A Christmas Street

 

Evening!! Aren't these houses lovely? They are the returns for the Christmas Street swap that my ATC group are doing this year. I haven't stitched them together yet as I am toying with the idea of making some more to elongate the street- just cant get enough!!

 

 (By Hazel)

 

 (By Wendy)

 

 (By Alison)

 

 (By Eileen)

 

 

Christmas has come to Sweetbriar!!! I have spent the evening cleaning and tidying my bedroom to make room for my tree and decorations. This year I splashed out and bought some pretty lights for my little tree and it looks so pretty lighting up the corner of my bedroom. (I am planning on sitting in bed later with only the tree lights on so that I can soak up the Christmassy essence!!) I got quite carried away and found extra decorations in my drawer so have decorated the kitchen as well with these fabulous pom poms and a snowflake garland that has managed to drape itself over the TV too. So excited!!

At university today we cut out our first proper Christmas decorations. They took quite a long time as we kept getting the laser cut settings wrong, but eventually we managed to cut out lots!! And there will be many more designs popping up over the next week or so. These are for sale to you all, although there will be postage costs involved. If you are interested in any of our little decorations then email me (bepower@hotmail.co.uk) or leave a comment below. xx

 



Pre-Collection Hand In

Bonjourno!!! It is finished! The pre-collection section of third year has been completed and ticked off....which of course means that I now have to spend the next 6 or so months on my final major project. Such fun!!!
I have a special special special treat for you all- an exclusive glimpse at some of my peers' final collections!!! Lots of utterly gorgeous, beautifully crafted designs that display the individual talent that is in abundance in my studio.

Megan Evans: Inspired by the architecture of Kings College Cathedral.

Freya Smith: Combining textures of the seaside with architectural structures.

Amber Gargan: Gorgeous florals painstakingly stitched using the Irish machine.

Sarah Pearce: Looking at the shapes and textures within animal fur/feather/scale markings.

Steph Randall: Originally inspired by tree roots, but with an influence from the film, Avatar.

Kat Lawrence: Inspired by lots of different things, this collection uses a lot of laser cutting!

Jess Fellows: Put on your sunglasses!! Neon abounds in this communication within cultures project.

Beth Roseveare: A very cute project based on one town and the layering of it's buildings.

Nina Willsher: Inspired by reflections, refractions and glitches.

 

Victoria de Nobrega: Lots of Photoshop edited images and embossed leathers in this project.

 



So there we go!! I haven't said much about each project as I think they are all lovely and that the photos speak for themselves. If this is the quality of work for the pre-collection, just wait for the FMP!!!! Your minds will be blown. xx

Nearly Finished...!

Ooo gosh, you are very lucky to have caught me! I was just on my way to bed as it is incredibly late and I have an early start tomorrow. 'Tis the day of the hand in don't you know? I do feel that up until now I have been quite organised (worryingly so....what have I forgotten??!!) and by the time I was ready to leave the studio this afternoon I had finished and mounted all of my samples, chosen 6 samples to form 3 collections, labelled and presented them on my wall, organised and labelled my sketchbook and made a folder for all of my loose drawings. How good am I?! All that was left to do this evening was an up-to-date moodboard and my evaluation- which has taken an extraordinarily long time. I went from having nothing to say and too little words, to too much to say and not enough words left!!
Anyway, if you will excuse the shocking photography (apologies, the studio was dark this evening) then this is what my space looked like when I left it, and hopefully what it will still look like in the morning!!

This is Collection One, grouped thus due to the seed-like shapes in the vinyl explosion, and the layered sequin tape, and then the technique of the layering the sequin tape in the below sample and the white one at the back there.

Collection Two (above) consists of the pink floral one at the bottom, the barely visible dip dyed jersey with what looks like seeds (or teeth?) on it in vinyl, and the big sequin tape floral at the top. These are grouped through colour, the seed shapes again and also the embedding of the flowers with complimentary textures.

And finally Collection Three has been put together because of it's bolder use of purple colour, and the representation of segmented circular shapes using different techniques. (See? I know all the jargon!)
So what do you think? Some new samples there that were whipped up this morning (er...yesterday morning...) and over the weekend, and are not in the previous post listing most of my pieces, mingling in with some golden oldies.
Right then, I am off to bed!! Nightie Night! xx

The Poppy Project

 

 Evening!! I am warning you now, this is going to be a looooong post with lots and lots of photos for you to enjoy. I have spent the day in a manic panic (tee hee) trying to finalise my sketchbook, various samples, ideas for the weekend etc...my sketchbook is a mOnStErOuS beast that kind of reminds me of the carnivorous book in Harry Potter (have you seen it?). Anywho, I thought I would share with you all of my (poppy inspired) samples to date and I am pleased to say that there are quite a few!! Enjoy. x

 (Very time consuming seed stitches)

 

(My biggest sample!! Quite simple but with hidden running stitches.)

 

 (I love this one but somehow a stain has found its way onto the bottom flower!! Very annoying.)