London Design Festival 13th – 21st September

Last week saw the return of London Design Festival with exhibitions, talks and events dotted all over the city. I was spoiled for choice as to which design shows to go to. With just one day to take it all in, I started with ‘Tent London’ at the Old Truman Brewery, visited ‘Design Junction’ then finished at the V&A.

The shows were fantastic. There were some absolutely mesmerising pieces. Alongside clever furniture and product designs sat intriguing textiles. Being a textiles graduate myself, I couldn’t help making a beeline to the intricate prints, soft chunky textures and innovative fabric based products on display.

I listened to a talk on the use of colour/future colour trend analysis at Tent and also chatted to many of the designers about their inspirations, processes and use of materials. Here are some stand-out pieces, stalls and designers. More detail on particular designers to follow.

Technical Seamstress @ Cameron balloons

Over the summer months I have been helping local company Cameron Balloons. This is one of their busiest seasons and orders flood in from all over the world for hot air balloons, large scale promotional items and even a white orb-like roof for an outdoor opera venue. I have been using industrial sewing machines, seam guides and reading complex specifications and have also been checking my sewing work for quality (as we are making aircraft, stitch work has to be spot on so that the product is aerodynamically safe and sound). I have really enjoyed this time, I learnt a great deal and also worked with a great team. Thanks guys! Below is the first balloon I worked on. I sewed the red artwork on to the white balloon pieces and then sewed the gores (vertical strips made up of individually sized rectangular pieces) together. Also included are photos of some other stitch work which I was involved with including an internal shot of a promotional piece.

Out of Print Fashion show with Maisie Williams

A little while ago I was invited to take part in the ‘Out of Print’ fashion show at Bookbarn International. The challenge was to create on outfit constructed mainly from recycled books and along with 10 other design teams I exhibited the work at a catwalk show at Bookbarn international.

I spent months designing and crafting my outfit and was so happy to find out that I had won the competition! Me and my talented model Charlie have been treated to a fancy lunch at Ston Easton Park as our prize. Another highlight of the evening was meeting Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones star) who was a celebrity judge on the night. The outfit included book page panelled A-line skirt with chunky woven fabric and paper bodice. The book bag and fascination was also made by me in navy, gold and paper colours.

When popping back in to collect my entry yesterday (they were asked to be retained for an exhibition) the Bookbarn staff were lovely and mentioned that they had had quite a lot of interest in my Book Bag. Someone even asked for just a hollowed out book to put their keepsakes in! I really enjoyed creating these and am happy to make more so feel free to get in touch with any ideas/commissions. I do love a new challenge!

Thanks

Shelley Ward @ Beautiful Plumage