'Living Lichen' Project continuation

We had a really good day in the print room today, lots of experiments and ideas!

 I've been working from some of the sketches I made to come up with some more abstract ideas.

The Embroidery workshop was a great day to learn some new things about the possibilities of combining print and stitch together, for a more embellished or three dimensional textural experience.

To continue, I want to look into the textures of what I found within the Lichen, and to design a digital print that best shows off the colour and shape.

Design Project - 'Living Lichen'

During my time in Sweden, especially during the autumn, I noticed a lot of Lichen and moss all over the trees and rocks. It was really fascinating as they were so brightly coloured and came in all kinds of shapes and textures. When I received the brief for the Design Project - 'On the Wall' was the inspiration - The lichen that I had been looking at seemed like an interesting subject to study.
I began with taking a few photographs and collecting fallen branches that were covered with brightly coloured lichen. I started to sketch the shapes and forms from my photographs as a starting point, and decided that the texture and colour of the specie was really an amazing thing that I wanted to continue with. I wanted to create more than just a pattern for this project, with scope to continue some of the ideas I had already had, in the future.

The main focus for this project was Print and Embroidery.

Trip to Berlin

I decided to visit my friend Phoebe in Berlin, who is also on the Erasmus exchange from Chelsea. It was an absolutely amazing trip - A really crazy few days which involved a lot of wine, beer and tequila, partying... and not much sleep! Going out at 2am and getting in at 8am is completely normal! I thought Berlin had a real urban feel to it - quite gritty, but in a good 'arty' kind of way with a lot of amazing graffiti everywhere. It was really inspiring and I will definitely be going back in the summer for some of the festivals, and to visit some of the friends I have made in Sweden who live there. My health will suffer but it is totally worth it! Enjoy the photos!

ShowUp Fashion Awards and Swedish label StayHard show

I went to the ShowUp fashion awards where my friend Jörn Wonneberge won a prize for his designs this year. The day was full of various catwalks from designers in the competition, who were all competing for a spot at Fashion Week in Berlin. Jörn won the online prize for best design. Although my interests don't particularly lie within fashion, in terms of my own work in textile design, I do think it's fascinating, and I have become a lot more interested in fashion since I have been here.

This was Jörn's winning designs that won him the online prize.

After the show, Swedish pop star Oscar Linnros put on a concert, to which we had plenty of alcohol and lots of dancing!

Another fashion show I went to was Swedish label StayHard, there was a great atmosphere at the show, which was based in a huge old warehouse, and we all got a cute little goodie bag!