24th October - London trip

me outside a pop up gallery near Portobello Road
(shown left) 

We went as a group to London yesterday to meet Paul Smith no less!!   In the morning myself, Lotty and Lauren all went to Portobello Road for a couple of hours, and popped into this small pop up gallery.   See the cracking piece of work below of JFK.   Now that looks like a drawing from this photograph doesn't it?   Well, it's actually made up of words.   It's amazing because it was only when I reviewed this photograph did I see how much like him it was.   When I actually stood in the gallery and looked I thought mmm. that looks like JFK and then read the information.   Think you had to see it to know what I mean............



This was the first of many bikes I was to see in London ... the rest were in Paul Smith's offices !!

interesting way to display jewellery ..... down Portobello Road



Paul Smith's office offices are on Keane Street, Covent Garden.  Not obviously Paul Smith, no signs advertising it.   Anyway, he suddenly appeared in reception and said hello to us all.   No airs and grace, no big fan fare saying "I'm here".   He took us up to the 4th Floor and into a room where he has a collection of items which are inspiration for his designs.   He let us mooch around, and take photographs, happy to leave us.   It was amazing.   Paul explained that he has been sent the collection of items over the years.   There is all sorts of things from books, to full size bicycles, old cameras, pictures, boxes.   He said that for at least 20 years an anonymous person sends him something at least once a year.   All he knows is that they are in America and the gifts aren't wrapped, merely addressed to him and they find their way to him.  All these photographs are contained in the room of random objects.   This room is where Paul meets with his team to discuss ideas and get inspiration. 

Paul talked to us for about half an hour then took us on a tour of the building, all four floors, including the marketing area, the design area and the show room where buyers come to view what's on offer.  From this viewing, a buyer would then place an order and all the orders would be collated and then from this information would determine how much of a particular fabric is to be ordered. 

He does 28 collections a year and has 25 assistants.   He prompted us to think about "why should anyone buy my design?".  He also said you need your own style and think about what is my thing.  He showed us some of his designs and how they had been inspired from items in his inspiration room.  Items such as lino prints from a book inspired a scarf, vertical colours of group of books, something small v something big, on a trip to the far east in a taxi he photographed the lights as the taxi sped along and this image inspired a scarf design, a fairisle sweater inspired furniture upholstery.

When he first started, he designed white shirts with detail including mother of pearl buttons, contrasting cuff colour, top button hole stitched in different colour.  It is this staple garment and things like his jeans collection that are the bread and butter of the company.   He says that the attention seeking garments are for grabbing attention like at catwalk shows, things that are not really practical to wear.  The lining of Paul's garments have amazing designs so on the outside of a suit you have professional, smart and open up the jacket and you can have crazy.   It's fun and that's what Paul Smith's designs are all about.

We presented Paul with the pair of shoes that we made during one of our lessons and these shoes appeared on The Culture Show shortly after!   (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=paul%20smith)

one half of the room



one of I think 6 bikes ! 



photographs of Paul and Jamie Oliver and someone I don't recognise

Sampling in my sketchbook

I'm a bit of our sync with the blog and forgot to put in this sampling that I did a couple of weeks ago.

Using the colours from the photographs I created random samples.   However following my visit to Paul Smith yesterday, he inspired me to think different about looking at things.  My idea as you can see here was to try to recreate the photograph in fabric however Paul shared with us and showed us some of his patterns and what inspired them.   They basically took something from the colour or the shape so rather than me trying to recreate the building, I will try to create something inspired by the boldness of the red against the white and the blue. 

image of sunset from which I put together
some satin fabrics shown left

From this photograph I did some sketches in my
 book an knitted up a small piece
of garter stitch using a blue/white striped cotton



I pinned my photographs of Borth onto my wall at College for inspiration and then started to pin up fabrics in colours that are in the photographs

19th October - more textiles sampling - heat transfer

On the same day I have the first failure with the wood and Manutex, I did some heat transfer samples as well.   

I had 5 images which I had photocopied onto heat transfer paper.  I put several images onto one piece as they were samples I didn't want to use large a4 images. 

Image 1 I decided to heat transfer onto hessian fabric as the image is of dried, cracked soil - nature - so I wanted to try the hessian fabric.   Given the few colours in the original photograph, it's not that surprising that the heat transfer onto hessian was feint.   I initially it was not usable, but I am going to stitch into it and see what effect it has.



Image 1



Image 2

Image 2 - this photograph is of a house in Borth and I decided to heat transfer onto a brown check fabric as I felt the check pattern against the image of the house might blend well.   Unfortunately, the image again came out quite feint, almost as if the heat transfer press wasn't hot enough but I know it was. 




Image 3 of a view through the caravan window again didn't come out very well.   The fabric used this time was bobbly silk.   After I'd done, I reviewed the results with Sue and she advised yes, bobbly silk doesn't work very well, but I didn't think to ask before hand and to be fair, it's good for me to test them.

