Anna Comerford

I am highly influenced by everything around me and view the world with a creative eye. From nature to history, architecture to landscapes I find beauty in detail which I want to explore. I love to draw and express my ideas and visions through a wide range of media. My studies are very intricate and observed which allow me to capture the finest details through mark making. The latest fashion trends and high end designers’ pieces feed my inspirations and my mind naturally goes wild in exploring the endless possibilities for interesting concepts and ideas. I love to recreate the original qualities of my drawings onto fabric by using techniques such as digital print, screen print, appliqué and embroidery. To me, embroidery is just like another form of drawing; it allows me to add exciting colours, textures and dimension to a design in the observant, detailed style in which I love to work.

My FMP is based on the theme ‘Bejewelled Baroque’. It was inspired by the idea of making the Baroque style modern and taking inspiration from the more traditional and mixing it with a modern twist through colour, texture and overall composition.
The concept behind my theme was ‘Time’ and I wanted my work to convey a modern Baroque style with an edge. I began researching into cogs and mechanisms in clocks and found the detail and structure really interesting and beautiful. I wanted to combine the decorative, filigree detailing from old Baroque furniture and objects with the mechanised structure of a clock to create a quirky contrast in movement and texture and communicate the story of moving the Baroque style forward through time. I like the contrast in mixing something old with something new; it makes an idea much more exciting to work with when gathering research and completing drawings, which all feeds into the final outcomes.

Blog Address: www.annacomerford.blogspot.com

Achievements and Work Experience: Sold a fashion fabric design at Indigo/Premiere Vision 2012 & Completed a two week work placement at Punky Pins which lead to paid employment over 4 months during the busy Christmas period.

Stacey Galliford

 

I am currently studying at Cleveland College of Art & Design undertaking a BA(Hons)Textiles & Surface Design degree. My work is a cross between interiors and gift; I love to create exciting cushions designs and gift related products. The media’s I use within my work are fineliners, watercolours and different styles of pencils; this comes from my love of illustration. For my FMP I am producing a collection of digitally printed and screen printed cushions with hints of embroidery. My theme has dramatically evolved since beginning FMP, my first initial idea being Native America. I took the idea of Native America and how it is hidden away from society and brought it into modern times. I am currently working on a collection that looks at ‘Hidden Teesside’, looking at old forgotten buildings and playing around with the textures.

http://www.staceyjanedesign.blogspot.co.uk/

Abbie Russell

I am currently studying at my final year of a BA (Hons) Textiles and Surface Design degree. I am a surface designer and my specialist area is gift design, I could spend hours in a shop searching through cards, wraps and tags.
My work is all about colour, I feel colour is my strength. I love using bright and vibrant colours in my work and I feel this is how I define myself and my work. My colour palette tends to include oranges, yellows, blues, greens, purples and reds. I have a quirky drawing style which I feel links in well with the colour schemes which I tend to use and adds a unique touch to my work. As my colour palette is so bright and my drawing has a naïve touch to it they link well as the colours bring out the unusual characteristics of my drawings. Although my drawings may not always represent the item, person or animal I am drawing in a realistic way but I feel this is my take on how they look. As I am nearing the end of my university course I am focusing on developing my style and working very hard to develop my products.

My Final Major Project is all about ‘Crowd’ I have chosen to look at this in a very abstract way meaning I have looked at shapes and objects rather than crowds of people, my colour palette is very bright which links in well with my trend. Although I tend to specialise in gift design for wraps, cards and tags I have decided to do something a bit out of my comfort zone and make a rug! My rug is going to be made with wools and will portray my final design. I am also making cushion designs and packaging to go with my rug to show how it can be used in a room setting.

I have two blogs but use my tumblr one more, they are: http://abbierussell.tumblr.com/
http://abbie-russell.blogspot.co.uk/

I also have a facebook page:www.facebook.com/AbbieRussellTextileDesign

Bryony Lancaster

I am a hardworking and enthusiastic person. I am interested in people and other cultures and have spent some years travelling and working abroad. I believe these experiences have rounded me as a person and have made me aware of what I want out of life. I know what I want to accomplish in my career and will strive to achieve this through hard-work and determination. Through taking time out before coming to university it has enabled me to grow in confidence and able to handle new situations well. I am a creative individual who is motivated by a passion for surface design. I can work confidently on my own as well as part of a team. I specialise in print designs for furnishing fabrics, combining a mixture of print and fabric manipulation techniques to produce innovative and high quality pieces. I have good communication skills and am a quick learner. I love designing and printing and am eager to learn more.

