Anna Comerford

I am highly influenced by everything around me and view the world with a creative eye. From nature to history, architecture to landscapes I find beauty in detail which I want to explore. I love to draw and express my ideas and visions through a wide range of media. My studies are very intricate and observed which allow me to capture the finest details through mark making. The latest fashion trends and high end designers’ pieces feed my inspirations and my mind naturally goes wild in exploring the endless possibilities for interesting concepts and ideas. I love to recreate the original qualities of my drawings onto fabric by using techniques such as digital print, screen print, appliqué and embroidery. To me, embroidery is just like another form of drawing; it allows me to add exciting colours, textures and dimension to a design in the observant, detailed style in which I love to work.

My FMP is based on the theme ‘Bejewelled Baroque’. It was inspired by the idea of making the Baroque style modern and taking inspiration from the more traditional and mixing it with a modern twist through colour, texture and overall composition.
The concept behind my theme was ‘Time’ and I wanted my work to convey a modern Baroque style with an edge. I began researching into cogs and mechanisms in clocks and found the detail and structure really interesting and beautiful. I wanted to combine the decorative, filigree detailing from old Baroque furniture and objects with the mechanised structure of a clock to create a quirky contrast in movement and texture and communicate the story of moving the Baroque style forward through time. I like the contrast in mixing something old with something new; it makes an idea much more exciting to work with when gathering research and completing drawings, which all feeds into the final outcomes.

Blog Address: www.annacomerford.blogspot.com

Achievements and Work Experience: Sold a fashion fabric design at Indigo/Premiere Vision 2012 & Completed a two week work placement at Punky Pins which lead to paid employment over 4 months during the busy Christmas period.

Sarah Griffin

I am currently studying BA (Hons) Textiles and surface design and I am due to graduate in June 2013. The area in which I specialise is fashion. My main inspirations come from botanicals, floral, foliage and all of the natural surroundings. I enjoy using a diverse but muted colour pallet combined with dark and rich tones which complement each other. My final outcomes are usually digitally printed onto fabric and worked into with a number of various techniques including embroidery. I love to style my work through the use of photography I often arrange objects in an imaginative way and photograph them; I use the photos within the drawing process or for my mood boards. I have exhibited my work at Indigo trade show in Paris and also Printsource in New York. I am a hardworking, committed, self-motivated and organised individual with the ability to work independently and confidently. 

·       What is the world we live in? I am always asking myself questions about life, how did we get here? Is there such a thing as god? What happens to us after we have lived? Do we shine bright amongst the other stars in the galaxy? What are stars? Wishes, dreams, particles, dust or even new life? Does a star fall from the sky and plant a seed which grows into a gorgeous crystal? Why do nearly all of us think about money, diamonds, crystals and treasures when the thing that is the most precious to all of us is growth and life itself?

·       My project will focus on the contrast between what we believe to be precious and what is precious, growth and greed. It will focus on the forgotten sentiment of life being overrun by materialistic possession. I aim to combine two themes together for this project one is based on jewels and crystals the other is based on space and botanic.

·       The colour pallet is fairly diverse and includes colours such as sienna, terracotta, purple, blue, pink, yellow, grey, green and soft metallic.

Visit Sarah's blog to see more of her work at

http://sarahlouisegriffin.blogspot.co.uk/

 

or take at look at her facebook and twitter

http://www.facebook.com/Sarahlouisegriffin1991

https://twitter.com/sarlougriffin

Claudette Cooling

 

One of the most important things about design is a good aesthetic, as a fashion fabrics designer specialising in embroidery, I aim to encompass texture, mood and style within my work. A style distinctive yet incredibly detailed. I search for the balance between textural detailing and graphic innovation. My definitive style and approach to design makes my work sensitive yet tactile, experimental yet dynamic. I see design as an opportunity to express the feelings and emotions of a trend, thought, feeling or idea. My versatile design skills enable me to create both striking graphic geometrics as well as subtle earth ground vintage. I have a passion for the tactile process of embroidery and look to this to further innovative textile design. My background in textile design both two and three dimensional, allows me to visualise and look beyond the print or pattern and imagine. Collage plays a huge feature within my work, from conception to delivery I’m inspired by mixing the opposite. Hand drawn imagery and photo captures are both features of my work, mixing the hand rendered and digital aspects of design to create the very best in innovative fashion fabrics.

The textural qualities of natural gemstones such as amethyst, onyx and jade mashed with the clean cut lines and decorative aspects of architecture are the starting point for my final major project. The fusion of sleek, clean cut buildings meets the organic in depth nature of natural crystals and stones. The glimmering, glistening and encrusted nature of gemstones and crystals combined with close up architectural studies which could almost look quite geometric, I feel is an interesting place to start from and allows a lot of room for experimentation. The clean cut perfection of modern architecture and the intricate detailing of traditional architecture is what initially drew me in to wanting to explore these qualities further, I’ve always been fascinated by architecture and have always wanted to explore it in detail and I felt this was the time to research and design with no constraints. The extra dimension of natural stones and crystals is also something I’ve always been interested in, I think because of the unbelievable amount of texture and depth to each crystal and the way that no two could ever be the same is what I find fascinating about them. The qualities of both sides of my theme overlap extensively; the clean cut yet textural qualities lie in natural crystals, architecture and my style of work. I work in quite a clean, detailed, organised manner and this I think is why I was drawn to exploring both sides of my theme, trying to define my style as a designer in a very definitive way. Deep, rich, iridescent tones will be used to try and achieve the layering of colour found in gemstones and natural stone, possibly being complimented by shiny, glittering encrusted elements enabling me to create some innovative, individual and exciting fashion fabric designs.

Visit Claudette's blog to see more of her work at http://claudettecooling.blogspot.co.uk