Image 4

Image 5 - the best result of all !.  Heat transferred onto calico - good clean lightweight calico !   The image of a pig has good colour, different shades of pink and the straw in the background can be seen on the transferred image.  I had an idea in my head of putting this fabric onto a small block of wood.  Infact my idea was to have the front and rear of a pig on blocks of wood.   Now I have had these samples on my fireplace for a week and I like the size of the wood and the fact that it stands up solidly so I'm wondering would I like it as much as the images I've done straight onto wood as opposed to fabric glued onto the wood.   Now I didn't cut the fabric to fit the block but this would've been a better idea.   Instead I've put two pieces of fabric together, glued, just to see the effect.   I like the fabric idea because I could add more than one image and I could even add my details on there somewhere i.e. underneath.   I also like the fact that the size of wood and thickness means they can be stacked so I could do grown up ones and children's ones.   Again I need to speak to Emma and fellow students about these and get some feedback.   And also friends as they give me honest opinions when I ask would you buy one of these?. 




Image 5

I did try a heat transfer in a red silk fabric - red wine red but the pink of the pig (not surprisingly) didn't show very well at all).    I do like this fabric though and I have a variety of colours which I got from a curtain sample book. 





Image 6 - again of a pig - this was a great happy find because the fabric I used - like a thick silky fabric with circular stitching on it - came out great when I heat transferred the image on - it adds a texture to the finished result.  It's not just a plain flat picture.   What it gave me the idea for is to get

stitch on the machine random patterns onto some silk and I will try calico, and then try heat transferring again.   Shown below is the red silk with pig transferred onto it the pig's outline is barely visible 

 

Reflection ....... what went well - I learnt what fabrics aren't good to heat transfer on.   Calico is ideal.  I discovered that a raised pattern on a fabric gives an interesting effect.   The small blocks of wood with fabric images on.   The stacking of them is a good idea and if I get the images right they could be used for the arts market.    What didn't go so well..... I rushed it (again).   I just wanted results hence I forgot to mirror image my photographs when photocopying - now it wasn't necessary because there was no text, but I wanted my photographs the way they had been shot, not reversed.   When using the heat transfer press, I need to make sure the temperature goes up to 200+ and not the recommended 182??  I have found in the past that my heat transferring on this new machine haven't gone well and each time I did blame it on my fabric but I feel that it's a bit of both, some fabrics aren't as good as others and it does work better at 200+.  


Since doing these samples, I have received a book from Staffs uni, Dawn Dupree, Heat Transfer Techniques, who is a member of the 62 Group.  Dawn's book shows how to heat transfer onto felt amongst other things.   She also gives examples of heat transfer using flock, foils, photos and dyes.  The books gives techniques using not just a heat press, but an iron.  

I can see from my samples above and the book by Dawn, that I'm thinking very small.   For example, one piece of work by Shelly Goldsmith is a photo transferred onto a christening dress shown below..  

Shelly Goldsmith, 2003 (http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/i/interview-shelly-goldsmith-textiles-artist/)

 

Similarly, a scanned drawing by Heather Belcher was put onto heat transfer paper an then printed onto handmade felt as shown below (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/45387908717402584/). 

 

 



 

So what can I do differently?  

 

Think about what I want to achieve with the transfer

How does the fabric i'm using relate to that original image - what will it say about the end product - i.e. the dry mud flats image 1 above - does the hessian give the impression of dry, cracked soil?  What could I have used instead?   Something crumpled?  

 

 

17th and 18th October - textiles sampling photos onto wood

One of my ideas for the art market is to put photographs onto wood and today I discussed this with Emma Strange, my tutor.   I realised that although I'd looked it up on you tube, I didn't know what the two products involved did exactly.   I'd watched the video below and it used something called Gel Medium and Mod Podge so I searched the internet and found the Mod Podge was available at Hobbycraft so on Friday I took a trip to said shop and purchased some.   They had lots of gel mediums but when I read the bottle, I wasn't convinced it was what I needed because it is infact used for mixing with acrylic.   Emma suggested that Manutex might do the same thing so I mixed some of this up - it comes as granules and is mixed with warm water to get a paste consistency.   I then painted this onto the scraps of wood that I'd got from 3d.   The next day I returned and all 3 pieces of wood were dry.   Using a sponge and water, I soaked each piece of wood, one by one, and proceeded to try to remove the excess paper, the idea being that the image would have transferred to the wood.  However this was not what had happened, and the paper completely came off each piece of wood.   So it was clear that Manutex was not what was needed.  

