Ed Hardy, new audience...

Recently Ed Hardy has been making his name known throughout the clothing and perfumery industry. Yet his attention has now fallen on the cross stitching community. Turning his designs into cross stitch patterns and collating them all into this gorgeous book, 30 charts in total.

30 cross stitch patterns from Ed Hardy

Available in the US $14.99 or Canada $16.99 I would love to get my hands on it although living in UK means it would probably add a hefty postage cost on top.

What will he do next???

Style Redux: Peacocks

Came across this blog today whilst researching Sarah Jessica Parker and Alexander McQueen for a year 8 project and just adore the dress SJP is wearing! Gorgeous as always Alexander McQueen's dress is made of 2 lace peacocks in black and is beautifully stunning!

There are also some other pieces inspired by peacocks by other designers.

Now why didn't I come across this whilst I was researching for my final collection at University??? Lots more ideas now though so maybe something good will come from it after all.

Style Redux: Peacock

Thanks for looking.

Setting Up Shop?

Is this a good idea do you think???

I have so many ideas for handmade items that I want to make lots and lots for other people to buy too. I have a massive cupboard full of fabric I can make cushions, quilts and bags with and now I have my mini glue gun I feel I have opened up so many doors to my creativity.

I may not be producing clothes despite my fashion degree, however I am still pursuing all types of arts & crafts and if people like what I make then why shouldn't they be able to get it???

Crafts need to be brought to everyone, not just those that have been producing art for years, but to those who have no idea they even exist or are scared to try.

So once I get some products made I will be putting up pictures for you to view and your opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Keep checking back for updates :)

Hot Chocolate & Mint!

Thought it would be nice to post a link to a cool blog I follow on both Blogger and Twitter.

This young lady is called Diana and has the quirkiest style I've ever seen and I just love the pieces she makes herself! The London badges are made out of keyrings and look great on anything she wears!

Check her out at Hot Chocolate & Mint!

Empowering Women at Jean Paul Gaultier

I'm not entirely sure about Beth Ditto on the runway, I mean yeah go for it show that big girls can strut their stuff too and be proud of who you are instead of trying to be an impossible size zero all the time, but I feel there is something not quite right.

The collection is very rock chick and empowering women. Red, black and white being the main palette colours. Picture 5 shows a mix of prints that reminds me of the eclectic wardrobes from the stage show of 'We Will Rock You' which by the way is mind blowingly loud!

The bright white jacket in picture 6 over a black lace and red number is very fitting, number 11 has a full denim look, number 13 jacket is gorgeous, red leather in 14, 30 is lovely in white/cream, 41 is to die for! oooooh and 53 is cool with the criss-crossing and lace!

Jean Paul Gaultier ready-to-wear Spring/Summer 2011

What do you think?

Asian inspiration at Louis Vuitton

I've always had a love for anything oriental so it's no surprise that I adore the asian inspired pieces at Louis Vuitton. I am particularly fond of pictures: 26, 27, and 29 and 30 is just gorgeous! I love the colour and the silhouette! Oh my 47 is stunning, sexy and sophisticated all in one and the print just screams confidence!

The flapper style dresses in pictures 6 and 7 are also very nice and the layers of colours work really well together.

Louis Vuitton ready-to-wear Spring/Summer 2011

What do you think?

Bright brights at Wunderkind

A friend of mine posted this link on facebook and I just had to have a look.

The prints on the garments are so bold, the colours are vivid and the overall prints are eye-popping and somewhat surreal when mixed with the checkerboard. You really must have a look!

Some of my favourites are the dresses in pictures: 6, 14, 27 and 42; I adore the jacket in 35 and all of 38 is gorgeous!

Wunderkind ready-to-wear Spring/Summer 2011

The overall look for the show with the hair in pigtails, pale makeup and bright red lipstick brings out the colours in the prints where the shoes give it a bohemian dolly look. The different printed garments look great mixed up and really allow for the woman/man to stand out in a crowd. I especially love the men's shirt and matching trousers in matching prints. Very eye-catching!

What do you think?

Video tutorial...

Finally got my video tutorial of the Button Necklace I made to upload onto YouTube so here it is for you to see and unfortunately hear me speaking, I sound awful!:

Resin Jewellery

Having got the beads drilled by a friend I have been able to put them together as bracelets, necklaces and earrings.

Here are what I came up with:

Simple elasticated bracelet:



Memory wire and beads bracelet 1:





Matching Earrings:



Memory wire and beads bracelet 2:



Memory wire and beads necklace:



Simple pendant on ribbon:



I have also created step-by-step guides for the necklace and matching set of bracelet and earrings, again let me know if you’d like to see them!

