Research:scarve/sarong

During the design process of my scarves design one of my samples was printed at 95 cm square which is an average scarve size, I decided once seeing this size that I wanted to increase the scale of my scarve design and instead of it just being a souvenier scarve it could also be worn as a sarong or kanga. This idea fits well with St Ives as it is a tourist town where the majority of people visit in the summer so as a product the souvenier scarve/sarong would do well.


I like the idea of an oversized scarve, I think it would make a statement and stand out, this idea of the dual purpose sarong/scarve could start a new trend in fashion and acccesories...


Images from Google images at www.google.co.uk

Research: The Market for the souvenier scarf

I have been looking at other artists and designers who have use photography within their scarves designs and I came across a blog called *smart design mart where i found a selection of digitally printed scarfs, one scarve in particular had photos of people running on it, It has a very contemporary feel to it and i think the composition of the people in the photo works well around the customers neck.






Images above from SMART DESIGN MART
BLOGGER.COM

latest St Ives photo research..

Yesterday I spent the whole day in st ives in the scorching sun taking lots of new photos for my scarf designs. I borrowed a digital slr camera from the photography department and got some great photos...here are a few

By taking sections of different photographs I intend to create contemporary scarfs that can be worn as a souvenier.

Research and inspiration: "The souvenier scarf"

Since i have been sketching everyday and taking photos everywhere I have been able to capture the feeling of St Ives, whether its the tourists on holiday or the locals relaxing I have caputured the quirkyness of the people and have been able to play with compostion and detail.
I started this project with an Idea of creating a print to be used as an accesory/garment that would be worn by the customer who brought it because she was in love with New York and for her the print had the vibrancy and energy of the city she loved.
Since starting the project I have gone from capturing new york to capturing St Ives, I have spent alot of time in St Ives and it has come to be my home, it has a familiarity that I admire, whereas one of the main things I love about new york is that it is all new and exciting, full of unfamiliar places and nooks and crannys waiting to be discovered.
How can I bring the unfamiliar to my home St Ives?? Is there a way of documenting st ives in a way that is unfamiliar to me?? All these questions needed to be answered...

This is why I found the sketching so interesting, It was a process I had never used before and it was a new and exciting way to capture the place I live. I also used photography to document where i had been, I took different routes to work that I would not normally use and on my days off I would walk around all the streets I had never been down before.
When you live somewhere you tend to take your surroundings for granted, you go about yopur everyday life to work, school or college and you stick to the route you always travel. What about the road less travelled??

This thought process lead me to the idea of a "souvenier scarf" a scarf brought when visiting your favorite place, but instead of the obvious photographic holiday imagery your scarf is full of beautiful abstract photos of all the little places you might of missed on your visit as well as a few hidden details of the places you loved.
This scarf would be your souvenier, your memories and experiences all in one place and whenever you look at it you would always have to look twice to remamber what you saw.
The "St Ives scarf" will be a digitally printed scarf made up of various photographic compositions of St Ives. each scarf in unique and abstract and the customer would always discover something new on the scarf whenever she wore it....

Using my photos of St Ives I started to piece together what my "St Ives scarf" would look like.
I also started looking at designers who had used photographic images of place within their fashion designs.

I stumbled across Prada spring collection 2010 where digitally printed beach scenes were used...


Images from collectors.com

Research and inspiration: St ives local stories..

Some of the stories told by Capt Tomas Bassett Paynter whose nickname was "man friday" and who often slept for warmth at the gas works and also lived in the tenement in Digey Square known as "The Digey hotel".
These stories were told with straight face and were often accepted...

Here are some of them....

"I once sailed with a cargo of little green men"

"we were rounding Cape Horn in a fog, the cap'n sent me up the mast to see where we were to.when i came down the ship had gone"

" I once sailed on a ship that was on the same tack for so long that it wore the ships side through"

"We were up in the Baltic on a long tack; the cap'n put us over the side and we scraped the barnacles off the bottom. Then he put us on the other tack, and we did the same to the other one."

"I once sailed with a cargo of umbrella seed"

"Down the Antarctic we sailed on the same wave for seven years"

"We were in Bassetts Bay one time, in a fog so thick we were all leaning on it. suddenly the fog cleared away and we all fell overboard."

"On being asked if he had ever been ship wrecked. He said "many's the time" "we were coming home once from Trevail with a cargo of blackberries, and we were wrecked on a place called the island"

"I landed a cargo of grass in Clodgy Cove for Vivians cows but they would only eat grass from Clodgy, so i had to take um bak again"


Local stories are a big part of what keeps a place's history alive, I want to use local St Ives stories within my design process. Hidden stories within the designs, tiny sections that when you look closer you can see the history and get a feeling of the place...

I write poems and I have done since I was 9 years old, alongside my sketches I want to use poems that I wrote about the places I have been to and use them in my work. I want to combine sketches, photos and poems to piece together the places in my life.







Man friday stories from local fisherman
Harding Laity

Research and inspiration: Lisa Connolly, Illustrator & textile artist

I found this blog by an illustrator/textile artist called Lisa Connolly, I love the way she sketches with stitches onto fabric...

Research: place and people sketches

I have been sketching nearly everyday for the past two weeks wherever i go, uni, home,work. I only spend about two mins max on each sketch. I have been using biro and/or pencil. here are some of my sketches so far...