Thursday 20 January 2011

New Designs : Old Ideas

January; a time for sorting, throwing things out, and starting fresh....but isn't it funny the things you find!?

I decided it was finally time to sort through all of my old college and uni work -you cant keep everything so time to be selective. Ah memory lane, all that work! and whats this? my old war project from my first year of college...


Some designs; some samples; a dress and a skirt ...that bears remarkable resemblance to the AW10 pleat skirt I designed!



I remember the original project began with a poem that my sister wrote. It was a reflective poem written from the perspective of a soldier having served through WW2. The pain, the horrors, and most of all the personal sacrifice. I wanted to communicate that juxtaposition of the defiant, hard, determined and austere front that was the national war effort, against the hearts and souls of real people; people that hurt, loved and lost. The real people underneath the shell.
I actually developed the pleat design by re-modeling a heavy, dowdy work skirt that I picked up in a charity shop. I re-fitted it, moved the pleats and darts and embellished the utilitarian fabric with tiny, delicate red silk roses.

Isn't it funny how some things remain in your subconscious. Even though I began at a different point when designing the pleat skirt for Llynfi, I somehow worked my way back toward a design that I loved back when I was 16.
...I wonder what else will resurface

Monday 10 January 2011

New year, new plans, new label......

New Year - new plans! As we have to order some more garment labels, we thought it a good opportunity to rethink the design.

The Llynfi logo was originally 'Llynfi Angora', referring to my little herd of angora bunnies and the yarn and items made from the fluff. That was over 10 years ago, so it was about time for a revamp. And we have to go to a different company for these labels - as anything going into a certified organic item has to meet Global Organic Textile Standards.

Anyway! This is what we came up with, although the colour reproduction here isn't quite right. But you get the idea:


It was quite a mission to find a company to produce a small quantity at a reasonable price, and I finally found one in Dublin. A bit of a shame, as there are 2 or 3 here in West Wales that I would have preferred to use, but they couldn't fill in the risk assessment form. All gets a bit too complicated sometimes, and much of the organic system is geared towards major manufacture, at least where textiles are concerned.