Dye Lab Induction

I may want to dye my own fabrics for the garments I make.

Burn tests to identify fibres above, viscose below, to decide appropriate dyestuff and method.

 Washing cloth after weighing it, before dying.

Weighing dyestuff in the laminar flow extraction booth to prevent inhalation.

Drawing and Deconstruction

I enjoyed drawing this shirt but not deconstructing something so beautifully made.

Man's shirt, labelled The Saville Row Company, from Oxfam Chorlton.

The white stitched line on the pocket is a simple, under stated detail.

Curating 5.8 x 4.1 Exhibition

Curating an exhibition takes a lot of time and head space! In collaboration with Katie and Chloe, and in liaison with the technician responsible for Holden Gallery Cafe, below is a list of things I've been doing:

• Bid box, plinth and bid form
• Gallery signage, poster wording and printing
• Press release to Manchester Evening News and MMU
• Student sign up list of jobs for finale night
• Finale night payment and wrapping table notices, receipts
• Reorganising furniture in gallery
• Cash float
• Drinks for finale night

 We curated 160 postcards, which looked much more impressive all together and I felt very happy with the result. I used neon threads to add light to my linen postcard. (20 hours work experience)

Postcard dilemmas

The quality of some of the donated postcards e.g. smudged work, wax crayon and naive appliqué, led to a discussion with Katie and Chloe about whether some should be left out. I felt strongly that everything should be included even though we wondered if more established artists would object to having their work shown alongside such a broad ability range. We also had several mass produced artists' postcards, signed by the artist, which didn't really fulfil the original work criteria.

We decided to include everything and I tried to address these issues in the gallery poster;
The exhibition includes work by professional and self-taught artists and we have been touched by the generosity of people wanting to support us on our creative path.

Essay Research

I met with Miles Lambert Senior Manager at Platt Hall Gallery of Costume about Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, Hussein Chalayan and Isabel Toledo. He said they all, "look beyond the constraints of fashion," and this is what interests me about their clothes.

Black stretch pleated polyester dress Issey Miyake  2001/02

 Black crepe cocktail dress Hussein Chalayan 2005/06

I also visited the pattern book archive and found a beautiful fabric sample book by Junichi Arai who co-founded Nuno Corporation with Reiko Sudo. 

One sample was folded giving a watery effect and many had metal content.

Portfolio Lecture - Contemporary Craft Practice

Interesting to hear about the MA course but if I were to do an MA 

it would be to gain further skills in my practice.

Swaddling bands

This swaddling band has a detailed, embroidered edge and the way it's laid out creates a lovely flowing line. Jesus was wrapped in linen bands at birth and in death I'm wondering if I could incorporate this idea with my flax designs.

Linen swaddling band Museum of Childhood