Resin Bangle

Having previously managed to find and purchase a clear cast resin that mixes the same way as the white resin I couldn’t help myself but to then purchase a bangle mould and embed the beads I have been using.

I didn’t quite harden all the way around and so some areas are still tacky however it turned out quite well, what do you think?:

Arts Thread

Using Arts Thread I have been able to publish a live portfolio of my work for industrial viewing etc.

My individual page shows three projects:

• My final collection 'Stitched Up Peacock'
  
• The peacock feather digital prints I produced
  
• A necklace made with my printed velvet fabric

The link is: Maddison Langford

Other students from University of East London also featured.

More Resin...

As the previous resin pieces came out so well, I just had to make some more on Monday. I even managed to take pictures of the resin curing to show how the resin and hardener blend together.



On Tuesday I made even more and this is what I ended up with.

Circular pieces:



And cubes/rectangles:



I then marked them all up for drilling holes so they can be used later.

I have taken enough pictures to create a step-by-step guide in making these so if you are interested then let me know!

Resin beads

I picked up the white poly resin on Wednesday, which is a 1:1, ratio mix (I checked) and immediately had to try it. Firstly I made some plain pieces using an ice-cube tray and produced these:



Then I used a drill to put holes in them so they can be strung together with elastic/thread etc.

Then I decided to do some with embellishments inside them, i.e. beads, here are the results of my first batch:



The resin cures in only 20 minutes so you can make plenty in a day but this was only about 45 minutes total from beginning to end of practising.

Resin 1st attempt

On Friday I attempted my first ever batch of resin moulding and unfortunately it did not go well.

Firstly I mixed the resin ratio 1:1 as the instructions in my book told me to however I later found out from the supplier that the resin and hardener should have been mixed as resin 100:1 hardener. And so I believe the resin was far too runny to harden properly and has turned to an almost jelly like state.

However before this I poured the solution into my moulds and for some reason put them in an oven, then to find out the resin had turned orange and the moulds had melted. Whoopsy!!!!!

Here is a picture of the resin that didn’t go into the oven.



It looks as though little crystals have started to form in the resin and you can see it pulling away from the edges of the container. Also the colour from the feathers has been washed out almost completely.

I think I will be mixing it as the supplier suggests from now on!

Portfolio Work

Here are the 20 pages I created for my portfolio to be displayed at our University Stand at Graduate Fashion Week this week.

I hope you like them.

S-U-P GFW presentation

I've been trying to upload these pics for a while and it kept saying failed but have finally managed it so I can show you the pics I managed to get from the GFW presentations on Wednesday.









This one is the models leaving the presentation room:


Sorry they are blurry, no idea why! Anyway I think you can get the general idea from them. Hopefully I will be able to organise a photo shoot and get some better photos to post.

Buttons, buttons everywhere!

OK so I've been trying to work out how to make my jewellery for my learning contract without using the resin as it is far too costly and kindof confusing for me. Here is one of my solutions - Buttons!

By covering buttons using my printed velvet fabrics I've created two pieces so far and produced a video which I will hopefully be finishing very soon and uploading for you to see. Word of warning it involves me talking! EEK!!!!! lol.

Anyway here are some of the buttons:


Here is a necklace:






And here is a bracelet:






Hope you like them! And check back soon for the video tutorial!

I love this!

I had no idea photobucket had this feature. Will have to do something similar with my portfolio pages.

Another...

Here is another of the pictures from the photoshoot that I've photoshopped.





Thanks for looking.

What was I thinking????

Having looked at my portfolio pages I posted, over and over and over again. I find myself hating every single one. They do not seem interesting at all and need more than just a little tweaking.

I have started one which includes the photoshoot pictures and even though I'm only half way through it, the page already looks more interesting than all the others I posted before.

Yet that is all I have ready to hand in today and to have them seen by people from GFW does not bode well for them being received with comments but rather criticism.

With appointments looming today I have fairly little time to get them looking any better and be able to print them, hand in and get back to school to pick up my son.

Nothing ever, ever goes right when it either needs to or you want it to. Here's to another day of feeling sorry for myself.

Edits

Same as before here are some more photoshoot pics with my edits.

So here is the third:


Original:


And here is the forth:


And the original again:


Thanks for looking.

Photoshoot

The UEL photoshoot for our GFW brochure was held on April 3rd by http://therealtonyandguy.blogspot.com/ and the photo's came out with some great poses so I have been working on cleaning up a couple of pictures to show here.

Here is the first one I've been working on:


Here is what it looked like before:


A big thankyou also to Mischa my model for bringing the dress alive!

Here's the second picture:


And the original:


I've now learned how to use the megnetic lasso tool! Tick for me!

Thanks for looking.

Portfolio work...

Have been working on some portfolio boards recently and thought I would upload them for you to see. Let me know what you think! Thanks everyone!