Life's Story September 2008

My sister Emma is the real poet of the family, but every now and again writing the occasional poem helps me to make sense of my world and where I am at.

Life’s Story

For all us each new day,
Our story lays untold,
Life’s journey incomplete waiting to unfold.

Even when our path looks planned and clear,
Often it is just an illusion that we hold dear.

As life’s events come to pass,
Our mental projections of the future,
Are like staring into the fortune tellers ball of glass.

We hold on to these visions of security,
To help us through life’s uncertainty.

The challenge to us all,
Living on this spinning ball,
Is to embrace our individual fate,
And listen for it to call.

Pillow Orchids August 2008

My blog posts have been few and far apart this year. Largely due to going back into full time employment last May. It has been a busy 8 months, and writing my blog has not featured high on my lists of priorities. I have still been contributing when I can to my personal sketch book, so thanks to my sister Emma's persistent nagging (done in the best possible way of course) I thought I would share some of my personal doodles with you.
As part of my new employment I am privileged to travel in and out of India, each night at the Claridge's in New Delhi as well as turning the bed down a single orchid was placed on the pillow. They were lovely and I enjoyed drawing them in my few quiet moments.

My Wedding Dress March 2008

Unlike the dress that I made for Gail my Wedding dress was thrown together the week before we left for Canada. The shift dress on the left was purchased from Toast on Westborne Grove in London. This simple natural linen shift formed the foundation of my outfit. The antique lace and beading on the right were collected from Portobello Market.

I then experimented with draping the lace over the shift dress until I had got the shape that I wanted, from that I cut a pattern for a simple lace tunic to sit on top of the Linen shift .

The finished lace shift complete with mock Canadian tracker boots from Fat Face.

Detail of Lace Shift left.

Curls and flowers going into my hair.

My Bouquet of roses and orchids

The final outfit complete with my Granny's fur stole, kindly sent by my Aunt who lives in Canada to our hotel. Beautiful flowers sent by my family to our hotel. Along with Champagne sent by close friends

Snowboarding Honeymoon!

Gail's Wedding Dress

Its important with brides that you do not give away their dress before the big day, therefore these extracts have been created throughout the last three months.

It all began with a phone call, last November 2007.

Gail and I hadn't spoken for a while for no other reason than we have both been really busy, so it was lovely to hear that Paul had asked her to marry him and that they were planning to get married on February the 22nd 2008. Then she asked me whether I would design and create her dress, I was thrilled and touched. For me creating a bespoke wedding dress for anyone is always really special, but it is just lovely to have the opportunity to do this for someone that you have a close friendship with. So I got really excited and we arranged our first meeting at the V&A in London on the 21st of November 2007. I spent a brief but lovely couple of hours with her, we walked around "The Golden Age of Couture" exhibition, discussing her like and dislikes as we went round. After we sat in the V&A cafe, grabbed a bite to eat, while Gail showed me magazine tears that she had collected. We talked about her favourite films, her fiance's taste, her wedding venue, colour, and of course about there little boy Jake who was going to be one about the same time they were getting married. The two hours that we had disappeared, I left with my head spinning with ideas.

Friday 23rd of November 2007

I had a good rummage around Portobello Market, I found some beautiful antique beaded trims that were really inspiring.

December 2008 the first design ideas.

These are pages from my sketch book exploring different ideas, they were then emailed across to Gail, to see if they captured her imagination as well.

January 2008 the final design sketch.

This final design was done after conversations with Gail regarding the initial design sketches that I had sent her in December, ready for the first fit meeting on Sunday the 13th of Jan. When I work on a bespoke dress for an individual I literally build the first mock up on them, so that I can sculpt the line on their actual body. The first toille is then carefully deconstructed and a paper pattern is produced. The second toille featured below is cut from the paper pattern, and then refitted on the bride.

Monday 23rd of January 2008

Myself, Gail and little Jake went to my silk suppliers to buy the fabric. I would not normally take the bride and her one year son along to the silk wholesalers, and generally they would not allow it but they were fantastic and let us all in to their show room. Gail wanted her dress to be in a silver grey blue colour and we needed to check that the colour was going to complement her skin tone. We came away with a beautiful length of Ice blue silk satin crepe for the dress and a charcoal grey silk chiffon for the romantic twisted sash ties.

Gail and Jake in a cafe as we waited for the silk to be cut.

By the third toille the pattern for the dress is almost perfect, last minute adjustments are made and the final dress is cut, and sent to the machinist to be put together.

Thursday the 7th of February 2008

The final fitting only this time its the real thing!

The dress has been cut on the bias, which means that the weight of the fabric causes it to lengthen. Here you can see Gail with my skilled machinist Pat Gouk as she pins the hem to the correct length. Once this is done my next task is to carefully embroider the antique steel beading around the neck and bust area

Friday the 22nd of February 2008 - The Wedding Day

The Bridal Suite

A detail shot of the steel beading used around the neck and bust area

Dressing the bride

(Photograph courtesy of Jeremy Clifton-Gould, www.jcgphoto.com)

Gail and me

(Photograph courtesy of Jeremy Clifton-Gould, www.jcgphoto.com)

Fastening the stole

(Photograph courtesy of Jeremy Clifton-Gould, www.jcgphoto.com)

Ready to go!

(Photograph courtesy of Jeremy Clifton-Gould, www.jcgphoto.com)

Gail's Dress front and back
(Photograph's courtesy of Jeremy Clifton-Gould, www.jcgphoto.com)

For me one of the best things about this day was seeing the dress move on Gail. It was gorgeous to see Gail having so much fun swooshing the dress around on the dance floor at midnight. She was the last one dancing until her new husband gently dragged her off to bed.

Gail gave me this lovely card and beautiful antique silver thimble as a thank you.

All I can say is that it was a pleasure from start to finish!

A personal thank you from me to Jeremy Clifton-Gould the photographer for the use of the pictures. Gail's Wedding was the first time I had met him, I was very impressed throughout the day and I would highly recommend him to anybody planning an event or a Wedding.

February 2008- Why?

Well here goes everybody has to start somewhere and I have no doubt that this will evolve and change with time.

Why am I venturing to write a blog? Inititially I was inspired by my sister Emma, who was having fun, publishing her own blog documenting her creative projects. Then as I thought about it more I realised that, over the years I have regularly kept sketchbooks scince I was 17yrs old. This habit was put in place by an old school Art Teacher who insisted that we kept sketchbooks as part of our study in "A" level Art. He used to gather them in at the beginning of every week, and mark the weekly drawing projects that he had set us to do at home. He believed that he could teach anyone to draw and that it was a skill that needed practice, in the same way that you practice a musical instrument. We were suposed to draw for 1hr a day it always took me 2hrs though. The process of observational drawing is one that teaches me more about an object than any photograph ever will. I will always be grateful to him.

As the years have gone by I would be lying if I claimed to have kept the 2hrs drawing a night up, my sketchbook has become more than a book of weekly excercises, it has become a place where as well as sketching, I note down ideas I don't want to forget, store project research, and develop creative ideas.

The aim of this blog is to share my personal design journey with you, to show how ideas develop for me from the first initial thoughts through to their final conclusion. My long term goal is to create an ethical and sustainable design buisiness.