Project 5 Stage 2 – Selecting design ideas

Identify design ideas to translate and develop onto fabric, well-structured in terms of contrast and harmony. At least four of them is the ask, and I’ve enjoyed trawling through previous work to find possibilities.

Shells

I have lots of sketchbook work, including variants that have been developed into a stencil and manipulated on the computer into a repeating pattern.

I could also go beyond a single motif and experiment further with a design complete in itself. I got excited with the possibilities for layering in my previous post here and the medallions could be interpreted in stamping or silk painting or… I think it would also lend itself to different proportions and be quite adaptable.

Tutankhamen inspired

This has been another favourite. I’ve sketched out here a very rough idea to use it in a bag project. I’m thinking of using this as the centrepiece, then adding hieroglyphic-like elements around it. Plus a co-ordinating fabric using related elements for the back of the bag.

Orange scribble

I did the original scribble right near the beginning, last August, and have since played with it in gimp. I like the energy and the colours, and think it could be an interesting challenge to develop elements that retain that energy and also achieve balance of some kind.

Bird

This started in the class with Peter Griffen and I’ve done a lot of work in the sketchbook since including making a stamp. While reviewing the sketchbooks I found quite a few other examples of birds – from Dufy, a mother-of-pearl playing counter, Tutankhamen – and today I tried a few ideas to adapt them into a similar bold-line style (sketchbook page here).

I’ve read the instructions a few times and am not clear on how far developed the ideas should be before I test them out on fabric, but I deem this far enough. Lots of space for one idea and experiment to spark the next. Now it’s just a question of where to start exploration.