Kristjana S Williams is an artist from Iceland.  She creates fantastic collages by combining old - world images from maps, antique books and archives with the latest printing technology.  I came across Kristjana and her work in the February 2015 edition of Homes & Antiques.

I love the idea of mixing the old with the new and have found her work an inspiration.  After previously creating wallpapers, collages and cut out work as part of my degree show and seeing Kristjana's work, I have found myself excited in to creating some new ideas and pieces of work using my own style.

Here a few pieces of Krishna's work.....

Feature On Twitter By Design Juices

It's been a while since I have posted anything new on my blogs.  I was featured on Twitter yesterday by Design Juices and thought I would share it!

JARED THOMPSON ·

SURFACE PATTERN, TEXTILES, 

UNIVERSITY OF BOLTON

FREELANCE SURFACE DESIGNER RACHEL TOMKOW

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Freelance surface designer Rachel Tomkow is a graduate of the University of Bolton in Textiles andSurface Design in 2013.

‘I have always loved drawing, painting and being creative. Whilst I had already gained a number of qualifications in art, design, textiles and fashion, after a number of years away from studying, I decided to go back to University and studied for a BA (Hons) Degree in Textiles and Surface Design at The University Of Bolton, gaining a 2:2 and graduating in July 2013. The surface design element particularly interested me and I improved and developed a skill in creating designs that could be used for surfaces such as fabric, ceramics and wallpapers.

Whilst I am a freelance surface designer, I would like to see some of my designs on finished products and be sold in the likes of Anthropologie and Liberty’s.’

‘Using a combination of papers, paint and drawing ink, I have produced a variety of simple but effective pieces of textured work and designs.  Cutting and collaging papers and combining them with a loose style drawing of things that have inspired me such as objects of nature like plants, animals and birds, layering them together, sometimes placing tracing paper with loose style drawings over the top help me to create my designs.  Whilst some of my work has been done in traditional ways such as by hand or screen printing, I also like to scan in work and manipulate my designs on Photoshop and illustrator by changing things such as the colour so that I am also producing modern, contemporary collections.  I enjoy going to see different shows and exhibitions and visiting the likes of Printsource, The First Cut Exhibition, Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair which have been great to see.’

‘Inspired by the likes of Quentin Blake, Claire Coles, Rob Ryan, Raoul Duffy and Matisse, I also like to look at the likes of WGSN, Elle Decoration, Print & Pattern to see what is currently on trend and what is going to be on trend in future seasons.

I love to work on brown paper and brown paper bags, creating different backgrounds using paint, ink, collage and cut out work.  I am working on some new designs and pieces of work using these elements with a theme based on flowers. These could be kept as they are and mounted as individual pieces or expanded in to full length, one off pieces such as wallpapers and murals.’

Website | @RTomkowDesigns

Final Wallpaper Pieces

I wanted to show the three handmade wallpapers and hangings when they were completed.  By hanging them up, it shows how effective the pieces are.  Looking at the pieces before everything was put together or whilst they were lay flat,  you couldn't full see how effective they were.  Once they were hung up, you could then see the look and feel that I wanted to create. 

Lined Drawings Of Animals For Final Wallpaper Pieces

These are black and coloured line drawings of animals and birds drawn on tracing paper and are drawings that I wanted to use for my final wallpaper pieces.  They would be combined with drawings, paintings and collaged leaves to create an animal kingdom.

Business Card

Front And Back

Front

Back

These are some shots of my business card.  I wanted to have a simple, clean, crisp look whilst still using  some of my drawings, cut outs and textured work.  The green and red of the parrot are also part of my colour palette and I wanted to bring some of that colour in and have it on the business card so that it completed the look and the link to my theme. 

Screen Printing Larger Design With Colour

This initially started off as one of my final plant designs with white pigment on the linen.  After I had screen printed one of the rows and lifted the screen, we realised that a piece of the masking tape we had used to mark off where to put the screen had been left on the linen.  This left a strip of the original colour of the linen showing through one of the designs when it should of been white.  After trying to correct it using the white pigment and a smaller squigie, you could still see the strip showing through.  I made the decision of adding a row of a plant in one of the colours from my colour palette and thought I could use this piece as either a smaller croqui design or use it to cover a vintage stool or chair.

Screen Printing Another Final Design

Still using linen and white pigment, I also screen printed another design using two different cut out of plants.  This design along with the other on linen, are part of my plant collection and both are long drops of fabric showing each design that are to be used for interiors.

Smaller Screen Print Designs

Whilst I am doing so many larger scale final designs on drops of linen fabric, I am also producing smaller scale designs on to linen as well.  These are some examples and you can see where some of the white pigment isn't as strong in some places as others.  This helps towards creating the texture I wanted which you can see in my original drawings, cut outs and paintings with white paint on brown paper.

Screen Printing A Design In Print Studio

These are some images of me printing one of my final designs on to linen.  The screen was quite a large screen so I did have to have some help when I was putting it in the right place to print and also when I needed to lift the screen up after printing. Before I printed the plant designs, I measured and marked with masking tape so I knew where I had to print each time. 

Lined Animal Screen Printed Animals

Although my final collection on linen consists of the plant designs screen printed withe pigment, I also wanted to see how this collection could be developed.  This involved screen printing some of the line drawings of animals that I had produced in colours from my colour palette.  This could work quite well and even though the plants and animals are simple line drawings and cut outs, they are effective.

I would like to produce smaller croqui samples and designs on linen to show how the cut out plant designs and lined animal drawings can also be used for fabric and interior designs. 

After Effects Of Screen Printing

After doing my full length screen printed test piece of a final design on linen, I ironed it once dry and when I took the linen off the print table, it left an imprint of my design on the table.  This was where some of the pigment had gone through the fabric.  The white pigment on the linen gives a textured, natural look and I really liked the textured effect it has left of the white on the black.  By taking pictures of the pigment on the table, I wanted to record the texture in another colour way and wondered whether the images could be used. 

Testing With A Final Plant Design

These are some images of one of my final plant designs.  I first tried it on cotton with another colour in the length that I wanted to use to see how it would look.  The top image is an example of this and whilst it looks effective, the images are a little bit too close together so I knew I had to move them and have a bit more space in between each one.  The second and third images are one of the final designs using the white pigment on the linen as I wanted to see how the full design looked on the length of fabric I wanted to use.