Accessories week

This week is accessories week and as a starting point to develop ideas for a final outcome , we were required to use an object that was personal to us. I used a small Turkish eye to Inspire my initial thoughts and ideas, as it is something i carry around with me everyday and is meant to send me positive energy. I aim of this task was to study the object in a variety of ways so that I was able to exhaust my ideas and really observe the formation of my object to generate more individual and varied design concepts. I developed quite a spontaneous way of working by finding new ways to study my object, and did this by photocopying to a variety of scales, photographing at obscure angles, and extracting some shapes within the object to create quick sketches and drawings. this method was the most successful in creating multiple designs quickly, as extracting different shapes within the object gave me endless ideas and also formed a less representational image of the original object which resulted in more exacting designs. another process I enjoyed and found effective was cutting away shapes from the photocopied image and collaging then into ideas for finished accessories or possible silhouettes. I think that the majority of these design concepts were successful, because the shapes I extracted within my object were quite fluid and abstract which made designing allot easier and provided me with allot of ideas go develop further. 

Accessories week day 2 

The next stage of accessories week was to further develop my initial design concepts into four refined ideas for a final outcome. I enjoyed this stage the most because I used scanned images of models from magazines to collage my ideas onto, so I was able to see how a possible piece of jewellery would look on an actual figure. The most prominent shape of my object was an overlaid oval shape, and I began by extracting the ovals and cutting them into strips to give thin curved shapes, and this was the shape I selected to generate  my final refined iseas, as it gave me quite an authentic  feeling. I then used this to form a head piece, a shoulder piece and a necklace by draping them around the figure. 

The shape itself can be used in endless ways as its quite versatile and simple, however is extremely effective when layered and used with multiple strips.  I tried to focus on ideas where the accessory actually comes away from the body itself because the shapes I was working with have a natural and free structure, and have this great natural drape across the body. 

I also tried using multiple cut layers to re form the oval shape and this was one of my favourite outcomes vecause i liked how the shapes arch around the body and formed a really strong image. I did explore using the object in its naked form by placing layers of photocopied ovals in places where they naturally hung like round the neck and arms for example, however I found these ideas to be far less effective because the most interesting and intricate  parts of the object were hidden beneath the dominant shape if the oval itself and although these ideas had the most powerful look, I decided not to take this idea further. 

collaging ideas onto a figure template was extreamly useful in terms of being selective with shapes and sillouhtees as it was easier to distinguish what could actually work as a wearable piece and what couldn't, however I also feel as though it gave me a slight inaccurate judgment of how my pieces could possibly come away from the body, so I moved onto working on A mannequin. I used cut out stencils to drape my shapes around  the body and it made me think about what materials I would need in order for something to be able to hold its shape and stand freely. after completing this process for all my possible design ideas I managed to combine all the successful aspects from each design into one final idea. 

Accessories week day three 

My final idea has been concluded and I can now begin to make my wearable accessory! Due to the shape of my final design it was important that I used materials that were able to hold the oval shape and form away from the body itself. To continue with the dark green and navy colour scheme I have adopted throughout my sketchbook, I used green copper wire to structure my accessory with. The wire itself is quite thin so bending it into shape was quick, and it also meant that I could continuously modify and improve the shapes throughout the making process.

To obtain the shape I took different lengths of the wire which I cut to random sizes as I wanted quite a natural effect where shapes form by chance, and then bent them into a circular shape before squeezing the end to form more of anoval  shape. To secure the shape I simply twisted the wire around the bottom of the oval. initially I was going to cover this with paper as it looked quite messy and unnatractive, however as I began to build the accessory up my tutor noticed that the twisted wire is what made the gaent so interesting to look at, and gave have more of a rustic and original edge. 

As I continued to make the shapes I began to layer them on top of one another to form the image of my personal object being the evil eye, and used different size ovals to build up the form. It was difficult for me to understand how it was going to hang on the figure, so I moved into a me equi where I tired to place it around the neck, however it did not hang correctly or got around the neck, so instead I moved it onto the shoulder and this meant that it was able to form away from the body, which I really found more interesting.