Albam Tote Bag Workshop, Ray giving Sewing Instructions
Albam Tote Bag Workshop
Albam Tote Bag Workshop
Albam Tote Bag Workshop, Ray helping Sew the Handles
Albam Tote Bag Workshop, Ray Overseeing the Sewing
As many of you know I’m pretty interested in tote bags and when a friend sent me a link to a tote bag work shop, it was some thing I could not pass up, in fact I emailed them straight away just incase I would miss out, Luck as it was, was on my side, and I got myself on the day work shop, all I had to do was wait. A few sleeps later, it was the day of the course, and I headed down to Spitalfileds Market, London, where Albam clothing store is based. I met Dan, who heads up communications for the brand, and we chatted about the process and the brand and how it was set up, while things were being set up. I was handed over to Ray, who was a incredible chap, with over 40 years of experience with making, and the guy responsible for making the samples for Albam clothing, I felt like I was in good hands.
I was literally thrown in the deep end, but luckily I had a safety net in the form of Ray. Ray was brilliant, He showed me how to stitch on a binder around the fabric, which went around the pocket of the bag, and the inside edge of the tote bag to create a clean finish, as well as over lock stitch which went around the seams of the bag. Once the pocket and the bag were stitched together, the handles were sewn on, Ray trusted me enough to have a go at marking out a cross pattern for either side of the handles, trust me, t sounds much easier then it is. I sat at the sewing machine, with no experience and came away feeling I could take on anything, well, within reason. It was a real gem of a course.
I learned how to screen print recently at the Peckham Print Studio. I have screen printed in the past, and this was much of a refresher course, which was very helpful and I learned some new knowledge from a very knowledgeable Print Technician Tom, who was teaching the class.
The Print class started with looking through past artworks of previous work, and then we prepared our artworks using photoshop, which would allow us to expose them to the silk screen. The photoshop process involved converting the artworks to black and white bitmap images, which created a more defined black line. Depending on how many colours you are going to use within your print, we were printing with 2 colours today. The artworks separated into 2 different layered artwork for the 2 colour screen prints. Once the artworks were prepared and separated. they were then printed on to tracing paper, which would allow the UV light to pass through the non black areas, and expose the artwork to the silk screen.
We moved to the printing facilities, to learn more about screen printing, the first step was applying an emulsion which will be exposed to the artwork on the exposing unit, once the screen is exposed using UV light, the design is burned on to the screen. to make the design visible, the screen is washed to remove the emulsion, once washed the design is left behind of the screen ready to be screen printed.
The screen was dried and placed on to the screen bed, once the screen was registered to the design, we were ready to print. Using one of my illustrations, I firstly Printed the orange colour of the leaves, and left that 1st layer to dry, and then the 2nd black colour was applied. There is a level of trail and error to printing. The first few prints did not print well, and the screen was not washed throughly and the screen was clogged in certain areas, which involved cleaning the screen once again, to achieve a good print.
The Peckham Print Studio, has some great facilities, which I will certainly be taking up and using in the near future to print more of my work.
Guest Illustration Lecturer University South Wales
University of South Wales Design Judges
I was recently contacted by a Sarah Carter, Senior lecturer at the University of South Wales in Cardiff to give a illustration lecture to her class of first year fashion promotion and illustration students. The lecture focused around their 2nd semester module, to design a tote bag for a local solicitor firm based in Cardiff.
I created my slide lecture focusing working as a full time illustration artist, and the projects I work on , the way I promote my work, as well as other external projects and collaboration, which consisted of the Tote Bag book which I had written for Laurence King Publishing in 2009.
Arriving at the University of South Wales, Sarah greeted and briefed me about the tote bag design module. I was given a brief tour of the Cromwell House campus, a short walk away from the main campus. It was also a pleasure to meet the faculty staff of the BA hons Fashion promotion and illustration course. Sarah kindly introduced me to the class of 80 students. I was happy to speak to the class, as well as speaking to individual students regarding their illustration work for their Tote Bag Module. Below are some of the slides and notes, which were covered in the lecture.
Self Promotion
Here are a couple of screen grabs from my website. Its useful tool to have to promote your work, it’s the place to have your online portfolio, as well as your blog which you use to use to update and talk about your current projects. The website is also linked to my social networking accounts such as facebook, and twitter accounts.
Facebook
Twitter
Behance
Linkedin
Feedly
Pinterest
Social Networking
I use social networks, such as twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, to talk about my work, and my interests, it’s a good way to harness followers of your work, as well as connecting with designers and clients. Behance is a great site to connect with other designers. And is a free portfolio platform. I also use feedly, to pull in information from sites I follow, such as design week, and creative review. It’s a good blog reader website, which pulls in all the websites you follow for inspiration into one place. It makes things efficient.
Illustration Agencies
My work is represented by 2 illustration agencies, Central Illustration agency, based in London, and Bernstein and Andriulli from New York City. There are advantages of being represented by an illustration agency, Mostly the commissions, which can be large advertising jobs. It helps to have an agent deal with clients regarding negotiating fees as well as chase invoices and understanding contracts and licensing your artworks. Illustration agencies tend to take a commission, which can be from 30 to 35 percent of the project fee.
