2.2.5. Focusing and Tweaking.

I have been pulling together my fashion design in order to take these ideas forward into sampling. I have been able to use some of the development samples as a beginning for final samples by tweaking my initial ideas by adding more yarn in some and changing yarn choice in other samples as needed. During this process I have brought in more SS yarn choices whilst steering away from woolier yarns by pulling in finer and lighter colour yarns. In having a rather similar colour palette running throughout the designs and samples is something I have been developing as Helen Lawrence incorporates only a few main tones of colour running through her designs accompanied by a few limited flashes of alternative tones.This week I am attempting to bring more unusual yarns into my samples as I try to incorporate a reflective yarn as well as an unusual glow in the dark lurex yarn. I feel by integrating a few unusual pieces into my samples I am bringing my work, designs and samples to a point where they could fit in well with the Helen Lawrence brand. 

This week to extend my work further by using my drawings as my reference,  I plan to translate my work from 2D sketches into 3D samples. To develop 2D sketches into 3D samples I will draw out the patterns, to select suitable yarns, to discover which knit techniques the designs best suggest and which tone of colour leads itself best to the original work. I intend to start with yarn wraps, working on proportion of colour, to see how well different combinations work together. Through out the week I will work on my ideas, extend my thinking, challenge myself, formulating methods I can employ to develop my ideas into samples, thinking about placement, possibly mixing and combining various drawings to see if they work well together. I will be looking at the work of Martina Spetlova for inspiration. Exploring the idea of ladders to express my colour and detail. Despite looking closely at the work of Spetlova I will look else where in order to make my work more diverse and my widen my inspiration.

2.2.4. Significant Choices

                                                                                                                                                                          Helen Lawrence

Whilst working on my Live Brief this week I have begun to mould my way of thinking to the design aspects favoured by Helen Lawrence. I have specifically been looking at the irregular shape of the knit, the layering of fabrics, the unusual materials and harsh embroidery.

With this in mind I am going to incorporate aspects and features of her designs into my own ideas in order to fit in to her brand style. This means working in new ways and experimenting with more unusual materials, incorporating more expressive embroidery and piecing sections together to create unique design features. This week I need to use my sketchbook and research more to understand how I can mould the brands ideas in to my samples, the steps I have taken so far have not been so successful and I need to look back at my research to get a better understanding.  

For the main brief I have been focusing on a range of colours, editing and inverting my images to reveal a new, fresh and different sort of marks and colours to draw and paint. This week I have been developing more expressional mark making.
Using a scanner I have been pulling my images to stretch them creating different types of images to work with them. I find this is more suggestive towards knit techniques. By working more on the style of mark making rather than the quantity of colour, pulling out what stands out most within the image and working with the quality of mark that is made.
I have found this approach much more effective and less cluttered. However the approach is not as simplified as I would like it to be. Due to the approach being more complex than imagined it was more difficult to take my ideas to sampling as a lot more work was to be done and the narrowing down of my ideas will have to be done requiring more selectiveness on my part with my work. 

2.2.3. Extracting.

Working projects side by side, I have felt like I have favoured one more than the other. Objectively a balance between the two projects to keep moving forward is what I want to achieve.
With the Live Project I have been working with colour and detail, working with each separately so that I could eventually layer and have more diversity in choice for what I want to take forward into my sampling, which I feel should work successfully. I have been pulling colour and sequence from my research which I have found a lot easier than finding pattern within images. Reflectively even though I have found this easier, I need to find a way to place the two aspects together in a way Helen Lawrence might in her brand.

Pattern is an important aspect of Helen Lawrence's collection in how she pulls things together as a body, piecing parts together to create one whole. Interpreting the texture of the images to finding translation into knit is my task for this week so that I am ready to start pulling together ideas for samples.

Sara Cwynar                                  .

I have been editing and distorting my research images in different ways to draw from for my main project. I have been pulling and stretching the image and creating different dimensions within the original image. By focusing on the distorted section of an image to draw from, pulling out a certain texture that will suggest techniques, which has been working well. I have been looking at the work of Sara Cwynar and how she has distorted her images and created something different to work from has formed the focus of my work. By taking her ideas of looking at several sections of distortion within that image, and creating something totally different to what the image was originally can open up and create different options which will be useful for creating my samples. Also I need to generate different ways to get more from my images, so that the outcomes will be diverse.