Abbey Elizabeth (She/Her)
Specialising in woven textiles, my graduate collection ‘Illusions of Colour’ explores illusions created using contrasting colour combinations and altered structures within woven cloth. I’ve been inspired by the work of Josef Albers and his book ‘Interaction of Colour’, looking at how different colour combinations can form different relations to the human eye. My design process starts by looking at vividly coloured photographs I’ve taken from around Glasgow, then extracting the colour palettes and bold shapes so I can study colour proportion and balance. I then physically and digitally manipulate these colours and shapes to create a wide range of fun vibrant fabrics. I like to experiment with the colours I use and always want to grab peoples attention with my bold design choices.
My designs are created for the purpose of interior/exterior spaces in mind. I wanted to design fabrics that can brighten up a space with playful colours and shapes, making the surroundings an exciting place to be. I want to push the endless possibilities of my designs, not limiting the scale that they could become, from small cushions cover to towering architectural sculptures.
Awards: Worshipful Company of Weavers Scholarship
Illusions of Colour
Illusions of Colour looks at how colour from all around us can be taken and experimented with to create new and exciting colour combinations. Looking at architectural details, graffiti art, shop fronts and images I’ve collected over the years, I have gathered a bank of colour combinations to study from and translate into an interior/exterior woven collection. I enjoy designing repeat patterns for interior functions such as throws, blankets and cushions but also enjoy creating one off pieces exploring technical possibilities such as jacquard weaving and material exploration.
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Development: Illusions of Colour
These images are some developed film I had taken last summer during lockdown that turned out as blurry negatives. I decided to put them into photoshop and slightly edit the saturation and brightness which turned them into some lovely colour studies for me to work from throughout my final project. Throughout, I have always referred to these images when going through my drawing process and later on in my yarn selections for final samples.
Project Links
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Final Collection: Illusions of Colour
Wooden Colour Palettes
For my additional project this year I decided to expand on my colour exploration and limit my self to only using wood as a material, trying to find new ways of designing. I created a range of different colour combinations using all my original photographs as a reference point, expanding on these and making my work as colourful as possible. I used spray paint to help create a smooth blend of colour on the wood, varnishing all my samples to help keep a glossy finish. My samples vary in size exploring possibilities in scale and what their purpose could be. As well as my main project this year, I didn’t want to limit my design possibilities, so I have visualised my samples in different ways to explore this.
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Wooden Picnic
Bringing together all my colour palettes, I decided to create a sunny picnic scene to showcase the bright and happy colours of my wooden collection. Even though I have decided to visualise my samples in this way, I feel that they have endless possible functions and I’m excited to explore this concept into my own design practice after graduation.
