Marbling samples

Here I used inks with water as well as soap to create a bubble effect. I have also digitally edited the photographs of them to enhance their vividness and colour. I really like the colours where I have inverted them which created dark blues with accents of shocking pink or orange.

Marbling

Fabulous macro-photographs taken by Cliff Briggie are full of colour and are the perfect example of the marbling effect I am looking to achieve on a digitally printed scarf. Although I wish to create my imagery with my own photographs, drawings and editing using photoshop, Cliff Briggie creates the marbling with layers of inks, sometimes ice and macro photography.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cliffbriggie/10549715595/
Video shows how Briggie applies the ink

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cliffbriggie/8278382208/in/photostream/lightbox/
Briggie's flickr page. Absolute inspiration

Geology inspiration

Inspired by the marbled effect and interesting texture of minerals such as these, which i came across in Norwich Castle Museum, I hope to develop these photos through drawings and photoshop to finalise an idea which will be digitally printed onto a silk scarf.

Dashing Tweeds

The company "Dashing Tweeds" has become a modern revival for tweed, designing vibrant and unique fabrics which display the quality and appeal of tweed with a new twist. The company began by the founder, Guy Hills wanting a new, yet traditional, tweed cycle suit. Originally tweed reflected the countryside to act as almost a camouflage for those hunting in the tweed sportswear. However, he had an idea to create tweed to camouflage into the city, urban surroundings.

This idea lead to developing luminous aspects to reflect city landscapes.

And also reassuring the original purpose of tweed, for comfort and leisure, creating modern styles to the traditional product, for example this modern cycle jacket.

Dashing Tweeds has also designed for companies such as:

Converse

For Henry Holland

Topshop collaboration

Swarovski Crystals collaboration

Tweeds

Tweed is another traditional, woollen, woven fabric which is created by either a plain or twill weave to give a check or herringbone pattern.
 
With useful properties such as being water resistant, durable and insulating, the tweed was firstly commonly used as sportswear in the UK for outdoor activities such as shooting and hunting.

One of the most famous as well as popular tweeds around the world is the Harris tweed. It is the only fabric that has its own legislation and has been hand woven off the west coast of Scotland for generations."Harris Tweed means a tweed that has been hand-woven by the islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides, finished in the Outer Hebrides, and made from pure new wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides." Only tweed made this way can be given the "Orb" stamp trademark to clarify it is genuine Harris Tweed.

Originally, the wool of black faced sheep living on the moors was spun to make the yarns for the Harris Tweed, as they were a widespread breed and their coats were thick, strong and coarse due to their resilience against the harsh weather. For generations, the weaver would live on a croft and look after their own sheep. Nowadays, different Scottish breeds are used to suit the modern demand for a lighter, softer fabric.

Once the sheep is sheared, the wool needs to be sorted, scoured and washed, then finally dried in preparation for dyeing.

The coloured wools are mixed to different dye recipes then carded, the carding process turns them into lenghts of wool and yarn. Once the lengths are then spun into yarns and put onto bobbins, they are sent to the weavers.

After the tweeds are woven they are stamped every two metres or so with the "Orb" logo. During the 1970's, advertisements for men's suits in Harris Tweed created such a trend that everyone wanted the cloth with the trademark. Vivienne Westwood even alluded to the logo to promote her own garments.

Tartans on the high-street

After investigating the traditional Scottish weaving of tartan, I have noticed its popularity on the market in high-street fashion.

ASOS.co.uk

"The grunge look" which shows how tartan checked shirts are incorporated into a specific street trend.

Dorothy Perkins "Go West" trend

River island "Chelea Girl" look

Superdry "Lumberjack" shirts

Company magazine

Creating my own tartans

I stumbled upon this amazing website; http://www.scotweb.co.uk/tartandesign/design/
which allows you to create your own tartan quickly and easily. Simply choose a colour palette and alter the desired amounts of each colour to determine the check pattern.
I used my own photograph of urban lighting, below, to choose particular colours and created an endless amount of different tartans.

Modern Tartan

London, New York, Shanghai Street fashion January 2013

Jun Takahashi/Undercover, "Melting Pot", Autumn/Winter 2000-1

portrays contemporary fashion which continues to incorporate traditional tartan yet in new and interesting ways.

Tartans in Fashion

Although Tartans are a traditional and ancient way of constructing fabric, they are constantly in contemporary design due to their classic, nostalgic appeal and endless options of design.

"Anglomania" was Vivienne Westwood's Autumn/Winter 1992-93 collection which heavily featured and focussed on the classic beauty and qualities of tartan. Westwood has adopted the use of tartan since her collection in the seventies, where she became famous through her fascination of the "punk style". 

Westwood also believes that fashion is a combination of ideas between France and England and her designs reference historical elements and costume of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries using a collision of French haute couture and English tailoring to contextualise the "Auld Alliance" between France and Scotland. 

 

Westwood not only uses a diverse range of traditional and contemporary tartans but also designed, in conjunction with specialist tartan manufacturers, Lochcarron, her own tartans. For example, McBrick, which used a particular colour palette inspired by the London landscape and The MacAndreas which was named after Westwood's husband and collaborator, Andreas Kronthaler. The designer introduces a new tartan to each season, demonstrating the fabric will never go out of fashion.

According to Vivienne, the appeal of tartan is "heroic, rustic and traditional and because of this, romantic. It has the sense of dressing-up, even fancy dress and lends itself to role-playing, perfect for coquetry"

Anglomania, Autumn/Winter 2012/13
 Wallace Tartan Kilt