Unit X: James Long - Textile Samples

I have spent time in the print room over the past week or so to create some samples to contribute toward the groups designs and final line up. I worked with screen print, foils and puff binder to create texture as i felt that was something we were lacking. Natalie also suggested that we should begin beading into our designs as no other grouops had thought of this so it would give us an extra edge. i went to source beads and found some magenta, copper and black beads. You may notice that some of the colours were slightly off from the colour palette, however when i asked for a photo of the palette to remind me (as we arent allowed our bags in the print room) my group were unable to help so i was left guessing as to what specific shades we were using. i think i manahed quite well, however, i did use a green which looked slightly more yellow than how it printed. those samples however are in my sketchbook.

 Above i worked on the bobbled fabric and placed stripes across it - inspired by the stripes seen on the sweatbands and Fila shirts Bjorn wore. i applied this idea to both side of the fabric to see how either looked. to the right of this i am screen printing striped on the towlleing we sourced. i little communication problem arose here when i didnt realise that i could use the screen our grouo had decided to use for screen as i wasnt made aware of this, so unfortunately my designs dont  properly fit in with the collection, however im sure if i were to work around this and perhaps make more it could collaborate with the other design. 

 I also experiemtned with reverse applique in white fabrics. i wanted to emmulate the textures seen in the macro images in the rust, but also keep it clean white like the tennis garment research i had looked at. This is possibly my favourite sample and i think it would work really well on a sweatshirt, or as a panel on other heavier gements. i used around five or six fabrics for this so it is quite a thick sample - but mainly is made of mesh and breathable fabrics like towelling, chiffon and scuba so is still suitable for s spring/summer season. 

A few more successful prints i designed involve the stripe we have seen from the sweat bands Bjorn wears. It was also suggested by natalie during a tutorial to experiment with a stripe. 

I experimented first with using the bobbley fabric and printed a stripe over both sides of it to see how it looks on top of and on the reverse of the bobbles. i personally preferred the reverse sidebecause it didnt catch all if the binder and this created a negative space effect on some of the bobbles. i then expeirmented with using stripe on the towelling fabric. i really liked the mix of the texture of the printed bindr and the fluffy towel. i then foiled over this to ad a contrast in the shine and textures of the sample which i think worked quite well. 

the bobbled sample could work really well as a loose trouser or panel on shorts. i also think the towelling stripe sample could work quite well as smaller panels or functional deatilas such as cuffs. it could also be interesting used for piping.    

My next two interesting samples came from an idea of using pff binder on mesh to see what effect that would create. i then developed that idea further by putting a second fabric behind the mesh whilst screen printing -  this in turn would push the puff bindr through the mesh and onto the fabric behind. I am really pleased with the textures i created here. the first picture below is the reverse of the puff binded mesh. it gave the fabric a lot more structure as it was quite soft before hand. i feel this was quite an inovative idea and could be applied to a shoulder panel or collar of a jacket of polo shirt.

The second photo is of the fabric that was behind the mesh. it worked just how i imagined it too and only came through the gaps in the mesh. once i applied heat to the sample, the texture is imense and really intereresting. it was like i had created my own sort of mesh which natalie aggreed with during a tutorial we had.  

I had created  few more samples but these, i feel were my most successful not only are they inovative in how i have created them, but also i beleive they fit with James Longs style quite well (the reverse applique and puff binder especially). In light of this, my grouo didnt seem too interested at all in these during our next session. due to my anxiety i am also quite shy and tend not to show if im proud of the work i have done, so perhaps the doubt in myself didnt encourage their attention toward my samples.