Aaand That's a wrap. Year 1 completed! x

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! 

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