Front Row Society Competition

I have recently submitted an entry to Front Row Society's 'Elements' competition in association with Anthropologie. A friend of mine works at the beautiful Anthropologie store on Regent Street and told me about it in the nick of time! Here is my entry titled 'Hidden Gem'

This design 'Hidden Gem' has been inspired by my chosen element: Earth. 

Focusing primarily on peace and tranquility through colour and line, the circles represent solidity and provide protection to the gems that can be seen within.

The competition is to produce a print for a scarf. Below I've mocked it up over a found photograph of a pretty lady as I think it'd make a lovely summer dress too!

Please take a couple of minutes to rate my design here or copy and paste the address below 

http://www.frontrowsociety.com/boutique/modules/contest/contest-detail.php?c_id=1090&id=45

Thank you!

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Print of the week

Timorous Beasties get the SPOT this week with their beautiful 'Fresco' Wallpaper.

Combining detailed floral drawings and playful dots, Stone is my preferred colour way. 

Available from their website here

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Up to date:
Continuing on from my previous post this wallpaper, from my final second year project

'A place for everything and everything in its place'

is inspired by linear patterns and abstracted imagery. It has been Screen Printed by hand.

Images above are  Copyright of Natalie Jay Ratcliffe 2012

Up close detail of laser cut shapes that could be attached, through stitch, to the paper.

In-situ example using a found image

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Continuing on from yesterday this wallpaper, from my final second year project
'A place for everything and everything in its place'
is inspired by a continuous line drawing. 

Detailed example of embroidered stitch work which sits along side the screen printed vines.

Elements of hand stitching add texture and interest to the paper as embroidery and hand stitching are more often associated with fabrics. Delicate, slow crafting with subtle textures to  enhance the wallpaper; reflective of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin’s desire to create more than just the building.

Images above are Copyright Natalie Ratcliffe 2012

                            

In- situ example of wallpaper projected on to a found image

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Up to date:

As the new term draws ever closer I thought, over the next few days I would post a few images of what I got up to towards the end of the second year on my Printed Textiles Course at Leeds.

'A place for everything and everything in its place'

My final project of second year was inspired by the incredible and prolific work of architect and designer Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin as part of The Camac Design Wallpaper Competition. Through a variety of initial research sources I felt inspired not only by Pugin’s style but the way in which he thought and approached his work. It was whilst watching a documentary that I heard a comment about his desire to design ‘more than just’ a building or whatever his project may be and this is where my collection stemmed from.

I decided that each design should have something unique about it, something that would make it more than just your average wallpaper. The result was an investigation in to interactive wallpaper with elements of hand stitching and abstracted linear pattern and texture.

The wallpaper today is a ‘colour me in’ wallpaper - giving the freedom for others to play and become the designer.

All  images above are  copyright of Natalie Ratcliffe 2012

In-Situ example on a found image

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Over the summer I have tried to visit exhibitions that may spark further inspiration for future design work. Turner Monet Twombly Exhibition at the Tate Liverpool was one that I had been looking forward to for a while and it did not disappoint! 

I would think that many of us are aware of the work of Claude Monet from a young age and later on of Turner as well. Twombly, I would guess, slightly less so.  CY Twombly however is one of my favourites. His 'Quattro Stagioni' paintings which had been moved to Liverpool for this exhibition, features on the list of my favourite works and is the stand out piece i remember from my first ever visit to the Tate Modern, I never tire of looking at it.

When I first heard about this exhibition I was a little puzzled as to the similarities of the work of these three masters however it was really interesting to explore the works of three painters working at different times; comparing their impressions of similar subjects and learning about their artistic motivation in the later period of their life.

I picked up a few postcards as keepsakes...

JMW Turner : Peace Burial at Sea 1842

Claude Monet : Nympheas 1916-1919

Cy Twombly : Wilder Shores of Love 1985

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London 2012

With the Men's 100m final taking place in around ten minutes I thought I'd do a short post about the London Olympics, what an event it has been so far! Yesterday's 'Super Saturday' saw some truly inspiring performances and the Gold medal count was up to 14!

At every Olympics since 1912 the hosting nation has commissioned artists to create posters for the games. A list of twelve big names were asked to produce commemorative posters for our games;

Martin Creed, Anthea Hamilton, Howard Hodgkin, Chris Ofili, Bridget Riley, Rachel Whiteread, Fiona Banner, Michael Craig-Martin, Tracey Emin, Gary Hume, Sarah Morris and Bob and Roberta Smith.

My favourite of the bunch, Rachel Whiteread's, can be seen below

LOndOn 2O12 is a design over overlapping circles which resemble the Olympic rings by colour but are also similar to marks left by bottles or glasses evoking the idea of people uniting to watch and support their nation. To me, it is the most representative of the Olymipic spirit.

And so the only question there is to ask, any guesses on who will take the title of Fastest Man on the Planet?

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I like research, I like pin boards and so quite naturally I really like

Pinterest allows you to categorize all of the interesting and inspiring things that you see online -  the best description I could give is that the site provides a seemingly limitless amount of virtual moodboards to share and expand on: inspiration heaven! 

Take a look and 'follow' my boards here : https://pinterest.com/njratcliffe/

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Print Of The Week - 'Dolls' by Giles.

This print recently landed in my inbox courtesy of an email from fashion focused AVENUE 32 and I loved it from the moment I saw it! 

Forming part of the Pre-Fall 2012 Giles Collection; fashion label of multi-award winning British designer Giles Deacon, it is both bold and playful whilst retaining a high fashion edge with it's illustrative style and array of bright colours.

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Today, as I approach the start of the third and final year of my degree,

I have decided to start a blog.

A shiny, new, scary, exciting place.

This little space will hopefully become a cosy spot to collect and collate inspiration, creative projects and other lovely bits and pieces that I happen upon over the next year on my course: Printed Textiles and Surface Pattern Design at Leeds College of Art.