This is the image I used to put onto the wood - it was printed on photocopying paper on a laserjet printer

I cut the image into 3 for each of the 3 pieces of wood I was going to sample

this was a thick piece of pine (4 inches thick x 3 wide)

I don't know the name for this wood but it was very flimsy and flexible almost like the top off an old vintage table

This was a huge round piece of chipboard, the 3rd of the pieces of wood

I painted Manutex onto each piece of wood, enough to cover where the image would be



This is the end result on the pine after being left to dry overnight and then being scrubbed off gently using water and a sponge

the end result on the flimsy wood



the end result on the chipboard

 

Could I have done anything differently?   Tried to understand exactly that it is that the gel medium that is being used on You Tube does.  

I went onto ebay and decided to purchase the Liquitex product I'd seen used on You Tube as I'd tried several shops and couldn't get it.   When I went onto ebay though the shop that was the cheapest couldn't deliver for a week so I thought as I'm going to London I'll buy it down there as that's where this shop is.   However, after emailing the shop they advised they didn't have it in their actual shop but might in another branch.   I went onto the Liquitex website to see who their UK stockists were in London and found that the Graphics Centre in London did stock their products so I decided to visit there when going to London on 24th October (yesterday).

                       

Dear lardyeric-2009, Hello, I am very sorry we do not have this one in our shop which is located 1 Farleigh Road, London N16 7SX, 0207 254 4888. We do have the Golden Acrylic Matt Medium gel here.  The Fullham shop may have it 0207 384 3055. Thank you, - jacksonsartsupplies

Reply in your email program or through My Messages

---

From: lardyeric-2009
To: jacksonsartsupplies
Subject: Other: lardyeric-2009 sent a message about Liquitex MATT Medium GEL 237ML #310772619569
Sent Date: 20-Oct-13 16:25:59 BST

Dear jacksonsartsupplies, Hi there, I want to buy your liquitex matt medium gel and I'm in London on Thursday.  I just wondered do you have an actual shop I can purchase it from as i'm strugging to get it in Staffordshire.    If you have a shop, can you give me details i.e. location?   thank you - lardyeric-2009

                   

Liquitex MATT Medium GEL 237ML Item Id: 310772619569 End time: 17-Nov-13 15:12:40 GMT Seller: jacksonsartsupplies (14139) 99.8% Positive Feedback Member since 11-Jul-07 in United Kingdom Location: London, United Kingdom

Anyway on arriving in London we went down Portobello Road and I spotted an art shop - looked a bit run down and I judged before I went in that they wouldn't have what I wanted.  However, to my amazement they had loads of liquitex products.  They didn't have the exact one I wanted, however when I told the man what I wanted it for, he showed me an alternative.   He even showed me a sample he'd done.   I bought it and was convinced i'd been given his sales pitch !   Lessons learnt here: don't judge and trust ! 

I had more samples of wood from 3d in 3 sizes: one chipboard and two hardboard.   I set about painting the pieces with the Windsor & Newton Matt Gel.   I then placed 3 photographs face down onto the wood containing the gel - two printed on laserjet printer on photocopying paper, and one actual photograph.  I was a bit sloppy as I didn't get the air bubbles out - I didn't really believe it was going to work.   I left them to dry overnight.  

The next day, they were bone dry, so using a sponge and water, I wet one of the pieces of hardboard and gently started to scrub.   To my amazement the paper started coming off leaving an image on the board !!   It took in total at least 1 hour to do all 3 pieces of wood.  

finished product after removing all paper - the vertical lines are where I scrubbed too hard

the finished piece on chipboard - my stones photograph

this was the actual photograph on photo quality paper.  It didn't work at all.  

I had to repeat the scrubbing process several times, each times letting the wood dry out because when I thought it was all off, it would dry off and then became clear that there was still paper on there.   In total during the day after several scrubbing sessions, it took 1 1/2 hours.   When the wood was dry again I applied Mod Podge which is used to seal the image on the wood.   When applied this didn't go clear !   However about an hour later, when it was drying pretty well, it was clear.  I noted though that the brush marks were also visible (to my eye).   I left one image on the hardboard un sealed so the sample can be seen of the two in my sketch book. 

Reflection..... what could I have done differently?  Better?  

taken more time when applying my pictures to the wood to ensure no air bubbles.  I see a sample as just something to do quickly whereas really that's not the right attitude.  Although a sample is a test to see if something works, that doesn't mean it has to be of poor quality.    So get all air bubbles out, set up my work area properly and not just start doing it when I've just had a long day in London.  I was I have to say excited to see if it would work.   My next step is to get some feedback on the final products.   I like the finished effect and I would do some for myself or for gifts.   But I'm not sure if I could sell them at the arts market.   I feel I need to get some different wood, lighter wood and try some different images.   

The images I have used are quite dark - sunset images - so the detail that can be seen on the photograph itself i.e. the rocks with the sun on them - can't be seen on the final piece on the wood.   So I will go to the wood yard, get some sample pieces of pine I think, cut in a chunky size and then try a pig image as the one I tried was the actual photograph which didn't work.  The pig images are much brighter so may work.  

Cost of this sampling is just under £10 for the matt gel and the Mod Podge was under a fiver.