London Trip: 5^th-7^th December, 2016

Mon 5^th Dec, 2016

                During the trip to London to start off the ‘Ordered Opposites’ brief and continue ‘100 Objects’, I was able to experience a variety of different studio visits; explore designers’ work; and scope out interesting areas in London. To begin with a group of us travelled to Hyde Park to experience the ‘Winter Wonderland’ event they had on for Christmas. Although this doesn’t sound like it would be useful to the course, there were actually an array of interesting objects and trinkets that people were selling that were very eye-catching and inspirational.  One of which was a woven scarf that I bought. I found it quite fascinating to look at the scarf more closely and try to develop a better understanding of how it would have been made.  

             

  

Whilst walking through the park we came across a building that had walls with colour changing lights embedded in them. It was extremely eye-catching and the texture of the wall added to the appearance of the lights. From different angles I was able to see the colours working and blending together in various ways which could help me with colour work in the future.

Tue 6^th Dec, 2016

                I accompanied a visit to Kirsty McDougall’s studio to see how she works with weave and the kind of things she creates. I was very intrigued and surprised at how much high end fashion she had done for big names such as Marc Jacobs and Henry Holland. Before having this opportunity I was completely unaware of how much work was outsourced from these big brand names, and how un-elitist they are about it. By this I mean that Kirsty’s studio wasn’t big and fancy. It was quite the opposite; a small rooftop room with several looms.  It really gave me a new insight to the world of textiles and fashion, one that should be shown more. 

Wed 7^th Dec, 2016

                Both of the studio visits I had on my final day in London weren’t for my chosen specialism but I thought it best to go to as many visits as possible while I had the opportunities in the city. To begin with I travelled to Chelsea Harbour. I was quite excited when I arrived because these shops were much more high end and expensive than I’m used to and aren’t something you get to deal with much as a student. It felt unusual to be in a shopping area with such interesting materials, but the new ways that these fabrics were used has inspired me to try and think of things in almost a more impractical sense. For example, I was particularly enthralled by some velour wallpaper; something I have never seen done before but worked really well. 

               Finally I attended a visit to Giles Millers studio who creates beautiful wall pieces and sculptures from materials such as porcelain and a variety of others. It was nice to see how something so simple could become something that looked very intricate just by being repeated. At first I thought each tile could move and rotate to be changed in a random order; however each tile is thought out and specifically placed to use light and shade to create the final result.  I enjoy working very repetitively myself so it was very intriguing for me to see a new way of using a repetitive process and finding out just how much can be done with it.