Hand painted Croquis's.

These are my hand painted croguis's using my colour palette.
I really enjoyed doing these hand-painted designs. I just found it so peaceful sat quietly mixing my paints and working out the designs. I think I'd like to do more of this, you don't feel the pressure as you do when using Photoshop.

Photoshop Designs

 This Photoshop design is made up from my flower data.

 In this design I have used  1 of my motifs witches from the flower data.

 Another image were  I used my four motifs.

 These are selection of my Photoshop designs where I have used  up to four motifs.
I really enjoyed doing photo shop, even though I had such a struggle to learn how to use it. Some days I was in absolute despair and couldn't sleep. Now I'm far more confident about using Photoshop and realise how much potential the software has.

Motifs for Photoshop.

This image is from my maths data.

 This image is from my flower data.

 This image is from my airport data.

 In this last image is also from my flower data.

 With these four images I will use these in Photoshop to create my own designs.

Tie- Dyeing

 My tie dye fabric.

 I dyed the fabric with a coffee/sandy coloured dye and then tied it in two places with knot. Then I mixed some dyes to die the fabric brown as you can see the fabric turned out blue! Actually I think the photograph looks better than the actual fabric but the problem is it doesn't match my colour palette! If the dye had turned out brown it would have fitted in my colour palette very nicely. But that's life.
I have to say, I'm not a fan of dip dyeing or tie dyeing. Reminds me of the times when tie-dyeing was in fashion and I wasn't very keen on it then. Maybe I could use it if I embroidered into it or printed over it. But I don't think it's be a technique I will use very often.

Textile design

While I was surfing the Internet I came across this lovely piece of textile design made in 1763 in Lyon, France artist/maker is unknown. The materials and techniques are gouache an ink on printed paper. I thought it was such a beautiful piece of work that I must share it with you, my viewers. Unfortunately, at the moment it's in storage in the V&A Museum.

Sanderson's textiles.

 These designs I have found on the Sanderson's website to show the beautiful fabrics Sanderson's have made over the years. As you can see some of them are very old-fashioned and some are very bright and modern. This of course is a very small selection of the fabrics there are available.

Sanderson's fabric designer unknown 1870.

 Another habit by Sanderson's designer unknown.

 Another fabric by Sanderson's again designer unknown.

 Sanderson's have been screen printing over hundred and 50 years and produces wallpaper and textiles. Commissioning artists like Piper and Spender and also bought a number of its patterns from Italy and the US. Sanderson is also brought out some stimulating pop patterns in keeping with the zeitgeist. Sanderson's are still to this day producing screenprinted fabrics which are still very popular for furnishings in the house. Often  printing on linen, silk or cotton. I personally love Sanderson's textiles and have used them for curtains, loose covers, cushion covers. And have also used Sanderson's fabrics to make my own tablecloths and napkins to much or mismatch in some cases.

Terence Conran

 Terence Conran fabrics from the 1960s.



Terence Conran established two manufacturing companies during the 1950s, Conran furniture and Conran fabrics. He  he sources textiles and furnishings from number of companies. Many of these goods were not available elsewhere in Britain. Prices below to enable customers to replace household items every few years as fashions change the products were displayed in mass and within easy reach by the end of the decade, habitat had nine UK branches. Terence Conran changed the way we shopped and furnished our houses back in the 1960s. Today Terence Conran is still designing furniture for the home.

Zika Ascher.

Zika Asche came to England from Prague in 1939 and established a small textile business in London with his wife Lida. During the 1940s the Aschers commissioned leading artists such as Matisse and  Henry Moore to design a selection of headscarves to brighten up the dull post-war British wardrobe. From 1946 Ascher  supplied  fabrics to the international fashion industry. They opened their print works and became known for lively  screen printed designs and Ascher Textiles now feature regularly in exhibitions and auction.

 These are their designs used for fashion designers as seen above.

 These are designs by Ascher's wife. In 1961 Lida  begins designing ponchos and wraps from leftover mohair and silk. This evolves into a poverty line of clothing and assess raise in 1962. 

William Morris.

Have recently been looking at certain textile designers. And of course the king of all screen printers is William Morris with all his beautiful designs and prints. I just love William Morris work and would like to visit his place Kelmscott Manor near Oxford, which one day I will do.William Morris was born 1834 – died 1896 and was a designer and maker.

