First Baby Knits

Just as I fancied a new challenge, a friend asked me to make a hat and mittens set for her little girl. Perfect timing! At first I couldn't decide on the style of hat, but in the end I went with a beret. I'm glad I did as I think it makes a cute little accessory. After a lot of time, (and plenty of knitters cramp!)  the set was complete! With the added flower detail, I am very pleased with my first attempt. Hope you like :-)

New Designs

Wow! I didn't realise how long it had been since I last posted. I've been pretty busy recently holding down two jobs as well as doing a Teaching English as a Foreign Language course, creating new designs and trying to squeeze in a social life! I have decided to continue an idea I touched upon briefly at university which was to create some jewellery. Some of the jewellery has a sheen to it to create a more occasion wear look, and some has a more cosy feel to it. No piece is the same meaning the wearer has a unique and personal item to wear. Colour and design variations are available and I'm currently in the process of designing some bag charms and bracelets so watch this space!
So... here are the first of many new creations... I hope you like! :-)

Thailand

I recently went on the trip of a lifetime to Thailand for a month with my friend Jade. To experience the country in the best way possible we decided to backpack around to visit as many places as we could. On our travels we visited Bangkok, Chaing Mai, Ko Samui, Ko Phangan, Phuket, Ko Phi Phi and Krabi and had such an amazing time. Elephant riding, white water rafting, mountain trekking, hill tribe visits, the Grand Palace, visiting temples, night markets, boat trips, national park visits and having photos taken with tigers kept us very busy for the month and I thoroughly enjoyed it all.
Soaking up the atmosphere over there was amazing and life over there is so much different to life in England. I loved experiencing how the people in Thailand live and work and the scenery and surroundings were very inspiring - so inspiring that I took over 2000 photos! Here are just a couple to give you a taster of my time there.

Beautiful attention to detail on the temples

Decoration at the Grand Palace - amazing

Border around the Grand Palace in Bangkok

Elephant trek! - these guys are huge!

A hill tribe village

Children of the hill tribe

The first day the rain came!

Sunset at Ko Phangan

Sunset at Ko Phi Phi

Temple ruins at Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya's famous Buddha head inside a tree trunk

Birthday Cards

This week I found myself designing some patterns using CAD and thought I should put them to some use - so I decided to have a go at designing some greetings cards. I find manipulating my photographs with CAD relaxing and love how quickly different colourways can be created.
So here are a few of my very first card designs (obviously the watermark isn't part of the design)... I would appreciate your thoughts and opinions on them whether they are positive or constructive critism :-) Thank you!

The End of an Era

Today I handed in my last ever project at college. It was a huge relief to have everything done, but at the same time slightly scary at the thought of what my next move will be! However, the first thing to do was go home, crack open a bottle of sparkling wine, eat chocolates and chill out with my mum and dad. It felt very strange having time to relax and I have to admit that I felt a small sense of guilt for not doing any work. However, that guilt soon went away and I spent the night enjoying some time away from working (although ideas of new designs were still running through my head - apparantly its actually quite hard to switch off!)

End of Year Exhibition

It was lovely to see everyones work last night at the end of year exhibition, it all looked amazing. A big well done to everyone for their hard work, it has all paid off! Seeing my work on display made all the blood, sweat and tears worth it and hearing all the lovely comments from people made it even better. A big thank you to the friends and family that came to the exhibition and the meal afterwards :-) Lots of love to you all!
So here it is, my final work of my time at Hull School of Art and Design.

The full collection

Knitted Balls on the Footstool

A close up of all 3 pieces

Me (looking flushed from the very warm room) with my final work

What a load of balls!

Hello all! Just over a week left until I finish my uni work so I've been feeling the pressure. However, I've almost finished my favourite final piece so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. These knitted balls are for one of my final pieces and I just love them. I could spend all day playing with them, arranging them into different patterns - but I have no time for that right now, I have a final major project to crack on with! So here is a little taster of whats to come...

Feeling like a Pro!

Today I finished my press pack for part of my college work. I loved seeing the pack complete - it all looked very professional together and made me feel one step closer to being ready to finish college and enter the working world! I also picked up my business and post cards that I had printed - now I just have to find 250 people to hand them out to!



The front of the press pack - smart and simple









The full press pack with CD, business card, postcard, CV and invoice







The back of the press pack



Colour Crazy

I was busy creating some business card designs today and realised that I hadn't blogged in a while. I've been a very busy bee recently during the last couple of weeks of university so I'm sorry I've been a bit quiet.
Anyway, whilst working away at my desk (aka my second home) I glanced away from my work and saw some materials that I just loved the colours of. As I love to share, I created a little collection of images so that you can see these wonderful colours too.
Feel free to let me know what you think :-)

I love the sunshine!

Over the weekend I took a break from my final major project and spent some time in the garden relaxing and gathering my thoughts. Whilst I was outside, it was so sunny that I had to take advantage of the nice weather and take some pictures. The garden at home is beautifully kept by my green fingered Mum and so has lots of wonderful flowers for me to photograph. Here are a chosen few:

Bradford Textile Society Design Prize Giving

Yesterday my friend Sam and I went to the prize giving for the Bradford Textile Design Competition to collect our commendation certificates. It was a lovely day with a gorgeous curry lunch which was lip tingling hot! I couldn't believe the standard of work that was there, it was amazing. Seeing the work was very inspiring but it also reminded me of the competition that is out there - innovation seems to be key so I need to keep my head in the game! However, I was very happy to be awarded a commendation prize so I wanted to share my certificate with you.

A big congratulations to all the winners and runners up! Images of the prize winners work will be up on the Bradford Textile Society website soon for you to have a look at.  http://www.bradfordtextilesociety.org.uk/