a little of this... a lot of that

last year i developed a penchant for fashion books, specifically, a series put out by the v & a museum in london

fashion in detail for the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries

as well as 

a history of underwear, in detail

beautifully photographed examples from the museum's extensive collection along with wonderful anecdotal information and sketches

i'm in a class over at contemporary embroidery where karen is having fun trying to keep us all somewhat contained - this class is so amazing and everyone is doing wonderfully inspiring work

I'm a little behind, but plugging away

we're sampling all things stitch and design related, working loosely in the format of the design industry itself - at our own pace

it's fascinating

for my inspirational jumping off point i chose this...

line, contour, detail - many elements, yet so simple

i had a copy made of the original - far more orange than what it looks like in the book, so i thought i might pursue that a little in my early stages

first came an inspiration board of sorts

looking at certain elements, creating a kind of story board

 extending some of the lines

doodling shapes

 then another sheet, a little more abstract this time

now creating surfaces

always pulling out different design elements, enhancing some,  exaggerating others

interpreting and re-interpreting

taking a construction element and creating a design one

stitch, rip, tear, glue, sew

today i'd had enough of the orange - not saying i won't go back to it along the way, but for now, its off the menu

 

 this one's full of smoky neutrals, with a hit of duck-egg blue

my favourite colour combo these days

machine lace, reverse applique, even tried my hand at drawing lace

quite fun, quite forgiving - i'll be trying my hand at this again!

 I'm learning so much about how to look at things to garner inspiration, how to stretch out an idea, creating surfaces and so on

as i said, we're sampling ideas, building a library of them, to be referred to time and time again - all beautifully mounted in a lovely ring-bound sketch book i bought last year at granville island

i'm making an investment in my own creative future, to refer to when i'm feeling stumped, a place to turn when i lose the map and can't decide on a direction

 a book i can curl up with on a rainy day and remember what i did on a different one