Textile student
Trying to expand my work and take a new style and add it to my skills…by creating a screen and using a fern leaf and another grass style shrub and exposing these to my screen to make the images transfer over. Creating a screen print it gives me the chance to use the images pattern over and over again and create different styles but based around the same images. With this I aim to create larger scale and expanding my ideas to wallpaper designs.
Adding some detail can create a whole new look to a piece of work! Some hand embroidered french knot stitches applied to the center of pansie prints have gave the digital print a more delicate look to it, also creating more of a realistic look to the flowers
Taking my favourite repeated patterns and upping the scale on them, transferring my patterns onto a large digital printer to expand the scale of them. By doing this it gives me a chance to work with them on a larger scale either using them to make products out of or using the material to reupholstering furniture.
A collection of the different repeated patterns I have designed
After experimenting with different techniques and methods, I have deiced to move into the direction of using the hammered and pressed flowers on fabric and establishing these to create my own repeated patterns. Creating this pattern was achieved by scanning in the material used to hammer the flowers upon and uploading it to photoshop and merging them together to create an overall look and finished pattern.
A way of changing the colours of the fabrics I was using with natural products and methods was to steam them and rust them! When steaming the fabric I used silk as this soaked up the colours the best, i used vivid coloured petals and leaves. After this I then soaked the silk in vinegar and placed the petals and leaves on top and then rolling and tying with string. The final stage is to steam them in a pan with boiling water for an hour ( longer left better result) . After drying and removing the petals and leaves results showing a pattern and colour formed left on the silk creating a beautiful outcome to the silk. 
Rusting fabrics is another way to dye the fabric with a natural twist to it, again i soaked the fabric in vinegar as this makes the material soak up the colour better, after this I wrapped the material around some rusting objects i had come across (metal pipe and spanner) after letting these sit in the rain and then a bucket of water. Removing the string and the fabric relieved interesting patterns and a rich orange/brown colour. 
Taking into consideration of wanting to keep my theme of work based around ‘nature&natural‘ , I decided to try and use flowers and leaves as the main source of material throughout my work. From this I experimented with the colours and marks left behind when using the petals and the leaves, to create this I took materials such as cotton, canvas and silk to place flowers and leaves upon and then hammering them with a hammer and a homemade press and to crush and press the petals and leaves. From this I was able to discover the high intensity prints i got as a result! This also gave me the chance to figure out what flowers worked better then others and what produced the best colours and marks.
Flowers & leaves used:
Violas , pansies, marigolds, rose petals, acer leaves, salvia petals, and pansies leaves
For my current project in university the main theme and inspiration for my work is based around the theme of natural forms, focusing on flowers and leaves. From there I will focus on certain aspects of the theme these including: colour, form, shape, texture and also that natural dyes the petals and leaves give off when manipulated with. I will experiment with different techniques to create different styles of work.
ELS_DESIGNS 