Hannah's Botanicals

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Mini I-pad Cover

The process of making a mini i-pad cover. It took me about 30 minutes to come up with a design for putting all the pieces together and to iron and cut them. Then the sewing together stage starts.

A deep dark green felted fabric lining to protect the Mini I-pad whilst in your bag. A chocolate brown (back of case) fabric with a green spiral fabric flap for closing the case to keep it secure.

The woven fabric took me about a day to make (I did take breaks in-between). Overall I think this process is very worth it and the end result is home-made, origional and good quality.

R^3 = Reduce, Re-use, Recycle. This purse covers it. The yarns used for the warp were little strands. The fabric woven in-between is 2 shirts and some jean scraps of fabric I had lying around. It is very interesting how it held together quite well with a purple shirt lining on the inside. A good example of what you can make with fabric and yarns you hardly use.

Forest Purse

Inspired by the brown surroundings of bark and natural wood with hints of green and bright lifts of summer sun shining through the the glistening leaves. With a brown earthy wooden button adding to the ambiance of this purse. The fury texture of Mohair yarn gives the purse a contrast against the rougher strands of crocheted Raffia which is intertwined in this woven purse.

Friday, 4 January 2013

Gi Melin Crochet Hat

I crocheted a hat for my boyfriend as a hand made Christmas present. I was quite impressed when I was making this! My first crochet project. And has definitely enthused me to crochet more often. All i did was look up a few things on crocheting hats on youtube and a quick basic instruction on how to crochet and i was off; crocheting a hat with a pattern in my head. Freeform crochet i think you call it. Very fun and easy to do. Definitely beats knitting in straight lines. Inspired by the greens and blues in lord of the rings. Hope the wearer enjoys this present as much as I had fun making it.

Thursday, 3 January 2013

The Three Purses

One for Ewin, One for Jess and One for Suzi.

These were purses I made as Christmas presents for my flatmates. The reason as why I am posting this now is because they have opened them and it is after the busy but wonderful time spent with family and friends.

I tried to reflect their colour choices and personalities through them. One very pink, girly, subtle and soft like cashmere. One very green and nature like with orange flickers of bright surprise. And another complicated but very colourful and interesting. I hope they like them along with the chocolate from Hotel Chocolate.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

(Christmas Cards I made for family and friends)

Sunday, 23 December 2012

Barcelona Inspired Weaving

Above is a picture of my favourite samples. I had quite a few favourites but these are the ones I was most impressed with. The shapes and balance of colour as well as their hand was undeniably lovely to touch made with a viscose multicoloured warp in three different sections. Mainly loose weft satin and a circle design I came up with myself. Sometimes with my weaving plans I find it a hit and miss game with how I work out in my mind what the final result is actually going to look like. However, I L.O.V.E the colours I have used in this project. Compared to previous projects I have done this colour choice is very unusual and different for me as I normally stick to using more earthy colours. This project gave me a breath of fresh air, exactly how the trip to Barcelona went during the Summer. An inspirational place to say the least!

My mood board and Concept Board are above. As I mentioned previously I was inspired mainly by the Catalan architecture and plant-life in Barcelona, the bright yet subtle colours Gaudi uses in his work to create suggestions of abstracted nature and movement of what happens around us. Then developing that feeling into a fashion fabric for Spring/Summer 2013, which I found very exciting! I just wanted to keep making more designs; sadly to say my time towards the end of this project ran out very quickly. Below are my books and more samples. I tried to take my main inspirations and create my own idea of movements of nature and architecture. (Another thing which I would try to leave more time for is my sketchbook as I enjoy doing that part quite a lot).

Overall I would say I definitely spent a lot of time on this project but it was well worth it. I wish I could have spent more time creating fabrics! Lots was learnt from the experimentation of my first warp to my more developed final planned warp. My experimentation was with bleach and silk paints and using Raffia as yarn (anyone who knows me knows I love to incorporate actual natural substances in my designs). However I didn't take it forward but maybe I will for my next project, who knows. This project has expanded my knowledge and understanding about the mechanics of a loom and what does what, how big a design actually comes out, what certain shafts do when pulled through a different way, more knowledge of understanding what a Pegplan can do for designs. Complex beginning; hopefully I will be able to grasp the next project with a more confident approach to planning so I have more time to create.

Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Weave Test

I have not posted much since the end of summer. Will try to take more pictures of my Uni work and post them up here. Recently finished the dreadful warping up process. I made so many mistakes and so many ends still keep breaking. The project at the moment is colour and weave effects, (pics to come soon).

I have been so busy since the start of Uni so here is a picture for the meantime of something i am working on at the moment;

A test sample. I tried to make a slight checkered pattern with this one, which was not the origional test. I painted on the warp threads a pattern before weaving it by hand to see if the pattern would show. If you slightly squint your eyes you can sort of see the spiraly black image. Think i am going to make this piece into a purse. Still debating it as i like when it is spread out. I was folding it in different ways the other day and wrapped it round my phone. My phone looked really cosy! Might try making some phone socks. This piece feels so soft and smooth, it is a delight to touch.