Spiral Dress

I have smocked my last printed shirts and put them together into a long strip. This is an idea that I have been working on since I made my first smocked kilt. This is an idea that I will not not continue with, I will stick with the smocked layers skirt idea but it is too difficult to create a long skirt using this spiral technique and I want my final piece to be wearable. I have added buttons to this spiral dress which is something that I will take forward.

New prints...on shirts

Using the colours that I have selected from the photos I have taken of Canary wharf I chose some striped and plain grey mens work shirts. I then started printing onto them and layering my prints on top of each other. The first samples will be smocked and made into a layered frilled sample so I can start experimenting with layering techniques for my final piece. The second lot of sample will be layered and smocked then put together in another continuous length to make some sort of final outcome for my smocked spiral idea. I am now satisfied with this type of colour range and will continue to take photos of Canary Wharf to refine a final colour range for my final piece.

New prints...

I have been thinking about how to make my work more interesting as I plan to tone down my colours. I have always been fascinated with Mendhi Henna and so decided to look at this for my next print inspiration. I have also decided to reuse one of my earlier geometric prints as I really like the contrast between the intense swirly patterns of the henna and the hard edges of the geometric print. I plan to layer theses on top of each other and printed the patterns onto tracing paper to practice layering as in the example in the last photo. I plan to use different tones of grey with these prints and also include one or two bright colours.