Second year BA Textile Design students recently took part in an exhibition which was a culmination of their first term project focused around colour.
BA Textile Design course leader, Caryn Simonson, explains “Inspired by the theme of Resonance, students in print, weave, knit, stitch and digital textiles exhibited concepts to produce ideas for fabrics and product innovations. The project focused on the development of colour, surface, texture and form.”
Work by Nomita Saldanha
Inspiration
Nomita Saldanha’s work was inspired by the chaos, vibrant colours and paraphernalia sold in the markets of her hometown in India.
“The juxtaposition of the bazaar stalls selling an array of random goods stacked up and falling out and the surrounding walls covered in worn out half-peeled posters is what drew my attention. I wanted to take this imagery and put in into a textile collection. I started my work by collaging, abstracting and distorting the shapes, forms and recreating the market scenes from the way I saw it. The final textiles were created by using a combination of stitches, fringing methods, knots and most importantly, different qualities of yarn.”
Lucie Hands took inspiration from a trip to Italy in the summer where she was inspired by the colours and shapes of the architecture.
“I started by abstracting colour and tone from my primary research, thinking about how the colours work together, including proportion and shape. This research has helped me with using colour in my work. It is such an important part of the design, and I will always have the knowledge learned from this project.”
Lara Williams was inspired by ideas of home. “I was interested in creating a colour scheme and samples that were both comforting and lively. I did a lot of painting in preparation for the project, mixing colours and seeing how they influenced each other on paper.”
Work by Lara Williams
Experimentation
Matthew Masters took the opportunity to experiment further within his specialism.
“In the preparation for the colour project I was able to be very experimental in my practice, more than I had been in previous projects. With such a wide brief I was able to broaden my understanding of colour and how to develop a colour scheme”
Work by Matthew Masters
Presentation
Lucie chose to print two of her pieces on a large scale at A1 size, “I was given help with editing the colours for maximum impact, as well as then mounting my prints on board so they were more stable and looked better when displayed on the wall.”
Matthew also enjoyed the opportunity of working on a larger scale. “I feel as a Chelsea student I am so lucky to work in a such a large studio, I found that having my own space to work meant I could use materials I wasn’t able to before. The use of the workshops also aided me in creating sculptural pieces, the staff were able to advise and guide me in my work and I found this essential to my creative process. “
Students worked across a range of mediums to put together a professionally curated show. As well as large scale mounted prints, Lucie also made a film and book as part of her exhibition.
“I wanted to capture the movement of my work to be shown at the exhibition, so I decided to make a short film. I also produced a book, which was printed through the reprographics facilities at Chelsea. It is great that there are all these facilities at Chelsea, and people with the knowledge to help and advise.”
Work by Lucie Hands
The project has influenced Matthew to work more confidently with colour.
“I now have a completely different outlook on what it is to use colour within my textiles work, I feel that I can now use colour more confidently and with reason, I understand the process of taking colour from my research and using this to create a colour scheme.”
Exhibition
The exhibition commenced with a private view which was open to public visitors and also to invited industry guests.
“Chelsea has many links with the industry, so it was great that these people were invited to our show. It gives us the chance to prepare for the future when we will be presenting our work to potential clients. We are taking our work to Premiere Vision in Paris as part of the next project, so this was a great chance to practice our professional presentation skills.”
Follow Matthew on Instagram: @matthewlmasters
Check out Nomita’s work on her blog nomitasaldanhaportfolio.blogspot.co.uk
Find out more about the BA Textile Design course on our website
See more work from our BA Textile Design students on our Flickr Page