External Projects
As well as illustration, im involved in other projects, like here The Tote Bag Book which I researched and wrote about, and had successfully published by Laurence king publishing back in 2009. The book publishing idea came from the blog I write, about Tote Bags. I have an interest in tote bags because of their illustration value, as well as being a platform to make connections with other designers, of which I write about, Designers contact me regarding their tote bags and I am sent tote bags too.
Marriott Hotel Brochure Illustration
Here is a illustration which was commissioned for the Marriot hotel county hall London, next to the London eye, the commission was to create a quilling illustration incorporating London land marks close to and near the Marriot County Hall Hotel. Which includes sites such as the Royal festival hall, Big Ben, the London eyes as well icons such as the black cabs and London Route master bus.
Marriott Hotel Line Drawing.
Here is the line drawing I created using adobe illustrator, I draw the illustration using my wacom pen drawing tool, and I individually draw each line and shape, creating the illustration.
Marriott Hotel Line drawings
With my illustrations I tend to use the whole art board, when I create an illustration. These include key illustrated details from the illustrations, as well as different variations of the illustration, which happen because of comments from clients once they have seen the first draft of the artwork, and there will be quite a few revisions before it becomes approved as the final artwork.
Marriott Hotel Cinema 4D
The vector lines I have drawn are then exported to a 3D package such as Cinema 4D, there are many other programmes, but this seems the best for this effect I work on, it is also great package for animating the lines which I have done I the past for clients who need a animation for a web advert. The vector lines are then extruded to simulate the look of real 3D quilling, this is done, but the angel of the camera, as well as the shadow and lighting which are all set to specific parameters within the package, its then set to render according the size requirements of the client, which can range from A4 to Billboard size.
It’s a cold winters day, how else would you spend it then to take a course learning to screen print and make exciting designs. I find myself at Heart Zeena studio. Zeena who is a textile designer based in Hoxton, Shoreditch. I found out about Heart Zeena through a a recent craft fair where I saw some of her wonderful products, and by coincidence Zeena also teaches a small print class to small groups, who wish to have fun and print, something which I have wished to learn for some time, to add another dimension to my own illustration work.
Once in from the cold and into Zeena’s studio, who has an amazing creative space where she designs and teaches from. The studio is full of creative material such as workstations. Books for inspiration and an array of printing materials.
The day is started with a warm greeting from Zeena, and then up to the studio, where I meet the others who are taking the course, it’s a nice mix, who are here to have fun and learn about printing. During the introductions, as part of the day we have time for tea and mince pies, obviously because of the cold winters day and the pies for that added xmas factor.
Zeena starts the course talking to the small group about the different types of screen printing processes. The printing method that will be taught is to learn how to print straight from a stencil cut design onto fabric, which was a tote bag and a tea towel.
The group was given waxed wrapping paper, the type, which is used by, butchers apparently. The waxy texture of the paper is ideal for creating stencils with as the waxy papers property helps to stop the ink from seeping though the stencil, yet allowing the ink to pass through the rest of the un-stencilled screen. The screen fabrics come in a varying degree of sizes zeena explained, the size we would be using would be A4, which is a good size to print with onto the Tote bags and Tea towels. The nylon mesh of the silk screen also comes in different sizes, Zeena explained that we would be using a silk screen with a mesh size of 42T which is ideal for screen printing on to fabric, however there are many other screen sizes for varying uses, to print onto paper and fabric.
The group set off on the task of cutting out the stencils, it’s a tricky task, drawing out your illustrious onto the waxy paper then, to cut them out with stencils and scissors while at the same the trying to mind not cutting away at your fingers. Once the stencils are all cut. Its time to lay the stencil designs flat onto to the tote bag laid on the printing bed ready to be screen printed. Once the stencil is laid flat the screen is placed over the stencil and positioned into place.
Heart Zeena Jitesh Patel Illustrtaion
Its time to screen print the design, I choose to use a dark navy blue colour for the print. Zeena instructs me to spoon the ink at the top edge of the screen, the term for this is the well. With a rubber squeegee, which is held at a very slight angle, with one firm action with both hands, the squeegees is drawn down the screen, and it is dispersed through the screen onto the tote bag. Scooping up the excess colour, it is reused at the top of the screen, the process is to be repeated.
Heart Zeena Studio
Heart Zeena Studio & Jitesh Patel Illustrtaion
Heart Zeena Studio & Jitesh Patel Illustrtaion
A fun and easy screen printing process with instant results. I found it to be a great way to print, and the rest of the reaming time in the class was used to cut new stencils and printing, which was a lot of fun. It was amazing to see the rest of the group come up with their designs and prints, which were all fantastic designs. Zeena’s had a great teaching method. Which was friendly and informative while at the same time enjoyable and fun, However I was told off for using a rubber, which are not allowed in the class. You do come away having had a great day with like-minded people. If only my art classes were like that at school, im sure I would have remembered them more fondly. So here I am at the end of the class with some fantastic tote bag and tea towels, which are going to make some great xmas gifts. I have caught the bug to screen print and now I will be looking to screen-print much more of my illustrations in the near future.
