Saturday, July 10, 2010

week o'work

I am in love


l o v e


Look at her, the most beautiful heat presser in the whole wide world!


So as you can see, read and spidey sense  for the past week, I haven't been in the blogosphere, or anywhere near it to be honest. 

Pour Quoi? 

Parce-que I have been at work experience. And with it being at a fashion design studio, my life for the past week has been nothing short of perfect.



Monday 

My work placement was at Tom Cody designs, a company specializing in print and fashion design, perfect! So traveling into deepest darkest Bethnal Green (fun!) Especially as the dress code was anything you can get messy. I basically got to wear what ever I wanted, so first day I wore my knee length bleached denim dress with my green bolero. My first task was to start making details for this vest, so velvet flowers and piled up blue hued fabrics, along with green chiffon ruffles, as see below. This was also the day that began my addiction to Radio 1, I just can't stop now!

1


Tuesday

I continued detailing the vest, and also made white strips into ruffles, using a blanket and long running stitch for Mel, my supervisor, who was so lovely, actually everyone there, about 15 women, were all wonderfully helpful and kind to me, it was such a inspiring atmosphere in which to have my first tastes of work in. I also, along with Alice, one of the other two interns, designed some background prints for a tweed section, onto tracing paper. We then scanned these into photoshop and edited them to make a continuous print.

2


Wednesday

We then finished editing the designs and printed them onto acetate paper for printing. I then learnt how the printing process worked, the first step being washing the screens, this was using a cleaning fluid and then blasting the screens with a pressurized water gun, which had a real kick to it, but was so fun to use, and I got to put my deck cleaning skills to practice. After they had dried using a hairdryer which was possessed on sucking in all of my hair, we added a thin layer of green emulsion to both sides of the screen. These screens then had to be dried again, after which the acetates were taped into position on the outer side, which books weighting the other down onto the light box. With a flip of a switch, the screen was then photo-exposed for exactly 3 minutes and 10 seconds. After which the 'white' parts were blasted off the screen using the water gun. Confusing I know but absolutely amazing.
 


Thursday

Continuing on from the day before, Mel then taught me how to print on the ink. I've only used stencils with screens before so to being using the emulsion instead was very fun. I also got to try out discharge printing, which looks as it sounds hehe. This then bleached the fabric, but in the print, how cool is that? It allowed for a wider range of colours, and because Mel has chosen browns, gave a antique golden hue. Below are Mel's final prints, she let me keeps the off cuts, aren't they just stunning prints? 
I also got to do some dying, which being me was messy, namely me pouring dye into my gloves and then reaching my hand up, pouring the liquid down my arm, basically turning me into a smurf. In the afternoon I was tasked with styling some of the pieces, which involved cutting, pinning and sewing, allowing me to effectively spend a whole afternoon on a sewing machine, fantastic!

3


Friday

Meh fr. Today I was given my own set to make using the wonderful heat press. By using transfer inks on cartridge paper I created my print using deep reds, purples and rich yellows, almost in a homage to London sun sets, but really it was just me splattering paint around. Then placing the sheets and crumpled silk jersey, we created the 'sexy' print inside the heat press for exactly a minute. Afterwards with which I was able to make two vest, one high neck the other a deep scoop, but both with ruffles. To finish what was an amazing experience, I brought in a chocolate mousse cake, which we all ate together along with their resident cat.

4
5

My mum half way through the week suddenly said, well what if this makes you realize that this isn't what you want to do. But that final day, the whole week actually just suddenly made my whole dream tangible. To actually be able to make clothes  for a living, have a job, travel to work, find other transport when someone goes under your tube. All that grown up shizzle. 


xox Eve-Rei


your kind comments and love are like a Lost marathon, worth a million dollars and always making me want more!


p.s may I just say, that if my designs I made at Tom Cody, which I doubt it ever will, are sold on, I just made em, I don't own them. Sadly.


15 comments:

  1. Wow, that sounds absolutely amaazing. Will we ever get to see the garments though? :)
    UO x
    http://unionolivia.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. It was such an amazing experience, I loved ever second of it, te he, well they sell their prints and ideas to all of the highstreet shops, like topshop, oasis and primark, so maybe in 2011/2012 my excuse for a set of vests might appear, that would be pretty cool if not extremely unlikely.

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. that sounds absoloutely amazing.
    my friend had the most amazing work experience, almost as cool as yours- he got to help film the noisettes new music video. amaze, eh.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh wow! It sounds like a dream. I'm going to be doing work experience early next year and I would love to be able to do something like that, it sounds so fun!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow TTL, that is actually out of this world! Fo shizzle it beats mine, my head has actually just exploded, he is the luckiest person ever!

    Natya make sure you do! Work experience should have something to do with what you love, to give you a good taster. Have you started applying yet? Because its always good to get in there nice and early :)

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ahh I'm going to start as soon as I can, the trouble is I keep getting distracted by the silliest things ('I think I'll make that phone call now...oh my gosh, a ladybird!') Where did you get the idea of working at Tom Cody? I thought I might ask around at local art galleries, or any creative area of work really, but I'm not sure what they would get me to do x

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gosh, those ladybirds can be so awfully trixy! Tom Cody used to work in the same building as my dad's, and he remembered them, so I got the number from him.
    My friend Esme, (http://esmethenezumi.blogspot.com/) is currently doing her work experience in an art gallery, if you wanted to ask her about it, I'm sure she'd be happy to tell you about it. Antiques stores too might offer experience, which would be very fun.

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thankyou! You've motivated me to start having a proper look :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow, how inspiring! You're so very lucky to have such a head start, hopefully your experience at Tom Cady will be helpful in the near future.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Natya, I'm glad I could help :)

    Oh Mi, that would be amazing, they gave me such helpful advice, and such a great time, anything to continue it would be amazing!

    I know isn't it Pashupati, I had to pinch myself a few times!

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  11. oh eve-rei, the colours, splatters and layers in your set are just beautiful. i adore abstact art, this is just so lovely.

    i remember my work exp i had when i was in year ten, i worked at a fashion company called jon jourrou or something like that, hehe, where they make dresses. it was in a little basement underneath a shop, and some of their designs were in john lewis and such. it was no where near as good as your work exp, but i had so much fun and at the end my boss gave me two sample mini dresses as they were just too small to sell, haha! :)

    i hope to see your design in shops in the future! :D
    love, jazzabelle. xxx

    ReplyDelete
  12. well isn't that just the bees knees!! (you lucky duck) I really need to look into something like this...although America (I'm pretty sure) is crap for stuff like that, especially where I live. >.< Love your blog dear as usual.

    ReplyDelete
  13. this sounds brilliant, looks like u were really busy, but did some wonderful stuff. i love the ruffle picture x

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh my Jazzabelle, you're work experience sounds perfect, you lucky thing! Oo mine was in a basement too, it was really lovely to experience different settings, I even helped them rearrange all the work desks and boxes. Wow oh wow, two dresses! My friend, Vicki, got £100, and I know a girl got £380! Hehe, thankyou for your comment as always dear.

    Tehe Hannah, I do feel very lucky duck like, my face was plastered with a smile for the whole weekend afterwards, it was just so mindblowingly brilliant. I think I was really lucky to find Tom Cody, as I know that I am in the very small minority that actually enjoyed their experience, but fingers crossed you get a placement as lovely as mine

    QuiteQuaint you are completely correct, it was brilliant and I loved every second, it was so much fun to go at a faster pace as well, tehe thankyou

    xxx

    ReplyDelete