Hi again,

This week was rather a slow one as Amanda Kelly herself flew off to New York for our final 2 weeks before Christmas not as much work came in as it was already too late for it to go on any big trips. Instead this week we got to learn more about the techniques the designers use, styles of patterns and the organisation of the office. 

As my hands don’t function particularly well when it comes to the idea of drawing small pictures on paper and scanning them in for patterns my mood drops, as I know I can’t do this on paper losing some of the beauty in the design.  However the designers showed us how they also do some more abstract textures and such on paper to scan which I am able to do. Using my illustration skills I learnt in my first year I was able to create some interesting brush marks and textures that could be turned into skins and other patterns digitally. Despite the fact most of the designers purely work digitally, when they do use physical design methods and combine the techniques I have learnt it can enhance certain designs depending on what you are drawing of course.

As the tye dyes were so popular we got to make some more, using random knots and tying weird things into them to see how they would turn out. I have mentioned before one of the other interns has a masters and knows a lot about dying, so because we had more time we decided to try and get some items to rust into the fabrics leaving interesting colours and patterns and it worked! The metal objects left behind orange and brown marks into the fabrics which made beautiful patterns when further dyed. I have learnt that not all fabric patterning techniques are necessarily expensive, rusting random household objects into fabric can also produce unique patterns. 

We also had an unusual request this week of a client wanting the texture removing from a pattern. As the print was originally done by hand in watercolour on a special paper they wanted the paper texture removing from the pattern presumably because they intend to screen print the pattern. As both the other interns were busy this task was left to me. I tried several techniques and photoshop features to attempt to remove it however most made the pattern either look childish or too blurry. Then one of the designers showed me how she used to remove similar things at her previous job and it did amazing work removing the texture without destroying the pattern. She showed me how on photoshop the element I’m attempting to remove is called ”Noise” and there is a feature where you can increase the amount of noise you’d like to remove, this feature did 95% of my job and still kept the pattern looking great. Then to further this you can add a median which overall smooths it further evenly. This technique I’m sure will be helpful in my final year if not for designing but giving a more professional look to my sketchbook, portfolio and final photoshoot images. 

Finally in my personal life as it’s coming up to Christmas I am preparing presents and adding final touches. For the first time in a long time I have been glass painting for a couple people’s gifts. It has taken a couple of tries however I’m rather proud of the results, although it’s very much a Pinterest nailed it failure when in comparison to the professional. I love to add little elements of personal thought to gifts like this and I hope the receivers will be happy with their gifts.