Looking back on my time at Surface Pattern Design in UWTSD, I consider how much I have evolved and grown in such a short space of time, just over a year! I was thrown into the deep end, so to say, starting the course straight from college rather than doing a foundation year. I don't regret this though, feeling right at home on the very first day. I particularly remember feeling my nerves fade away when I first met my lecturers and classmates, and entered our lovely studio space. A desk of my very own! I was over the moon, and it would begin some of the most inspiring and challenging periods of my creative career.
I began the course with a lean towards fashion, specifically wearable objects. At College, I found that I enjoyed creating pieces that were sculptural and detailed, creating forms out of fabric and applying interesting textures and processes onto them. I joined the course to expand my skills with fabric and printing, inspired by my time with the University taking part in Raising the Bar, an extracurricular creative club for young adults.
I discovered my enthusiasm for screen printing on the course, and started to see my drawings in a different light. Through innovative workshops exploring shape and layering, the imagery I was creating and loving made me visualise interiors, working with large scale motifs and patterns to create wallpaper and fabric ideal for upholstery.
Finding my passion helped me to further exploring printing onto fabric, finding interesting and unique ways to create texture and surface onto fabrics. I've found the appeal of using reactive print paste, for the flat, professional surface effect you do not get with pigment printing, which sits on the top. Colours overlap together to create new tones, and mixing this with other processes like devore and resist printing opens up a whole new level of composition.
My new context is going to drive where I send my portfolio for summer internships. I'm eager to find a textile print company, where I can learn and experience how large scale businesses create their collections. Marketing and social media promotion are also major interests of mine, and I'm eager to learn as much as I can.