Whoah! What a mental,
mental year!! I really didn't think I would get this far...Several times I've
been ready to chuck the towel in and say Fuck it, I can't do this but I'm so
glad I've stuck it out.
Reflecting on the
last few months, it’s been a time of some great highs and momentary lows as
I've seen sides of myself that I really don't like and completely lost my rag
when shit hit the fan (so to speak) but at the same time I think I have to
forgive myself a little bit as It's easy to forget (when I am prancing around
the studio being a complete goof-ball, giving my inner 19yr old a blast) I am a
mother and a wife with a huge amount of responsibilities outside of college. I
don't get a lie in bed, somebody to do my laundry or cook my tea every night
(I'm soooooo jealous of my younger peers who still live at home!) Going
into the future and Year 2 I am going to put my inner child to bed (somewhat)
and really knuckle down. Work harder than ever. Of course, I'll still be 'Fun
time Abi' but regarding inside influences, I'm going to be trying and be aware
of how far is too far and reign in that inner child. I tend to forget I'm
nearly 34 and Peter Pan has got to grow up! BOO-HISS!!
Last week saw our
Fashion Show night and I was completely pooping my pants. The week building up
to this was rather intense and emotions were flying everywhere and If I'm going
to criticise myself then I do tend to get caught up in the drama. I’m too nosey
and too involved for mine own good and then it all goes 'Pete Tong' and not in
my favour. I would have thought I would have learnt my lesson by now at 33,
It's certainly something to be aware and mindful of thinking forward for next
year. I hadn't given much thought to the choreography of my catwalk, in fact
I'd kind of forgotten about it. In my sketchbook, I had considered how I wanted
it to look, if I was having projection, a video and the sound but no
choreography. I kept it as close to my initial concept idea as possible. I like
the sketchbook for this. I wasn't keen on the sketchbook when it was first
introduced, which on reflection surprised me as I've always been into keeping a
journal and scrapbooking but I just couldn't engage with my sketchbook. I'm
kicking myself really because I wish I had started at the beginning of the
hnd...It's a fantastic tool and If I had an extra couple of weeks or a month to
explore more in my research, I'm certain my sketchbook would have become my
best friend. I felt I was too late down the line regarding design development
and research to really utilise my sketchbook but hey! there is always year 2
and I am going to use it to the maximum.
I think overall my
catwalk show went very well and I was happy in what I achieved regarding the
lighting, sounds, alarms etc....There was one slip up on the night and it
didn't run exactly smooth. There was a 3 second delay from the video to the
warning siren but I'm not going to split hairs about it. I'm super thrilled
with how my collection looked on the runway too...Coupling it with the
lighting, warning sirens etc, It had a great effect and after the show I had
some great feedback from audience members. They were keen to tell me that they
felt awkward and on edge but completely engaged at the same time. Mission
accomplished!! Look at the images below.
The concept behind my
collection was a slow burner and 3/4 weeks into the brief I was still nowhere
near a solid idea. I had my initial response.... science, baggy, utility but
that was about it and my sketchbook was empty. Holy shit! I think looking back
I was exhausted, my friend had not long passed away and we also received some
upsetting family news and it gets to you, it affects you and on reflection I
think it affected more than I realised and in turn It had affected my work and
creative mind. I'll be honest when my friend passed away, a part of me went
away too. Life happens...We are here one minute and then gone the next and over
the last few months I've come to learn that we must go with grief, let it take
us, ride with it but always, always get off at the next stop. Perhaps in my
case anyway, I'm a melancholy soul and I need to give myself some self-care in
times like this. College is my chance to get away from the daily grind and
leave any problems at the front door, it's something I'm going to take great
care in doing next year.
The weeks went by and
my ideas eventually started to flow, much Thanks to a group critique and
picking apart my ideas. I'd shied away from textiles for most of the year but I
took this brief as an opportunity to really explore and embrace textiles. I got
excited about textiles!!! I was keen to use my photography skills in a sort of
print and thus the first textile sample was created and progressed from there.
I've been quite forward thinking throughout and always conscious where can I
take it to the next level. A clear progression of this can be seen in my
samples folder. On reflection, I'm extremely happy with the textiles I produced
and felt I pushed it as far as I could go given the time scale. If I had an
extra 6months to work on the textiles alone then growing live bacteria on
garments would have been the route I would have gone done as this is something
of real interest to me. Maybe this is the secret to textiles...You've got to
love it, got to love developing it and nurturing it. I've really enjoyed
developing my textiles...I was excited!
Well I think that's a wrap....Time to hand in all my work and say Hello to the summer. Abi xx
Please take a minute or three if you've got time and check out the video of my catwalk performance for my collection called Colonies. I've not yet watched t myself as I'm just too scared...Eeeek. Let me know what you think. Watch video...Click on this link
Well I think that's a wrap....Time to hand in all my work and say Hello to the summer. Abi xx