Welcome to my first ever blog post! This is the very first time that this blog was officially written, communicating personal experiences and sharing passion and enthusiasm as a textile designer. The reason why I am so passionate with Textiles is because I can thoroughly do everything in a mixed media style, demonstrating visual research through photography and drawing. Drawings are then furthermore taken into design development exploring composition and placement, which is one of the enjoyable processes. In terms of creating making I generally enjoy creating new innovations using different materials, especially hybrid textiles as one of the specialisms I love to work with including pure textile techniques, screen printing, embroidery and applique. Photographs will be documented throughout my blog as I would like to create blog more illustrative as a creative blogger.
Initial starting point:
2006 – I was only taught how to knit purl and garter stitches by my nan and produced very long ‘doctor who-like’ scarfs using different bright colours.
2011 – During Year 11 I was asked to create slipper shoes using felt materials with blanket stitches for a school summer fete and one of my teachers really loved my art skills and said to keep enjoying art.
2011 – I did textiles for my skills section as part of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award directly to Gold, where it took place with the A level students at sixth form. Sewing on the sewing machine was the first skill taught, especially making a lycra bikini and then I went onto do a bit of printing and dyeing fabrics, creating a bag, which I also enjoyed learning. My textiles teacher said my work was an A level standard.
2013 – When it came to studying A Levels, I took up textile and photography combining the Art and Design discipline and put together practical skills into practice, whether that is photographing primary research, photographic art and developing drawings from photographs taking into design development. Since A levels had progressed, I had a feeling that I was mostly good at textiles; because of the way I expressed colour and design composition and combine textile techniques, screen printing, applique and embroidery with intricacy, texture and pattern.
2015 – During my art foundation at Weston College before I specialised in textiles, I realised that I did my drawing project on Land and Water where I had the opportunity to travel to many places such as Weston Super Mare, Bristol and Penzance. As the drawing project progressed, my drawing style became freer, even trying out mediums, mixed media and drawing techniques. My favourite part of the drawing project was taking out sections of the A1 drawings and collage mixed media in both black and white and colour, as explored looking into a mixture of medium and large scales.
After careful consideration, I chose textiles as a specialism because I knew this is something I would like to progress further into higher education in order to develop my career in Textile Design field. At the end of my art foundation journey, I decided to focus on Geology, crystals and rocks, inspired by not only my brothers interest in Geology, but also texture colour and shape which I also wanted to develop in my work. I started off the project by taking photographs of rocks in weston super mare and crystals at my home in Bristol, visiting the bristol museum and the anthropologie shop for visual inspiration. At the research stage, I was asked to create samples that responds the research collected in order to develop the practical aspect of creating and making as the project progresses. For the final outcome, three wall hangings and cushions with five lampshades as I always always determined to create a extended collection and do lots of work at the same time. The whole Geology, Crystals and Rocks collection was showcased at the Summer Show in Weston College.
2016 – After my art foundation, I began my journey at Plymouth College of Art studying a Textile Practices degree and two years later I will be going into third year in October.
I hope you enjoy the photos of my work as much as I do!
Please feel free to have a look at my online portfolio clicking on this link: https://spark.adobe.com/page/1E2JTjxfALcNv/?w=0_6305
Love Farrah x