Dripping Jewels - water texcomm competition

The brief I wrote for water texcomm competition -

Water and its distinct forms provide many qualities to inspire fashion,ice is clean and structured, vapour is sheer and ever changing, and in its liquid state, the waves in the water creating both predictable patterns and mysterious waves.

"For its mystery, familiarity and constant change, the movement and structure of water inspires and mirrors that static nature of fashion" ( xenia Viray zoozoom magazine)

Around my theme i want to look at the beach how the waves effect the shore the idea of things being hidden underneath the sand, the waves eroding the pebbles, smoothing the glass, rusting the metals, and creating patterns in the sane.Looking at the glass and how the sea smooths parts and leaves other parts rough.Also looking at how water can freeze then how it melts slowly and drips creating patterns marking the fabric, this i can envisage directly into my textile design as heavy beading and embellishment dripping down the body.

For my contextual research i found artist katharina ludwig who creates jewellery out of ice.

" If water itself is worn as a jewel the preciousness of water is enhanced, put on the body it will melt by the body warmth, what will stay is just the core of it and marks the ice leaves on your skin" (katharina ludwig)

She designed some earrings that had pigment inside them, which when it melts it leaves traces on your clothes, while the earring is melting the jewel appears on your shoulder instead of on your ear.

To kick start my project I'm going to photograph different beaches, and also try to capture water dripping and marking different surfaces.Using mixed medias, building up layers to draw straight from my observations. Using my art work to inspire my textile practices.

The sort of colour palette i will use will be greys, blues,silvers,light pinks and browns,.Taken from my photographs and drawings of the beach.

I am designing for the high end market, my client would be a wealthy women between the ages of 18-25, fashion conscious wanting to keep up with the trends.

Below is a presentation i gave about my project, it has all my inspirations, artist research,drawings, development and final pieces.

I used a lot of different techniques to create my samples, to enable me to add structure i sewed in pieces of pelment vilene which stiffens the fabric.I made up lots of small structures and grouped them all together to create a larger structure. I used aquaful disolvable fabric on the Cornell machine for the shoulder embellishment adding an entirely beaded shoulder piece, with beads that appear to be "melting" off the shoulder. I also used plastic boning to create a corset like body so it contrasts between the structured and the unstructured.