Whale Bones

I used a sketch of a whale skull from the Natural History Museum and made it more abstract after being inspired by Manish Arora, I painted and filled in the inside shapes using block, clashing pigment colours contrasting nudes with neons. I really like the idea of 'treasure and trash' as I like to mix sequins and crystals with nails, nuts and washers. Again I painted the hardware using nail varnish and spray paints. I think the colours are a lot brighter than the other bone shape and the chain is a nice finishing touch to the design. I feel that this works really well with my mix match brief and used a symmetrical design so I could break the rules with unsymmetrical colours and embellishments.

Continued..

I started to embroider and embellish into the bone, sewing around the edges so it was permanently fixed on using contrasting neon threads. I used contrasting colour to the nudes like greens and blues and then tried to use more neutral colours on the neon pink such as pale pink washers which i sprayed and light beads and sequins. I used chain and embellishments to parts of the bone. I am so happy with the finished design, the washers add a weight to the fabric and the tiny cogs give a quirky twist. Once the garment has been made up I plan to scatter more washers and clock parts around the fabric with french knots, stitches, negative shapes of sequin fabric and home made printed acetate sequins. I'm really excited to continue with this! Also used the super macro setting on my new camera to take these close up shots of the embroidery, I am well impressed with the detail and colour!

Neon Bones

I have used bones and skeletons from the beginning of this project (and my minor) as my main source of visual research, this project I wanted to make them less obvious and abstract them.
I exposed several line drawings of bones I had drawn from the Natural History Museum and screen printed the outlines on to fabric. I started painting in the individual shapes of the bone in clashing and contrasting colours, using neons and nudes. I plan to embroider into it tomorrow.

I used bondaweb to attach it on to my front top shape, hopefully it will sit well when the garment is made up!

Embroidery Samples

Taking inspiration from fossil shapes I have been experimenting 'mix match' embroidery, clashing colours, layers of materials and 3d embroidery.