Flowers and Audrey Hepburn

Since I have been looking into Floral Textiles, I took a trip to the National Portrait Gallery and there I became fascinated with the iconic Portaits of Hepburn. I then decided to use these within my work, I have created a few page based on floral imagery and Hepburn. I think by linking these two together gives me a stronger field to look for inspiration and new ideas. 

I have also created a collage based on floral dresses and ideas that could inspire me in the future when creating my own designs. 

Mini Flower Experiments

After initially researching photographs from Portaits of an Icon I decided to look into the patterns used. I have begun to create a collection of flowers made from felt, zips and brusho dyed fabrics. 

I like how I can experiment with different media to create a large sample overall. I am looking to recreate the large pink blossom tree in the background of one of the photographs. Along with one of my own photographs to create a final sample. 

Extended Research - Audrey Hepburn: Portaits of an Icon

I have researched into floral textiles and now I have decided after creating a few samples that I would like to continue my research by looking at a new collection of photographs based on the style icon/actress Audrey Hepburn. The new collection named Portaits of an Icon 

 include a lot of floral patterns in clothes and in general scenes in the background. I have taken a few of these photographs and have decided to use them as secondary inspiration for my samples. 

Initial Ideas with Samples: Jill Flower

As a starting point I have tried to recreate the flowers that Jill creates. However, there is a lot of technique and different parts that go in to creating the whole flower. Therefore I have taken Jill's Statement on here personal blog and used the ideas from that to create samples based on the idea of how she creates these pieces. 

I am currently focussing on 'trapping' items within plastics and possibly paper. So far I have used bubble wrap trapping embroidery thread and paper flowers. I have then free hand over the top to create a similar shape of the flower in my 2nd primary photograph. I then decided that the embroidery thread made the sample too chunky and bulky. I decided to use the heat press to flatten the entire sample down. I like how this has given the bubble wrap a smooth exterior.

I then moved on to looking at a development, I looked at how to use thinner threads. I create a second sample 'The Burnt Roses' and burned the ends of the bubble wrap to create a burnt effect and free hand 3 rough rose outlines. On this page I have included several design ideas and colours that I would acknowledge if I was to create a design in the further based on this technique of trapping. 

Introduction: Floral Textiles

Hello, my name is Amelia. I am 17 years old and in my final year of A Levels. For my unit 3 textiles art coursework I am focussing my theme on Floral Textiles as I have been influenced by photographing nature especially flowers. I plan to look at a range of artists such as Jill Flower. I hope to develop samples from my primary photographs and artist research.