project, so we've all been put into groups of 3/4 where we have to create an alternative textile or surface collection for a contemporary domestic interior. Collaborative projects are great because you learn how to work with all sorts of people whilst having to bare in mind each others ideas, so being open minded is a must have, along with compromise. You must be able to compromise. 

Week 1: Introduction, Concept Ideas, Research & Contextual Awareness 

We have been given 4 words to choose from as a starting point: Industrial, Minimal, Dramatic and Playful. Fortunately, my group (over a familiar hot beverage) quickly came up with our concept of an Industrial and Minimal fusion. By the end of the week we have to present a mood board featuring our research and final idea for our concept. Also by this stage, we individually have to have chosen an interior product or application to design for and show supporting research appropriate to this.

An industrial bedroom will be our interior and I have chosen a headboard as my product. 

My group and I decided to take a day out from the studio and go exploring. We discovered a scrap yard called Samuel Burns & Co (EH32 9SA), which took about an hour on the bus to get to, however we ended up taking another long winded hour detour as we, typically, got lost. I have to admit, my sense of direction can be shockingly poor and at the moment more frequently than ever before. I blame being in a new and unknown city! So when eventually finding this place we came across a little note on the door saying, "we're closed this Wednesday, back as normal tomorrow"...whaaaatt!! The one off day and it happens to be this one. Not cool! I was not going to be defeated though. The others weren't keen to go back the next morning but I kept pushing it, and thank god I did. We came out of the scrap yard with the most amazing photos. We had gone at the perfect time of day when the frost was still set on the very random and weathered objects. Not sure I could ever bring myself to buy any of the things lying around there. Sorry Mr Burns. 

Emma and myself on top of the dumpster

A little insight into some of the beautiful surfaces we discovered at the yard

We selected 5 out of the 71 photos we'd collected from the scarp yard as our inspiration for deciding our final colour pallet. Susanna, the third and final member of the group is amazing at photoshop. I have no idea how she did it, but someone she came up with these colour swatches, picking out each colour within the image. I'm still a mere novice at the whole photoshop thing but one day I'm hoping to be able to master something like this. 

Mood board showing our final colour pallet and theme

Bring on week 2!