Blank Inside Design

Last week the Textiles crew were in London and it was fabulous. I'll be dedicating a whole post to what sort of things I got up to, so I won't talk too much about it now. But, whilst I was there, I found a little card in Anthropologie and couldn't resist buying it. I then looked up the designer when I got home and I just really enjoyed her style. They're called 'Blank Inside Design' and sell gift items. All the designs are hand painted by Liz Temperley and are witty, minimalistic and beautiful. You can have a browse through her products at http://www.blankinsidedesign.co.uk/products, but I'll share a couple of my favorites with you here.

(01) - £3.00

(02) - £3.00

(03) - £3.00

References:
(01) - http://www.blankinsidedesign.co.uk/product/i-want-to-make-tea-for-you-greetings-card
(02) - http://www.blankinsidedesign.co.uk/product/smell-ya-later-greetings-card
(03) - http://www.blankinsidedesign.co.uk/product/if-you-like-tea-valentines-card

Design Module

So, I'm currently getting stuck in to my final module for first year, which is the design unit. We were given a few different words on which to base our work on, so I chose 'Transformation'. From that, I'm looking especially at the transformation from old to new - so you should get a snippet every now and again of what I'm doing with it. We also have to link anything that we do back to florals, so I've spent the last couple of days getting stuck back into drawing, which I'm enjoying! We're on a trip back to my part of town next week, spending 5 days in London getting some quality research done... and also maybe having just a little fun whilst we're there.

For anyone that may actually read my blog, I'd love for you to check out my Pinterest and Instagram (to the right if you're on a computer) to see what I'm being inspired by, and also a couple of pictures of what I'm doing at uni that I don't post on here! I'd also love it for you to comment on any posts if anything strikes a thought or opinion - I'd love to hear what you have to say, and it's always nice to know that someone took the time to read whatever interesting or dull thing that I have to talk about.

Timed drawing floral study

My currently overcrowded studio space

Cayena Blanca

I recently discovered an artist/graphic-textile designer via Pinterest called Cayena Blanca; and now I just can't get enough of her and her designs. She works primarily with watercolours and most of her designs are influenced by Latin America with its organic textures and livid colours. She doesn't just stick to one area of design such as gift, but explores it all and has done loads of different sorts of projects - from wallpapers to fashion to ceramics... all that you can see on her website. (http://www.cayenablanca.com/) I think her work is absolutely gorgeous and I'll admit to have downloading a couple of her desktop backgrounds myself! Each of her designs are so signature, yet each piece of work is complete different to the next. I'd love to see what her studio and sketchbooks look like - I can only imagine!

(01)
'Urban Tales'

(02)
Wallpaper Design

References:
(01) - http://www.cayenablanca.com/project/urban-tales/
(02) - http://www.cayenablanca.com/project/cayena-blanca-wallpaper/ 

Bruce Monro

So, it's been long overdue that I posted here and there's not really an excuse...
But, in my defense, I have had a crazy time with a new module, Christmas, hand in and all! I'll try to make sure that I don't ever leave a massive gap between blogging again. But for now, get ready for a blog overload over the next couple of weeks. I'll also post what I've been up to with my last studio module and what I'll be doing for my next one. I've also got a nice backlog of posts for what we're actually doing in profession studies!

But anyway, I wanted to talk about something I did over Christmas that was really inspiring.
I went to a National Trust place called Waddesdon Manor. (check out their website at http://www.waddesdon.org.uk/) I didn't actually get to look around the house which was gutting, but I went especially as there was a Bruce Monro exhibition around the grounds. Even if there was no exhibition, I would really recommend going. It was beautiful. Going back to fully explore the manor is definitely on my to-do list.

I'd not ever heard of Bruce Monro before, but I took the time to watch a little video of his previous works. He is a light installation artist, and he creates things that I would never have even thought possible. I'm keen to use his work as an inspiration for a surface pattern design some time. He had 6 different installations at Waddesdon- Brass Monkeys, Water Towers, Tepees, Parliament of Owls, Mynah Words and River of Light. You can check out each individual one and it's background over at http://www.brucemunro.co.uk. Each installation's reason/meaning is actually really interesting - have a look!

Exhibition Leaflet, River of Light, Heather and I at the Manor and Water Towers

Textile Techniques

Finished Studio Space - Working on Embroidery - Print Final 1 - Embroidery Final 2

Studio module 2/3 done! It's been a tough one - I've not done much embroidery before, so that was a big learning curve. As far as print goes, I've done screen printing, but never using dyes or heat transfer. It was all really fun but also super stressful. I definitely felt out of my depth but I'm looking forward to improving all these skills as I do new modules and more work!