Evaluation

Final images mounted on board

This project has been the most exciting project I've ever done because everything has to be planned and done on my own. It has been a great journey working through this theme, with people I've never worked with. Pressure is surely not a great feeling but it makes me feel more alive and for once I was pushing myself to work hard. 

For the final products, I've generated 9 photographs, 2 head pieces and 2 garments. Besides that, I've made 2 cloaks, a neck piece, a photo shoot and a lot of sketches for my experimentation and development. Clearly, I've changed my direction a bit, from paranormal and myths to the oldest religion Paganism- Witchcraft. That all happened during the research stage. It made me even more excited about this project than before, since I have been extremely drawn into witchcraft years ago. 

On the first half of the project I tried so hard to think about how I should develop my ideas. I wasted a bit of time on trying too hard. So I just decided to do something that is not serious e.g: the development photo shoot with Will Walker. That made me realize that when I find myself stuck, I should let myself loose and just do something. I should let ideas come to me naturally instead of finding it. Sketchbooks has helped me record everything that I wanted to do and the process. Sometimes I do need to work backward in order to go forward. Blog posts has helped me to translate what is on my sketchbook into words so I can explain what I have been through. It is very interesting to read them again too. 

Originally I was only going to produce a photoshoot, a garment and jewellery pieces. Turns out that I've produced a photoshoot, 2 garments and 2 head pieces. I am very satisfied with the amount of products. My sewing skills is not that good, so the quality of the garments might not be amazing. However I am extremely proud of my head pieces. During the process of producing these final outcomes I have done several researches, I needed more research so I could get more inspiration. I did not know that I would be infusing tarot cards into my photoshoot because tarot cards are really graphical and I had comments about my work saying that I draw too much. However I do love drawing and for several times I was very tempted to incorporate my drawings into my garments. Research and development helped me achieve this passion in a whole new direction. Feedback from my school mates has helped me include more development and gave me more ideas for my project. They told me I should do more work on mannequins and more development. I accepted criticisms and moved away from my own aesthetics. In the end I created a dress that I would wear; and an outfit that I would never wear. 

Before this project started, I never really try to work with something new. But this project made me more independent, I realize I should start trying something new e.g: digital printing; and things that I've always disliked e.g: Photoshop. Even though I don't like photoshop, I know it is a skill that I should have. Digital printing excites me and it made me want to keep trying new things and making use of devices that are available to us. At least in the future I know what is possible to make and what isn't. I'm excited for next year's fashion course at Ravensbourne.

Designing tarot cards

 After drawing out the designs, I photoshopped the final photoshoot. It took me a long time because of photoshop, but I managed to get all the final images done in one day. So I needed to do this so I can print the final images off as soon as possible, and not wait till the final mounting day because that day is going to be very busy with everyone trying to print out their images too. I was happy about the speed that I was working with. I was actually very frustrated because of the lasso tool. I kept on doing it wrong. However I kept trying and I managed to do it.

Instead of pairing up tarot card designs with the photos manually. I decided that I should choose the tarot cards by fate. It adds to the meaning of tarot card since that is what you have to do when you want to get a reading anyway. So for each photo, I pick one tarot card and it turns out that a few of them has a similarity. That was amazing. Like The Hanged Man, The Chariot, Justice.

Editing photos

For the final images I thought of doing something to the photos because of the simple backdrop. So I was looking at my deck of tarot cards one day (I sometimes do tarot reading) and got inspired.

Each card has its own meaning, its own image, its own colour and design. I have this idea to create my own tarot card designs. I love drawing so this is going to be a lot of fun. To decide which photo goes to which card, I'll try and match the most similar image on the cards to the photos. 

I've started drawing out designs for the tarot card designs. I have 3 designs in total, if I was going to make a whole deck of tarot cards, I would only choose one. 

I did an experiment. I put together a photo from my previous photoshoot, and a tarot card template from the internet. It looked exactly how I wanted it to look like.

Final Photoshoot

I planned to have my final photoshoot today at school with a simple backdrop. I wanted it simple this time because I've never had a photoshoot in a studio environment. I asked a friend of mine Bella Puertolas as my photographer. I did the hair, makeup, styling for my model Gerda St. She is a close friend of mine and I chose her because she is stunning, she is a model and her blonde hair will tone down the typical goth-y witch look. Her star sign is Sagittarius and her ruling planet is Jupiter. So for make up I did the same as the previous shoot, symbol of the individual's ruling planet on their forehead. But this time I went for a dark purple smokey eye, reason why is that Gerda does not go for this look. I find it interesting to see her dressed in a darker manner. I think she looks stunning. For hair I also did a slick back hairstyle on Gerda.

For the photoshoot it was quite fast for us to get ready because someone else was using the lighting equipment before us and got everything set up for us. They also helped us with the flash lights, which made the pictures so much better. Bella and I didn't know how to use it before that.

Here's the difference:

Without proper lighting

With proper lighting

And here are a few more of the final images that I've chosen

Final designs (illustration)

Today I've been drawing out my final designs. I wanted them all to be in black or grey, but then I thought of adding the image of gemstones and crystals on to my designs as a print. So I printed a few images of gemstones off, printed my designs on to acetate and put them together. I only hope that the print out of my designs are a little but darker and clearer. I think I just need to draw over the lines again with a marker.

For these images, I actually took them off the internet. It is very hard for me to capture a good close up picture of crystals. Other than that I don't own any bigger crystals and it is quite hard to take good pictures in a crystal store because the lighting is never that good for photography. It is always very dim.

So this is the only way that I can translate what I have in mind into my designs. If I had more time I would digital print it and make them into actual garments. However it's a last minute idea so I can't fulfill this target.

Last final product

Today I've been finishing off my last final garment. Actually quite a lot of my classmates are using the sewing machines and I went to CLR to borrow one and apparently all the other ones are broken and needed repairing. I was panicking at that time because my aim for today is to finish off this dress. Luckily a friend of mine didn't mind sharing. I sew quite fast and this dress is quite simple to make. I try my best to figure ways to make this dress look good without help with a pattern cut. Overall I didn't really have big problems making this dress.

Second Final Garment

For one of my final design I experimented with digital printing. I absolutely love how this print came out. If it wasn't for this project I think I would never have tried this method. I was quite scared at first because I did not have enough cloth for testing. Printing straight onto the only fabric that I have was really stressful. Before I made this into a poncho I was tempted to just leave it as a scarf. It looked very nice to be a scarf but I felt like I should make the best out of my designs, resources, and this chance to actually make something exciting. I had a really hard to making this too. Afterall this piece of cloth is very soft and light, hemming this was a nightmare. I tried my best. Only thing that I can do is to iron it to make it look better.

Once again I don't have a pattern cut of this poncho so I had to guess and trim it so it looks better on a body.