Festivities!

Last week I spent a few hours working on a design for Christmas cards. I did a few sketches with an idea of what I wanted in mind. Below are my initial sketches.

 I scanned them in and composed a card. I used Vistaprint to print my cards. However I will not be using them again, their delivery is ridiculous - £8.49 for 10 cards - that was standard! 

Below is my card design and the finished outcome. I picked a linen finish on the card so there was some texture to the card as it was just a flat green background. I'm really happy with them, it's nice to see a few doodles come to life!

 

Threading up my first loom!

Working out the desired pattern for the warp

All my yarns ready to go on the loom!

Just before threading it through the needles

I will post again soon when it has been finished and I have started weaving!

A look at my final prints...

I just wanted to give you a brief look at my final prints for the last rotation before I pick print to specialise in at Christmas. 

I have just given these prints in to be digitally printed. They will come out darker than this, so to compensate I have put the brightness and contrast up so you'll have to use a touch of imagination! 

The inspiration behind these was originally Karl Blossfeldt with a small influence of Japanese floral designs. This has spanned into looking at vintage 1930's wallpaper design, using Cath Kidston's pretty designs as inspiration of how she has made it current. 

I'll post again once they're printed, steamed and washed! :)

Copyright of Chloe Parsons

Sneak peak of my patterns!

Here's a sneak peak at some of the prints of designed for my print rotation at University. The majority is hand drawn, besides the second image which is a photograph I took and manipulated. 

For those who don't know, my project is based on Karl Blossfeldt with a small influence of Japanese floral design, combining that with any other plant or floral forms I wanted.

For the first image, my inspiration was the more than well known Cath Kidston prints and the whimsical quality they have. Throughout my whole collection, I am combining multiple patterns subtly. 

The second takes influence more so from Karl Blossfeldt's photographs as it is more structural in form.

The third and final image featuring in this post is inspired by vintage floral wallpapers, using a symmetrical drawing of a leaf, mirrored again to make a frame around the floral design. 

Copyright to Chloe Parsons

Portmeirion Design Competition entries

Being a student of the University of Derby, all of the Textile Design students have entered the Portmeirion Design Competition. 

Portmeirion are a long-standing Pottery company with roots in the UK. Their style is probably most recognised as being very flora orientated, often quite traditional in style. However they are now introducing more contemporary collections.

A more traditional style, named 'Botanic Garden'

A more modern approach named, 'Crazy Daisy'

Below are my entries for the competition, I hope you like them!

Foxglove design

Foxglove silhouette design

Mirror image leaf print design

My very first iPhone case!

This is the start of something very exciting for me, I'm currently designing my own phone cases to be sold! 

This is the first of my designs, there will be more to come, just to get them printed now and get a brand set up!

Feel free to let me know what you think! (or if you know any good places that print phone cases in the UK that would be super helpful!)

Looking at the Premiere Vision AW 14/15 trends!

I'm loving some of the trends shown in Printed textile design at Premiere Vision recently! I thought I'd share a few of my favourites on here. 

Firstly, the microfolk trend! Folk prints are often large, so it's a refreshing change that they have been scaled down, creating an opulent feel, backed up by the luxurious colours a lot of them are in. 

SET Societa Europa Tessile

Concorde

Societa Europa Tessile

The Arts and Crafts period has always been a firm favourite of mine. I couldn't even tell you why, maybe its the intricacy combined with the sheer simplicity of techniques. At Premiere Vision, original William Morris designs have been manipulated to make it more current, for example just mirroring the pattern in different ways which makes an eye-catching centre point.

Societa Europa Tessile

Color Textil

Cataguases

Overlaying patterns makes for an interesting effect, but can often be overdone. I really like the idea of printing over a weave (and may coincidently steal this idea for my upcoming weave rotation haha!)

Delago

Aspesi Federico 

Top Project

All information sourced from WGSN 

Dulux paint cards come in handy for something...

Left: based on architecture
Right: butterflies and flowers 

Based on insects

Close up of the architecture Dulux paint card