Before
I worked in
interior design, I spent three blissful years at university as a textile
designer. I came across some of my old work recently, and thought perhaps it
was time for a little trip down memory lane.
This
project was born out of a love of colour, pattern, and collecting all things
pretty.
It
began with a small collection of teacups. A small collection that grew and
grew. Being a student, I wasn't able to pop to Wedgewood and pick up their
finest bone china. This meant scouring charity shops and car boot sales, which
could be pretty hit and miss, BUT when I did come across a little gem, it was
all the more special.
As
the collection grew, I got out my pencil and watercolours and made
studies of all the amazing colours and patterns.
From
these studies, I created cartoons (a technical term for mock ups in textile
design), laying out ideas of how to translate these patterns and colours into
weave structures.
Once
I had finished creating my cartoons, I made lots of colour photocopies, chopped
them up and played around with different combinations. I wanted to recreate the
look of my mix matched collection of tea cups, an eclectic mix
of the different styles coming together.
Once I decided on my final designs, I set about hand dying my silk. I didn't regret choosing such a varied palette of colours at all...
In the
end, I wove 3 pieces, each 3 metres long, each with 1500 threads making up the
warp (the threads that run on the loom and made up the colourful stripes). Each
piece took about 2 weeks to put onto the loom and weave. It was a tight
deadline and seemed a near impossible task at the time, but as things always
do, it worked out in the end.
I can honestly say that blood, sweat and a fair few tears went into this, but I have never been prouder of a piece of my own work.
