Mats Bootcamp February Mini - Magnolia's

I have always adored Chinoiserie, so much so that I would love to create my own. Imagine how utterly elated I was then, when I discovered that for this months mini exercise in Bootcamp my mission was to paint magnolia’s.

I decided for that reason that I’d like to keep my flowers for this assignment relatively representational and I thoroughly enjoyed getting back into my watercolour paints, after several months of learning new processes in the textile print room at college. I also decided to try two new colours that have been sitting in my palette all this time and yet I never use them!

Admittedly, I probably don’t have time to develop this into a Chinese style wallpaper design just yet, but most certainly have visions of coming back to it in future months.

Magnolias Watercolour Painting by Susie Batsford

BA Textiles - Product Visualisation Boards

The last week has been completely nuts in preparation for the great ‘Hand In’ tomorrow! The list of requirements is seemingly endless and each aspect takes sooo long to manifest! I am a virtual stranger to my poor long suffering family. For the last 3 days I’ve been working solidly from 5am to 9pm while my dear supportive husband take’s care of the day to day running of life at home with a busy family. If only he knew just how much I appreciate him… perhaps I’ll think of something fantastic and creative in equal measure to make it up to him!

For our brief, we were each given two words to work with, mine were ‘Opulence’ and ‘Ornamental’. We then had to take those two words and investigate a whole series of design making solutions culminating in two completely different collections. So, here are my final visualisation boards for those two separate collections. Neither board has all my designs on it, but I will have more time to share those with you after tomorrow. Now, wish me luck, I still have a very long list to complete!

Opulence Home Decor Interior BA Surface Design Visualisation Board by Susie Batsford
Ornamental Geometric Stationery Visualisation Board BA Surface Design by Susie Batsford

BA Textiles - Preparing for Year 3 Submission

I haven’t posted much for a few months and that’s quite simply because I’ve been absolutely snowed under with work. Switching from Illustration to Textiles and Surface Design for the Final Year of my degree has been such a massive learning curve, it’s utterly wonderful to learn something new, but at times it has also felt overwhelming. I’m now in my last week before having to submit the entire body of work I’ve created in the last few months. Our module has been all about Innovation and Experimentation. Quite honestly, each and every new process I’ve learnt… and there have been quite a number of them, has for me been experimental in itself. There are so many new skills to learn and get up to speed with, from seemingly simple things such as how to make a collection cohesive to different dye techniques and fabric surfaces and a huge variety of different technical processes. Gradually, very gradually I am getting there, although I still have a huge amount to learn.

For now though, I thought I would leave you with a development on my New Year design which has sparked so many new creative ideas of its own.

Hand Painted Daisy Design Pattern by Susie Batsford