Designs for Mad hatters Charity Tea Party

Even though  I have a long way to go as far as my design skills are concerned I am pleased that the director liked the majority of the designs. I have been asked to make a few changes to each which i shall list below:

*Dormouse  need a waistcoat

*March hare needs an animal suit, similar to white rabbit

*White Rabbit needs a waistcoat

*Alice needs more lace around the dress and apron

I have been asked to redraw these for a deadline of 5th of May in order to have time to construct each outfit.

ANOTHER GOAL REACHED

Today was a typical Sleepy Sunday, after packing several boxes for the move to my new flat next week and with the rain pouring down outside, I decided it was in the best productive interests of my work to knuckle down and have a cup of tea on standby. My Task was to finish the Mad Hatter Charity Tea Party Designs 9 final designs are on another post) and meet my barnical deadline. This was the correct choice as i finished all the designs after two hours of hard graft and was making a barnical in 10 minuets :


5 x 4mm crochet hook using string
5 x 4mm crochet hook using blue (baby soft) wool

After 5 of the string barnicals I decided to switch to the baby blue wool as it was a softer texture to the rougher string, and felt this would make a good comparison. Even though each of the barnicals are made up of different mediums they have there differant uses. the sting barnicals for example would work well on the collectors outfits whereas the elders cloaks would tie in well with the baby blue ones due to the patchwork.

Even on a weekend

Even on a weekend the nose is still to the grindstone. Even though I'm not in Sheffield any more I have decided to keep to my 10 barnicals a day target which I will complete in the evenings after class. I have also got to factor in time for the construction of the costumes for Mad Hatters Charity Tea Party. We have 10 - 12 costumes to make with a very small budget.  However with Libby, Phillip and myself working on the costumes I believe we shall make the deadline. However the designs must be finalised by tomorrow.

Today I made:

5 x Grey (Double Knit) Wool using a 5mm crochet hook
3 x Blue (4 Ply) Wool using a 5mm crochet hook
2 x Blue (4Ply) Wool using a 4mm crochet hook

All wonderful wools to work with and easy to use due to no fraying. Currently I am debating if branching out into other wools and experimenting more would work.

As well as this I crocheted a ball of felted wool in maroon which shall be woven into the scarf to create a beard.

Last day and a bit of sight seeing

Today was my last day in Sheffield, and apart from a slight shock with the trams I must admit I have had a lovely time and taken in a lot of the sights. I found water features are a large part of the scenery in Sheffield and they also have a large greenhouse which holds many variety of plants. whilst going around here I found that vines when curled look a lot like crochet chains and maybe once home I can replicate this out of string?

On the train home (5 hours of train home) I went a little crazy on the barnicals and was able to make 4 more than my target amount. I have found once you get into the swing of making them, you don't really notice the hook or count the stitches, you just automatically do it, i made:

10 x Grey (Double Knit) wool using a 5mm crochet hook
2 x Beige (Double Knit) wool using  a 5mm crochet hook
2 x Blue (4 Ply) wool using a 5 mm crochet hook

All of the wools above I brought in Sheffield and must admit they are of a high quality. None of them frayed or tugged meaning it was easy to work with and wasn't as time consuming as others which fray badly. using the larger hook also helped and put less strain on my hand and arm. When I return home I feel that if I buy a larger hook such as a 8mm I could make up looser stitches and try a variety of chain stitches.

a bit of a compliment :)

I MADE IT! Even though today was long I sat in conference floor and stitched away, the new national president was elected and even complimented me on my work ethic. Proves that with little bit of hard work you can make targets.

2 x Structured  Cardboard Cone using Green (Double Knit) Wool ( This was easy to work with and I barely noticed the thread whilst working with it, no fraying happened and the structures stayed attached)

4 x 5mm Crochet Hook using Green (Double Knit) Wool (The same as above)

4 x 5mm Crochet Hook using Chunky Grey 50% Wool/50% Acrylic wool (a lovely wool to work with however a bit of fluffiness did occur towards the end of the barnicals, to rectify this maybe finding a fray stopper spray and diluting it may help contain the wool blends)

Tomorrow is my last day in Sheffield before I return so i shall take in some of the sites and see if I can find any research which will help on this project.

motions motions and a crochet hook

After a very long day of debates, conference motions and fringe events I was still able to make the following:

5 x 3.5mm Crochet Hook and Beige Acrylic/Wool Blend. ( this was a tricky wool to work with as the wool had a tendency to split and part off. This over all took longer to crochet with and evidently became very fiddly to work with.)

3 x 5mm Crochet Hook and Chunky Grey 50%Wool/50% Acrylic Blend ( this wool was lovely to crochet with. No fraying or parting happened and I found working with a larger hook worked to my advantage as it put less pressure on my hand and arm.)

