Come Dine with Cara

People's Print member Cara Piazza and recent graduate explores textiles through the unusual process dyeing from our natural waste to create her eco fashion collection.

Who and what inspires you?
I try to pull inspiration from everywhere but I tend to find myself constantly being drawn to mapping and diagramming and locating myself graphically in my surroundings. I'm also inspired by ways to harness nature in urban environments, natural history and oddities, and the occult.


What techniques have you used in your final collection?
For my final collection I only used natural dyes and screen printing. What excites you about your future as a young textile designer? I am excited to try to help revive the craft of natural dyeing and to help promote local commerce as well with my work.

What are your unique qualities that you think you offer as you enter the world of art and design? 
I believe I have a strong business mentality along side being creative. I have an eye for keeping a client in mind, and think my creative optimism can help solve some key issues in design practices today.

What would be your dream collaboration or project? 
My dream collaboration would be to partner with a restaurant / or some sort of food service to create a studio where we helped and used each others excess wastes. It would be great to try to make a collection that was sold on a large scale simply with by products.

The People's Print look forward to dyeing and dining with you in the future!
Thank you Cara Piazza

Schools Out!

The works done, a great portfolio, maybe even a first degree, shows down, all done, schools out! But the prospect of leaving ‘the nest’ must be daunting for the recent graduate setting out into the ‘real’ world. As educators we do our best to prepare them for the reality but being a nurtured student in a close knit community to suddenly cast out is a shock for all and sometimes feels brutal and an abrupt end from a highly creative existence and environment. Some students have had enough of education and are ready to go and some are apprehensive, understandably in this economic climate.

With a great body of work under their belt, the next step is offered here at Artsmart, run by The University of The Arts, a series of talks, workshops, portfolio advice, tips all by professional speakers from industry to help them with the next set of skills that are needed for all those bright young things launch themselves into the ‘creative industries’. There is so much good advice out there and it’s brought together here.

Now suddenly it seems all so exciting! &The People’s print will be checking out Artsmart tomorrow.

Artsmart 29th/30th July 

Go Girl Go!

People's Print member Naomi Whitehead graduates this year from Chelsea College of Art and Design with her final collection 'Naomi's World', here's more about whats going on in her world of pattern, print and material investigation.


Hello Naomi

Who and what  inspires you?

I love the bold colour and graphic symbolism found within the motoring industry. Chemistry labs and crystal structures also inspire me. New scientific textiles and the unexpected reapplication of materials excites me the most. 

What techniques have you used in your final collection? 

I have used digital printing on to wool to create women tailoring with bold colour choices. I have also created a matching jewellery collection using plant based BioResin, currently used in the motoring industry by companies such as BMW for car exteriors. I have found that BioResin is perfect for jewellery due to its non-toxic,  eco-friendly properties.

Are you excited about your future as a young textile designer?

It is a scary prospect leaving education but the possibilities and applications of my textiles have the potential to be applied in many industries. 

What are your unique qualities that you think you offer as you enter the world of art and design?

My approach to research is my greatest asset. I'm always developing new ideas and pushing material processes further. I'm looking into professional degassing methods in order to infuse my digital prints inside BioResin to create larger sculptural pieces.

What would be your dream collaboration or project? 

My dream collaboration would be with Mclaren racing, combining my passion for luxury cars with digital print and  BioResin experiments would be an exciting project. In past project Inside/Outside I created digital prints based on the lightweight composite fabrics as well as sculptural pieces using laminating resin.  These fabrics  include Carbon fibre and Kevlar as used on the exterior panels of performance cars.  

The People’s Print wish you all the success for your future!

For more on Naomi’s exciting work:

www.naomiwhitehead.com

Snap Your Favourite Flowers this Season!

While we're busy at People's Print finalising the first exciting collection of ebooks dedicated to the Great British Floral, do start taking photos of seasonal flowers whenever you can so that you're ready for the first floral tutorial ebooks coming out later this season!

Each book will show you how, step by step, to transform your personal photos into amazing, personalised garment prints!

If you're keen for the first collection of e-books to show you how, please drop us an email with My Floral Tutorial E-book in the title and you'll hear about them first!

We invite you to upload your best photos to our Facebook page too! These are some of our photos from a rather rainy British summer!

Every print has a story!

Every print has a story!

Here is People's Print member Geraldine Perclard, who is graduating this year with her exciting textile collection 'Chaos and Order' to find out more The People's Print asked her some questions:

What is the inspiration behind your work Geraldine?

The 'Chaos and Order' Collection was inspired by the research I have done on Schizophrenia.I have experienced this illness from very close as one of my relative was diagnosed with it when I was four years old. The visual research is based on the concept of Chaos vs. Order. The way I see it is: the things that goes on in the mind of people suffering from schizophrenia is fast, random and very busy - messy and chaotic to anybody else - But there is also another side to it - a rare outermost sensitiveness to the physical and natural environment that is when, I think, the genius comes in.Ultimately, through the Chaos and Order Collection  I would like to raise awareness about an illness that is more common than we think -  1/100 people suffers from it  at one point in their life.  With real support from society - people suffering from it and their relatives can live an almost normal life.

What techniques have you used? 

As primary research I started to  do my own paintings to express the Chaos, it was spontaneous, random, I didn't follow any rules. In parallel, I started to develop a collection of geometric shapes inspired by chemistry and maths, theories, they expressed the genius, the Order. I designed the geometric on Illustrator as I wanted a very sleek and sharp aesthetic - I then open my files on Photoshop and placed the paintings  into the different shapes. I printed the final design on cotton and silk and painted block colours in the shapes and dip dyed the fabric.

Who inspires you?

I am inspired by designers and artists who are not afraid to challenge prejudices and use their practice to make a statement. 

Are you excited about your future as a young textile designer?

I am very excited because I think that through textiles so much can be said, it is an amazing platform to catch the public attention on subject that are taboo or not always easy to talk about otherwise. Designing beautiful textiles that also tell a story and raise social issues, I can't wait to start!

What would be your dream collaboration or project? 

My dream collaboration is with my sister, she is an amazing make up artist, and I would love to create an original collection mixing textiles and make up.

Thank you Geraldine, The People's Print wish you all the best in your career. 

For more information on Geraldine's work visit her blog: 

www.poppygeraldine.blogspot.co.uk

The Great British Floral Finale!

Image by Simon Pask for Laurence King Publishing - Garment design Rosie Martin DIY Couture 

Just some of the fabulous prints created as part of The Great British Floral @ The V&A by the very talented - Belinda, Carole, Kalin, Mair, Mel, Alexis, with thanks to Emma, Alex, Kazusa and Kimberly!