A Fresh Eye

So after four years of hard work, I am finally graduating on Monday!  As my work has moved on so much since starting university I thought it would be interesting to sort through some of my older work.

For those of you that have seen/know my work and in particular my final collection, you may not believe that what I discovered in the packed up boxes is actually something I produced!  I thought I would find myself throwing the majority of it away but actually going back to it, with a new eye has been quite inspiring.

A project exploring texture and pattern in nature.

An embroidery project exploring mark making.

A project exploring pattern and texture in nature with a particular focus on fugi.

I will be, over the course of the next couple of weeks, revisiting some of my older work and compiling new boards for my portfolio, for the time being though, I thought I would share some of what I discovered!

New Designers London 2013

So, I thought this would be a brilliant time to start blogging, at the beginning of my adventure!!

After completing my degree Ba(Hons) Textile Crafts specialising in knitted textiles, I was very pleased to discover that I had been selected to exhibit my final collection at New Designers in London.  New Designers shows over 3,500 talented, newly graduated designers from the Uk's leading universities.

The university shortlisted sixteen students including myself to exhibit our final collections and present ourselves as designers to industry contacts and members of the public.  Set up day involved a lot of re-arranging and decision making.  My work was originally going to be displayed against the wall, however after some discussions it was decided that my work would be placed in the middle of the space alongside the work of the very talented Rosie Preston (rugs) and Deborah Scott (glass).

During my time at New Designers I met some very interesting and exciting contacts including the UK Hand Knitting Association, Knitting Magazine and Helen Hunter from Colourful Beautiful Things.  It was fantastic to talk about my work to new faces and discover who was excited by my collection and the questions they had to ask.

I must admit the days were very long and I went through ALOT of Starbucks, which is situated very conveniently around the corner from the Business Design Centre!

The preview evening was one of my favourite moments of the week as Katarina from MillaMia and their lovely intern Yumiko came to visit myself and the final collection.  During my placement year I worked as a design intern for MillaMia and had the most amazing experience, so it was absolutely wonderful to see them and discuss my final collection and have a quick catch up!

Every year New Designers arrange a series of talks from various companies such as starting your own business, how to approach the press with your work, copyright etc...  I was very lucky to have the opportunity to attend a few talks over the week, including ones by Artsthread, Selvedge, ACID and Trend Bible, these talks were both informative and inspiring!

Since taking part in New Designers I have gained quite a bit of exposure and have been approached by several contacts, with lots of exciting things on the horizon!  Please visit regularly for more updates!

Please visit the New Designers Facebook Page for more photos and information.