Fashion: Photographing my model

When it came to choosing my model I went through a process and created five different mood boards to ensure that my photographs would be well thought out. The five mood board topics were as follows; casting, location, lighting, makeup/hair and styling. I thought thoroughly about my model, and decided that since my accessory was unisex, and the majority of other people had chosen to use a female model, I would use a male model. I think this gave a stronger effect on the accessory. Had I chosen a female model I don't think it would had the same effect because the facial features wouldn't have been as strong as that of a man. 

I decided to have my model standing against a simple background to make sure the focus was on my accessory and to also give focus on each individual coil. I chose a simple cream wall in my house for this and opened a door at the right angle, which gave a good amount of light but which also gave strong shadows to the face. 

From all the photographs I took, I created contact sheets so I could easily see all the photographs at the same time and quickly select a handful of them that I liked. I then played around with different layouts and decided wether or not I wanted to create a series of photographs or just to have one strong image.

Fashion: Making my accessory

To begin making my accessory I had to make all of my string coils. I started to do this by taking a length of string, dipping it in watery glue and and wrapping it to create a spiral effect. This took a long time and was very messy. Knowing that I would need to make a lot of these coils I decided it was a good idea to try to come up with another way of making them. I decided to put lots of circles, with gaps in between, of glue and then put the string on the paper. Once dry the I could cut out the coils with the paper underneath, which would keep them strong and together. This idea worked a lot better and I am somewhat happy with the fact that the other first way didn't work so well. 

After all the coils were made it was time to make the base that would go around the neck and on the chest of my model. Recycling and Reusing is very important to me so to do this I took an old pair of old jeans and cut them into what looked like very a very short pair of shorts. I then cut along the waist band for about 3 inches each side of the fastening. I needed to ensure that this was gonna be enough but not too much to fit around my models neck. My idea was that the cuts would separate that part of the waist band and so I could put it around the neck still keeping the main body of the jeans at the front of the body. The button fastening would then fasten at the back of the neck which would keep the accessory on the body but make it easy to remove also.

I then, with a glue gun, attached all the coils onto the now shorts. I attached them in a structured formation rather than in a random one as I thought that this would ensure that no gaps would be left. I think that this worked really well and gave a more powerful look to the accessory.

*photos of making*

Fashion: Heat Press Workshop

I had never worked with a heat press machine before so I was intrigued to see how it worked and what I could do with it. As preparation for the workshop I brought in a few plastic object, knowing that the time I have with the heat press is limited I decided to not go overboard with the objects I brought in. I brought an empty water bottle, some plastic bottle lids, and a plastic carrier bag. I was also more interested about using dyes and fabric with the heat press, so I experimented more with this functionality.

First of all I worked with creating a design with different coloured dyes on different fabrics. The fabrics I used were a canvas material and a more slippery satin type fabric. I painted the dyes on in a coil, spiral type pattern to resemble the coil sample that I have made and like. I learnt that the heat press needs to be 190 degrees and depending on what material you are working with the time in which you keep it under the heat press can differ. For example when I put the piece of paper that I have painted on over the piece of fabric. It needed 30 seconds under the heat press for the colour to transfer. I noticed that when the colour transfers it comes out a lot brighter that how the dye looks on paper. The red came out a lot more orange which was interesting. I preferred using the satin type material as the colour transferred a lot smoother.

I then chose to transfer foil to fabric. What I had to do was transfer a special kind of glue and put it on the fabric in the places that I want the foil to transfer, then put it under the heat press for about 15 seconds. After this time you peel back the foil and where ever you put the glue the foil will stay.  I thought that this gave a really good effect and I really enjoyed the process and how it all worked.

Finally I had time to use the heat press for some of the plastics that I brought in. I decided to go for the water bottle as I thought it was the most interesting. With a pair of scissors I cut the bottle so that only about an inch of the bottom was left. With my hands I started to fold the sides into the middle so it was prepared for the heat press. I finally put it under the heat press for a short space of time. I think it came out really well and I was happy with the result.

I was very excited about this workshop and was really happy that we got to do it. unfortunately I don't really see how it will fit in with my project for fashion, but I hope I get the opportunity to use it in the future. 

Fashion: Designing on Mannequins

After I finished making my samples I photocopied them which would give the effect of having the sample repeated lots of times. I think the plastic string coil sample created the most interesting photocopy, also it was the most two dimensional out of all my samples which meant that it didn't move in the photocopier.  

After this was carried out it was time to create different ideas and designs on a mannequin. I found this quite therapeutic as there was not really a right or wrong way to go about it, it was all experimentation. We worked on the mannequins for quite some time to allow ourselves to work with different samples and try as many different things as we could. As I thought the plastic string coil was my favourite out of all my samples so I worked with this one most while working on the mannequins. I created lots of different ideas on the mannequin, looking at different parts of the body but mainly focusing on the upper body in places such as the chest, neck and shoulders. I found this to be the most interesting place to work on as it has lots of different curves, and an accessory for the chest or shoulders is not the most conventional, which I liked. 

Next was the task of producing croquis so we could design our ideas a little bit better and have more than just a sketch and photograph like what we did with the mannequins. First I created my croquis template so I could photocopy it so that it was easy to produce loads of designs.

Here are some of the things I came up with:

Fashion: Sample Making

This week I have been experimenting in making samples as a way of experimenting for what I am going to eventually make for this fashion project. At this point I don't have much of an idea for what I want to do for my final outcome other than I don't want it to be a conventional accessory such as a necklace or a bracelet etc. The brief explains to me that in this project we will be focusing on accessories rather than fashion garments. I am excited about this as in the past I have studied textiles and come out of the projects with garments, so I am excited to see what I come out with from this  After experimenting with shapes and different household objects I found the most interesting to be the plastic string. I took three pieces and plaited them together and then made a coil out of them. Each piece was of a different colour and I thought this gave a really interesting effect and it is definitely something I would like to carry through for this project. Some other house hold objects that I experimented were real size and miniature wooden clothes pegs, cotton buds, pen lids and string.

I found that the wooden clothes pegs were good to interlock and attach them all together, however apart from this I could not come up with any other inventive ways of putting them together. For the cotton buds i attached them all with thread at the bottom and splayed them out at the other end, this didn't turn out particularly interesting but I thought it may be so if I photocopied it. For the pen lids I assembled them in a triangle shape design and held them together with thread. I found this object the most difficult to turn into a sample. The plastic used in the lid is so hard that it was pretty much impossible to manipulate so layering was the only thing I found I could do with this object. 

I was happy with all my samples that I made and was excited to see how they would turn out once photocopied.