 This design is called Strawberry Thief  1883. This was William Morris most expensive printed furnishing
fabric and became a firm favourite with his clients. The pattern was printed by the Indigo discharge method an ancient
technique used for many centuries mostly in the East. William Morris admired the colour and crispness  of detail that this technique produced. This design was block printed on cotton and took a long time to produce. Therefore it was very expensive to buy.

Screen Print Samples.

This is an image of the VW beetle car screen printed
on dip dyed linen scrim and then stitched into.

 This screenprint was on white white linen scrim which didn't look right with my colour palette
so I dyed the background with coffee and then again stitched into it.

 Another screen print on line scrim again dyed with coffee and stitched into.

 This image has been screen printed onto light silk habotai.



I really enjoyed print it was quite challenging trying to get your colour Palette right and varying the patterns across the fabric. The fabric had chosen was white linen scrim  which was far too light for the background of my of my colour palette. So I decided the best way round this is to to dye the background colour coffee, and the best into use was coffee itself. I was pleased with the results as I felt the screen printing was not as stark as the white background. After I finished the samples I decided to stitching to them to add some texture and I felt this worked and I could see that some of the images could be made up to cushions and curtains. I haven't yet decided whether I really like them or not. I think I will have to wait to get all my work together and see how it works for the presentation.

Storey's Art Gallery

 These are the beautiful stained glass windows along the corridor towards the main gallery.
Just past the windows you can see the arches towards the main gallery.

 This is a lovely photograph of the statue of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in the recess of the main gallery .

I was invited to the opening of the North Face Exhibition held at Lancaster's Storey's Art gallery.
The North Face Exhibition consists of local artists from the Lune Valley Trail and has been shown around Britain. In the main gallery room exhibits the artists paintings/drawings and the room off the main gallery exhibits the artists self portraits. The exhibition was very busy the first night we had the mayor and the local MP to open the exhibition.

The Storey's  art gallery was originally the Lancaster art school before it was transferred to Preston.
The art school was known as the Storey's Institute and had been art school from the 1900s. When the  school closed it was empty for a few years and then a few local artists got together and opened it as a gallery. The gallery held local exhibitions and the more well-known artists of Britain, example: Basil Beattie, Andy Goldsworthy and Michael Brennan-wood just to mention a few.

 Inside the picture gallery.

 Photograph of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert statue in the picture gallery.

 Busy night at the opening of the gallery.

 This is the room that leads off the main gallery which is exhibiting the self-portrait pictures of the artists themselves.

 Another photograph taken of the opening.

  as you can see is a very fine building.

 Another picture of the main gallery.

 The main gallery.

 This is a photograph of David Davies  who originally set up the North Face exhibition.

I really enjoyed the opening and to see so many people interested in local artists and their art !

Karl Blossfeldt

Karl Blossfeldt Was the German photographer born 1865 – 1932.
German photographer who uses fantastic photographs of plants to educate students about the design  elements in nature. He devoted himself to the study of nature, photographing nothing but flowers, buds and seeds for 35 years.  His photographs are recognised as vital contributions of photography to this day.

 These are just a few of his black-and-white photographs taken of flowers and plants and seeds. Most certainly a very interesting photographer who I would like to spend more time studying.

Unfinished samples of screen print.

 I have masked part of my screen off to produce the image above.

 This is the whole of my screen been printed out at once. 

Here are pictures  of my unfinished samples during screen printing.

 This is a partial screen print which I have done on cotton mix silk.

 This is the finished  screen print but unfortunately they aren't my colour palette.



 The above samples are not my colour palette  so I need to rethink my colour palette to get it right. The top samples, the background is too white and the bottom samples are the wrong pinks for my colour palette. So now I'm going back to blue sky thinking until I get my colours right.

Colour palette

This is the colour palette I am going to be using for my printing.

Data Collection

 This is noise data from Manchester airport.

 VW beetle 1962 instruction manual.

This is my drawing from the car manual of the VW beetle.

 These are numbers taken from actual flights from Manchester airport.

This is where I got some of my data from for my printing brief as well as my maths data.
 Also I'm showing you my flower data. I photographed the flowers over a number of weeks as they
 blossomed from a bud.

 This is the first photographs I took with the flower in bud.  As you can see the flower is slowly opening to reveal inside of the flower.

 The flower opens a little bit more.

 The flower now is fully open to reveal its glory.