Creating My Own Design

I have decided to design two different fabric print collections for my assignment. The main collection is based on the surrounding area of my home town, Albury-Wodonga, as 'Ink & Spindle's designs are based on their home, Melbourne. Taking inspiration from the surrounding area fulfils part of my assignment, where we must follow the design process of our chosen company. the second collection is inspired by the circus, which recently passed through town.




Sketching with Copic Markers in Class

Last week in class I came up with some design ideas and started sketching them.

Willow Leaves, Eucalyptus Flowers, Circus Parade

Over the next few days I decided what I wanted in each collection and drew some other designs.

Wattle



Willow Leaves



Clocks

Circus Parade

'Bright Sparks'

Bright Sparks

As part of my assignment I have to research other PD opportunities available in my area. I recently found out about 'Bright Sparks', and have registered for the event.
Bright Sparks is a creative event presented by Murray Arts and is held on Monday 20th of August at various venues around Gateway Village, Gateway Island, Wodonga. It is a day of inspiration, education and skills development for people who work, or aspire to work in the creative industries.

There will be a range of people who are making their living in the creative industries, who will share their stories on how they've done it, and give advice to anyone that needs it.
You can find out about great creative projects happening all over the country, and learn about how other creative people manage their businesses.

If you are in the area, and interested in talking to graphic designers, publishers, writers, photographers, film makers, fashion designers, visual or performing artists, musicians, jewellery, furniture, industrial and textile designers then come along for the day.

There will also be a number of workshops to attend:

*The Art of Visual Merchandising
*'The Pitch' - Developing
*Building your Creative Business Value Proposition
*Product Pitch: creative ideas for enterprise
*What’s App with that? Apps workshop
*Brand Me: Branding Workshop

'Ink & Spindles' Philosophy

'Ink & Spindle's designs are largely inspired by their hometown Melbourne and Australia’s native flora and fauna. Instead of following current design, or fashion trends, they try to develop textiles that will fit in your life for many years to come.

Locally made table lamps

 When it comes to finished product they prefer to collaborate with fellow local creatives. 'Ink & Spindle's textiles can be found around Melbourne & Australia made in to bags, lampshades, homewares and more due to the skills of a range of talented people.


Tegan and Lara feel it is very important to raise awareness and provide a sustainable alternative to the mass produced textiles that dominate the marketplace. Their ethical and environmental concerns effect all of their decision making and also how the studio functions. The studio is a bright, friendly and welcoming creative environment. Many friends and neighbours come through the doors to discuss collaborations, creativity, business ups and downs and life in general.

Pendant light

Prior to 'Ink & Spindle', Lara had worked for many years as a web and graphic designer. Feeling somewhat frustrated and limited by the digital medium, she began to experiment with surface design and textiles, receiving a lot of feedback and support via her blog Kirin Notebook. From there, the progression to starting 'Ink & Spindle' was a natural one, and so much more fulfilling.

Lara Cameron & Tegan Rose

Tegan studied Fine Arts for 5 years before completing a postgrad in Education and becoming a secondary school teacher. During her second year teaching, Ink & Spindle came to life, and although she felt teaching was the best job in the world, it was emotionally and creatively exhausting. Tegan found leaving teaching (or more specifically, her students) really difficult, but has found running 'Ink & Spindle' to be rewarding on so many levels.

Fabric Range

While 'Ink & Spindle' mostly use Australian floral designs, they have several different designs available.
Their most popular designs are

Grevillea                                                                                              Ginkgo

Mustard & Greylead on Unbleached

Black & Greylead on Hemp/Yak

  

                                                                                                                    

  Watercolour Stripe                                                            Kangaroo Paw

Red Orange and Snow on Unbleached

Toffee & Almond on Cream

                                                            

                                                    

The Flowering Gum                                                                                   Trams & Bicycles

Black & Greylead on Hemp/Yak

Black on Charcoal

Blockprint                                                                                       Rooftops

Persimmon on Cream

Deep Red on Cream

Wrens                                                                                                    Birch                           

Inky Blue on Unbleached

Robins Egg on Cream

Each design has at least two colourways. Each unit purchased is equal to 25cm in length. However if you purchase a single quantity it will be cut to the more practical size of 50cm x 70cm (unless otherwise specified).

All About Grevillea

'Ink & Spindles' booth at Design, Made, Trade

The Grevillea design was created by Tegan when she picked the stems of the flower from her front garden, on the way to work one morning. Both of the colours in this design are printed from a single screen; the second colour is printed with the screen rotated 180 degrees and offset by half a repeat.

Greylead & Mustard

Greylead & Mustard

Basecloth: 250gsm unbleached organic cotton/hemp

Useage: Soft furnishings, curtains/blinds, lighting, craft, medium/lightweight upholstery

Dimensions: The fabric is available as meterage at approx 150cm wide.(Horizontal repeat- 1325mm
Vertical repeat- 700mm)

                                                                            


                                                                                  Portello & Mist

Portello & Mist

Basecloth: 250gsm Linen in Oatmeal 

Useage: Soft furnishings, curtains/blinds, lighting, craft, medium/lightweight upholstery

Dimensions: The fabric is available as meterage at approx 150cm wide.(Horizontal repeat- 1325mm
Vertical repeat- 700mm)





Most of 'Ink & Spindle' marketing is done on their website, they also have a blog and a facebook page, where they let their fans and the general public know about the latest designs or what is happening at the studio. Tegan and Lara also exhibit at trade shows such as Design Made Trade.

Sustainabilty

“Sustainability is at the heart of what we do, in every sense of the word”

 ‘Ink & Spindle’ have always known they did not want to follow the ‘cheap and easy’ route. Instead, they have chosen to forge a more ethical path within the usually toxic, textile industry. Below is a list of the practises they currently employ to minimise their impact on the Earth:

*Promote and use organic, sustainable and fair trade base cloths
*design for longevity, not conforming to short term trends
*use water based, solvent free inks
*minimise water wastage by using high pressure to clean screens
*have a water-board certified separation system to prevent foreign particles from entering waterways
*use recycled paper, card and envelopes, and reuse boxes and packaging materials where possible
*use biodegradable cello for packaging, as opposed to plastic
*offset their carbon emissions through support of Carbon Neutral

Carbon Neutral

Design Process

In today’s class we discussed how companies have a design process.  These are generally different from company to company, depending on their style, ethos and area of design.  By going through my notes, from talking to Tegan Rose, and visiting the website, I have learnt ‘Ink & Spindle’s design process.





Hand printing the fabric

*Discuss possible designs over the print table
*Sketch designs
*Refine and finalise the designs
*Scan onto computer and make repeats
*Print colour sample onto fabric

(While the designs are all hand drawn they also use computer programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator to create their pattern repeats, which are 50cm to 70cm squares)

To create the final products the screens are exposed and the designs are hand printed by Lara and Tegan. Their designs are simple and only require two colour separations. They use overprinting, screen flips and displacement to create beautiful results from only a single screen. The fabric is then heat set to seal in the ink, packaged and sold. The fabrics are made into unique pieces by local furniture manufactures.

Locally manufactured lampshades