Sooo Much!!

I had no idea how intense second year would be. They need to stress how hard it will be, because compared to first year its nothing. Seriously, I've only been back two days and I need 3 A4 folders, and an A4 notebook, and loads of work for next week. This year is going to be ridiculous but it will all be worth it when I get into Nottingham Trent University.
*Fingers Crossed*

Nottingham Trent University

My trip to Nottingham Trent University was AMAZING!!!! If you take a 3 year old to an open day, its going to be eventful. I went with my 3 year old cousin Bellicia, my mum and uncle. The course looks so good and Nottingham looks like a nice city to live in. And from what Rakhee tells me it cant be that bad! The course offers many opportunaties such as exchange trips to the fashion institute in New York, and Tokyo. My dream is to travel to Japan at least once in my life. The course is spread over 3 years, and in the third year you can swap over to the fashion business course if thats what you want. It covers modules such as colour theory, although your first project is white, to get to be more creative and focus on the structure and design of the garment. You can work alongside the students on the textiles and knitted courses. They have 3 or 4 sewing machine rooms, and maximum 10 people to one tutor but its usually less. I think this course is made for me, and Nottingham is an amazing location as I wont be too far away from Birmingham.
I LOVE IT!!!

Royal Blue - Summer Research

Well looking back I realised I should have started my project as soon as summer started,but I cant change that now. I worked so hard at getting my sketchbook up to a good standard, as if I dont like, and feel good about it, I wont hand be happy handing it in.

I feel this is my best sketchbook yet, but thats just my opinion.

I started looking at Cuffs, Collars and Corset. Then I realised we made cuffs and collars for productions in practice for making our white shirt, so I photographed them and put them in there as primary research.

I decided to use trimmings throughout to give my sketchbook a united feel.

I then looked at garments from the TV series Strictly Come Dancing, as they are all very costume like and relate to this project. I also looked at Shakespeare and outfits used in his Globe Theatre.

I then looked at designers collections. I looked at slightly costume-like collections and single colour collections to understand how they used texture and print to create a garment that was exciting and not bland, and boring.

I then looked at European history, and I can tell you now, for my theme a lot more visits to the library will be needed. I first began looking and Italy and Spain, places close to England. Then I looked at Iceland, a place where we dont know much about here in England, and this is where I found my theme. I then went on to Russia and different eras of British History.

This is an overview of my sketchbook.

Enjoy!

Change Of Theme - Iceland

Whilst doing research for this project, I came upon an episode in European history that I found interesting, and something that isnt that well known in this country.

I wanted to do something that I dont think anyone else would do. Queen Victoria, and things like that are just too obvious for me, as too many people would be instantly drawn to that.

I choose to look at 'The Turkish Abductions' of Iceland.

The Turkish abductions were a series of raids that took place in Iceland between July 4 – July 19, 1627. Both Austurland (the eastern edge of the country) and Vestmannaeyjar (islands off the south coast) were raided by Barbary pirates from the regency of Algiers.

At this point Iceland had relinquished the right to the crown, and their right to initiate and consent to legislation to Denmark, howeven Denmark did not protect them.

In 1627, Jan Janszoon hired a Danish “slave” (most likely a crew member captured on a Danish ship taken as a pirate prize) to pilot him and his men to Iceland, where they raided the Icelandic city Reykjavík. They only managed to steal salted fish and a few hides, so they kidnapped people and sold them as slaves. The number of slaves kidnapped from Iceland is disputed, with figures as high as 400, and as low as 8.

Anyone who resisted a life of slavery were killed on the spot. The pirates only took people with good health, so they would make the most money possible.
When the pirates invaded Vestmannaeyjar, a minister and some people left for a cave in the mountains, but later that day, the minister went see if it was safe, when the pirates saw himand killed him. They then found the cave with all the people. Those capture were sold into slavery on the Barbary Coast. The most notable captive was Guðríður Símonardóttir who was sold as a slave and concubine in Algeria before being bought back by King Christian IV of Denmark.

MCQUEEN!!!

HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE MCQUEEN?!!!
I fell in love with the theatrics of this collection, when I saw it!!
Its also really relevant to the Royal Blue Project.
Just AMAZING!!!

Improving?

In the last project I got told that my illustrations in my sketchbook needed to improve. I know they werent the best, you cant hide that. So I recently bought some drawing ink (Royal Blue), to keep in with the theme of the project.

Lets hope I improve??

Inspiring

On Tuesday, I went to Alton Towers with my mum and sisters, and was shocked to actually get inspiration for this Royal Blue Project.

It was whilst on the ride Hex. When I got home, I researched more into this and realised it is based on a true story, and that this tree really exists, not far from Alton Towers. I would have liked to see the tree for myself, but it would be a long and expensive journey back there.

Heres a picture we took of the doors.

The ride tells the story of the Charles Talbot, 15th Earl Of Shrewsbury. I think an Earl is classed as royalty, well I hope so. The story says that one day on a ride home back to this mansion, he passed through a forest and his carraige was stopped by an old begger woman asking for him to spare some change. He refused and told his servants to keep riding. As he rode on the old woman, yelled a curse at him, pointing at an old oak tree.

"For every branch of this tree that falls, a member of your family will die."

That night, there was a huge thunder storm and a member of the family suddenly and mysteriously died. The next day he went to look at the old oak tree and saw a branch lying on the ground. He was so shook up about the occurence, he ordered every branch to be chained to the tree.

The tree was then chained up completely, but he was so distraught about the curse he went back to the tree, collected the fallen branch and took it back to the castle, and hidden behind a bookcase, was a secret laboratory. There he conducted experiments trying to counteract the effects of the curse.

From then on it was 'science versus the supernatural'.