Another live brief I decided to have a go at is the Bradford Textile design competitions. I am submitting a design for the 'P2 Prestigious Textiles Award' which requires a printed textile design for interiors. I want to attempt an entry for this award in particular as I have never experimented with interiors, I have only ever focused on fashion. This is a good opportunity to have a try as in Unit X I have chosen to continue with a fashion-focused option.
I'm going to make use of the prints I already have from my self-initiated brief and alter them to fit the live brief, meaning I needed to put them into repeat. I was sceptical about how they would look in repeat however when I created them I really liked the results. I like them that much that I chose to include them in my self-initiated brief as well.
After putting the prints into repeat I started to place them onto curtains and cushions to see if they look like a realistic interior print. They turned out quite successful, however I don't think the curtains work as well as the cushions. I particularly like the cushions because I can see them being part of a collection of cushions in the middle of an otherwise plain bead spread, or something in that ball park.
The brief for the Prestigious Textiles award says that embroidery can be used. I took embroidery for a unit last year and have thought about mixing the two specialisms before but I have never physically done it. I have felt really experimental this unit as I want to really push myself and find out what I can do before L6. Because of this I thought why not try out some embroidery on top of the print? The idea I have in my head is to create a statement cushion that would be used for decorative purposes.
I wanted to try embellishing/beading on top of my prints, because I don't think just a stitch would stand out enough against the busy backgrounds. As I've never used embroidery and print together I've never had to find the supplies before. I researched fabric and haberdasheries around Manchester to make a go-to list; Fred Aldous, Abakhan, Affleck's Palace, Hobbycraft were a few. I visited Affleck's Palace before heading to Abakhan where I found exactly the beads I was after. Due to the amount of colour in my prints already I felt the need to keep the beads more toned down and neutral. I went for Clear, Gold and Navy beads.
I am really happy with the development samples, the beading looks better than I hoped it would. In particular, the use of the long bugle beads was really effective and went well with my prints. For the final boards which I will submit with my application, I am going to digitally print a 30cm x 30cm square of fabric and embellish it to give the appearence of the final cushion.
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