2 x 3.5mm Crochet Hook and Green (Double Knit) Wool (once again another lovely wool to work with no fraying however using the smaller hook took longer to work with and was only able to manage two of these)

Tomorrow is the elections day, so it may prove more tricky to make my target amount. However this being said if I take a hook and some wool into conference floor I can work again whilst listening.

conference motions and barnicals in row G

Today whilst sat in conference I managed to make 11 barnicals using a variety of crocket hooks to see the variety in stich between each:

2 x Chunky Grey (50% Acrylic and 50% wool)  wool using a 4mm crochet hook

5 x Chunky Grey (50% Acrylic and 50% wool) wool using a 5mm crocket hook

4 x Chunky Grey (50% Acrylic and 50% wool) wool using a 3.5mm crochet hook

I found that the smaller the hook, the tighter my stitches became and towards the end I found I was struggling with the 3.5mm hook. It seemed that you needed a lot of wrist action to work with this hook which at the moment I do not have. However I found a way around this where I hold the hook between my knees and loop the wool with one hand instead of two. I am hoping that after some practice I may be able to work my way up to finding a way of holding the hook and looping at the same time.

Abit of a barnical break

This week (23^rd till 27^th of April) I shall be in Sheffield for the NUS National Conference 2012. This is where students from around the country come together and decide (place garble in here) . I feel privileged to be part of the Arts University College at Bournemouth's delegation team. Even though I shall be doing this all week I have also set myself a target which I must reach every day. I have concluded that I shall make 10 barnicals a day in both button hole stitch with a frame and in crochet form which may be used later on in the project. I feel this is a reasonable target and may work with the crochet hook during conference. I am getting more confident in my abilities with the crochet hook so if possible I may also try a variety of different stitches such as the chain which may be woven into the beards. There is also a possibility that once Ive mastered some of these stitches I could use scraps of material and even string to form parts of garments.

Today i have been able to make:

2 x Green (Double Knit) Wool using a 5mm Crochet Hook. 

3 x Green (Double Knit) Wool using a 3.5mm Crochet Hook

1 x Blue (Double Knit) Wool using a 3.5mm Crochet Hook

2 x Blue (Double Knit) Wool using a 5mm Crochet Hook

All lovely wools to work with, minimal fraying and when pulled taunt didn't tease apart like other wools, maybe using double knit wool would be a good idea throughout making these so they look professional. 

BREATHE TOGETHER IN PERFECT HARMONY

This evenings work really paid off at the Breathe Club. We were joined by many different and diverse people all of whom wanted to work on the project. Mary (a fellow second year) ran a workshop on how to make barnicals and I must admit the entire table had a brilliant time working on these. By the end of the night we made 108 barnicals which is amazing and can be placed onto the breathe costumes for decorative detailing.

There are only a few steps to making them but they are really effective:

1. using acetate, cut out a circle and then cut out a inner circle.
2. turn this into a cone shape and stick together with masking tape.
3. tape in the end of your chosen wool inside the cone and using the buttonhole stitch move your way around the cone.
4. once you reach the end, sew in the ends to give a professional finish.

Everything gets tied together

Today seemed to be what I call a 'loose' day. A day where loads of odds and ends needed to be finished and tied up in order to continue with the next section of work. I began with going through the base costumes and seeing which ones needed more working into and which needed sea enemies adding to them. The enemies are made up by mixing together white acrylic paint, waterproof base or PVA glue and sand from the beach. then decorativly placed onto the garments. (see below)

Afterwards once they had dried I built them up in a pattern (using sea enemie pictures as a basis) to finalise the base costumes. These may now have surface decoration added and be layered with additional garments to create a costume. 

Design Detailing

Today was all about assigning costumes and the best ways to go about constructing them. We all had an in depth talk with Kate (the designer) about what her ideas were and how we could turn them into reality. from our meetings with the group last term we were given recommended groups where our talents would work the best and in areas we were interested in.  I was recommended the elders as there capes are very textural and I believe I have found a way of creating these by knotting lots of fabric and weaving them together to create a layering piece which another person could attach to parts of a jacket or trousers.

As well as this I shall be looking into beards and the best ways of creating them. This can be done through  plaiting, weaving or knotting

And the window opens

The saying is correct, when a door shuts a window opens. The Breathe team have allowed me to join them in making costumes for the breathers in Battle for the winds ( http://vimeo.com/40947917 ). I shall be working on the base costumes for the next few days and then after a meeting with the group we can determine which designs I will be working on. My challenge for the next 8 weeks will be to create parts of garments which are highly textural, however without a sewing machine or actual sewing. My work is going to involve a lot of dying, painting and knotting. i shall research behind some of these methods and create a textural sample sketchbook to hand in. Im hoping this will open my eyes to a differant part of costume as well as explore other pathways which could be open to me.

when a door shuts, a window opens...... right?

Today was a very difficult day for me in many ways. Being the first day back after the Easter holidays and needing to get into the swing of things again, I was ready for for whatever would be thrown my way. But this is where the door slid shut on me. During the holidays I fell down the stairs at work and have broken the radius and scaphoid bones in my right hand and arm, being right handed this has caused some major problems. For the next 8 weeks I am unable to sew or use any machinery. Today I went in for a meeting with Adele and discussed some options, we have determined I cant stay on costume store due to the heavy amounts of sewing and intricate detailing needed. Instead Adele is going to ask the team in charge of the Breathe Project if i can join them. I am hoping they say yes, but until I find out  what I can do I will be focusing on textural techniques which could be used on a costume. Heres to the costume girl looking for a window.