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.

Furthur development on stand

Today I was making one of my designs which is a black maxi dress with a handmade pentacle holding the dress together. It was once again, quite hard for me to make the garments because I have no pattern cut. However I still went for it and I think it came out better than I thought it would. During this making week I realized I can make things really fast, or maybe the designs are just simple. Sewing is definitely not something that I'm good at. My sewing is not perfect so I hope in the future I will get to learn how to sew better.
While I was making the garments I played around with the draping and came out with more designs (I also got inspired by the development photoshoot). Here are a few examples:

I finally got to this stage because having a nice piece of material draped around the mannequin is easier to control and see how the outcome is. Drawing in this case is possible, but not accurate. This inspired me a lot more and I definitely developed a lot more from this experiment. 

Final Development Photos

I've spent a few days editing these photographs from the development photoshoot. I took a long time figuring out Photoshop and I hated it. Thanks to my friends who helped me out with the editing or else I really would have no idea how to work Photoshop. Here are a few photographs.

I am very satisfied with the shoot. The weather was nice when we did our shoot, and after that it started raining so that was a good timing. We had a lot of fun, and because we are all really close friends this shoot was really casual and fun. I love how this shoot came out and I definitely got inspired and I'm ready to move away from cloaks. 

Development Photoshoot

Last Friday I went back to visit my previous school in Shrewsbury, Shropshire; and also to do a photoshoot for this project. I was very stuck with this project before the shoot, I could not move forward. It was very hard planning this shoot because I've asked few of my friends from my previous school to help me with, luckily they have all managed to change up their timetable just so they can make this shoot happen.

The weather was definitely one of the most worrying factor that I have encountered. It is very unpredictable. I checked that weather forecast and it said it was going to rain in the morning, and that is the time period that we were planning on doing the shoot. So I still went for it hoping the weather forecast was not accurate. I should have planned a backup plan, like a second choice of location which is indoors. The next morning I woke up at 5 in the morning to get ready. It took us 2 hours to fully get ready. Surprisingly, it was cloudy and sunny occasionally. I was very lucky.

It took us quite some time to set up the props. We had difficulties trying to create a salt circle. In the end we did it but it was still quite small. We worked with it anyway. It was a lot of fun, not as stressful as I thought it would be. I am very pleased with the shoot.

I came back from Shropshire on Monday and started editing the photos. I have never used Photoshop to edit photos before but I did! I'm glad that a few friends helped me if not I really would not have been able to edit the photos by myself. I think I like Photoshop a little bit more now.

Here are a few photos of the process of setting up the shoot:

Rob perfecting the salt circle.

Me lighting the candles. It was difficult. It was very windy and the candles kept going out.

Will and I setting up ritual tools

Last minute touch up

Crew photo

Planning photoshoot

Today  I have been working on the moodboard for the photoshoot that I'm planning for. I've been collecting and sourcing for props like pillar candles and all the other witchcraft alter tools. I have trouble finding dry ice for visual effect and I am still trying to find dry ice. Other than that I've planned everything. I'll be going to Shrewsbury, Shropshire for the photoshoot. My friend Will and I will be modelling and Jason Nam and Rob Parker will be the photographer. I've also done 2 designs for the shoot. This is not the final outcome, I'm doing this so maybe I can move further ahead. I've designed 2 capes and 2 head pieces. Along side with that I got inspired and continued drawing.

I had a hard time planning the shoot because but luckily my friends are very nice and they have agreed to help me out and do the shoot first thing in early in the morning. I'm not good at photography and wanted to model so I contacted Jason to help me out. During the planning I did not expect Will to have planned a tattoo appointment on that day. We had to change the time from Friday to early Saturday morning. I have a feeling that this is going to be very exciting and I cannot wait for it. Since British weather is almost unpredictable, I am hoping for a nice day.

Creating shapes on mannequins

Today we've been doing some paper work on the mannequins. I used a trapezium shape, based on the shap of an amethyst shard and created a lot of interested shapes by putting them together. I also tried to pin some of the shapes in reverse so the angle pops up on the opposite side. I had a lot of fun doing this and had a few inspiration. Instead of creating such a big piece, I'm thinking of sizing it down. So maybe I can create jewellery based on the shapes. As for the garment I am not sure if I'm completely inspired by this because I have the idea of draping and making the garment flow.
I wish I had more time to create a few more shapes though. Like using different shapes.

Development - Skateboard

I have been doing a lot of doodling and sketches of designs. That includes graphic designs inspired by tattoos and a few garments inspired by the shape of spirits and smoke (smoke is what I think best describe the visual image of a spirit). In my free time, I did a skateboard design and I really liked it. It was a pope with a bird skull as his head and in the background it was a diagram. It links with my project really well and I think I am going to incorporate my drawings into my designs. This drawing took me around 4 hours using only marker pens with lines and dots technique.