Cushions coming along

For my final degree show I will be displaying a selection on hand woven and made cushions, these it have began to make after finishing my hand woven samples to choose cushion covers from. Although none of the designs are the same pattern, the colours I have used, I feel, make the cushions work well together as a collection. This is still a working progress as I have two smaller scatter cushions to make yet but below is a photo of the four finished ones so far. 

                  

Woven fabrics

Below are some designs that I have woven on the jacquard today, I will be using some as small samples, one as a blanket, and one will be the new upholstery of my chair that I have prepared ready for its new fabric.

                             

                                  

                              

Final colour palette

I have finalised my colour palette eventually for this final project, It will use similar colours to those shown below. Grey and cream shades with various blue tones and hints of dusky and bright pink to add highlights to the interior collection of woven materials that I will design and create. 

Easter

As time is now running so quickly, it's nearly time for that last ever Easter break of uni. A lot of last times have been happening recently, the last time I will thread a new warp at uni, the last time I will create and present a design seminar showing the ideas behind my work. 

It makes me sad and happy to come to the end of uni; Sad that its all over and I won't be doing what I do best day in day out for a while and seeing my close uni girls. But also happy because I am proud that I have finally made it to the end and accomplished and learnt what I have on the way and met the people that have given me hope and inspiration to continue with my designing lifestyle.

After Easter will be the final push to make sure I create the design work that I aimed to and to display it in a way that best shows its uses and craftsmanship. I know it will be a very busy few last weeks but it will totally be worth it to see my work finally hung and displayed how it should be in the Degree show on May 23rd. Derby Uni has brought me a long way from that shy little college girl I used to be, with not enough confidence to show my imagination and express it within my work. I will be very happy to hopefully (fingers crossed) be a graduate of this university and begin my life as a textile designer. 

Market research

Texel Loom

On my Texel loom I have been creating many different designs, some which are more textual and some that are more graphic. I have been using similar yarn colours to those I have used on the jacquard as then I feel that my designs will match more. The idea behind my hand loom designs is that they will be washed, pressed and ready to be made into cushion fronts; this is coming along nicely and I have about 15 designs ready to choose from to make some final pieces for the degree show at the end of this academic year. 

Soon the warp that I am using at the minute, which is a double cloth to make thicker materials, will run out and I will have to create a new one, I have decided to use the same yarns and same threading structure but to make the warp wider so that I can weave bigger pieces out of it and create hand woven blankets for the final degree show.

Below are some of my hand woven designs in progress on the loom.