I am now working on my Final Major Project which is based on a self-written concept titled ‘Endo-Exo’. The trend brings together the linear qualities of skeletal structures and stronger, bolder imagery of surfaces that protect. The initial ideas came through observational drawing of natural objects such as bones, leaf skeletons, shielded insects, bird feathers and fish scales alongside manmade items such as electricity pylons, scaffolding, wood sculptures and bound objects. There is an emphasis on texture which will be followed through to final designs through experimentation with marking making and drawing styles. Printing methods will be combined with other techniques such as laser cutting and pleating to create depth and interest. The colour palette sees the use of rich brights such as deep emerald green, dark navy blue, full bodied red and orange, these will be brought together with a paler palette consisting of tonal greys, mint green and soft coral pink.

If you want to see more of my work or are interested in what I am doing please follow my blog!

bryonylancaster.blogspot.com

TWO MONTHS UNTIL DEADLINE

 

 

Two months will fly by and thats only 75 days!

 

 

BUSY BUSY BUSY

 

Sarah Griffin

I am currently studying BA (Hons) Textiles and surface design and I am due to graduate in June 2013. The area in which I specialise is fashion. My main inspirations come from botanicals, floral, foliage and all of the natural surroundings. I enjoy using a diverse but muted colour pallet combined with dark and rich tones which complement each other. My final outcomes are usually digitally printed onto fabric and worked into with a number of various techniques including embroidery. I love to style my work through the use of photography I often arrange objects in an imaginative way and photograph them; I use the photos within the drawing process or for my mood boards. I have exhibited my work at Indigo trade show in Paris and also Printsource in New York. I am a hardworking, committed, self-motivated and organised individual with the ability to work independently and confidently. 

·       What is the world we live in? I am always asking myself questions about life, how did we get here? Is there such a thing as god? What happens to us after we have lived? Do we shine bright amongst the other stars in the galaxy? What are stars? Wishes, dreams, particles, dust or even new life? Does a star fall from the sky and plant a seed which grows into a gorgeous crystal? Why do nearly all of us think about money, diamonds, crystals and treasures when the thing that is the most precious to all of us is growth and life itself?

·       My project will focus on the contrast between what we believe to be precious and what is precious, growth and greed. It will focus on the forgotten sentiment of life being overrun by materialistic possession. I aim to combine two themes together for this project one is based on jewels and crystals the other is based on space and botanic.

·       The colour pallet is fairly diverse and includes colours such as sienna, terracotta, purple, blue, pink, yellow, grey, green and soft metallic.

Visit Sarah's blog to see more of her work at

http://sarahlouisegriffin.blogspot.co.uk/

 

or take at look at her facebook and twitter

http://www.facebook.com/Sarahlouisegriffin1991

https://twitter.com/sarlougriffin

Jade Robson

I am a North East based under graduate studying a BA Hons in Textiles and Surface Design at CCAD. I specialise in surface design for interiors and I am focusing on creating intriguing designs for wallpapers. I am a talented, eager and committed designer. I have innovative ideas, an eye for colour and a strong sense of originality within all my designs. I consider myself to be well organised, professionally presented designer with a fresh talent and a lot of career potential.

 

For my Final Major Project I have come up with a concept which discusses and involves the ever narrowing divide between nature and science. Botany is a discipline of biology which explores the science of plant life; I have always had a keen interest in intricate botanical studies and how they show the process and the parts of a plant not just the outside structure people tend to only see. Botany Creativity explores the idea of function and how a natural form has to fight to operate alone without the help of man and the science forced upon us. I will highlight how our interference and manipulation with nature could destroy the natural workings of our world and create a biologically imbalanced future. Within my work I will display the intelligence of a living plant against the industrial works of today.

 

Visit Jades blog to see more of her work 

 www.jadelrobson.blogspot.co.uk

 

Sacha Rowe

With a focus on embroidery and embellishment my work combines hand rendered traditional techniques with loose contemporary work, breathing new life to the old fashioned. Dusty tones and dark hues continually impose themselves in my colour palettes. Textural and abstract pieces combined with intricate details create diverse imagery. I am concept driven, portraying deeper meanings and researched ideas within encrusted fabrics. I want to share my thoughts and bring beauty to the world, adorning women with exquisite embroidery. After all what is fashion but wearable art?

 

 

My final major project is based on a concept derived from a fraction of dialogue from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, wanting to explore the suppression of Ophelia. This evokes beautiful imagery to reflect Ophelia from the erotic nature of flowers and the female form, to lily filled ponds presented before decadent architecture. To contrast this and display the darker side that looms over Ophelia I will explore decay, tentacles, fungi, eroded rocks and naturally encrusted surfaces. With intentions to translate this to embroidery, on sheer fabrics and Victorian bloomers, and tights.

Rosie Casson

 

As an aspiring textile designer maker, I focus on detailed hand and machine embroidery, including small elements of screenprint to give my work some more texture. I specialise in fashion accessories which include bags, purses, badges and brooches. Within my Final Major Project I have decided to look at an area of nature I am very passionate about which is insects. I want to show the beauty of so called 'creepy crawlies', and show how diverse and amazing the insect world can be! Using inks, watercolours and pencils i am going to show the insect world through my own eyes. To make it different, I am also looking at textures and surfaces of nature, for example bark, leaves, veins, moss etc, and i want to include this in my design work to merge the two elements together to create a contrast between detailed pieces and abstract grounds. To keep up to date with my work and what i'm up to, please take a look at my Blog!

www.rosebudcasson.blogspot.co.uk

 

 

Congratulations Jade Robson

Congratulations to Jade Robson who has won the Trend Bible competition, well done. Jades amazing Final Major Project concept has won her a featured blog post on Trend Bibles blog, the proceeds from their calender to fund costs of her Final Major Project and an internship with Trend Bible. WOW!

 

Jades introduction post will go up on Wednesday but if you can't wait and want to see some of her work now visit her blog at

 

http://jadelrobson.blogspot.co.uk/

Claudette Cooling

 

One of the most important things about design is a good aesthetic, as a fashion fabrics designer specialising in embroidery, I aim to encompass texture, mood and style within my work. A style distinctive yet incredibly detailed. I search for the balance between textural detailing and graphic innovation. My definitive style and approach to design makes my work sensitive yet tactile, experimental yet dynamic. I see design as an opportunity to express the feelings and emotions of a trend, thought, feeling or idea. My versatile design skills enable me to create both striking graphic geometrics as well as subtle earth ground vintage. I have a passion for the tactile process of embroidery and look to this to further innovative textile design. My background in textile design both two and three dimensional, allows me to visualise and look beyond the print or pattern and imagine. Collage plays a huge feature within my work, from conception to delivery I’m inspired by mixing the opposite. Hand drawn imagery and photo captures are both features of my work, mixing the hand rendered and digital aspects of design to create the very best in innovative fashion fabrics.

The textural qualities of natural gemstones such as amethyst, onyx and jade mashed with the clean cut lines and decorative aspects of architecture are the starting point for my final major project. The fusion of sleek, clean cut buildings meets the organic in depth nature of natural crystals and stones. The glimmering, glistening and encrusted nature of gemstones and crystals combined with close up architectural studies which could almost look quite geometric, I feel is an interesting place to start from and allows a lot of room for experimentation. The clean cut perfection of modern architecture and the intricate detailing of traditional architecture is what initially drew me in to wanting to explore these qualities further, I’ve always been fascinated by architecture and have always wanted to explore it in detail and I felt this was the time to research and design with no constraints. The extra dimension of natural stones and crystals is also something I’ve always been interested in, I think because of the unbelievable amount of texture and depth to each crystal and the way that no two could ever be the same is what I find fascinating about them. The qualities of both sides of my theme overlap extensively; the clean cut yet textural qualities lie in natural crystals, architecture and my style of work. I work in quite a clean, detailed, organised manner and this I think is why I was drawn to exploring both sides of my theme, trying to define my style as a designer in a very definitive way. Deep, rich, iridescent tones will be used to try and achieve the layering of colour found in gemstones and natural stone, possibly being complimented by shiny, glittering encrusted elements enabling me to create some innovative, individual and exciting fashion fabric designs.

Visit Claudette's blog to see more of her work at http://claudettecooling.blogspot.co.uk

Laura Moscrop

My work is very illustrative and centres around naïve, quirky drawings and has a loose, childlike quality it. I like my work to have a handmade element so I frequently bring in parts of screen print and stitch.
The inspirations for my work mainly come from people’s everyday behaviours and the objects around us.
My work varies from project to project and I try to stay open to change by not restricting myself in designing for one particular specialism.


The theme of my final major project is based around the film Amélie. The film is about a girl named Amélie, who lives her life in a dream like world, imagining a life filled with love and kindness. After discovering a hidden box filled with childhood memories she finds and returns it to the rightful owner and promises to herself to carry on bringing happiness to others.
One of the most interesting parts to the film are the constant obsessions that run throughout. All of the characters have obsessions of their own and simple everyday things that make them happy.
My observation from this is that the characters start to become defined by their own little quirks and obsessions which is concept that I will be taking forward into my work. I will begin looking into how people would define themselves if they had to do it purely by object or the simple pleasures that they find in life and develop my project from there.

 

Visit Laura's blog to see more of her work at www.lauramoscrop.blogspot.com

Our Students

The most important part of our degree show is us, the students who will be exhibiting. The next line of posts will give an introduction to each student and their Final Major Concepts.

Degree Show 2013

The Degree Show 2013 blog will be updating you on the progression of Final Major Projects and Degree Show planning of Cleveland College of Art and Design's Textiles and Surface Design students!

The blog will be regularly updated with students Final Major Project concepts and exciting development work!

We will also keep you updated on the plans for our Degree Show which will take place in June this year!